Biological Collection

Territorial behavior is a method that animals use to protect its territory from incursions by others or its species. It is marked by the sounds of song birds or scents. A dog marking its territory by peeing on something is an example of territorial behavior. Pictured is a spiders web, not all spider are territorial but in some species they are. An Australian funnel web spider has been known to attack humans that get too close to their lair or web, making them territorial.

Climax Succession! Succession is a series of progressive changes in species that make up a community over time. Primary succession is when newly exposed or newly formed rock is colonized by living things for the first time. Secondary succession is when an area previously occupied by living things is disrupted, then recolonized. An example of secondary succession is a volcanic explosion destroying an ecosystem, it then takes decades to regrow. Primary succession takes longer to complete because it comes from nothing. A climax community is the final stage of succession as seen in these fully grown trees and bushes.

(Mature Fern Plant) A sporophyte is a generation of a plant that has two sets of chromosomes. A haploid gametophyte alternates with a diploid sporophyte. A spore producing organism that goes through the life cycle of a plant with alterations of generations. In other words a sporophyte is a mature phase in the life cycle of plants and some algae that produces spores. An example is a mature fern plant.

R-Strategist are species whose population is governed by their biotic potential, they live in unstable environments and produce many offspring at once to increase chances of survival for the species. A spider is an example of an r-strategist species because they produce many offspring at one time but few make it to adulthood. Mice, rabbits, weeds, and bacteria are all examples of r-strategist because of their short life expectancy and high offspring count. 

I couldn't find a bee to photograph, fun fact, humans are also pollinators! A pollinator is an organism that moves pollen from the male anther of a flower to the stigma of a flower or plant. Without pollinators many plants wouldn’t reproduce seeds which is necessary for them to spread and reproduce. Examples of pollinators include birds, rodents, monkeys, bees, wasps, and even humans! In china in the 90's humans were hired to pollinate apple blossoms using chopsticks, brushes, and other soft materials to transfer pollen to the blossoms of each tree.

A modified root of a plant is a special adaptation of a plants roots to aid or protect. Tap Roots adapt for storage. Aerial roots extend into the air. Haustorial roots are often seen in parasitic plants allowing the plant to absorb water and nutrients from other plants. Examples include carrots, potatoes, and beets, they have storage roots which are modified to store water and starch. 

The modified leaf of a plant is a n adaptation on a plant meant for its own survival due to environmental stress. A leaf performing functions other than transpiration and photosynthesis is an example. Other things include structure changes like color and spikes. An onion is special in the case that its center contains a modified root but most of what we eat on the outside are modified underground leaves that store energy for the plant to survive during the winter.

A K-Strategist is a  species whose populations fluctuate at or near the carrying capacity of the environment.K-Strategist have longer life spans than R-Strategist and occupy more stable environments. Examples include birds, large mammals such as elephants, humans, horses, and primates, and larger plants.

Hydrophobic molecules are water hating. They repel or fail to mix with water. Also called nonpolar molecules, examples include alkanes, oils, fats, and greasy substances. Hydrophobic materials can be used to help clean up oil spills. 

An organism that is water loving. These organisms are attracted to water molecules, they mix with, dissolve in, or can get wet. Hydrophillic molecules are also known as being polar. An example is salt, when placed in water salt begins to dissolve.

A homologous structure is a s tructure in different species with a common ancestor or developmental origin. It is when very different animals have bones that appear very similar in form or function and seem to be related. For example the arm of a human, wings of a bird, leg of a dog, and flipper of a dolphin. 

A genetically modified organism, also known as a GMO, is  any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. This technique creates plants, animals, bacteria, and virus genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional cross breeds. Examples include most corn in the U.S., papaya, canola, cotton, zucchini, squash. Corn in the U.S. has been genetically modified to increase agriculturally desirable traits such as resistance to pests and herbicides.

Genetic variation within a population is a  naturally occurring genetic difference among individuals of some species permitting flexibility and survival of a population in the face of changing environmental circumstances. This can be caused by mutation, random mating, random fertilization, and recombination. Genetic variation is important to a population because allows some individuals to adapt to the environment while maintaining the survival of the population. Some examples of genetic variation include eye and hair color, blood type, camouflage in some animals, and leaf modification in plants.

