Difference between revisions of "Biology of the Vertebrates Study Questions F2010"

Revision as of 21:06, 3 September 2010

Note: These study questions are not comprehensive. They are meant to supplement your lecture notes as you review them, and alert you to the ways in which you should be thinking about the material, and formulate questions to test yourself. Exams will NOT be limited to the material highlighted in these questions, or their formats, so your lecture notes and handouts should be your primary reference.

Lecture 1 (31 August 2010)

1. What are the reasons for studying a particular group of organisms such as vertebrates?

2. List the basic functions of living organisms. Provide a vertebrate example for each.

3. What is a mechanical constraint? Explain it in terms of one of the three examples (e.g., lizards, Darwin's finches, Hydromantes salamanders) discussed in lecture.

4. Why weren't the ancestors of lizards subject to the same constraint? How have some lizard relatives escaped from this constraint?

Lecture 2 (2 September 2010)

1. Hydromantes salamanders have a high performance, ballistic tongue. What two trade-offs have allowed for this?

2. What is a "monophyletic lineage"? Draw the vertebrate phylogeny and label all major monophyletic groups discussed in lecture.

3. Which major taxonomic group of vertebrates is the most speciose? The least?

4. What vertebrates belong in the monophyletic lineage Lepidosauria? Synapsida? Actinopterygii?

5. What are the five major deuterostome lineages? Provide a representative from each lineage.

6. Briefly discuss the controversy surrounding Xenoturbella. Most recent studies suggest this organism belongs in what taxonomic group?

*Please refer to the Phylogeny Tutorial and Practice Tree Quiz for additional help with phylogenetic trees*

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