Biology 11- Final Post.

    Biology 11 was nonetheless a very interesting class. Throughout the course, I noticed a couple of trends. A very noticeable trend was that evolution, and how certain animal and plant species is more advanced than another, for example algae vs ferns. Throughout Biology 11, the main concepts I learned were that evolution plays a big role on on all the kingdoms, and that most of the species in the phylums we learned about have made adaptations to stay alive, such as an animal's fur changing colour to camouflage in its environment. Another main concept is Taxonomy. It taught me that certain species of plants and animals are put into certain groups based on common characteristics, such as body plan, body symmetry, body cavity, etc. Overall, in Biology 11, I think I did generally well. This course gave me a bit of a wake up call that studying will benefit you, and to take the time you get in class for assignments, it benefits you in the long run. This course also taught me how to manage my time. If I could do anything different in this class, I would probably put more of an effort to come in during lunch and get help if I did not understand a certain concept. The most interesting part of Biology 11 was when we learned about all the different types of animals, and going on the field trip to the aquarium was the icing on the cake! 

Aquarium Field Trip- Sea Otter

Sources: seaworld.org/en/Animal-Info/Animal-Bytes/Mammals/Sea-Otter

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Carnivora

Family: Musteliclae 

Genus Species: Ehydra lutris 

I found the Sea Otter interesting because they do most of their daily activities such as sleeping, resting and swimming on their backs. I also found it interesting that Sea Otters weigh so much for their size: Males weighing about 64-85 lbs and Females weighing about 44-72 lbs. The average life span for Sea Otters is about 10-15 years in the wild, and about 20 years in captivity.  Another interesting fact is that Sea Otters spend almost half their daylight hours just grooming their fur. 

Arthropods- Lady Bug

3 distinct parts of an arthropod are that they have 3 body parts: head, thorax (middle) and abdomen. The arthropod I chose was the Lady Bug. I found the Lady bug interesting because of the bright colours, which warn predators to stay away. Lady bugs will "bleed" a yellow liquid when threatened, which has a bad odour. According to scientists, they believe Lady Bugs may lay both fertile and infertile eggs. They will eat the infertile eggs when their food source is low and may feed it to their babies.

 

Squid Dissection

I found the Squid interesting because of the more complex internal organs and the features inside are more distinct than the Tapeworm and Earthworm. Squids are useful in their environment because they feed many marine mammals such as a whale. Without Squid, many animals that rely on them would lose a big source of food and nutrients and they would begin to die as a result.