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5/11/2020

Tundra Biology

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Where is the tundra and who lives there? 


Picture

https://www.britannica.com/science/forest-tundra


Picture

​https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-tundra-and-taiga-climate


Tundra Animals:
​


​http://iceage.museum.state.il.us/content/forest-tundra
​

Otters:
​

Exploring thick fur helps people engineer wetsuits:


Wolves:
​

​Tigers: Siberian tigers inhabit the tundra


​https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Panthera_tigris/
​

North of the Tundra is the Arctic



​Animals in the tundra stay warm with thick fur, while animals in colder climates might have a layer of blubber.

Blubber: is a thick layer of fat, also called adipose tissue, directly under the skin of all marine mammals.

Blubber covers the entire body of animals such as seals, whales, and walruses—except for their fins, flippers, and flukes. 

​
Blubber an important part of a marine mammal's anatomy.


Picture

​https://us.whales.org/2012/10/27/how-does-blubber-keep-whales-warm/
​

Review:

Biomolecules: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids
​
Monomer: building block

Lipids: fatty acid and glycerol
​

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5/7/2020

Super continents and Geological Timescale

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Super Continents



  • Most of Florida and southern Georgia and Alabama is underlain by rocks that were originally part of Gondwana, but this region stayed attached to North America when the Central Atlantic opened.

  • ​Pangaea, Gondwanaland, Laurasia and Tethys. a large supercontinent that existed existed ~225 million years ago at the .. between the close of the Paleozoic and start of the Mesozois (at the Permo-Triassic).​
 
  • The oldest of the supercontinents is called Rodinia and was formed during Precambrian time some one billion years ago. ​​
 
  • Another Pangea-like supercontinent, Pannotia, was assembled 600 million years ago, at the end of the Precambrian. Present-day plate motions are bringing the continents together once again.
​
Picture

​https://www.britannica.com/place/Gondwana-supercontinent


COntinental Drift



Continental Drift: 
the gradual movement of the continents across the earth's surface through geological time.

Picture

​https://socratic.org/questions/how-does-the-fossil-record-support-the-theory-of-continental-drift


Geological Timescale


Picture
http://www.geologyin.com/2016/12/10-interesting-facts-about-geological.html
​

Picture

​http://www.vce.bioninja.com.au/aos-4-change-over-time/evolution/geological-time-scale.html


Mass Extinctions



​The big five mass extinctions
​
  • Biologists suspect we're living through the sixth major mass extinction. ...
  • Late Devonian, 375 million years ago, 75% of species lost. ...
  • End Permian, 251 million years ago, 96% of species lost. ...
  • End Triassic, 200 million years ago, 80% of species lost. ...
  • End Cretaceous, 66 million years ago, 76% of all species lost.
​

The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event, also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) extinction, was a sudden mass extinction
 of some three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth, approximately 66 million years ago.
​

What is Time?


​
  • Biological changes happen over millions of years.

  • Time is something that we agree on, not a mandate of the universe, it is relative, if one says "a day" it is valid to say : "a day according to who?" 
​
  • We currently measure time using Cesium 133, the element most commonly chosen for atomic clocks: 
 
  • https://science.howstuffworks.com/atomic-clock3.htm​
 
  • Atomic Clock - A precision clock that depends for its operation on an electrical oscillator regulated by the natural vibration frequencies of an atomic system (as a beam of cesium atoms)
 
  • Atom - The smallest particle of an element that can exist either alone or in combination; the atom is considered to be a source of vast potential energy
 
  • Cesium 133 - An isotope of cesium used especially in atomic clocks and one of whose atomic transitions is used as a scientific time standard
​
  • ​SI Second (atomic second) - The interval of time taken to complete 9,192,631,770 oscillations of the cesium 133 atom exposed to a suitable excitation
​

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5/2/2020

Forest Animals

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Forest Biology Concept chart


Picture

Biodiversity


 
Ecosystem: Living and non living parts of a food web or habitat

Species: a group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding. 

Biodiversity: 
the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.

Keystone Species: a species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend, such that if it were removed the ecosystem would change drastically.


Wolves as a keystone species:

Picture
http://nnhsbiology.pbworks.com/w/page/108946417/Case%20Study%20on%20Wolves%20in%20Yellowstone
​


We will cover some types of forest animals


https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/vietnamese-mossy-frog

Monotremes are egg laying mammals



There are only five living monotreme species: the duck-billed platypus and four species of echidna (also known as spiny anteaters).

