Category: My Classroom Material

Vertebrate Projects

 

Vertebrate Project

 

Choose one of the following activities to turn in at the conclusion of the unit study of vertebrates.

  1. Watch and record a 60 minute program on a vertebrate group. Write a summary of the program, create a worksheet to be answered from the video, and supply a key for the worksheet answers.
  2. Create a portfolio of pictures and descriptions of the most dangerous sharks in the world. Write a report on sharks to include with your portfolio and tell what can be done to avoid shark attack and what should be done if an attack occurs.
  3. Research the migration pattern of one of the following — gray whale, caribou, Arctic wolf, or a species of bats. Include a map of the animal’s migration route, season when the migration occurs, and a description of the animal’s feeding and mating habits.
  4. Construct, on poster board, a phylogenetic tree for a vertebrate group (fish, amphibian, reptile, bird, or mammal). Include pictures of the organisms on your tree and write a short paper describe the evolution of this group.
  5. Construct a scrapbook of 20 pictures of one mammal order. Pictures may not be Xeroxed or computer generated! Include the name and a brief description with each picture.
  6. Make a three-dimensional collage of one group of marine vertebrates. The shape of the collage must illustrate something from the marine environment or a marine organism. Include a brief description of the marine environment and organisms you chose for your collage.
  7. Make a photographic album of pictures of birds. (Pictures will not be returned!) Include the common and scientific name & a brief description of each bird.
  8. Read the book, Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson and write a book report.
  9. Build a model of the digestive tract of  an herbivore such as a cow. Be sure to include the dentition and an explanation of how this animal’s digestive tract is adapted to its diet.
  10. Construct a display of the hearts of these 3 vertebrate groups — fish, amphibian, bird or mammal. Use modeling clay to make cross-sections of the hearts showing chambers and valves. Identify all parts of the hearts on your display.

 

Unsegmented Worm

Unsegmented Worms

All Materials © Cmassengale

Phylum Platyhelminthes
Characteristics

  • Called flatworms because bodies are flattened dorso-ventrally

  • Acoelomate – solid bodies without a lined body cavity
  • Have 3 body layers — outer ectoderm, middle mesoderm, & inner endoderm
  • Bilaterally symmetrical
  • Show cephalization (concentration of sensory organs at anterior or head end)
  • Body cells exchange oxygen & carbon dioxide directly with environment by diffusion
  • Single opening into gastrovascular cavity; two-way digestive tract
  • Some are parasites & others are free-living
  • Parasitic worms have thick cell layer called tegument covered with a nonliving cuticle covering their bodies as protection inside hosts
  • Includes 3 classes — Turbellaria (planarians), Trematoda (parasitic flukes), & Cestoda (parasitic tapeworms

Class Turbellaria

  • Most are marine but includes freshwater planarian (Dugesia)

Planarians

  • Spade-shaped at the anterior end & have two, light-sensitive eyespots
  • Can sense light, touch, taste, & small
  • Have 2 clusters of nerve cells or ganglia to form a simple brain
  • Nervous system composed of a nerve net
  • Capable of simple learning
  • Move by tiny hairs or cilia over a mucus layer that they secrete
  • Feed by scavenging or protozoans
  • Have a single opening or mouth located at the end of a muscular tube called the pharynx which can be extended when feeding
  • Flame cells help remove wastes to excretory pores

  • Hermaphrodites that cross-fertilize eggs that are then deposited into a capsule until hatching in 2-3 weeks
  • Reproduce asexually by fragmentation

Class Trematoda

  • Includes parasitic flukes
  • About 1 cm long & oval shaped

  • Require a host to live
  • Have both oral & ventral suckers to cling to host & suck blood, cells, & body fluids
  • Oral sucker around mouth at anterior end sucks blood
  • May be endoparasites (live inside a host) or ectoparasites (live on the outside of host
  • Covered in tough, unciliated tegument
  • Nervous & excretory systems like turbellarians
  • Hermaphrodites
  • Have a long, coiled uterus that stores & releases 10,000+ eggs
  • Eggs released through genital pore & develop into larva
  • Show complex life cycles
  • Life cycle of sheep liver fluke:
    * Adult liver flukes live in sheep liver & gall bladder where they mate & form eggs
    * Eggs enter intestines, pass out with feces, & hatch in water
    * Larva enter snails, asexually multiply, then leave snail & form cysts
    * Cysts (dormant larva with hard, protective covering) clings to grass
    * Sheep ingest cysts when they eat grass
    * Cysts hatch in digestive tract & bore through intestines into bloodstream
    * Mature & reproduce in the liver

