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Bonine and Potter, Vertebrate Physiology, ECOL 437, Fall 2005
File created 07 December 2005.
SAMPLE QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW (course material since Exam Three)
* This list of questions is not exhaustive, but should give you an idea as to the range of material and types
of questions we are likely to present. Please refer to your syllabus, text, readings, and lecture and discussion
notes for information relevant to the final exam. The exam will cover reading, lecture, and lab material
from throughout the semester. Please refer to your old exams and review sheets in preparation. Questions
from material since the third exam may be more detailed than questions from earlier in the semester. The
Final Exam will take place in the normal lecture room (Social Sciences 206) from 0800-1000h on Thursday
15 December. See you then!
Likely Exam Format (150 total points) :
True or false and matching (~15 points)
Really Short Answer (one word or sentence) (~50 pts)
Short Answer (a couple of sentences) (~65 pts)
Longer Answer (a paragraph or more) (~20 pts)
Questions/topics from each lecture/lab:
22 November 2005, Osmoregulation, Feeding
1. How does the osmolality of a shark’s plasma compare to that of seawater? Is the composition the
same?
2. Briefly describe three organs used in salt regulation in vertebrates. What mechanisms are fairly
constant across all of the organs you have listed?
3. How do suspension feeding and fluid feeding differ from the way omnivores typically feed?
4. What is the 10% rule in the context of trophic levels? How does this influence the number of
individual organisms that are found at each trophic level?
5. How do the beaks of Darwin’s finches reflect the action of natural selection?
6. What effect did alpha bungarotoxin have on Joe Slowinski’s physiology?
7. Of what use are pit organs in snakes?
8. What is interesting about the digestive physiology of gastric brooding frogs?
9. How do compensatory and inertial feeding differ in turtles?
10. Why are the interesting feeding-related adaptations of some salamanders and chameleons?
11. What do true herbivores have to be able to do?
29 November 2005, Feeding and Digestion
12. Why do some species of horned lizards have the ability to shoot blood from their orbital sinus?
13. Explain why C, H, O, N, Ca, and P are important.
14. Define ‘essential amino acid’.
15. What are the end products of deamination?
16. What is one very important role of lipids in vertebrate biology?
17. T or F, chitin and cellulose are the two most common organic compounds on earth.
18. Explain what KEB meant by “lactase persistent” being the aberrant human condition.
19. Give two examples each of lipid soluble and lipid insoluble vitamins.
20. What is Vitamin A important for?
21. Describe three variables that affect transit time of food in the gut.
22. What are the four generic portions of the digestive tract? The stomach is considered to be part of
which portion?
23. Differentiate the functional roles of monogastric and digastric stomachs.
24. What are the three main portions of the small intestine? What is the primary role of the small
intestines? Secondary role?
25. Anatomically, how is the absorptive surface area in the small intestine increased?
26. Define coprophagy? Why might this be an evolutionary adaptation?
27. Define and give an example of gut plasticity?
28. In general, how is motility regulated in the gut?
Bonine and Potter, Vertebrate Physiology, ECOL 437, Fall 2005
01 December 2005, Digestion
29. How do intrinsic and extrinsic factors both play a role in digestive tract regulation? Can you
provide two examples of each?
30. How does sympathetic autonomic NS activity affect the digestive tract?
31. What are two extremes of pH in the digestive tract?
32. How is an endopeptidase different than an exopeptidase?
33. What is secreted into the lumen of the gut to break down fats?
34. Where are many of the digestive enzymes created?
35. What is a proenzyme and why is this concept important?
36. What is the alkaline tide seen in some animals that eat few, but large, meals?
37. Explain the activity of two enzymes from the stomach or small intestine?
38. How is glucose moved from the lumen of the gut into the blood stream? How does this differ from
the movement of fats into the blood stream?
39. Explain why there is countercurrent exchange of salts in the capillaries of the villi in the small
intestine?
40. What do you think are the two biggest environmental conditions that tend to move animals away
from homeostasis? What are the most common (most energetically expensive?) physiological
responses to resist the movement away from homeostasis? Justify your answers.
41. Explain how and why the graphs of body size vs. metabolic rate, and body size vs. mass-specific
metabolic rate, are different?
42. During what types of locomotion is the contribution of anaerobic glycolysis the greatest? What
types of exercise lead to aerobic catabolism of fats?
06 December 2005, Metabolism, Thermal Physiology, Allometry
43. What are the two types of metabolism? Why do they each require an input of energy at some level?
44. How is entropy related to animal physiology and ecology? How is it related to the 10% rule
discussed earlier?
45. How do the FMR and the BMR of an animal differ?
46. What are the three major contributors to the BMR costs? How do these differ in endo and
ectotherms? How can each of these groups reduce BMR?
47. In brief, explain what the oxygen debt is.
48. How does the FMR of similar sized vertebrates differ when you compare different groups?
49. How much LSD should you give an elephant if you want to study its response to the chemical?
50. Define and explain the thermal neutral zone.
LAB/DISCUSSION:
Refer to your readings, the questions sent to you by Kristen, your lab handouts and worksheets, and notes
you took in class. We have not yet had an opportunity to ask you questions about the Henen et al paper, the
Mendes or Hayes papers, or the student oral presentations (in very general terms; don’t memorize the
handouts they gave you).
Suerte!