Introduction to Zoology
Unit 1- Mrs. Stahl
Zoology- What is it?
• The study of animals of course! 
• Extremely broad because there are so many
concentrations and sooooo many animals.
• There are 8.7 million organisms on Earth, only 1.7
million have been described.
• Only 14% of the worlds species have been
identified- that leaves 86% left
• Only 9% of the oceans species have been identified.
▫ Ex- 20,000 species of bony fish
▫ Ex- 300,000 species of beetles
Category
Species
Totals
Vertebrate Animals
Mammals
Birds
Reptiles
Amphibians
Fishes
5,490
9,998
9,084
6,433
31,300
Total Vertebrates
62,305
Invertebrate Animals
Insects
1,000,000
Spiders and scorpions
102,248
Molluscs
Crustaceans
Corals
Others
85,000
47,000
2,175
68,827
Total Invertebrates
1,305,250
Plants
Flowering plants (angiosperms)
281,821
Conifers (gymnosperms)
1,021
Ferns and horsetails
12,000
Mosses
16,236
Red and green algae
10,134
Total Plants
Others
Lichens
Mushrooms
Brown algae
Total Others
TOTAL SPECIES
321,212
17,000
31,496
3,067
51,563
1,740,330
Two Major Categories
• Vertebrates- with a backbone
• Invertebrates- without a backbone
• What am I?
Why do we want to study animals?
So we can study their:
- Functionality
- Structure
- Ecological Role and
Importance
- Evolution
Let’s Narrow it down a little….
• Ichthyology- Study of fish
• Entomology- Insects
• Herpetology- Amphibians &
Reptiles
• Mammalogy- Mammals
• Ornithology- Birds
• Protozoology- Protozoa
Let’s Review a little…..
• All living things must be able to:
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1. Reproduce
2. Made up of cells
3. Respond to a stimulus
4. Grow and develop
5. Evolve and change
6. Metabolize- need and use chemical energy
7. Maintain Homeostasis
8. Be made up of DNA
9. Chemical Uniqueness
Chemical Uniqueness
• Complex molecular organization
• Macromolecules- Proteins, Lipids,
Carbohydrates, and Nucleic Acids
• Ex- Proteins- 20 specific amino acids
Made up of Cells
• Smallest and basic unit of
life.
• Each level builds on the level
below it.
• Ex- within a cell
macromolecules are
assembled into ribosome's,
chromosomes, and
membranes and they are
then built upon to form
organelles such as the
mitochondria.
Continues on to populations and
species.
DNA- Deoxyribonucleic acid
• Stores genetic information
• Made up of nucleotides (4 nitrogenous base
pairs-AGCT), sugars, and phosphates.
• Adenine (A) pairs up with Thymine (T)
• Guanine (G) pairs up with Cytosine (C)
• The sequence of the bases is what codes for the
order of amino acids in the protein sequence
(amino acids).
Reproduction
• Life has to come from prior life / DNA has to be
passed on.
• Living forms reproduce to generate others like
themselves: binary fission, asexual reproduction,
or sexual reproduction.
• Genes replicate to form new genes
• Cells divide to produce new cells- binary fission
• Populations split up and new species are
produced= speciation.
Metabolism
• Have to acquire nutrients from their environment in
order to maintain proper energy levels.
• Nutrients-> chemical energy for the body to use in the
form of ATP.
• Chemical processes include digestion, respiration, and
synthesis of molecules.
• Interaction between catabolic (destructive) and
anabolic (constructive)
• Cellular Respiration-> mitochondria
• Cellular and nuclear membranes regulate metabolism
by controlling the movement of molecules in and out of
the cell.
Growth and Development
• All organisms have a life cycle that they go
through from origin (when the sperm fertilizes
the egg = fertilization) to adulthood.
• Changes in size, shape, and differentiation in
structures.
• Unicellular are more simple than Multicellular.
• Metamorphosis- many organisms have similar
early stages of development and are hard to tell
apart and then they change.
Stimulus
• How do they interact / respond with their
environment?
• Often referred to as ecology, focusing on
geographic distribution and population
abundance.
• They respond by adapting their metabolism and
physiology so that they can survive in the
environment in which they live.
Evolution
• Change over time.
• Ex- Darwin’s finches- he found 14 different
species of finches that derived from one. They
had different beaks to adapt to the type of seed
they fed upon.
Homeostasis
Maintaining constant internal conditions in an
organism. Body temp. is 37 C or 98.6 F
Important because cells function best within a
certain range of conditions. Temperature, blood
sugar, acidity, must be controlled or it can be
fatal.
Maintained-> negative feedback loop= change
in a system causes a response that tends to
return that system back to its original state.
Ex- The control of blood sugar (glucose)
by insulin is another good example of a
negative feedback mechanism. When
blood sugar rises, receptors in the body
sense a change . In turn, the control center
(pancreas) secretes insulin into the blood
effectively lowering blood sugar levels.
Once blood sugar levels reach
homeostasis, the pancreas stops releasing
insulin.
http://anatomyandphysiologyi.com/home
ostasis-positivenegative-feedbackmechanisms/
Life Obeys the Laws of Physics
• The first law of thermodynamics-> conserving energy.
Energy is neither created nor destroyed but can be
transferred from one form to another.
