Animal Systems Unit Objectives

1. Chapter 40: Animal Form and Function

1. Animal exchange of nutrients and gases occurs as substances dissolved in an aqueous medium move across
the plasma membrane of each cell. Rate of exchange is proportional to surface area; the amount of material
that must be exchanged is proportional to volume. For this reason, animals try to maximize the surface area to
volume ratio of their exchange surfaces. Once absorbed, circulatory fluids can carry the materials around the
body.
2. Table 40.1 lists ten animal organ systems: digestive, circulatory, respiratory, immune and lymphatic, excretory,
endocrine, reproductive, nervous, integumentary, skeletal, and muscular.
3. Animal tissues are organized into four groups: epithelial tissue (like simple columnar or simple squamous),
connective tissue (like cartilage, blood, and bone), muscle tissue (skeletal, cardiac, or smooth), and nervous
tissue (neurons).
4. Animal homeostasis relies largely on negative feedback loops. When a variable such as body temperature or
solute concentration fluctuates away from the set point, a receptor triggers a response that helps return the
variable to the set point.
Animals use energy harvested from the food they eat to fuel metabolism and activity. Food is digested by
enzymes in the gut, and nutrients are absorbed by body cells. Most energy-containing molecules are used in
cellular respiration to generate ATP, which then powers cellular work.
5. See the handout.

2. Chapter 41: Animal Nutrition

1. As far as diet goes, herbivores dine mainly on plants or algae, carnivores on other animals, and omnivores on
some combination of the two. As far as denition goes, herbivores usually have teeth with broad, ridged sur-
faces, carnivores generally have pointed incisors and canines, and, again, omnivores have some combination
of the two.
2. The four stages of food processing are ingestion, digestion, absorption, and elimination.
3. A gastrovascular cavity (found in cnidarians and flatworms) is lined with both specialized gland cells that
secrete digestive enzymes as well as cells that then engulf the digested particles. In animals with a gastrovas-
cular cavity, food is eaten through the same hole that later excretes the waste.
An alimentary canal (found in the other phyla) is much fancier. Since food passes through it in only one direc-
tion, it can have specialized compartments that carry out digestion and nutrient absorption in a stepwise fash-
ion. Animals with an alimentary canal can therefore eat dinner while still digesting lunch.
4. The human digestive organs include the mouth, which contains teeth that mash and grind the food to increase
its surface area and make it easier to swallow; the salivary glands, which release, among other things, an
enzyme called amylase that hydrolyzes starch and glycogen in the food, and a glycoprotein called mucin that
lubricates the food for easier swallowing; the pharynx and esophagus, which transport the food to the stom-
ach; the stomach, which secretes hydrochloric acid and pepsin that help break down proteins in the food; the
pancreas, liver, and gallbladder, which release a mixture of digestive enzymes and chemicals into the small
intestine; the small intestine, in which digestion is completed and through the walls of which the food particles
get absorbed; and finally the large intestine, comprising the colon, which helps to reabsorb water, the cecum,
important for fermenting ingested material, and the rectum, which stores feces until they can be... liminated.
5. The major digestive enzymes are salivary amylase, secreted by the salivary glands into the mouth, which
hydrolyzes starch, glycogen, sucrose, and lactose; pepsin-in-the-stomach, which hydrolyzes proteins; pepti-
dase, which breaks down polypeptides in the small intestine into amino acids; pancreatic lipase, which breaks
down fat droplets in the small intestine into glycerol, fatty acids, and monoglycerides; pancreatic nuclease,
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which works in the small intestine to get nucleotides out the DNA and RNA in food; and finally nucleotidases,
nucleosidases, and phosphatases, which operate at the epithelium of the small intestine to further digest nu-
cleotides into their constituent nitrogenous bases, sugars, and phosphates.
6. What ensures that we do not inhale our food? The esophageal reflex, which works like this: when a bolus of
food enters the pharynx, the epiglottis covers the glottis and the esophageal sphincter relaxes. Now the esoph-
agus is open and it happily accepts the bolus. Wavelike contractions then move the food down the esophagus
to the stomach, and the epiglottis moves up anew.
7. The herbivore’s alimentary canal has several digestive chambers containing bacteria that aid digestion of plant
material, gastric ceca that function in digestion and absorption, and a lengthy cecum that helps ferment the
plant material. The carnivore’s alimentary canal has a much shorter intestine and the cecum is short and to the
point.

