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Animal Functions

Page history last edited by PK 13 years, 10 months ago

 

Digestion - This is how an animal breaks down the food it takes into its body. In humans the mouth, stomach and intestines are part of the digestive system

Digestion:

- Must find and ingest food

- Digest and absorb nutrients

Human Digestive System:

 

 

This is a detailed image of the human digestive system which I found helpful.

 

 

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Here is an informational video on the human digestive system.

 

 

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This is a video that touches on all parts of the human digestive system.

 

Respiration- or breathing, is the physiological process that enables animals to exchange carbon dioxide, the primary product of cellular respiration, for fresh air.

Respiration:

- All animals respire

- Some are able to use diffusion, others have complex tissues and organ systems.

 

The respiratory system's function is to allow oxygen exchange through all parts of the body. The space between the alveoli and the capillaries, the anatomy or structure of the exchange system, and the precise physiological uses of the exchanged gases vary depending on organism.

 

In humans and other mammals, for example, the anatomical features of the respiratory system include airways, lungs, and the respiratory muscles. Molecules of oxygen and carbon dioxide are passively exchanged, by diffusion, between the gaseous external environment and the blood. This exchange process occurs in the alveolar region of the lungs.

 

Human Respiratory System:

 

 

This is a large diagram of the human respiration system.  I found it useful because the diagram was detailed with vocabulary and pictures.  

 

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This video explains the human respiratory system.  It also briefly discusses how the lungs are protected by the chest cavity.

 

Circulation- This allows food and energy to be distributed throughout the animal's body. In humans the heart, blood and blood vessels are part of the circulatory system

Circulation:

- Getting nutrients and oxygen to every cell

- Getting rid of waste

 

The circulatory system is an organ system that passes nutrients (such as amino acids and electrolytes), gases, hormones, blood cells, etc. to and from cells in the body to help fight diseases and help stabilize body temperature and pH to maintain homeostasis.

 

Humans, as well as other vertebrates, have a closed cardiovascular system (meaning that the blood never leaves the network of arteries, veins and capillaries), some invertebrate groups have an open cardiovascular system.

 

Human Circulatory system:

 

 

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This video explains the human circulation system.  The video is in the form of a song with aiding pictures.

 

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This video explains the human circulatory system.  It stresses the importance of the heart.

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5060222790123905179# - This animation video shows how the network of nerve cells throughout the human body works through the spinal cord, and ultimately controlled through the brain. Even the tiniest movements require lightning fast activity through the body's nervous system.

 

Nervous - This is how an animal takes in information from the world and uses that information to react to the world and to go about its life. This would include the animal's senses, its brain and nervous system.

Nervous System:

- Animals respond with their nerve cells

- Most animals form a nervous system

 

The nervous system is an organ system containing a network of specialized cells called neurons that coordinate the actions of an animal and transmit signals between different parts of its body. In most animals the nervous system consists of two parts, central and peripheral.

 

The central nervous system contains the brain, spinal cord, and retina. The peripheral nervous system consists of sensory neurons, clusters of neurons called ganglia, and nerves connecting them to each other and to the central nervous system. These regions are all interconnected by means of complex neural pathways.

 

Human Nervous System:

 

 

this picture shows how the spine plays a major role in the nervous system, how all major organs are "hooked up" to it.

 

Here is a very informational video on the nervous system and how it works:

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this video shows how a "simple" click of a button works.

 

Support:

- Most are motile

- Require energy for movement

- Some don't move but do have a free moving stage

 

Muscular/Skeletal - The muscular/skeletal system of an animal refers to the systems that give the animal its shape, protects its organs and allows it to move. Animals' bodies are protected in many ways. For some animals it is an outer skeleton or exoskeleton that protects their body. For others it is an inner or internal skeleton that protects the body. These skeletons give the animal bodies their shapes. An animal's form or body can be arranged to have

  • Asymmetry- No specific form
  • Radial Symmetry - There is a center to the animal's body from which limbs or arms come out from as if from a circle, much like the spokes on a bicycle wheel.
  • Bilateral Symmetry - This means that an animal has two sides that are almost exactly the same on each side. Thus if you drew a line down the middle of the animal's body, one side would be a mirror image of the other side.

 

An exoskeleton is an external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to the internal skeleton (endoskeleton) of, for example, a human. Some animals, such as the tortoise, have both an endoskeleton and an exoskeleton. In popular usage, many of the larger kinds of exoskeletons are known as "shells".

