Mammal – Final Exam Review - Seniors
1. What were the first ancestors of mammals, that had one opening behind the eye on their skulls and were small and looked like modern lizards?
Synapsids
2. What was the subset group of the synapsids, that involved many changes in morphology, ecology and behaviors?
Therapsids
3. What were the 3 main mammal groups that appeared in the Cretaceous period and we still have today?
Monotremes
Marsupials
Placental mammals
4. What is the study of mammals called?
Mammalogy
5. What are the 4 main characteristics of mammals that NO other animal groups share?
Hair
Sweat glands
Diaphragm
Mammary glands
6. What type of modified skin cells grow hair in mammals?
Follicles 7. What are some functions that hair serves in mammals?
Insulation (keeps them warm)
Protection
Camouflage
Provides sensory feedback
8. Why do mammals sweat?
Since mammals are warm-blooded (endothermic) they must be able to cool down, so mammals sweat or pant to lose heat by water evaporation.
9. How many chambers are found in a mammal heart?
4 chambers
10. We have seen 4 chambers in birds and the crocodilians, but there is something very different about the blood of mammals…what is it?
Mammal red blood cells lack a nucleus leaving room for additional places to carry oxygen – they can carry more oxygen in their blood than any other animal.
11. What is the sheet of muscle that lays below the rib cage of mammals that aides in breathing?
Diaphragm
12. What type of dentition has teeth that are all the same type? (make sure if I show you a picture of these teeth you can tell what type of dentition)
Homodont
13. What type of dentition has teeth that are all different? (make sure if I show you a picture of these teeth you can tell what type of dentition) Heterodont
14. The variation of size and shape of teeth reflects an animals….?
Diet (what type of food they eat – carnivore, omnivore or herbivore)
15. What are the thin plates of fingernail-like material that hang from the roof of the cetacean (whales) mouth that act as a filter when they feed?
Baleen
16. What type of digestive system do omnivores and carnivores have?
Simple stomach - monogastric
17. What type of digestive system involves a four compartment stomach containing microorganisms modified to handle large amounts of fiber and is found in mammals like cows?
Ruminant
18. What is the largest of the four compartments in a ruminant digestive system where the bacteria and microorganisms are found?
Rumen
19. What is the portion of food that returns from a ruminant’s stomach in the mouth to be chewed a second time?
Cud
20. What type of digestive system has a simple stomach, and an enlarged cecum that acts like a fermentation chamber that has the ability to digest fiber with the help of microorganisms?
Pseudo-ruminant 21. What unique part of the mammalian brain deals with higher brain functions and is only found in mammals?
Neocortex
22. In mammals what typically determines brain size?
Their intelligence
23. What are the reproductive patterns found in mammals?
Oviparous, and viviparous
24. What are the modified, enlarged sweat glands that produce & secrete milk through nipples in which the young can suckle to obtain nutrition?
Mammary glands
25. What types of mammals are oviparous?
Monotremes
26. What is the term called which means “the carrying time of an embryo or fetus inside a female viviparous animal”?
Gestation period
27. What types of mammals give birth to under-developed young called Joeys, that complete their development and growth in pouches of the mother?
Marsupials
28. What types of mammals give birth to fully developed live young?
Placentals 29. What type of thermoregulation do mammals have?
Endothermic
30. What does endothermic mean?
Warm blooded – control body temperature internally
31. How do mammals maintain their endothermic conditions?
Hair and large amounts of fat insulation
32. How mammals are grouped is based on what behavior?
Reproductive behaviors
33. The Order Monotremata, like the Duckbill Platypus, has what type of unique characteristics?
No teeth, birdlike skull, carnivores, lay eggs (oviparous), have mammary glands but no nipples (milk is secreted through skin).
34. The Order Marsupialia, like the kangaroo, has what type of unique characteristics?
External pouches, raise young in pouches until mature enough, are viviparous (give birth to live young), young called joeys, short gestation period
35. What is an example of a mammal that is from the Order Edentata – “toothless” mammals?
Sloth, armadillo, anteaters 36. What is the big key difference in the Order Lagomorpha (rabbits) and Order Rodentia (rodents)?
Rabbits – lagomorpha have double row of upper incisors (two large front teeth with two smaller ones right behind them)
Rodents (rats) – only have one row of upper incisors
37. What types of mammals are also called the “gnawing mammals”?
Rats, mice, gophers, beavers, squirrels, voles…
38. What is the most unique thing about the Order Chiroptera (bats)?
They are the only mammals that can fly.
