UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES CENTRAL TO UNDERSTANDING ZOOLOGY:

! Laws of physics and chemistry underlie some zoology principles

! Principles of genetics and evolution guide much zoological study
! Principles learned from one animal group can be applied to others
! Some science methods specify how to conduct solid research
CHAPTER 1 Li f e Bi ol ogi cal Pri nci pl es and t he Sci ence of Zool ogy
FUNDAMENTAL PROPERTIES OF LIFE
! Definition:
! Properties exhibited by life today are different from those at its origin
! Evolution (change) has generated many unique living properties
! Definitions based on complex replicative processes would exclude non-life, but also early forms from
which all others descend and which give life its historical unity
General Properties of Living Systems
PROPERTY DEFINITION
1. Chemical
Uniqueness
! Textbook Definition: Living systems demonstrate a unique and complex molecular
organization.
! Macromolecules in organisms are far more complex than molecules in nonliving matter
! They [macromolecules in organisms] obey the same physical laws as nonliving
molecules but are more complex
! Common molecules in life: nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids
2. Complexity
and Hierarchical
Organization
! Textbook Definition: Living systems demonstrate a unique and complex hierarchal
organization.
! Ascending order of complexity:
" Macromolecules
" Cells
" Organisms
" Populations; and
" Species
! Each level has an internal structure and unique abilities and requirements
! Emergent properties = new characteristics that appear at the next level of organization
3. Reproduction
! Textbook Definition: Living systems can reproduce themselves.
! Life comes from previous life, but had to arise from nonliving matter at least once
! Genes replicate to produce new genes
! Cells divide to produce new cells
! Organisms reproduce, sexually or asexually, to produce new organisms
4. Possession of
a Genetic
Program
! Textbook Definition: A genetic program provides fidelity of inheritance.
" Nucleic acids = encode structures of protein molecules needed for organismal
development and functioning
" Genetic code = the correspondence between the sequence of bases in DNA and
the sequence of amino acids in a protein
5. Metabolism
! Textbook Definition: Living organisms maintain themselves by acquiring nutrients from
their environments.
! A process wherein nutrients supply the chemical energy and molecular components for
building and maintaining a living system
! Includes digestion, respiration, and the synthesis of molecules and structures
! An interaction of catabolic and anabolic reactions
! Physiology = the study of metabolic functions from the biochemical to organismal levels
6. Development
! Textbook Definition: All organisms pass through a characteristic life cycle.
" Development describes the characteristic changes that an organism undergoes
from its origin to its final adult form
7. Environmental
Interaction
! Textbook Definition: All animals interact with their environments.
! Ecology = the study of organismal interaction with an environment
! Irritability = a property possessed by all organisms which enables them to respond to
environmental stimuli
8. Movement
! Textbook Definition: Living systems and their parts show precise and controlled
movements arising from within the system.
