Thermoregulation

I took this picture because my dog usually find ways to keep his body temperature maintained such as if it's too hot in the house he'll pant and release heat and like with the air conditioner he just enjoys the cool with his fur so he manages his body temperature using thermoregulation.

Thermoregulation is the consistency of a body temperature in an organism even under different types of external temperature conditions. Thermoregulation is a key factor in different species as it keeps that species at its highest performing level by maintaining its preferred body body temperature increasing its senses, mobility and production rate. Things that could affect this thermoregulation could be humidity, temperature incline or decline, vapor pressure and air velocity as forms of conditions that could affect the temperature of the skin. Some species learn to adapt to their surrounding external environment to achieve a proper thermoregulation while other animals may sometimes require a new environment to perform efficiently.

Sources:
Thermoregulation. harvard.edu. Retrieved September 1, 2011, from http://www.deas.harvard.edu/courses/es96/spring1997/web_page/health/thermreg.htm

Epithelial Tissue

The skin on my arm and hand are both considered epithelial tissue as they are located on the outter external part of my body.

The structure of epithelial tissue is formed by these epithelial cells being packed very tightly together so that there is very little intercellular space and only a small amount of intercellular substance. It covers the whole surface exterior of the body and some of the interior as well and when found on the interior it is known as endothelium. It is specially formed to create one or more layers that can cover about all of the body's internal and external body surface. This tissue is supported by basement membrane, an important structure which links it to other surfaces and provides structure. There are many categories that epithilial tissue can be broken into but the two main categories would be simple epithelium which is only one cell thick. Then there is stratified epithelium which is two or more layers thick forming a firm visible structure such as our skin. Epithelial tissue is very important as it provides a variety of different functions to our bodies such as protection, sensation, diffusion and a few other functions.

Sources:
Epithelial Tissue. uwc.ac.za. Retrieved September 1, 2011, from http://www.bcb.uwc.ac.za/sci_ed/grade10/mammal/epithelial.htm

Invertabrates

Jellyfish are common forms of invertabrates and can move freely, their tentacles are an adaptation that they use to protect themselves.

An invrtabrate is considered a species that is a multi-cellular and eukaryotic animal. A mass majority of animals, about 97% that make up all known animal species are invertabrates. Invertabrates are said to have a common eukaryotic form of ancestor and this can be recognized with similarities to past fossils found through invertabrate palaeontology. Forms of invertabrates are sponges, jellyfish and other fish along with many, many other species. A common importance for these invertabrates is that because they have no spinal chord they often protect themselves by having a form of shell or hard exoskeleton but that isn't always the case. In the childrens cartoon "Spongebob Squarepants" it displays the nautical adventures of a common seasponge and often they display how Spongebob doesn't have a vertabrate giving him body capabilities that most creatures such as humans do not possess like bending or stretching in weird ways.

Sources:
Mrs. Beethe's notes.

Fungi

Locally grown or found in the forests, mushrooms are a form of fungi that can be either enjoyable or deadly depending on what form of mushrooms they are.

Fungi is one of the most amazing and versatile specimen in our environment today in both ecological and benefitial ways. Fungi fall under the category of being decomposers as they break down dead organic material and supply nutrients back into their ecosystems. In fact if it weren't for this process that fungi create, there would most likely be a few plants gone as they rely on these nutrients for efficient growth and stability. Not only do fungi provide common nutrients for the environment, but they also help provide food for animals and humans to eat such as mushrooms, truffles and through fermenting yeast, even beer. Along with food benefits, fungi also provides medical benefits such as antibiotics like penicilan. Although fungi has many great gifts to offer, fungi isn't always the greatest thing because it can also cause some diseases that are not always easilly curable such as athletes foot and ringworms. Fungi will continue to bring great things to our environment and lifestyles but must be kept under control so that they do not pose a harmful factor.

Sources:
Mrs. Beethe's notes.

Bacteria

Yogurt such as these containers of Yoplait are forms of good bacteria that we can actually consume, not all bacteria is like that found in yogurt.

Bacteria are microscopic organisms. Their single cells do not contain any membrane surrounded organelles such as mitochondria and also lack a membrane-enclosed nucleus. Bacteria can be classified into a number of different categories depending on the features that this bacteria contains. Bacteria is considered prokaryotic because it has no membrane bound nucleus. The form of reproduction found in bacteria would often be asexual reproduction where the bacteria can simply form new bacteria through its own structure.

Sources:
Mrs. Beethe's notes.

Kingdoms

These are the five different kingdoms and a picture for each classification. I couldn't find a way of showing the kingdoms myself so I used an image from online.

All living organisms can be brought into one or more of five categories, those five categories being the Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia kingdoms. Those kingdoms can be broken down even further into subdivided divisions for plants, or phyla for animals. The monera kingdom is made up of prokaryotic cells such as eubacteria or cyanobacteria. The other four kingdoms are eukaryotic leaving the monera kingdom as the only prokaryotic kingdom. The protista kingdom is made up of mainly unicellular protozoans along with microscopic and macroscopic algae. The fungi kingdom consists of mainly haploid and dikaryotic cells, they are multicellular and often heterotrophic. The plantae kingdom is mainly made up of species with haplo-diploid life cycles, are often autotrophic and contain their embryo within the female sex organ of the parent plant.

Sources:
The Five Kingdoms of Life. palomar.edu. Retrieved August 31, 2011, from http://waynesword.palomar.edu/trfeb98.htm

Population

The goldfish in our fishtank are considered their own little population as they are from the same species and interact and develop in their own little environment.

A population can be classified as a group of the same type of species that live in the same geographical area. This area is usually the location that mainly inter-breeding occurs within the population. An example of a population would be a lake that holds a group of koi fish that inter-breed with eachother and reproduce to expand their population in the lake.

Sources:
Mrs. Beethe's notes.