210 résultats pour "biology"
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Tiger - biology.
have a simple digestive system designed to process meat so that the nutrients can be readily absorbed into the bloodstream. With the exception of white tigers, which have blue eyes, all tigers have yellow eyes. Tigers mainly use vision to find prey. Although tigers see about as well as humansduring the day, their large eye openings gather more light than do human eyes, making tiger night vision far superior to that of humans. In addition, a special structurein the tiger’s eye, called the tapetu...
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Horse - biology.
Horses reach sexual maturity at about one and a half years. The estrous cycle in the mare—a mature female horse—typically lasts 21 days. During the first five days ofthe cycle, the mare is usually receptive to mating. The estrous cycle stops during winter and resumes in the spring, which is the start of the breeding season. Astallion—a mature male horse—approaching a mare in estrus engages in various courtship rituals. These include uttering nickering sounds and sniffing and licking themare’s ge...
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Elephant - biology.
B Trunk An elephant's nose and upper lip are combined in a long, limber trunk, an exceptionally supple appendage with an estimated 150,000 muscles. The versatile trunk actslike a hand for grasping low-growing shrubs and other food and placing it into the mouth; an arm for breaking off tree branches; or a snorkel for breathing when theelephant's body is submerged. Elephants also use their trunks to suck up water and squirt it into their mouths for drinking or over their bodies for bathing. Nostr...
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Shark - biology.
Sharks have two-chambered hearts that are relatively small compared to the rest of their bodies. Blood flows from the heart to the gills, where it collects oxygen fromwater and then distributes it to the other organs and tissues. The small heart produces weak blood pressure, and many sharks must swim continuously to create themuscular contractions needed to circulate blood throughout their bodies. Most sharks are cold-blooded—that is, they do not generate heat by digesting food. Instead, the bod...
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Cloning - biology.
found that such embryo cells are totipotent (able to give rise to all the different cell types in the body). Exploiting this characteristic, scientists developed three techniques to clone embryo cells: blastomere separation, blastocyst division, and somatic cell nuclear transfer. A Blastomere Separation In blastomere separation, scientists fertilize an egg cell with a sperm cell in a laboratory dish. The resulting embryo is allowed to divide until it forms a mass of aboutfour cells. Scientist...
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Bear - biology.
programs sponsored by zoos or other breeding centers have attempted to breed giant pandas in captivity, although most of these programs have proved unsuccessful.Among the difficulties faced by captive breeders has been the problem of encouraging a female giant panda to mate with a selected male during the two to three daysof the year when she is most fertile, a period known as estrus. B Spectacled Bear Creamy-white rings surrounding the eyes give the spectacled bear its name. Its shaggy coat of...
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Dinosaur - biology.
The behavior of dinosaurs was governed by their metabolism and by their central nervous system. The dinosaurs’ metabolism—the internal activities that supply thebody’s energy needs—affected their activity level. It is unclear whether dinosaurs were purely endothermic (warm-blooded), like modern mammals, or ectothermic (cold-blooded), like modern reptiles. Endotherms regulate their body temperature internally by means of their metabolism, rather than by using the temperature oftheir surroundin...
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Whale - biology.
III BEHAVIOR OF WHALES Studies of whales in captivity have taught scientists much about the complex social behavior of whales. Since the late 1980s, advances in the use of satellite trackingsystems have also broadened opportunities for scientists to observe how whales behave in the wild. A Swimming and Diving Whales swim by making powerful up-and-down movements of the tail flukes, which provide thrust. The power comes from body muscles that flex the lower spine upand down in a wavelike motion...
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Beetle - biology.
cut, or crush prey. Beetles that consume nectar from flowers use tubelike mouthparts to suck up nectar like a primitive straw. C Thorax The thorax, the body region behind the head, consists of three segments that provide attachments for the legs and wings. Each segment of the thorax carries a pair oflegs. The middle segment also bears the stiff wing sheaths called elytra, and the hind segment holds the membranous hind wings. D Legs Beetles have six jointed legs, each leg with five parts. The f...
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Insect - biology.
they almost always have six legs. In some insects, such as beetles, the legs are practically identical, but in other insects each pair is a slightly different shape. Still otherinsects have specialized leg structures. Examples are praying mantises, which have grasping and stabbing forelegs armed with lethal spines, and grasshoppers andfleas, which have large, muscular hind legs that catapult them into the air. Mole crickets’ front legs are modified for digging, and backswimmers have hind legs de...
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Mammal - biology.
On land, mammals live in many different habitats, and at a wide range of altitudes. Many mammals dig burrows as refuges or as places to raise their young, but somehave developed a largely subterranean lifestyle, feeding on small animals or plant roots beneath the soil's surface. These animals, including moles and mole-rats, digthrough the ground either with spadelike front paws or with their teeth, and they detect danger by being highly sensitive to vibrations transmitted through the soil.Most m...