​All of them are found only in Australia and New Guinea.
​
https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/monotreme.html

​The platypus lives in the deciduous forests of Australia:

https://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/duckbill_platypus.php

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/04/science/platypus-australia-wildfires.html
​

Picture
https://threatenedhabitats8geo.weebly.com/platypus-sea-life.html


Echidna



The average lifespan of an echidna in the wild is estimated around 14–16 years. 
​
  • Echidnas are found all over Australia from the highlands to deserts to forests. 
​
  • ​The female lays a single soft-shelled, leathery egg 
 
  • 22 days after mating, and deposits it directly into her pouch
 
  • Egg weighs 1.5 to 2 grams (0.05 to 0.07 oz)[16] and is about 1.4 centimetres (0.55 in) long
​
  • While hatching, the baby echidna opens the leather shell with a reptile-like egg tooth.
 
  • Hatching takes place after 10 days of gestation; the young echidna, called a puggle, born larval and fetus-like,
 
  • Sucks milk from the pores of the two milk patches (monotremes have no nipples) and remains in the pouch for 45 to 55 days
​
  • They survive brush fires: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160513-when-confronted-with-a-raging-wildfire-echidnas-go-to-sleep
​
https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/echidna
​


Wildfire comparison


Picture

​https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/k7e8ne/australia-bushfires-statistics-infographic
​

Synapsids, the mammal like reptiles branched out


Into monotremes, marsupials and placental mammals

Picture

​http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2014/wojtowic_case/classification.htm

​Synapsids:

  • A group of animals that includes mammals and every animal more closely related to mammals than to other living amniotes
    • Amniote: from Greek ἀμνίον amnion, "membrane surrounding the fetus"

  • The non-mammalian members are described as mammal-like reptiles
 
  • Existed 312 million years ago, during the Late Carboniferous period
 
  • Synonymous with therapsids, therapsids evolved from pelycosaurs 275 million years ago, pelycosaurs are not considered a mammal like reptiles 
 
  • Cynodonts ("dog teeth") (clade Cynodontia) are therapsids that
 
  • First appeared in the Late Permian (approximately 260 Ma).
    • The group includes modern mammals (including humans)
​

Dimetrodon:

The first order of synapsids to arise in the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian, around 310 Million years ago, were the pelycosaurs, making up around 70% of all the tetrapod genera alive in the Early Permian. The pelycosaurs are split into six families: 

http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/palaeofiles/fossilgroups/synapsida/pelycosauria.html


They Have:
​
  • Bigger heads
  • Ate fish and smaller animals​, first carnivores
  • Canine teeth
​

Ophiacodon:
​

Picture

​The skeleton of Ophiacodon, the largest and best known of the earliest pelycosaurs, Benton and Harper, 1997


Video Notes


  • Around 375 million years ago some very daring fish started leaving the ocean and trying to breathe air

  • This was eventually a thing that happened regularly 

  • The fish species split off into amphibians and reptiles
 
  • The fossil record is rich in the karoo mountains in South Africa.  This is where the excavation in the documentary takes place
​​ 
  • Later on there were mammal-like reptiles​
    • They had teeth that looked more mammal like
    • Developed mammal-like behaviors
    • Part of their jaw became a set of three ear bones that are now found in mammals, these bones are called: malleus, incus, and stapes  
​
Picture

​https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hearing-loss/multimedia/ear-infections/sls-20077144?s=4
​

Forest Crabs


Picture

​https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-47221362
​

Picture

​Scientists in India have discovered a new species of crab that lives entirely on trees in the Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/04/new-crab-species-india-weird-wild-animals/

Picture
https://www.responsibletravel.com/holidays/western-ghats/travel-guide

Coconut Crab
​


It is found on 
islands across the Indian Ocean, and parts of the Pacific Ocean as far east as the Gambier Islands and Pitcairn Islands
​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_crab

SOme of the ancient forests of the world


​
  • Tongass National Forest, Alaska. ...
  • Daintree Rainforest, Australia. ...
  • Waipoua Forest, New Zealand. ...
  • Ancient Bristecone Pine Forest, California, U.S. ...
  • Yakushima Forest, Japan. ...
  • Tarkine Forest, Tasmania, Australia. ...
  • Bialowieza Forest, Belarus and Poland. ...
  • Kakamega Forest, Kenya, Africa.
​
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/amazing-old-growth-forests-world-180956083/
​


Forest Spotlight: Tarkine FOrest 


​
Tarkine Forest, Tasmania, Australia:


  • Temperate rainforest: a forest found between the tropics and polar regions in the area of the earth with the widest seasonal changes, the temperate zone. 

