Chapter 40

Basic Principles of Animal

Form and Function

PowerPoint Lectures for

Biology, Seventh Edition
Neil Campbell and Jane Reece

Lectures by Chris Romero

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 Overview: Diverse Forms, Common Challenges

• The comparative study of animals reveals that form and

function are closely correlated
• Anatomy is the study of the structure of an organism
• Physiology is the study of the functions an organism
performs
• The ability to perform certain actions depends on an
animal’s shape and size

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 Exchange with the Environment

• An animal’s size and shape directly affect how it

exchanges energy and materials with its surroundings.
• Exchange occurs when substances that are dissolved in
an aqueous medium are diffuse and transported across the
cells’ plasma membranes.

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 • A single-celled organism living in water has a sufficient
surface area of plasma membrane to service its entire
volume of cytoplasm.

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 • More complex organisms have highly folded internal
surfaces for exchanging materials. The folds increase the
surface area for diffusion.

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 • Most animals are composed of specialized cells which are
organized into groups called tissues. Different types of
tissues have different functions.
• Tissues are classified into four main categories:
– Epithelial
– Connective
– Muscle
– Nervous

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 • Epithelial tissues cover the outside of the body and lines the
organs and cavities within the body.
• Their functions include:
– Protection i.e. skin
– Adsorption i.e. small intestine
– Excretion i.e. large intestine
– Secretion i.e. small intestine,
– Filtration i.e. kidney
– Sensory reception i.e. skin.

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Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings
 • Connective tissues bind other tissues together. In general,
connection tissues function to”
– Protect the body from foreign cells i.e. white blood cells
– Binds or connect other body tissues together i.e. tendons
connect bone to muscle and ligaments connect bone to
bone
– Support and cushion other tissues i.e. collagen provides
elasticity to skin whereas cartilage cushions vertebrae and
provide flexible resilience to the rib cage.
– Transport nutrients and remove waste i.e. blood

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Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings
 • Muscle tissues consist of long cells called muscle fibers, which
contract in response to nerve signals. In vertebrates, it is divided
into three types:
– Skeletal which functions in conscious and controllable
movement such as walking, facial expression, and other
controllable body movements
– Smooth which functions in unconscious and uncontrollable
movement such as peristalsis that occurs in the G. I. tract
– Cardiac which functions in the pumping or contraction of
the heart

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Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings
 • Nervous tissues sense stimuli and transmits signals throughout
the animal body. There are two types of nervous cells:
– Neurons which are the cells responsible for transmitting
signals. A typical neuron has three main parts:
• Dendrite, which receives incoming signal
• Cell body, which contains the nucleus and is the
operational center of the neuron
• Axon, which transmit the dendritic signal (neural
impulse) to the next cell
– Neuroglial (glial cells or glia) which are a wide variety of
cells that serve to support neurons and maintain
homeostasis
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Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings
 Organs and Organ Systems

• In all but the simplest animals, tissues are organized into

organs. Organ systems carry out the major body functions of
most animals. Know the general functions of all Organ System!

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 Animals use the chemical energy in food to sustain
form and function
• All organisms require chemical energy for growth, repair,
physiological processes, regulation, and reproduction
• Bioenergetics, the flow of energy through an animal, limits
behavior, growth, and reproduction
• It determines how much food an animal needs

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 Bioenergetic Strategies

• An animal’s metabolic rate is closely related to its bio-

energetic strategy
• Metabolic rates are affected by many factors besides
whether an animal is an endotherm or ectotherm
• Two of these factors are size and activity

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 Activity and Metabolic Rate

• The basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the metabolic rate of

an endotherm at rest
• The standard metabolic rate (SMR) is the metabolic rate
of an ectotherm at rest
• Activity greatly affects metabolic rate

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 Energy Budgets

• Different species use energy and materials in food in different

ways, depending on their environment
• Use of energy is partitioned to:
– BMR (or SMR),
– Activity
– Homeostasis
– Growth
– Reproduction

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LE 40-10
Endotherms Ectotherm

800,000 Reproduction
Basal Temperature
(standard) regulation
metabolism Growth

Activity

340,000

8,000
4,000
60-kg female human 4-kg male Adélie penguin 0.025-kg female deer mouse 4-kg female python
from temperate climate from Antarctica (brooding) from temperate from Australia
North America
Total annual energy expenditures. The slices of the pie charts indicate energy
expenditures for various functions.

438

Human

233
Python
Deer mouse
Adélie penguin

36.5
5.5

Energy expenditures per unit mass (kcal/kg•day). Comparing the daily energy expenditures
per kg of body weight for the four animals reinforces two important concepts of
bioenergetics. First, a small animal, such as a mouse, has a much greater energy demand
per kg than does a large animal of the same taxonomic class, such as a human (both
mammals). Second, note again that an ectotherm, such as a python, requires much less
energy per kg than does an endotherm of equivalent size, such as a penguin.
 Animals regulate their internal environment
within relatively narrow limits
• The internal environment of vertebrates is called the interstitial
fluid and is very different from the external environment
• Homeostasis is a balance between external changes and the
animal’s internal control mechanisms that oppose the changes.
In humans, homeostasis include a blood pH at 7.4 and a body
temperature between 98.6 to 99.6 F.
• The kidney helps maintain blood pH homeostasis at 7.4 while the
hypothalamus regulates body temperature homeostasis of
around 98.6 F.

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 Regulating and Conforming

• Regulating and conforming are two extremes in how animals

cope with environmental fluctuations.
• A conformer i.e. ectotherm allows its internal body temperature
to change with the external temperature changes.
• A regulator i.e. endotherm acts to maintain the internal body
temperature in the face of external temperature fluctuation or
changes.

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 Thermoregulation
• Thermoregulation is the process by which animals maintain an
internal temperature within a tolerable range
• In thermoregulation, physiological and behavioral adjustments
balance heat loss and gain
• Five general adaptations help animals thermoregulate:
– Insulation
– Circulatory adaptations
– Cooling by evaporative heat loss
– Behavioral responses
– Adjusting metabolic heat production

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 • Many marine animals and birds have an arrangement of blood
vessels called a countercurrent heat exchanger.
• Countercurrent heat exchangers are important for reducing heat
loss.

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 • Most homeostatic control systems function by negative
feedback, where buildup of the end product shuts the system
off.

• In positive feedback, the stimulus triggers mechanisms that

amplify the change.

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 Torpor

• Torpor is a temporary physiological state in which body

temperature and metabolic activity decreases significantly.
• Torpor enables animals to save energy while avoiding difficult
and dangerous conditions.
• Animals that conserves energy by using torpor include
hummingbirds and bats.

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 Hibernation

• Hibernation is long-term torpor that is an adaptation to long

cold winters and food scarcity.
• Besides mammals i.e. bears, other animals that hibernate
include reptiles such as box turtles and garter snakes, insects
such as lady beetles and monarch butterflies, and amphibians
such as the leopard frogs and Siberian salamander.

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 Estivation

• Estivation, or summer torpor, enables animals to survive long

periods of high temperatures and scarce water supplies.
• Animals that estivate include the fat-tailed lemurs and tiger
salamanders.

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 The End

Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings