Echinoderm Connective Tissue

In this experiment, contractions of the earthworm gut are measured in an organ bath with a force transducer. The effect of neurotransmitters and ionic concentrations on contraction strength and rate will be investigated.

The purpose of this experiment was to determine the relationship between tail spine length and hemoglobin levels as well as the relationship between tail spine length and heart rate. The concentration of the hemoglobin in Daphnia is dependent on the oxygen available to them.

Thibodeau (2007). Anatomy and Physiology. 6th ed. China: John C Atherton & Helen L Atherton.

All animals with limbs have a common design. If a batwing were to be formed from a person’s hand, make the fingers extremely long; a horse elongates the middle fingers and reduce and lose the outer ones; frogs elongate the bones of the leg and fuse several of them together. All in all, despite radical changes in what limbs do and what they look like, this underlying blueprint is always present.

Temperature had a direct effect on oxygen consumption of crayfish, Orconectes propinquus. Crayfish acclimated to warm temperature (20 to 25 C) had a mean mass of 8.25g +/- 1.05. Crayfish acclimated to cold temperature (3 to 5 C) had a mean mass of 10.61g +/- 0.77. Oxygen consumption rates of 30-60 minute treatments were used and there was no significant difference between the two different treatments (t=0.48, df=58, P=0.70). The data from 0-30 minutes were not used because the crayfish were disrupted by transportation and the data were not normally distributed. The Q10 value was 1.05, representing that there was full compensation for oxygen consumption for the crayfish at two different acclimated temperatures. The oxygen consumption of crayfish was not affected significantly by two different temperatures (Figure 1).

The octopus has several main organs that are vital to its survival; the brain for its intelligence; the ink sack for its defense; and the arms for capturing its prey. This paper will discuss these different organs and how they have evolved physiologically to its environment.

All organisms in the world have a range of systems and organs in their body. Some organisms may share similar body systems while others have absolutely nothing in common. Several of those organisms include humans, pigs, crayfish, and earthworms. From their mushy, gushy organs to their soft, gentle skin, you may think, “How are humans and pigs possibly alike? Or a crayfish and an earthworm?” In many ways they may not be, but in other ways, they are very much alike. The body systems that will be compared and contrasted of these organisms are the nervous, circulatory, reproductive, muscular, integumentary, digestive, excretory, and skeletal systems.

When society thinks about starfish, perch, chordate, and fetal pig they become extremely curious about how their bodies operate because of how they are made up. I will give a brief synopsis of all animals before going into major detail about them. According to the online website named dictionary.com, Starfish are any echinoderm of the class Asteroidea, having the body radially arranged, usually in the form of a star, with five or more rays or arms radiating from a central disk; asteroid (dictionary.com). It is known that a chordate is an animal belonging to the phylum Chordata, composed of true vertebrates and animals having a notochord (dictionary.com). According to research, a fetal pig is an animal in the phylum Chordata and class Mammalia (dictionary.com). A perch is known to be a certain kind of fish with very spiny fins (dictionary). Starfish, perch, chordate, and fetal pig are some very interesting animals that possess some exclusive qualities both similar and different.

Is the circulatory system of arthropods more similar to that of annelids or of mollusks? Why?

To fully understand the mechanisms that cause graded muscle contractions, the effects of fatigue, twitch summation, twitch recruitment, tetanus and muscle stretch on skeletal muscle were observed. The gastrocnemius muscle of the Rana pipiens frog was used for each of the 5 experiments performed. When twitch recruitment was observed, one trial was conducted by stimulating the sciatic nerve and the other, conducted by stimulating the skeletal muscle. The contractile force of the muscle was increased until reaching its maximum amplitude. This occurred at a preload of 0.37 (N) raw twitch of 0.39 (N). Optimal length was concluded to be greater than or equal to 5.9 mm, but an exact value was not found due to limitations on stretching. Summation was studied by decreasing inter-stimulus intervals until two twitches summed together. This occurred at 100ms, the point where two twitches could no longer be differentiated. One trial was run at different pulse intervals at 500mV to observe tetanus. Tetanus occurred

Millions of years. There are several different species of Cephalopods ranging from Nautiloidea to the modern everyday octopus and squid. For all of these species of Cephalopods to have been around for as long as they have, then they must have had an evolution at some point to look like they do today. These creatures of the deep have very extraordinary body structures and systems for mobility and hunting other small prey for consumption. All of these have their own special evolution, and each one will be discussed for each of them and how they either have helped or hurt the Cephalopod in the long run.

Stomphia is seen to detach itself from a rock when a starfish stimulates it, causing the anemone to swim away in a wave-like motion. The author conducted various experiments to see what muscles contracted and relaxed during the swimming response, as well as whether or not chemical substances given off by the starfishes is what elicits the anemone’s response when it comes into contact with them. Both T. A. Stephenson noted this activity of the anemone in 1935 and Yentsch and Pierce then observed it again in 1955. No solid conclusions had come about to fully explain the reasoning for this interaction between the starfish and Stomphia. Specimens were collected in the summer and fall of 1955 from the San Juan Archipelago and the Puget Sound through

In open circulatory systems, blood flows freely around the body cavity; in insects, the circulatory system is not used for transporting oxygen. In contrast, the hamster’s closed circulatory system separates blood from the tissues, and oxygen is transported efficiently to all of the cells while carbon dioxide is transported out of the cells. Insects generally have a lower metabolic rate and do not require a continuous supply of oxygen, which may explain the lower carbon dioxide output (as carbon dioxide is removed from an organism’s body when oxygen enters). Hamsters require a continuous supply of oxygen in a systematic way in order to ensure that every cell obtains oxygen; therefore, it may explain why the hamster had a significantly greater carbon dioxide output. Furthermore, studies have shown that by exposing red flower beetles (Tribolium castaneum) to low oxygen concentrations, they reduced their respiration rates to survive, which may suggest that by having an open circulatory system, they do not require a large amount of continuous oxygen to sustain life (Emekci et al.

The primary physiological and biochemical concerns for an aestivating animal are to conserve energy, retain water in the body, ration the use of stored energy, handle the nitrogenous end products, and stabilize bodily organs, cells, and macromolecules. This can be quite a task as hot temperatures and arid conditions may last for months. The depression of metabolic rate during aestivation causes a

Although insects, mammals and fish are of different species, all of them require oxygen in their daily lives for their survival and all of them execute the process of gas exchange. Of course, all three perform gas exchange differently as they all have to adapt to their habitat for an efficient and maximised gas exchange. This report will focus on the different adaptations for efficient gas exchange on the species of insects, aquatic insects, mammals, aquatic mammals and fish.