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Ant - biology.
The workers of many ant species carry a stinger within the hind end of the gaster. These ants use the stinger to defend against their enemies. In some species, workerants lack a stinger but use the tip of their gaster to squirt or dab poison at other small animals and when fighting battles with other ants, fending off predators, or killinginsects or other animals that they use as food. III PHYSIOLOGY Ants have a rigid, external skeleton called an exoskeleton that gives the soft, inner body its...
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Bird - biology.
B Physical Adaptations for Flight The internal body parts of all birds, including flightless ones, reflect the evolution of birds as flying creatures. Birds have lightweight skeletons in which many of themajor bones are hollow. A unique feature of birds is the furculum, or wishbone, which is comparable to the collarbones of humans, although in birds the left and rightportions are fused together. The furculum absorbs the shock of wing motion and acts as a spring to help birds breathe while they...
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Animal - biology.
Vertebrates are customarily divided into cold-blooded and warm-blooded animals, but these labels are not very precise. Biologists normally use the terms ectoderm and endoderm to describe temperature regulation more accurately. An ectoderm is an animal whose temperature is dictated by its surroundings, while an endoderm is one that keeps its body at a constant warm temperature by generating internal heat. Reptiles, amphibians, and fish are ectoderms. Although they do not maintain a constant wa...
- Whale Shark - biology.
- Sea Horse - biology.
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- Garter Snake - biology.
- Monitor (lizard) - biology.
- Peacock (bird) - biology.
- Gila Monster - biology.
- Mouse (rodent) - biology.
- Crow (bird) - biology.
- Tropical Fish - biology.
- Food Web - biology.
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- Bass (fish) - biology.
- Poisonous Plants - biology.
- Polar Bear - biology.
- Root (botany) - biology.
- Fox (animal) - biology.
- Hawk (bird) - biology.
- Crocodile (reptile) - biology.
- Hog (animal) - biology.
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Turkey (bird) - biology.
as Meleagris ocellata. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
- Swan (bird) - biology.
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Blue Whale - biology.
Mature females may give birth once every two or three years. The gestation period lasts about 11 months. A single young is usually born the following spring; twins arerare. The females migrate to warm regions to give birth. The young nurse for seven or eight months, gaining as much as 90 kg (200 lb) per day. VII CONSERVATION STATUS Blue whales were not targeted by the whaling industry until the late 1800s after faster steam-powered ships were developed. The peak slaughter of blue whalesoccurre...
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Salmon (fish) - biology.
alarm and become one of the most important conservation issues in the Pacific Northwest. Less than 2 percent of the wild salmon population of the Columbia River Basin(including parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and British Columbia) remains and only one individual sockeye salmon returned to the Snake Riverin Idaho in 1994. Coho salmon in the Snake River have been declared extinct by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as have 106 other salmon populations on the WestCoast. Man...
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Killer Whale - biology.
V REPRODUCTION Mating occurs more often among killer whales of different pods to avoid inbreeding within pods. About 16 to 18 months after mating, females give birth to a single calf.Newborn calves weigh about 200 kg (440 lb) and are about 2.5 m (8 ft) long. Mothers nurse their calf for 14 to 18 months, although mothers continue to be protectiveof their young long after the offspring have been weaned. Scientists do not know how long killer whales live in the wild. Scientists estimate that male...
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Python (snake) - biology.
pythons are prey for monitor lizards, crocodiles, storks, eagles, and predatory mammals ranging from hyenas to leopards and other cats depending on the region. V PYTHONS AND HUMANS Modern humans have lived alongside pythons for thousands of years. The giant species have been treated with both reverence and fear. Pythons have been widelyassociated with fertility, water, and the Earth. Some African tribes have worshiped pythons as protective spirits. Among Aboriginal Australians the Rainbow Serpe...
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Cobra (snake) - biology.
Most cobras prey on small rodents or other small mammals. They also eat birds, snakes, lizards, frogs, toads, insects, and even eggs. Water cobras catch fish and kingcobras specialize in eating other snakes. Similar to other venomous snakes, cobras use venom to subdue their prey before swallowing it whole, generally head first. Thevenom may contain substances that also break down the prey for digestion. Despite their potent venom and dramatic threat displays, cobras are hunted and eaten by a num...
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Monkey (animal) - biology.
traveling in troops, often take turns acting as sentinel, making specific alarm calls to alert their companions to approaching danger. In trees, monkeys have other waysof outwitting their enemies. Capuchins, for example, sometimes fend off inquisitive predators by urinating on them from high above or by jumping up and down tomake dead branches fall on the predators. Most monkeys can breed at any time of the year, so their troops often contain young of many different ages. Courtship is typically...