! Living systems extract energy from their environments, permitting the initiation of
controlled movements
! Movements at the cellular level are required for:
" Reproduction
" Growth
" Responses to stimuli
" Development in multicellular organisms
! On a larger scale: entire populations or species may disperse from one geographic
location to another over time
! Movement of nonliving matter is not precisely controlled by moving objects
Life Obeys Physical Laws
! First Law of Thermodynamics: Lay of Conservation of Energy
! Energy is neither created nor destroyed but can be transformed from one form to another
" All aspects of life require energy and its transformation
! Second Law of Thermodynamics
! Physical systems tend to proceed toward a state of disorder or ent ropy
" The ultimate fate of materials in cells is degradation and dissipation of their chemical bond energy
as heat
" Organismal complexity is achieved and maintained only by the perpetual use and dissipation of
energy flowing into the biosphere from the sun
" The complex molecular organization in living cells is attained and maintained only as long as
energy fuels the organization
" Survival, growth, and reproduction of animals require energy that comes from breaking complex
food molecules into simple organic waste
ZOOLOGY AS PART OF BIOLOGY
! Animals originated in the Precambrian seas over 600 million years ago
! Characteristics of Animals:
! Eukaryotes: cells contain membrane-enclosed nuclei
! Heterotrophs: Not capable of manufacturing their own food and must rely on external food sources
PRINCIPLES OF SCIENCE
Nature of Science
! Science is guided by the natural law
! Science has to be explained by reference to natural law
! Science is testable against the observable world
! The conclusions of science are tentative and therefore not necessarily the final word
Scientific Method
! Hypothetico-deductive method
! Requires hypotheses to be generated or deducted
! Hypothesis:
" Potential answers to questions being asked
" Derived from prior observations of nature or from theories based on such observations
" Often constitute general statements about nature that may explain a large number of diverse
observations
" If a hypothesis is very powerful in explaining a wide variety of related phenomena, it attains the
level of a t heory
! Steps:
" Observation
" Question
" Hypothesis formation
" Empirical test
- Controlled experiment includes at least two groups:
# Test group
# Control group
" Conclusions
- Accepts or rejects the hypothesis
" Publication
Experimental vs. Comparative Methods
! Experimental Method
! Seeks to explain the proximate or immediate causes that underlie the operation of biological systems at
a particular time and place
! Important at all levels of molecular biology, cell biology, endocrinology, developmental biology, animal
behavior, and community ecology
! Comparative Method
! Seeks to address the questions of ultimate causes that have produced these systems and their
distinctive characteristics through evolutionary time
! Applies to all levels of comparative biochemistry, molecular evolution, comparative cell biology,
comparative anatomy, and comparative physiology
THEORIES OF EVOLUTION AND HEREDITY
Darwins Theory of Evolution
! Over 150 years old
! Published in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in England in 1859
! Darwinism encompasses several different, although mutually compatible, theories
! Lacks theories on inheritance and heredity
! Foundation for current studies of genetics and evolution in animals
! Professor Ernst Mayr (Harvard University) argued that Darwinism should be viewed as five major theories:
THEORY DEFINITION
1. Perpetual
Change
" The living world is neither constant nor perpetually cycling, but is always changing
" The varying forms of organisms undergo measurable changes across generations
throughout time
" Documented by the fossil record
2. Common
Descent
" All forms of life descend from a common ancestor through a branching of lineages
" Phylogeny: a branching evolutionary tree which explains that species that share
recent common ancestry have more similar features at all levels than do species
whose most recent common ancestor occurred early in the history of life
3. Multiplication
of Species
" The evolutionary process produces new species by splitting and transforming older
ones
4. Gradualism
" The large differences in anatomical traits that characterize disparate species
originate through the accumulation of many small incremental changes over very
long periods of time
5. Natural
Selection
" A creative process that generates novel forms from the small individual variations
that occur among organisms within a population
" Explains why organisms are constructed to meet the demands of their environments
(adaptation)
" Adaptation: expected result of a process that accumulates the most favorable
variants occurring in a population throughout long periods of evolutionary time
! Neo-darwinism
! Describes Darwins theories as modified by incorporating the chromosomal theory of inheritance
