Blog Archives

11/29/2018

Migration Biology

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animal migrations

More than 80% of earth’s marine life is migrating to different places and changing their breeding and feeding patterns due to warming waters.
Ocean species are migrating in response to climate change 10 times faster than land species.
Some marine species have migrated as much as 600 miles from where they were abundant just a few decades ago.
80% of ocean pollution comes from the land.
Cryptochrome: is a protein that helps with circadian rhythms and magnetoreception, knowing how to navigate

https://www.neefusa.org/weather-and-climate/marine-species-move

magnetic meridians

The sun releases UV Radiation
Coronal Mass Ejection: plasma energy millions of kilometers wide, released by the sun. A significant release of plasma and accompanying magnetic field from the solar corona. They often follow solar flares and are normally present during a solar prominence eruption. The plasma is released into the solar wind, and can be observed in coronagraph imagery.
- Coronagraph: is a telescope that can see things very close to the Sun. It uses a disk to block the Sun's bright surface, revealing the faint solar corona, stars, planets and sungrazing comets. In other words, a coronagraph produces an artificial solar eclipse.
- A coronal mass ejection can make the 93-million-mile journey to Earth in just three to four days.
- They can happen a few times a day, at solar minimum we observe about one CME a week
- http://www.thesuntoday.org/missions/soho/
This radiation produces mutations, we are protected by magnetic belts

Coronagraph Imagery

Space Weather Prediction Center

Van allen radiation belts

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/gallery/20130228-radiationbelts.html

Van Allen Radiation Belt: a zone of energetic charged particles, most of which originate from the solar wind, that are captured by and held around a planet by that planet's magnetic field. Earth has two such belts and sometimes others may be temporarily created.

magnetosphere

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/multimedia/magnetosphere.html

Magnetosphere: invisible force field, the region surrounding the earth or another astronomical body in which its magnetic field is the predominant effective magnetic field.
Aurora Borealis: An aurora, sometimes referred to as polar lights, northern lights or southern lights, is a natural light display in the Earth's sky, predominantly seen in the high-latitude regions.
- Air molecules glow
- Oxygen glows Red or Green
- Nitrogen glows Blue

Birds and other animals can detect meridians

https://www.nature.com/articles/nmat4484/figures/1

Birds can either see or sense the Earth's magnetic fields
https://www.sciencealert.com/birds-see-magnetic-fields-cryptochrome-cry4-photoreceptor-2018

earth's magnetic fields

The videos show a donut shape for energy movement, this is a torus
Torus: donut shape, In geometry, a torus is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three-dimensional space about an axis coplanar with the circle. If the axis of revolution does not touch the circle, the surface has a ring shape and is called a torus of revolution.
- Volume: 2 × π² × R × r²
- Surface area: 4 × π² × R × r

Animal Magnetoreception

Cryptochromes: Proteins that help detect magnetic meridians, they are involved in the circadian rhythms of plants and animals, and possibly also in the sensing of magnetic fields in a number of species. Cryptochromes are a class of flavoproteins that are sensitive to blue light. They are found in plants and animals.

Circadian Rhythms: circadian rhythm is a roughly 24 hour cycle in the physiological processes of living beings, including plants, animals, fungi and cyanobacteria.

Flavoproteins: proteins that contain a nucleic acid derivative of riboflavin: the flavin adenine dinucleotide or flavin mononucleotide.

Protein: a long chain of amino acids: nitrogenous organic compounds that consist of large molecules composed of one or more long chains of amino acids and are an essential part of all living organisms, especially as structural components of body tissues such as muscle, hair, collagen, etc., and as enzymes and antibodies.

Amino acids: are organic compounds composed of nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, along with a variable side chain group.

Nucleic Acid: a complex organic substance present in living cells, especially DNA or RNA, whose molecules consist of many nucleotides linked in a long chain.

Here is an article of Animal Magnetoreception:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242524675_Magnetoreception_in_animals

2008physicstoday.pdf
File Size:	1753 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

bioluminescence

Bioluminescence: the biochemical emission of light by living organisms such as fireflies and deep-sea fishes.

the light emitted by organisms such as fireflies and deep-sea fishes.

Photoproteins: are a type of enzyme, made of protein, from bioluminescent organisms. They add to the function of the luciferins, they are light-producing ...