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Deoxyribonucleic Acid - biology.
bacterium Escherichia coli . In 1998 scientists achieved the milestone of sequencing the complete genome of a multicellular organism—a roundworm identified as Caenorhabditis elegans . The Human Genome Project, an international research collaboration, was established to determine the sequence of all of the 3 billion nucleotide base pairs that make up thehuman genetic material. In 2003 scientists completed the sequencing of the human genome. The project identified nearly all of the estimated 20...
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Jaguar (animal) - biology.
scientists have speculated that the jaguar’s robust canine teeth and enormously powerful bite developed specifically to pierce the armor of these reptiles. After killing a large animal, a jaguar will usually drag the carcass into dense cover before beginning to eat. If the kill is made in an open area, jaguars often drag theirprey for considerable distances. On one occasion, a jaguar killed a cow on the edge of a river and swam 790 m (2,600 ft) across the river carrying the cow. Unlike the other...
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Metabolism (chemistry) - biology.
nearly perfect balance. Although much remains to be revealed about metabolic processes, biochemists now agree that regulatory, or rate-limiting, enzymes figure largely in the reactionsinvolved ( see Enzyme). Affecting metabolic pathways at the earliest steps, each enzyme molecule has a specific, or active, site that matches, or “fits,” its particular substrate—the compound with which the enzyme forms a product. The precision with which rate-limiting enzymes and substrates join to set off a parti...
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Giant Panda - biology.
In 2007 conservationists announced that a parasitic roundworm was responsible for a significant number of the panda deaths reported in the wild since 1990. Theparasite Baylisascaris schroederi causes the disease visceral larval migrans, which results in bleeding in the lungs, the liver, and the intestines, and can also affect the brain. It is not known if other recent pandas deaths were caused by the same parasite or by a different contagious disease. Loss of habitat from deforestation is forc...
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Seal (mammal) - biology.
remote lakes by swimming thousands of kilometers up rivers from the Arctic Ocean. A few other species such as ringed seals and harbor seals have been found livingyear-round in lakes and rivers near the coasts of Russia, Canada, and Alaska. IV DIET OF SEALS Most seals eat fish and sometimes squid. The leopard seal, an Antarctic species, may have the most diverse diet of all, commonly hunting penguins and other seabirds,smaller seals, as well as fish, squid, krill (small shrimplike crustaceans),...
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Honey Bee - biology.
B Reproduction and Development The queen controls the sex of her offspring. When an egg passes from her ovary to her oviduct, the queen determines whether the egg is fertilized with sperm from thespermatheca. A fertilized egg develops into a female honey bee, either worker or queen, and an unfertilized egg becomes a male honey bee, or drone. The queen lays the eggs that will develop into more queens in specially constructed downward-pointing, peanut-shaped cells, in which the egg adheres to the...
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Frog (animal) - biology.
which means that their body temperature depends on the temperature of the surrounding environment. Few species can tolerate temperatures below 4°C (40°F) orabove 40°C (104°F), and many species can survive only within a narrower range of temperatures. In addition, frogs’ thin, moist skin offers little protection againstwater loss, and when on land the animals must guard against drying out. Many frogs are active at night because temperatures are cooler and humidity is higher thanduring the day. In...
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Amphibian (animal) - biology.
strong enough to kill potential predators. C Hearing, Vision, and Vocalizations Amphibians rely on their senses to find food and evade predators. Amphibians lack external ears but have well-developed internal ears. Hearing is most acute in frogs,which typically have a middle ear cavity for transferring sound vibrations from the eardrum, or tympanum, to the inner ear. Frogs and toads also use their keen hearingin communicating with one another. Using a true voice box, or larynx, and a large, exp...
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Animal Behavior - biology.
The first motor program analyzed in much detail was the egg-rolling response of geese. When a goose sees an egg outside its nest, it stares at the egg, stretches itsneck until its bill is just on the other side of the egg, and then gently rolls the egg back into the nest. At first glance this seems a thoughtful and intelligent piece ofbehavior, but it is a mechanical motor program; almost any smooth, rounded object (the sign stimulus) will release the response. Furthermore, removal of the egg on...
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Cat Family - biology.
cats have coats that are mainly brown, yellow, or gray, often with white underbellies. The cubs of many species of cats have spotted coats, which helps hide them ingrass and underbrush from predators. Adult cats that have mainly spotted patterns in their fur include cheetahs, leopards, clouded leopards, jaguars, ocelots, margays, Geoffroy’s cat, and servals. Singlecolor coats are found in lions, pumas, and jaguarundis. Some individuals among leopards and jaguars, and more rarely in other species...