  • Summers are mild, and average about 70°F (21°C), while winter temperatures are often well below freezing.

  • Part of Gondwanaland
​
  • Fossils between 1000-700 million years old, algal stromatolite fossils, were found around the Arthur and Julius Rivers and are Tasmania's oldest known fossils.
​

Where the Tasmanian Devil Lives


Picture

​https://www.britannica.com/place/Tasmania

Picture

​https://www.habitatadvocate.com.au/tag/grand-canyon-national-park/

​
  • The Tasmanian devil is a carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae. ​
​
  • Male: 18 lbs (Adult), Female: 13 lbs (Adult)
​

Other Tasmania Dweller: The Quoll



Marsupial Phylogeny 



​Some marsupials stayed in the Americas, remember Gondwanaland? 

Picture

​https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1000436

Picture
https://bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2164-13-172
​


​MONOTREMES ARE OLDER THAN MARSUPIALS


Picture

Remember our Genetics Vocabulary 



​​Gene flow: the movement of alleles from one population to another, which may increase the genetic diversity of a population.

Speciation: the genetic divergence of populations, a barrier to gene flow, leading overtime to reproductive isolation and the formation of a new species

Reproductive Isolation: mechanisms that prevent mating and gene flo between members of a different species

Founder Effect: the reduced genetic diversity that results when a population is descended from a small number of colonizing ancestors.

Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium: the principle that in a non-evolving population, both allele and genotype frequencies remain constant from one generation to the next 


Living creatures change over time, they speciate, they become a new species and pass on different traits

The world around a species many change the species

Creatures will change their eating habits and behavior to reduce competition, mate with others that are changing their behavior, and end up becoming a new species

The adaptation is how species survive mass extinctions

None of this information is meant to disagree with any religion, creatures are just finding ways to thrive and be part of biodiversity, they adopt new survival skills and technologies as they gain more experience.



Charles Darwin studied Finches in the Galapagos


Picture

​https://galapagos-pro.com/en/where-are-the-galapagos-islands/


FOrest Creature Concept map



​Every forest around the world has a species that fills each niche, you might have a different type of bear, or a different type of big cat, animals that hibernate, animals that live on trees, or creatures that live on the ground:

See the parallels in every ecosystem, there are patterns within a functional food web.
​

Picture

​Tapirs live in wetlands, forests, savanna, and rain forests, and they have a range that includes Mexico, Central America, South America, and Southeast Asia's Malaya and Sumatra.

​https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/tapir
​

30 million years ago was the Oligocene Epoch:
​

https://research.amnh.org/paleontology/perissodactyl/concepts/deep-time/oligocene

https://www.britannica.com/animal/perissodactyl/Evolution-and-paleontology

Picture

http://www.geologypage.com/2014/04/oligocene-epoch.html


The Dingo is a dog from Australia, one of the few non-marsupial mammals:


They can be found in temperate forests, alpine moorlands, arid deserts, wetlands, and even tropical forests.

https://animals.net/dingo/

Picture
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2014/04/dingo-declared-a-separate-species/
​

Picture

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/BEAST-maximum-clade-credibility-tree-Mean-node-ages-are-given-and-node-bars-represent_fig1_315741913

Picture

Peculiar Birds:
​


Birds of Prey:


Then we have Arthropods 


Picture

Insect Orders



​Some Insect Classifications within Taxonomy

Orthoptera: straight leathery wing, grasshoppers, katydid, cockroach

Lepidoptera: Butterflies and moths, important pollinators

Coleoptera: Beetles, means hard shell wing

​Siphonaptera: Fleas are small flightless insects that form the order Siphonaptera. As external parasites of mammals and birds, they live by consuming the blood of their hosts. 
​
  • Ticks are small arachnids

Hymenoptera: bees, wasps, ants

Blattodea: Termites
​

Sir ​david attenborough



English broadcaster and natural historian.


Insects are Ancient 



Spiders live everywhere



Forest Water Cycle


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    Author: Jazmin Gannon

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