Bioluminescent animals: glowworms, fireflies, jelly fish, comb jellies, plankton, krill, angler fish, viper fish, sea cucumbers, millipedes some mushrooms...
Used for bait, light, mating attraction, defense, cloaking, motion sensing

Biofluorescence: a phenomenon by which organisms absorb light, transform it, and eject it as a different color—is common and variable among marine fish species, indicating its potential use in communication and mating.

Found in sharks, seahorse, sting rays, fish...

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11/18/2018

Evolution & Classification of Life chart that we have in class

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on amazon

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11/18/2018

don't forget about the turtles

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11/12/2018

Week of 11/12 to 11/16: Forest REPTILeS, mammals and plants

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basilisk lizard

Found in tropical rainforests
Throughout Central America and in northwestern South America

danger noodles

Forest Reptiles and Amphibians: https://kids.mongabay.com

predators

Tigers: Found in Siberian taiga. Tigers occupy a variety of habitats from tropical forests, evergreen forests, woodlands and mangrove swamps to grasslands, savannah and rocky country. They live primarily in eastern Russia's birch forests, though some exist in China and North Korea.

https://sibexpeditions.com/what-is-siberia/

The population of Siberia just 22.5 million people. It is the most sparsely populated country in the world, except Antarctica.
Trans-Siberian Mainline and Baikal-Amur Mainline are the longest railways in the world.
The Siberian taiga is the largest forest on the planet Earth. It is several times larger than even the Amazon jungle.
Siberian Lake Baikal contains 20% of world reserves of fresh water on the planet Earth, and is the deepest lake in the world (1642 m).

leopards

Snow leopards live in the mountains of Central Asia
Leopards are found throughout most of Africa and Asia from the middle east to the Soviet Union, Korea, China, India, and Malaysia.
Leopards live in a variety of habitats including forests, mountains, grassland and deserts.
habitata: https://peerj.com/articles/1974/

Cloud Leopard

Snow Leopard

Armur Leopard

There is a whole world of predator cats, more information here:

https://www.felineworlds.com/leopard-habitat-and-distribution/

canines

Wolf: native to the wilderness and remote areas of Eurasia and North America.

foxes

mustelids

Mustelidae are a family of carnivorous mammals
Weasels, badgers, otters, martens, mink, and wolverines, among others.

Less carnivorous animals

Primates

Most primates are omnivores, they mainly eat insects as meat
There are strepsirrhines and haplorhines, wet nose and dry nose
Strepsirrhines: wet nose, lemurs of Madagascar, galagos ("bushbabies") and pottos from Africa, and the lorises from India and southeast Asia
Haplorhines: dry nose, suborder of primates containing the tarsiers and the simians
- simians include catarrhines, and the platyrrhines
- platyrrhine means flat-nosed, while catarrhine means hook-nosed

Lemur:

Ring-tailed Lemur: howstuffworks.com/

Madagascar:

Bush Baby:

Bush babies are found throughout East Africa
In woodlands and bushlands in sub-Saharan Africa.

Potto:

nocturnal tree dweller
found in rainforests from Sierra Leone eastward to Uganda
eat insects

Loris:

haplorhines

suborder of primates containing the tarsiers and the simians

simians include catarrhines, and the platyrrhines
platyrrhine means flat-nosed, while catarrhine means hook-nosed

Simians: are monkeys and apes
- Platyrrhines: New World monkeys
  - five families of primates that are found in the tropical regions of Central and South America and Mexico: Tamarin, Spider Monkeys, Capuchin
- Catarrhine: Old World monkeys and apes
  - gibbons, great apes, and humans
  - distinguished by having nostrils that are close together and directed downward

simians

gorilla Nest

great apes

rodents

Capybara

largest rodent in the world
over 80 pounds
Capybaras are semi-aquatic, spending a lot of time in the water.
They inhabit southern Central America and northern South America in both savannas and rain forests near ponds, rivers, or lakes

agouti

2 lbs
eats Brazil Nuts

flying squirrel

and rabbits: the lagomorphs

honorable mention that did not politely fit into my concept map: SUgar GLider

The sugar glider is a small, omnivorous, arboreal, and nocturnal
gliding possum belonging to the marsupial infraclass
preference for sugary foods like sap and nectar
ability to glide through the air, much like a flying squirrel

boars

native to much of Eurasia

forest marsupials

remember gondwanaland

Tree dwelling marsupials

Panda: not quite bears, not marsupials

Family: Ursidae, same as bear but split off
Genus: Ailuropoda
(Panda says" I am the only animal in this genus")

not a marsupial:
Genus: Ailuridae (Red panda says "same")
native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China