  • Schistosomiasis (disease caused by parasitic blood flukes) infects people in Asia, Africa, & South America causing intestinal bleeding & tissue decay that can result in death

Class Cestoda

  • Includes tapeworms
  • Adapted for parasitic life
  • Tough outer tegument prevents being digested by host
  • Anterior end called scolex contains hooks & suckers for attachment to intestine of host

  • Long, ribbon-like bodies up to 12 m in length
  • Nervous system extends length of body but lacks sense organs
  • Lacks mouth & digestive tract but absorbs digested nutrients from host
  • Grows by making body segments called proglottids
  • Each proglottid produces eggs & sperm that cross-fertilize with other segments & also self-fertilize (hermaphrodites)
  • Oldest, mature proglottids containing eggs at posterior end break off & pass out with feces
  • Life cycle of beef tapeworm:
    * Cattle eat grass with proglottids containing fertilized eggs
    * Eggs hatch into larva & bore through cow’s intestine into bloodstream
    * Larva burrow into cow’s muscle & form cysts
    * Humans eat beef (muscle) & cysts travels to intestines
    * Cyst breaks open & adult beef tapeworm forms


BEEF TAPEWORM LIFE CYCLE

Phylum Nematoda
Characteristics

  • Called roundworms
  • Includes Ascaris, hookworms, Trichinella, & pinworms
  • Pseudocoelomates have fluid-filled body cavity partially lined with mesoderm
  • Pseudocoelom contains the body organs & provides hydrostatic skeletal support for muscles
  • Have long slender bodies that taper at both ends

  • Covered with flexible cuticle
  • Digestive tract with anterior mouth & posterior anus; called one-way digestive tract
  • Separate sexes in most species
  • Most are free living
  • Some are parasites on plants & animals
  • Ascaris is a parasitic roundworm living in the intestines of pigs, horses, & humans
  • Ascaris life cycle:
    * Enter body in contaminated food or water & hatch in intestines
    * Larva bore into bloodstream & carried to lungs & throat
    * Larva coughed up, swallowed, & return to intestines to mature & mate
    * Block the intestine causing death

  • Hookworm eggs hatch in moist soil & larva bore through bare feet of new host 
  • Trichinella are human parasites caused by eating undercooked pork containing the cysts
    * Cause disease called trichinosis
    * Cysts cause muscle pain & stiffness


 CYSTS IN CONTAMINATED PORK

Phylum Rotifera
Characteristics

  • Known as rotifers or wheel animals
  • Transparent, free-swimming microscopic animal
  • Freshwater & marine
  • Have a ring of cilia around mouth that rotates like a wheel to bring in food
  • Feed on unicellular algae, bacteria, & protozoa
  • Have a muscular organ called the mastax behind the pharynx to chop food
  • Nervous system composed of anterior ganglia & 2 long nerve cords
  • Show cephalization (head end)
  • Have 2 anterior, light-sensitive eyespots

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Unsegmented Worms Study Guide B1

Unsegmented Worm Study Guide

  • Describe the digestive tract of planarians
  • How are tapeworms able to get their food
  • What is the life style of most flatworms
  • What are the characteristics of rotifers
  • What are the general characteristics of all flatworms
  • Why do flatworms not need circulatory & respiratory systems
  • What causes schistosomiasis
  • To what kingdom & phylum do flatworms belong
  • Describe a pseudocoelom & give examples of worms that have this characteristic
  • Explain the life cycle of Ascaris
  • How do rotifers eliminate wastes
  • What is regeneration & give an example of an unsegmented worm that uses this process
  • What is the cuticle and what is its function
  • What are proglottids & what is their function
  • If a worm has a one-way digestive system, what must be true about the organism
  • Why are rotifers called “wheel animals”
Notes Study Guide