Lab 1 - Kingdom Animalia: The Protostomes

Exercise 1

1. Define acoelomate, pseudocoelomate, and coelomate. Are clams acoelomates, pseudocoelomates, or coelomates?

2. What is the difference between protostomes and deuterostomes? List some common protostomes.

3. Describe what it means for an organism to be triploblastic. What structures of the internal anatomy of a clam might lead you to conclude that a clam is triploblastic?

4. List two ways in which clams are less evolved than the arthropods.

Exercise 2

1. Was your grasshopper male or female? How were you able to tell? Explain your answer using your experience from the dissection. Describe the similarities and differences between the reproductive structures as seen during the dissection and in the provided Dissection Guide for the Grasshopper.

2. Based on your observation of the mouth features, how might they be used? What types of food might a grasshopper consume?

3. What is one challenge posed by copulation between separate sexes? What are some adaptations that grasshoppers have developed that address these challenges?

Lab 2 - Kingdom Plantae Simple Plants and Gymnosperms

Exercise 1

1. List and describe 5 characteristics that all invertebrates have in common.

2. Which of the two phyla in Data Table 1 are the most similar? Support your answer with your data and observations.

3. Which phyla of Data Table 1 are capable of both sexual and asexual reproduction? Describe one advantage and one disadvantage of asexual reproduction.

4. In your opinion, which of the animal phyla in Data Table 1 is the most recently evolved (in other words, the most advanced)? Explain why.

5. To which phyla do the hydra, planarian, and rotifer belong?

6. Research and describe the motility of the hydra, planarian, and rotifer. Which type of movement would be the most efficient in terms of power and control? Explain your answer.

Exercise 2

1. Define the term hermaphrodite. Describe an advantage to being hermaphroditic. How is cross-fertilization advantageous over asexual reproduction?

2. Describe how cephalization (development of a head region) is a major advantage to worms.

3. How do poriferans and earthworms differ in their mobility? How might mobility have influenced their modes of reproduction?

4. How many body segments did the earthworm have?

5. Segmentation first evolved in the organisms of phylum Annelida, and vertebrates evolved more recently. How does the human backbone display segmentation and what are some associated benefits?

Lab 3 - Kingdom Animalia: The Deuterostomes

Exercise 1

1. Describe three characteristics that sea stars have in common with humans?

2. What observation might lead to a conclusion that the sea star was caught during the breeding season? In your opinion, was your sea star caught during the breeding or non-breeding season?

3. Although sea stars are predators, they can also become prey for animals such as sharks, rays, and giant triton snails. Describe one sea star adaptation that is useful for survival.

Exercise 2

1. What conclusions can be reached about frogs that have vocal sacs to make sounds?

2. Where does the Eustachian tube lead? How did you reach this conclusion?

3. During the dissection, you used your hands to follow the digestive tract anteriorly and posteriorly. Outline the path that food takes through the frog's digestive tract: start at the mouth, indicate the major organs through which food passes, and end at the cloaca.

4. Make some assumptions about why the male frog has an oviduct. What does it mean that the organ is "vestigial"?

5. List and describe the defining characteristics of chordates. Which of these characteristics were present in your frog specimen? Which of these characteristics might be present in the developing embryo or larval tadpole life phases?

Exercise 3

1. List 10 internal or external anatomical features that you observed in both the fish and frog.

2. List 5 anatomical features that you observed in the frog but not the fish. Describe why each of the features might not be present in the fish.

3. List the kingdom, phylum, subphylum, and superclass to which humans belong. What organism(s) did you dissect that also belong(s) to this series of classifications?