There was a carnivorous ancestor, Ailurarctos that lived in China 8+ million years ago.

bears

environmental issues

bioremediation: Human Hair

bioremediation: fungi

chitin and keratin

plants

butterfly lay eggs in trees

butterfly egg gallery on Google arts and culture

beetles interact with trees

great forests

trees manage freshwater

conscious industrial engineering

making things from fungi

reimagine food trays

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11/5/2018

Week of 11/5 to 11/9: Forest bugs, crustaceans, and birds

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ctenophora: Comb jellie, not quite a jellyfish: Ctenophora comprise a phylum of invertebrate animals that live in marine waters worldwide. They are notable for the groups of cilia they use for swimming, and they are the largest animals to swim with the help of cilia.

what is coral?

Coral Biology. Although many corals resemble plants, they are actually members of the animal phylum Cnidaria. Most corals are colonial, which means that each coral is made up of many individual polyps connected by living tissue (the coenosarc).

Cnidaria: Cnidaria is a phylum containing over 10,000 species of animals found exclusively in aquatic environments: they are a predominantly marine species

The first coral reefs date from the early Ordovician of about 500 million years ago, and their form at the time differed significantly from that of corals today, which, following, the mass extinction 240 million years ago at the end of the Permian period, first appeared in the middle of the Triassic period.

Brachiopods: are marine animals belonging to their own phylum, Brachiopoda, of the animal kingdom. Modern brachiopods occupy a variety of sea-bed habitats ranging from the Tropics to the cold waters of the Arctic and, especially, Antarctic.

have a very long history of life on Earth (at least 550 million years). They first appear as fossils in rocks of earliest Cambrian age

cambrian explosion

notes from the videos

Cambrian Extinction was about 488 million years ago

Ostracoderms: armoured, jawless, fishlike vertebrates that emerged during the early part of the Paleozoic Era (542–251 million years ago)

Added note:

Tiktaalik roseae is remarkably well preserved for a 375-million-year old fossil. Tiktaalik roseae, better known as the "fishapod," is a 375 million year old fossil fish which was discovered in the Canadian Arctic in 2004.

late Cambrian, eel-like jawless fish called the conodonts, and small mostly armoured fish known as ostracoderms, first appeared

Plants got bigger and absorbed more Carbon Dioxide, and there was an Ice Age

Devonian period 419 million years ago (mya), there were Devonian Forests 360 mya

Permian period 298 million years ago

Permian-Tirassic Extiction: 252 million years ago

Trilobites: some still survived, they survived about 4 mass extinctions:

Exclusively marine animals
First appeared at the beginning of the Cambrian Period, about 542 million years ago, when they dominated the seas.
Became less abundant in succeeding geologic periods, a few forms persisted into the Permian Period, which ended about 251 million years ago.

Trilobites used chitin as a protein, just like mushrooms, the shell was chitin and calcite

coral fossils tell us about climate change

geologic timescale

http://www.geomore.com/wp-content/uploads/GEOLOGIC-TIME-SCALE-COURTESY-GSA.jpg

geologic time period concept map

the oldest forests in 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/

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.

Here you find some of the oldest animals: Marsupials

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

tasmanian devil is struggling with an illness

devil facial tumour disease (DFTD)

This most likely has to do with lack of genetic diversity

Genetic Drift: variation in the relative frequency of different genotypes in a small population, owing to the chance disappearance of particular genes as individuals die or do not reproduce.

Population Bottleneck: A population bottleneck or genetic bottleneck is a sharp reduction in the size of a population due to environmental events or human activities.

related to the quoll

marsupial phylogenetic tree

Some marsupials stayed in South America, remember Gondwanaland? They were connected to Australia

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

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

monotremes are older than marsupials

Lay eggs
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.

genetic diversity

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.

charles darwin in the galapagos islands

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

Inbreeding: mating between closely related individuals, it does not increase the allele frequency within the population but it does increase the proportion of homozygous individuals to heterozygotes

forest creatures

forest arthropods

Insects that you will find everywhere, in different forms

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.