STUDY GUIDE Chapter 09 Castro & Huber
Recommendations to follow:
1.
Answers are thought to be short in most of the cases
2.
Try as much as you can to connect the terms and understand the association between some of the concepts, to get
the whole picture about the topic. Memorizing alone can give you probably around a 70/100 in the exam, but some
questions always require to connect two or more ideas to come up with a short and precise answer.
3.
If you know most of these review questions you should do fine in the test, questions in the test will be variations of
the same themes covered in these questions.
Chapter 9: Marine Tetrapods
1. What animals are the ancestors of present land and marine vertebrates? What adaptations did animals have
to develop in order to adapt to life on land?
2. Why is it that amphibians never really adapted to land but reptiles did?
3. Did present marine vertebrates evolved from marine animals or from terrestrial animals that reinvaded the
ocean?
4. What types of vertebrates have representatives adapted to the marine environment? How do they breathe?
5. What characteristics do reptiles have in common with fish regarding their metabolic needs? What name do
they receive?
6. Considering the previous question, what regions of the oceans will reptiles more likely inhabit?
7. Name the different marine representatives of reptiles
8. What differences have birds (and mammals) with reptiles regarding their ability to regulate the internal
body temperature? What name do reptiles receive?
9. How do marine reptiles deal with the excess of salt they get when living in the marine environment?
10. What are the advantages that marine birds have over reptiles? What are the general adaptations all marine
birds have in common?
11. How is the body of penguins adapted to the marine life?
12. What group of birds spends most of its life flying over the oceans? What are the specific adaptations they
have for this life style?
13. How does the reproductive strategy of mammals and birds compare to that of reptiles? In other words,
which produces more offspring, which one has more parental care?
Marine Biology
Instructor: Jose Bava, Ph.D
STUDY GUIDE Chapter 09 Castro & Huber
14. Which birds are better adapted to live soaring on top of the oceans? Which birds are better adapted t have a
fish-like life, mainly in the water?
15. Compare the egg shell of birds and reptiles with that of fish and amphibians. Based on the previous, can
birds and reptiles still have external fertilization of the eggs? What type of fertilization they have instead?
16. In addition to the hard shelled egg, reptiles also developed an amniotic egg. Explain
17. Name the main groups of marine mammals
18. What adaptations have marine mammals in general as to live in cold environments?
19. Which marine mammal are herbivores? Which ones are carnivores?
20. Explain the differences in body design between seals and sea lions. Are elephant seals and walruses more
similar to a sea lion or a seal in design?
21. Which marine mammals lack blubber? What do they rely on in order to live in very cold waters?
22. Whales, dolphins, and porpoises constitute the largest group of marine mammals. They have streamlined
bodies and look like fish.
23. There are two main groups of cetaceans, what animals are included in each group and what are the main
differences between them?
24. Echolocation is a sensory system based on hearing present in what marine mammals? What device used by
humans is comparable to this biological system?
Marine Biology
Instructor: Jose Bava, Ph.D