Bonine and Oh, Vertebrate Physiology, ECOL 437, spring 2009
06 May 2009
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW - FINAL EXAM
Final Exam will be in normal lecture room on Wed 13 May 11am-1pm
Your Final Exam will be cumulative. You should refer to your posted review questions, previous
exams, lab assignments, lecture notes, lab-reading journal questions, lab notes, lecture readings,
and lab readings as you prepare. In general, the final exam will focus less on details and more on
concepts and links among topics and systems. Questions of typical detail can be expected for the
material you have not yet been tested on (see review questions below).
Likely Exam Format:
True or false and matching (~10%)
Really Short Answer (one word or sentence) (~30%)
Short Answer (a couple of sentences) (~45%)
Longer Answer (a paragraph or more) (~15%)
Note that some of the short answer may involve drawing or interpreting graphs.
Thermal Physiology
1. How does the temperature and humidity that we perceive perhaps not reflect what other
vertebrates actually experience? What is a microhabitat? Can you provide examples?
2. Give examples of species in each of the four quadrants defined by an axis from endo to
ectothermy and another axis from hetero to homeothermy.
3. What are the ecological and/or life-history trade-offs of being an endotherm or an ectotherm?
Does body size play a role? How about ontogenetic stage?
4. How can posture, skin coloration, and vasodilation/vasoconstriction all be used together to
thermoregulate?
5. What is a “heat window”? What are characteristics of heat windows?
6. What physiological “trick” does a carotid rete employ to keep the brain of a sheep cool in hot
weather?
7. Define pyrogen. Why are lizards and other ectotherms useful for studying fever?
8. Explain how a set-point works in homeostasis. How can both physiology and behavior act as
negative feedback systems?
9. What are two common forms of thermogenesis by endotherms in cold weather? How does
brown fat work as a metabolic heat source? What role does uncoupling protein play?
10. What is the difference between freeze avoidance and freeze tolerance? How does
supercooling fit in? What are some antifreeze tools used by vertebrates to avoid freezing?
Why might the fluids inside an organism be “allowed” to freeze differently?
11. What happens to osmolality of the remaining fluids as ice forms?
12. Explain how a wood frog can thaw approximately simultaneously throughout the body.
13. How and why might the freezing point of fluids in a vertebrate change over the course of a
year?
14. Explain the different components of the Thermal Neutral Zone. What are the axes of the
graph? Is this graph useful for endotherms, ectotherms, or both?
15. Why do many bird species have a different nighttime body temperature depending on the
ambient temperature?
16. How can we measure metabolism?
17. What are four different ways that organisms exchange heat with their environment?
18. Why do you think it is more efficient to carry a heavy load with your head than with your
shoulders and hips?
Bonine and Oh, Vertebrate Physiology, ECOL 437, spring 2009
Hibernation
19. Explain how body size influences physiological abilities and behavioral choices? Are there
obvious trade offs?
20. Do bears hibernate? Why or why not? Do other large mammals hibernate?
21. How does fur thickness typically change across the year for a reindeer?
22. What happens if you take a summer reindeer and stick it in a -20C freezer for a few hours?
What if you did this with a winter reindeer?
23. How and why does the gut microbial community in a reindeer change across the year?
24. In a temperate endotherm, what correlations do we see when looking at the distance from the
body along a limb and the proportion of saturated fatty acids comprising the tissues? Why?
25. Explain the relationship between body size, age, thermoregulatory ability, and brown fat
prevalence in young reindeer.
26. Do small hibernating mammals stay at one temperature all winter? Do we know why this is?
27. Why do arctic ground squirrels have to expend energy to keep their body temperature around
-1.5C during the winter?
28. Can you draw a figure for an arctic ground squirrel with these three variables: ambient
temperature, body temperature, metabolic rate?
29. Explain the effect on hibernation of small mammals of diets of varying in MUFA, PUFA, and
SFA composition.
30. Why would a group of animals that hibernate together want to coordinate their periodic
arousals during the winter?
31. Why do males of many hibernating species emerge a few weeks earlier than the females?
What are the proximate and ultimate explanations?
Flight, Evolution of Endothermy (Kevin Oh)
32. Please review the slides and your notes.
33. What are a couple of the groups closely related to birds? What is the minimum number of
times that endothermy has evolved in vertebrates?
34. Explain how bird flight, expecially long-distance migration, exemplifies the Krogh Principle.
35. When in the biogeological history of the planet did birds evolve? What sorts of fossil evidence
can we use to infer metabolic capacities of early birds?
36. How do nasal turbinates function as countercurrent exchangers? What is being exchanged?
Why?
37. What lines of evidence suggest that endothermy in birds may have evolved before the ability
to fly?
38. How did feathers evolve?
39. What else do you want to know about the physiology of bird flight and bird migration?
Review Questions from Lab/Discussion:
1. What is the main point of each article we have read thus far in lab? Review the questions that
were emailed to you about each week’s readings.
2. What questions did you address in each of your hands-on labs? What write-up questions
were you asked to answer about your findings?
3. What topics were discussed several times, perhaps even in multiple lab meetings?
4. What does the respiratory exchange ratio tell you about diet composition?
5. What are the important components of a successful research proposal?