Mendelian Heredity and the Chromosomal Theory of Inheritance
! Genetic Approach
! Consists of mating or crossing populations of organisms that are true-breeding for contrasting traits
CHAPTER 2 The Ori gi n and Chemi st ry of Li f e
WATER AND LIFE
! The origin and maintenance of life on earth depends critically upon water
! Water forms 60-90% of most organisms
! Hydrogen bonds that form between adjacent water molecules are critical for explaining its extraordinary
properties
! Properties of water:
PROPERTY DEFINITION
Water has a high
specific heat
capacity
" 1 calorie is required to elevate the temperature of 1 gram of water to 1C
" Result: moderation of environmental temperature changes
Water has a high
heat of
vaporization
" Water requires more than 500 calories to convert 1 gram of liquid water to water
vapor
" Heat energy is used to:
- Break hydrogen bonds
- Increase kinetic energy (molecular movement)
- Increase the temperature of the water
Water has a
unique density
behavior
" Water reaches its maximum density at 4C while still a liquid, then becomes less
dense with further cooling
- Unlike water, most other liquids become denser with decreasing temperature
- Example: ice always floats rather than sinking to the bottom of water bodies,
suggesting that ice is less dense than liquid water
Water has high " It exceeds all other surface tensions except mercurys
surface tension
" The surface tension creates an ecological niche for insects (water strides,
whirligig beetles) that skate on the surfaces of ponds
Water has low
viscosity
" Permits the movement of blood through minute capillaries and of cytoplasm inside
cellular boundaries
Water is an
excellent solvent
" Salts dissolve more extensively in water than in any other solvent
" The dipolar nature of water causes water molecules to orient around charged
dissolved particles
" The binding of water to dissolved protein molecules is essential to the proper
functioning of many proteins
Water participates
in many chemical
reactions in living
organisms
" Hydrolysis: the splitting of compounds into smaller pieces by the addition of a
water molecule
- Larger compounds may be synthesized from smaller components by the
reverse of hydrolysis, a process called condensat i on react i ons
pH of Water Solutions
! pH = Hydrogen Ion Concentration
! Acidic substance (0-6)
! Contributes H
+
ions, making it more common than OH
-
ions
! Basic substance (8-14)
! Contributes OH
-
ions, making it more common than H
+
ions
! Neutral substance (7)
! Buffer
! A solute (dissolved substance) that causes a solution to resist changes in pH because the buffer can
remove added H
+
and OH
-
ions from solutions by binding them into compounds
ORGANIC MOLECULAR STRUCTURE OF LIVING SYSTEMS
! Chemical evolution in a prebiotic (before the emergence of life) environment produced simple organic
compounds that ultimately formed the building blocks of living cells
! Organic refers broadly to compounds that contain carbon
Carbohydrates
! Carbohydrates are natures most abundant organic substance
! Compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen
! Usually occur in the ratio of 1C : 2H : 1O
! Functions in protoplasm:
! Structural elements
! Energy source
! Glucose is the most important energy-storing carbohydrate
! Photosynthesis:
! A process in which carbohydrates are synthesized by green plants from water and carbon dioxide, with
the aid of solar energy
! Three classes:
! Monosaccharides
" Simple sugars
" Have a single carbon chain
- Contains either 4 carbons (tetroses), 5 carbons (pentoses), or 6 carbons (hexoses)
- Some may have up to 10 carbons, but these sugars are not biologically important
" Basic examples: glucose, galactose, fructose
! Disaccharides
" Double sugars
" Basic examples: sucrose (glucose + fructose), lactose (glucose + galactose), maltose (glucose +
glucose)
! Polysaccharides
" Complex sugars
" Contain many molecules of simple sugars linked in long chains called pol ymers
" Basic examples: starch, glycogen, cellulose, chitin
Lipids
! For fuel storage and building
! Fats and fatlike substances
! Have low polarity
! Insoluble in water but are soluble to organic solvents
! Three principal groups:
! Neutral Fats
" Composed of Triglycerides
" Major fuels of animals
" Contain glycerol and three molecules of fatty acids
" Saturated fatty acids vs. unsaturated fatty acids
- Saturated: usually solid at room temperature
- Unsaturated: typical of plant oils and tend to be liquid at room temperature
" Unsaturated fatty acids are generally healthier than saturated fatty acids
! Phospholipids
" Important components of the molecular organization of tissues, especially membranes
" Charged and polar
- Soluble in water
- Can bridge two environments and bind water-soluble molecules to water-insoluble materials
" Amphiphilic
- Compounds that are polar and water-soluble on one end and nonpolar on the other end
- Amphiphilic compounds have a natural tendency to assemble into semipermeable membranes
! Steroids
" Complex alcohols
" Have low polarity
" A large group of biologically important molecules, including cholesterol