Mammal Biology and Anatomy
What type of specialized skin gland produces milk to nourish newborn mammals?
What are mammary glands?
To which class of vertebrates do humans, dogs, bats, and whales belong?
What is Mammalia?
What is the biological term for maintaining a relatively stable internal body temperature, even when the environment changes?
What is thermoregulation?
What muscular structure separates the thoracic and abdominal cavities and plays a major role in breathing?
What is the diaphragm?
What group of mammals lays eggs rather than giving birth to live young? The platypus belongs to this group.
What are monotremes?
What adaptation allows polar bears and many other Arctic mammals to reduce heat loss through a layer of body fat?
What is blubber or insulating adipose tissue?
What three tiny bones in the middle ear transmit sound vibrations to the inner ear?
What are the malleus, incus, and stapes?
What is the name of the mammalian group in which newborns typically continue developing in a pouch, as seen in kangaroos?
What are marsupials?
What ecological term describes an animal that eats both plant and animal material, such as a black bear?
What is an omnivore?
Unlike most reptiles, mammals typically have four distinct types of teeth. Name them.
What are incisors, canines, premolars, and molars?
Mammals, birds, and reptiles are all amniotes. What key reproductive adaptation allowed amniotes to reproduce away from an aquatic environment?
What is the amniotic egg, with extraembryonic membranes that protect and support the developing embryo?
Some desert mammals are nocturnal and spend the hottest part of the day in burrows. What two strategies are they using to reduce environmental stress?
What are behavioral thermoregulation and burrowing?
What is the biological process that allows some mammals, including certain whales and bats, to detect the direction and intensity of sound using echoes?
What is echolocation?
The bones that form the mammalian middle ear evolved from bones associated with what structure in ancestral synapsids?
What is the ancestral jaw?
Many desert mammals produce highly concentrated urine and very dry feces. What kidney structure is especially important for producing concentrated urine?
What is the loop of Henle?