39. What is an ultrasonic method of sensory perception that certain animals can use to orient themselves to their surroundings, communicate and find food?
echolocation
40. How does echolocation work? (short answer)
It is an ultrasonic sensory perception in which the animal uses short, high-pitched sounds and those sounds travel out away from the animal then bounce off objects and creates an echo path for the animal.
41. What two types of mammal groups (3 types of mammals) are known to use echolocation?
Bats (chiroptera) and whales/dolphins (cetacea)
42. What is an example of a mammal that belongs to the Order Insectivora? Shrew, hedgehog, mole, aardvark
43. What are the unique characteristics of the mammals found in the Order Carnivora?
Meat -eaters
Long canine teeth, strong jaws and clawed toes
Very good sense of sight and smell
44. There are 3 main orders of mammals that are aquatic: Order Cetacea, Order Pinnipedia, and Order Sirenia. What is an example of the mammals from each of those 3 orders?
Cetacean – whales and dolphins
Pinnipedia – seals, sea lions and walruses
Sirenia – manatees and dugongs
45. What are the characteristics of the seals?
Aquatic carnivores
Flattened, paddle-like forelimbs & hind limbs
Feed in the sea, but sleep, breed and give birth on land
46. What are the characteristics of the whales and dolphins?
Fishlike bodies, with forelimbs modified as flippers and hind limbs have turned into broad, flat horizontal tails
Breathe with blow holes on the top of their heads
Completely hairless with exception of a few bristles in nose areas
47. What 2 groups are whales classified? Baleen (fingernail-like material – filter feeder)
Toothed whales (homodonts - carnivores)
48. What whale is the largest of all mammals both water and land?
Blue whale
49. What are the manatees and dugongs most closely related to?
elephants
50. There are 2 groups of hoofed mammals: Artiodactyla and Perisodactyla. What is the general term that means “hoofed mammal”? What do they walk on – what are those hooves?
Ungulates
Walk on modified, enlarged fingernails and toenails
51. A cow or a camel is an example of what type of hoofed mammal – describe its hoof? What type of digestive system do these types of hoofed mammals have?
Even-toed hooves/ungulates – cloven hoofed
Ruminant system
52. A horse or a rhinoceros is an example of what type of hoofed mammal – describe its hoof? What type of digestive system do these types of hoofed mammals have?
Odd-toed hooves/ungulates
Psuedo-ruminant system
53. The Order Proboscidea has the largest land mammal – what is it? What is the most unique thing about this order? Elephant
They have long muscular trunks that are modified noses with no bones in trunk – they can breathe, smell, gather up things or move things with their noses (trunks)
54. Elephants can’t sweat so how do they cool themselves down – they have a unique adaptation? (short answer)
Their ears have adapted and are very large – not meant for hearing but for cooling – they fan their ears and it cools down the circulating blood to cool the rest of their bodies down.
55. What are the unique characteristics of the Order Primates?
Large brains – complex behaviors
Most with 2 forward facing eyes
Opposable thumbs
56. What is a state of inactivity and metabolic depression in animals, characterized by lower body temperature, slower breathing and/or lower metabolic rate?
Hibernation
57. What types of animals ONLY eat plants?
herbivores
58. What types of animals can eat both plants(grains) and meat?
Omnivores
59. What types of animals can ONLY eat meat? Carnivores
60. What type of prey members of the food chain are plant eating organisms (herbivores)?
Primary consumers
61. What type of predator members of the food chain are the carnivores?
Secondary consumers
62. What are also known as secondary consumers (most carnivores)?
Predators
63. What are also known as primary consumers (most herbivores)?
Prey
64. What is the term that means the largest population that the resources of an environment, habitat or ecosystems can support without being damaged?
Carrying capacity
65. Be able to explain how the balance is maintained in a carrying capacity. Be also able to explain what we as humans have created to help maintain balance if it can’t be maintained naturally. (short answer)
Natural balance – natural predators help keep the balance maintained in a habitat
Humans – when the predator population gets too low, or not favorable (urban areas) and the prey animals over-populate – fish and hunting seasons are created to help rebalance the system.
Essay/Long Answer 1. Of all 3 mammal groups, which one is most closely related to our amniote ancestor and reptiles and birds? Why is this group most related? What features are shared?
2. Which types of mammals have the longest gestation period? Why would they have the longest period? Which mammals have the shortest gestation period in comparison? Why would they have this shorter period compared to the mammals above?
3. ****Using all of the 5 animals groups we have learned about, demonstrate your knowledge and understanding how all of these animals are tied together in our evolutionary history and how they show how the evolution of animals have moved from simplest to most complex in morphology (anatomy and physiology) – demonstrate how they are connected and which morphological structures adapted and changed in evolution. Explain the unique features of only that group but then what features adapted and led to the connection to the next group of animals.