An exoskeleton is t he rigid, external covering for the body of some invertebrate animals that provides support and protection. Exoskeletons provide a protective water barrier and allows an animal to not dry out in the sun. When an animal grows in an exoskeleton it must shed the old one in a process known as molting. It is a key feature in arthropods, a category of animals including insects, spiders, cicadas, and crustaceans like grasshoppers, cockroaches,bees, snails, etc. 

Genes can be either dominant or recessive.  Only one dominant allele is needed to look like that trait while two recessive alleles are needed for a recessive trait to appear or show up. Recessive traits are masked by dominant ones. In science dominant alleles are typically capitalized where recessive alleles are lower cases. In humans a phenotype can be seen with brown eyes and blue eyes, where a brown eye allele is dominant.

Connective tissue is t issue found in animals whose main function is to bind, support, and anchor the body. Types include loose ordinary, adipose, blood and blood forming, dense ordinary, cartilage, and bone. Connective tissue provides a  transport system, provides strong framework and connection for skeletal framework and support and protect the soft tissue organs in the body. The leg is an example of connective tissue because it includes fibrous tissues, fat, cartilage, bone, bone marrow, and blood.

CAM is short for  crassulacean acid metabolism. It is a carbon fixation pathway that evolved in some plants as an adaptation to arid conditions; plants gather sunlight during the day and fix cox molecules at night. CAM plants have adapted to their environment to conserve water or carbon dioxide when it is in short supply. Some CAM plants include spanish moss, pineapple, and cacti.

Biological Magnification is a substance or chemical increase in concentration in an ecosystem. As the toxins move up the trophic levels it becomes more concentrated. The trophic levels begin with producers and go up to tertiary consumers. For example a small fish eating plankton that was tainted by mercury would be more heavily affected than the plankton and a bird eating the fish would be more affected than the fish.

(Wild Mushroom) Basiodiomycete are  one of two large phyla that make up the subkingdom Dikarya in the fungi family. Basiodiomycete are unique from other fungi because they are filamentous  fungi  that are  made  of hyphae. They reproduce sexually with the formation of club shaped cells known as basidia. Mushrooms, puffballs, and smuts are all examples of basiodiomycete. Smuts, also known as Ustilaginales, attack wheat and other crops.

Autotrophs are  the producers of the food chain, or plants. They use photosynthesis to provide the nutrients they need to grow and survive. Autotrophs include all plants, some bacteria, and photosynthetic algae.

Archaebacteria is a  group of single celled organisms that lack a nucleus and membrane bound organelles. They can survive in very salty, hot, and acidic environments. Archaebacteria can be broken into three types; crenachaeota, euryarchaeota, and korarchaeota. C renarchaeota are extremely heat-tolerant. Euryarchaeota are able to survive in very salty habitats and Korarchaeota, found in hydro-thermal environments, are thought to be the oldest life on earth. I was unable to photograph an archaebacteria so objects describing their environment are shown above.

The stamen is the male reproductive organ of a flower that consist of two parts, the anther and the filament. The a nther is where pollen is held in a flower. The filament is a small stem like structure that holds up the anther, increasing the chances of pollination. The anther is at the top of the filament and is where pollen grains are produced, and pollinators can then collect and carry them.

When an animal has a segmented body this means the a nimal has a body that is sectioned into parts along the length of the body. Animals with arms, legs, a torso, and head have segmented bodies. All of these parts provide different functions to the animal and make up the whole. Segmentation of the body provides an organism the means to travel and protect its sensitive organs from damage. This segmentation allows animals to perform complex activities and use different parts for varying functions. An animal with body segmentation is the ant; it is made up of three segments, the head, the thorax, and the abdomen.

An analogous structure is t he same structure or trait developing in different species with the same function but for different reasons. For example birds and dragonflys both have wings to fly but the wing structure and embryonic origin is completely different. The wings were developed for the same reason but did not come from a common ancestor.