3. Chapter 42: Circulation and Gas Exchange

1. A closed circulatory system (found in annelids, cephalopods, and vertebrates) has branching vessels filled with
blood. Gas and nutrients in the blood diffuse through the vessel wall into the interstitial fluid, which surrounds
the cell. The heart pumps continuously, moving blood in a one-way circuit around the body.
An open circulatory system (found in arthropods and most mollusks) has, instead of blood and interstitial
fluid, a single fluid called hemolymph. Contraction of the heart pumps the hemolymph through vessels into
the sinuses that surround the organs; relaxation of the heart pulls the hemolymph back to the heart through
pores in the sinus walls.
2. In mammals, the heart continuously beats, pumping blood around the body. As the blood passes through the
capillary beds, the blood spreads out and slows down, helping nutrients and gases in the bloodstream diffuse
across the thin capillary wall and into the interstitial fluid, and vice versa.
3. In fish, the heart consists of two chambers: the blood passes through the gills on the way to the body; that is,
the oxygenated blood doesn’t first return to the heart. Amphibians have a three-chambered heart, and two cir-
cuits of blood flow: pulmocutaneous and systemic. Reptiles also have a three-chambered heart, but with a sep-
tum partially dividing the single ventricle. Mammals and birds have a four-chambered heart.
4. In vertebrates with double circulation (all but fish), blood is pumped first through the pulmonary circuit, which
carries deoxygenated blood to the lungs and back to the heart, where the oxygenated blood is then pumped
around the body via the systemic circuit.
5. There was once a red blood cell who was sad because its hemoglobin was terribly lonely. So, being a kind-
hearted creature, and one who hated indecision, the red blood cell, without a second thought, set out to find
some oxygen to keep its hemoglobin company. She left the left atrium and blew into the left ventricle. He was
the owner of a prominent nightclub in Amorita, and so she had hoped to find some oxygen hidden, perhaps, in
his nightstand, or under his floorboards, but after snooping around for a good twenty minutes and then nearly
getting caught when he finally emerged from the bathroom (without flushing), she wisely decided that it was
far too risky (she was already on parole for attempting to blow up a public plaque), and so she left. Outside it
was getting dark. The sky was fiery red in the afterglow of what, she imagined, must have been quite the sun-
set. Far away, she could hear the beating of drums... or was it a Chinese boy dropping stones into a pond? On
and on she walked, humming Catholic hymns and thinking to herself. ’How is my dear Mr. Hemoglobin
doing?’ she suddenly said out loud, ’And will I ever be able to help him? Oh, I love him so... I do hope so.’
Just then, she rounded a giant curve and the road split into a million tiny paths. She picked one at random and
it led her straight into a tiny glass bubble (she had to crawl it was so small) that Joy to the world! had oxygen
straws. She stepped back a few paces, got a running start, and impaled herself right onto one of the straws.
Nobody knows if it was the terrific pain or simply her weariness after a day of walking that caused her to feint,
but in any case, just then, an old, Victorian-looking lady dressed in green, spotted her lifeless body and
dragged her onto a train that was headed to Grand Central Station. She woke up a few hours later in the right
ventricle. He was in a foul temper and screamed so loud that the poor blood cell nearly began to cry. But she
held herself together -- one hand clutching the puncture wound -- and, holding her head high, walked out his
front door, on which hung a large sign that read "aorta". It was a blustery day, but the wind was only picking
up. Because a moment after her floral, straw hat was carried away in the breeze, she felt a stirring in her soul
and, before she knew it, she had been picked up by the heel of her lambskins and was spinning out of control
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like a leaf in the atmosphere. Our story ends here. For chronicles of her later travels, see Volumes 2 and 3,
coming soon -- maybe.