Reproduction in Plants
Reproduction in Animals
Reproductive Strategies
Random Science Facts
100

What is the term for the yellow powdery substance that contains plant sperm, released from the male reproductive organs of plants?

Pollen

100

What is the definition of a species?

A species is characterized by the ability to produce offspring which can in turn produce their own offspring.

100

What is the term for seed dispersal facilitated by wind?

Anemochory

100

What is the lightest element on the periodic table?

Hydrogen

200

What is the term for the second process in the sexual reproduction of plants, wherein the sperm reaches the egg to produce a zygote?

Fertilization

200

What are the two differences between sexual and asexual reproduction?

1 vs. 2 parents, genetic distinction vs. production of a genetic clone. 

200

What is the difference between R and K parenting strategies?

R-selected - lots of kids, low parental care

K-selected - few kids, high parental care

200

In late 1932, the Australian army fought and lost a war to this species of flightless bird.

The Australian emu.

300

Name 4 types of pollinator organisms.

Beetles, hummingbirds, bats, butterflies, moths, bees, etc.

300

What role does DNA play in reproduction?

DNA contains all the genetic information required to produce a new organism, combined between both parents in sexual reproduction. Therefore, it functions as the carrier of the instructions to produce the new cells, and the specific makeup of that DNA carries parental traits (which is why people tend to look a bit like their parents). 

300

Why do plants practice seed dispersal methods?

Plants cannot have seeds growing nearby to them; if seeds take root too close to the parent, the new offspring plants will compete with the parent for resources.

300

What color is lobster blood?

Colorless, but blue when oxygenated. This is because while vertebrates use an iron-based substance (called hemoglobin) to transport oxygen throughout our bodies, lobsters use a different compound based on copper called hemocyanin. 
400

What is the term for the type of asexual reproduction in plants wherein a full plant can be sprouted from a smaller part of the parent?

Vegetative Propagation

400

Why do animals practice courtship behaviors?

To broadcast to potential mates that they possess traits that make them more likely to pass on traits with high fitness, thereby increasing their chances for reproduction overall.

400

Explain why simply producing offspring isn't enough to say that an animal has "successfully reproduced."

The animal's offspring also need to survive to pass their genes on to the next generation.

400

Adult humans have 206 bones in their body. How many bones do babies have?

Between 275 and 300, depending on the baby. This is because the baby's bones fuse as they grow, decreasing the total number.

500

After the development of the seed, the ovary of a flower will develop into a _________.

Fruit

500
Briefly and in your own words, explain the process of natural selection.

Traits that make an animal less fit to survive are selected out via pressure events, leaving behind the more-fit animals to reproduce and pass their traits forward. 

By this process, only traits that make an animal more fit to survive are passed onto the next generation, and so on and so forth until the cumulative adaptations within an organism make it into a new organism entirely.

500

Excluding anemochory, define three forms of seed dispersal without the use of your notes. You don't need to know the technical term, just the method (e.g. dispersal by wind). 

Ballochory (explosive dispersal), barochory (gravity dispersal), zoochory (animal dispersal), hydrochory (water dispersal), pyriscence (fire-triggered dispersal).

500
Why are we, from Earth, unable to see the other (dark) side of the moon?

The moon rotates on its own axis at the same speed that it revolves around the Earth, creating a situation where it is "tidally locked." This means that the same side of the moon is always facing us. 

M
e
n
u