Life & Taxonomy
The process of maintaining a stable, balanced internal environment despite changes in the outside world.
What is homeostasis?
A non-living particle of genetic material wrapped in a protein coat that requires a host cell to reproduce.
What is a virus?
The green organelle containing chlorophyll where solar energy is converted into glucose.
What is a chloroplast?
Small plants like moss that lack internal water pipes and must absorb water directly from their surroundings like a sponge.
What are nonvascular plants?
Animals without a backbone, which account for roughly 95% of all animal species on Earth.
What are invertebrates?
An organism that cannot produce its own food and must consume other organisms for energy.
What is a heterotroph?
The method of asexual reproduction where a single bacterial cell divides into two identical cells.
What is binary fission?
The rigid outer boundary made of cellulose that gives plant cells their strong, boxy shape.
What is the cell wall?
The specific vascular tissue (internal tubes) that carries water upward from the roots to the leaves.
What is xylem?
An animal that generates its own internal body heat through metabolic energy from food ("warm-blooded").
What is an endotherm?
The two-word scientific naming system created by Carl Linnaeus that combines an organism's Genus and species.
What is binomial nomenclature?
Microscopic, thread-like filaments that make up the structural body of a fungus.
What are hyphae?
Microscopic leaf pores that open and close to exchange gases like CO2 and O2.
What are stomata?
The process by which water evaporates and leaves a plant through microscopic stomata pores.
What is transpiration?
An animal that relies on external environmental heat sources (like basking in the sun) to warm its body ("cold-blooded").
What is an ectotherm?
The branch of biology dedicated to identifying, naming, and classifying organisms.
What is taxonomy?
A tough, dormant structure formed by certain bacteria to survive harsh conditions like extreme heat or drying out.
What is an endospore?
The large storage sac in plant cells that holds water and expands to push against the cell wall.
What is the central vacuole?
The main reason moss can never grow 100 ft tall like a redwood tree.
What is lacking vascular tissue/internal tubes to transport water against gravity?
A tough external casing or shell that protects and supports the outside of an animal's body (like an insect or crab).
What is an exoskeleton?
The broadest, most inclusive rank in the modern classification hierarchy.
What is a domain?
The strong, fibrous carbohydrate that makes up fungal cell walls as well as insect exoskeletons.
What is chitin?
The outward force created when a full central vacuole pushes against the cell wall, keeping the plant stiff and upright.
What is turgor pressure?
When a plant closes it's stomata on a scorching afternoon to conserve water, it creates this major tradeoff for the plant.
What is slows or stops photosynthesis?
An internal framework of bones or cartilage that grows inside an animal's body to support movement.
What is an endoskeleton?