▫ a. Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can be
transformed from one form to another.
▫ b. All aspects of life require energy.
▫ c. In animals, chemical energy in food is converted to chemical
energy in cells and then converted to mechanical energy of
muscle contraction.
• All our energy comes from the sun-> reaches Earth as light
or heat-> Plants capture this light in the form of
Photosynthesis in green plants and cyanobacteria
transforms energy into chemical bonds-> bonds form
potential energy (stored)-> bond breaks and the energy is
released and used to perform many cellular tasks->
transferred to animals.
Second Law of Thermodynamics
• Physical systems tend to proceed toward a state of
greater disorder or entropy.
• Energy obtained and stored by plants is released by
various mechanisms and then dissipated as heat.
• It takes a constant input of usable energy from food
to keep an animal organized.
• The process of evolution does not violate the second
law; complexity is achieved by constant use and loss
of energy flowing into the biosphere from the sun.
• Physiologists study survival, growth, reproduction,
etc. from an energetic perspective.
Characteristics of Animals
• Originated in the Precambrian Era over 600 mya.
• Eukaryotes- organisms whose cells contain a
nucleus.
• Includes Plants, Fungi, and some unicellular
organisms.
• Animals -unique in nutrition; they eat other
organisms and therefore need to capture food.
• Animals lack photosynthesis; cell walls found in
plants.
• Fungi absorb food through little tubular filaments
called hyphae which animals do not have.
Some are neither plants nor animals….
• Euglena- motile, single celled organism that
resemble plants in that they can be
photosynthetic but also resemble animals in that
they eat food particles.
• Kingdom Protista.
Animals also…..
• Motile- move about from one location to the
next.
• Sessile- Cannot move from place to place but
they still have moving parts.
• What are 5 animals that are sessile and 5 that
are motile?
• Respiration
• Digestion
• Ingestion
Sessile
Motile
How are they classified????
• Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778)
• He came up with a means of naming organisms that was
simple and universal.
• Problem before this was that people were naming things
multiple names that were really long, and there wasn’t any
consistency.
• Taxonomy- science of classifying organisms and assigning
each organism a universally accepted name.
• Linnaeus came up with binomial nomenclature-> two
word naming system
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Genus, species
Always in italics
Genus is capitalized and species lowercased
Ex- Homo sapiens
Classification
System
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Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
King Phillip Came Over From Great Spain!!!!
Three Domains & Six Major Kingdoms
Domains
• Eubacteria-> contain
bacteria
• Archaea-> Microbes
• Eukarya-> organisms
with
compartmentalized
cells
Kingdoms
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Animalia- Animals
Plantae- Plants
Fungi- Fungus
Protista- animal like and
plant like
• Eubacteria
• Archaebacteria
Classification into a kingdom is based
on certain criteria
• Number of cells
• How it obtains energy
• Type of cell
Kingdom Animalia & it’s Major Phyla
• Porifera- sponges
• Cnidaria- hydras, sea anemones, jelly fish,
and corals
• Annelida- marine worms, earthworms, and
leeches
• Mollusca- snails, octopi, squids, clams,
mussels, conchs, etc.
• Arthropoda- crabs, insects, lobsters, etc.
• Echinodermata- sea stars, sea urchins, sand
dollars, brittle stars
• Chordata- fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds,
mammals
Review
Scientific
Method
Scientific Method
1. Make an observation
2. Ask a question / Research
3. Form a hypothesis
4. Experimentation
5. Collect data / Results
6. Analyze and Conclude
7. Repeat
Data
Information
gathered
Qualitative or
Quantitative
Difference …………………
Qualitative=
Descriptive
Ex- The scar
appears old
• Quantitative=
Numbers or
measurements
▫ Ex- Has one
scar on its
dorsal area
What is an inference?
•Logical interpretation
based on prior
knowledge
Hypothesis
Prediction based on prior knowledge
Typically use the words If and Then!
If the boat is traveling fast in a “no
wake” zone and there are manatees
there, then the manatees will get hit by
the boats propeller causing deep scars
to form.
• Inductive
▫ Looking at individual
observations and
proposing a general
explanation for them.
▫ Example-> Scientist
may observe an
octopus and squid,
both cephalopods, have
arms with suckers and
conclude that all
cephalopods have arms
with suckers.
• Deductive
▫ Observations suggest a
general principle from
which a specific
statement can be
derived.
▫ Example-> all
cephalopods have arms
with suckers and since
a cuttlefish is a
cephalopod then it
must also have arms
with suckers.
Variables
Try to find the cause and effect
relationship.
A. Independent Variable-> What you the
experimenter changes or manipulates.
B. Dependent Variable> the variable that
changes because of the IV (results / data)
C. Control-> variables that remain the
same.
Theory
a.
Proven through scientific
investigation and methods
b.
Example- Theory of Evolution and
Natural Selection
Scientific Law
Statement of fact meant to describe an action or
set of actions
Many use mathematical equations to explain.
Accepted at face value because they have always
been observed.
Examples- Newton's Laws of Motion,
Archimedes Principle of Buoyancy, Law of
gravity, etc…
What do you do when you are done
with your experiment?
•Repeat it!!!!!
Why is peer review important?
• Validity, double check your work