 

This is an image of the Human muscle structure:

 

 types of muscles-

 

  1.  Smooth muscle - controlled by the autonomic nervous system; may either be generally inactive and then respond to neural stimulation or hormones or may be rhythmic.   Some examples of smooth muscle can be found in the arteries, veins, repiratory tract, urinary bladder, and the uterus
  2.  Cardiac muscle - found in the heart, acts like rhythmic smooth muscle, modulated by neural activity and hormones. Cardiac muscles also rely on a small blood supply to deliver oxygen and nutrients and also remove waste, like most tissues. The cardiac muscle is also highly resistant to fatigue and has a large number of mitochondria. 
  3.  Skeletal muscle - move us around and responsible for most of our behavior; most attached to bones at each end via tendons. Skeletal muscles are also under control of the somatic nervous system and is made up of individual fibers known as muscle fibers which are formed during the development. 

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 This video is very helpful in explaining the three different forms of muscles. 

 

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this is a good explanation where different muscles are located. 

Excretion:

- Get rid of wastes: Ammonia is a by product containing nitrogen which cells must get rid of or change its makeup.

 

Reproduction:

- Most reproduce sexually by producing haploid gametes creating diversity

- many invertebrates reproduce asexually resulting in identical organisms that increase rapidly

-Some organisms have the ability to alternate between sexual and asexual reproduction, although these are usually more primative life forms.

 

Some animals use asexual reproduction (i.e. sponges) which means that each animal can reproduce by itself.  The offspring grows on the body of the parent.  

There are many different types of asexual reproduction in animals:

Budding

 

Some cells in an animal split, resulting in a mother and daughter cell. These form as buds on the organism, which grow into a fully grown animal, when it will break away from the parent organism.

 

Fragmentation

 

Fragmentation is when fragments break off of an organism, or when an organism breaks into many fragments. Then a new organism grows from the parts of the parent.  Each fragment develops into a mature, fully grown individual. These fragments can take the form of soredia, dust-like particles consisting of fungal hyphae wrapped around photobiont cells.

Parthenogenesis

 

Parthenogenesis is when an unfertilized egg automatically develops into a new individual from the parent.

 

Here is a simple video explaining the different types of asexual reproduction:

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This video is helpful with outlining the basics of animal reproduction and then it gets involved with human reproduction but it is still a helpful video in my opinion

 

Reproduction - This is how an animal makes more of itself or has babies. Animals can reproduce several ways.

  • Fission - Splitting in half.
  • Budding - Growing buds that break off to form new animals
  • Sexually - This is where a male and female member of a species mates to reproduce a new animal baby.

 

The characteristics of all animals include: they are multicellular. This means the animal is either an invertebrate (no backbone, which 95% of all animals are) or a vertebrate (have backbones which 5% of all animals are). Additionally to be considered an animal, an organism must be heterotrophic. It depends on others for food.

 

The gut of an animal is any regoin where food is digested and absorbed. It is usually sacklike with one opening for taking in food, and the other for expelling waste. If it is sac-like then the digestive system is very primitive, and a tube-like system indicates a more advanced species.

 

Quiz-

http://www.mcwdn.org/Animals/AnFunction.html

This is a fun quiz that will test your knowledge about animals and their functions. enjoy. 

 

Animals tend to evolve:

1. from simple to complex

2. the simplest have asymmetry but more complex have bilateral symmetry

3. it goes from no cavity to a false cavity to a true body cavity

4. simpler animals often reproduce asexually

5. simpler have 2 tissue layers, and more complex have 3

6. from sessile to motile

7. the number of systems and their complexities tend to increase as it gets more advanced

 

 

 

The illustration above shows how nitrogen travels through the living and non-living parts of the Earth system. 
NCAR
 

 

 

The excretory system removes cellular wastes and helps maintain the salt-water balance in an 

organism. In providing these functions, excretion contributes to the body's homeostasis, the maintenance of constancy of the internal environment. When cells break down proteins, they produce nitrogenous wastes, such as urea. The excretory system serves to remove these nitrogenous waste products, as well as excess salts and water, from the body. When cells break down carbohydrates during cellular respiration, they produce water and carbon dioxide as a waste product. The respiratory system gets rid of carbon dioxide every time we exhale. The digestive system removes feces, the solid undigested wastes of digestion, by a process called elimination or defecation. Organisms living in fresh and salt water have to adjust to the salt concentration of their aqueous environment, and terrestrial animals face the danger of drying out. It is the job of the excretory system to balance salt and water levels in addition to removing wastes. Different organisms have evolved a number of organs for waste removal. Protozoans, such as Paramecium, have specialized excretory structures; flatworms, which lack a circulatory system, have a simple excretory organ; earthworms, grasshoppers, and humans, have evolved an excretory system that works with the circulatory system.

 

 

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