BIRDS
What covers a bird's body instead of skin?
Feathers
What do female mammals use to feed their babies?
Milk, from their mammary glands
True or false: humans are mammals.
True
Which group of birds includes chickens and turkeys?
Galliforms
Name one organ birds have that helps them grind food, since they have no teeth.
The gizzard (and crop)
What do we call a bird that cannot fly? Give one example.
A running bird / flightless bird.
Examples: ostrich, cassowary
Name TWO types of mammal that do NOT live on land.
Whale, dolphin, orca (aquatic); bat (flying); seal, etc.
What is the normal human body temperature, and why does that make us homoeothermic?
~37°C — homoeothermic means we maintain a stable body temperature regardless of the surrounding environment
What makes palm-footed birds different from other birds?
The toes of their legs are joined with membranes (webbed feet) — examples: duck, goose
What does homoeothermic mean, and which groups of animals we studied are homoeothermic?
Able to maintain a stable body temperature — both birds AND mammals are homoeothermic
Why do birds have hollow bones?
To make them lighter for flight.
What is gestation?
The period of development of the embryo inside the mother's uterus
Name THREE mammal characteristics that humans have.
Any three of: hair, mammary glands, viviparous, warm-blooded, lungs, teeth and lips, complex nervous system
A student says "bats and birds are the same because both have wings." Are they right? Explain.
No — bats are mammals (viviparous, have fur, mammary glands); birds are a separate vertebrate class. Wings are a similar adaptation but they are very different animals
A flamingo has long legs and lives near water. A vulture has sharp claws and hunts prey. What group does each belong to?
Flamingo = wader; vulture = raptor
What is the difference between the rachis and the barbs of a feather?
The rachis is the central structure; barbs are the lateral filamentous structures that come up from it
Most mammals are viviparous — but name a mammal that is NOT, and explain why it's still a mammal.
Platypus (echidna) - it lays eggs but still has hair, mammary glands, and is warm-blooded
A human baby develops for approximately 9 months before birth. What is this process called, and what organ does it happen in?
Gestation; it occurs in the uterus
Put these bird groups in order from smallest to largest typical body size: raptors, running birds, passerines.
Passerines (smallest) → raptors → running birds (largest)
Compare how a bird feeds its chicks versus how a mammal feeds its young.
Birds forage/regurgitate food for chicks until they can survive alone; mammals feed their young with milk produced by mammary glands
Birds are oviparous with internal fertilisation. What do both of those terms mean?
Oviparous = they lay eggs
Internal fertilisation = fertilisation happens inside the female's body
How does a mammal's nervous system differ from other vertebrates?
Mammals have the most highly evolved nervous system and the most complex individual and social behaviour of all vertebrates
Classify humans: what kingdom, and what group of vertebrates do we belong to? What order of mammals?
Kingdom Animalia; vertebrates; mammals; order Primates
Both birds and reptiles have scales on their legs. What does this suggest about their evolutionary relationship?
Birds evolved from a primitive group of reptiles (~225 million years ago), so the scales are an ancestral feature they share
You find an unknown animal. It is warm-blooded, has no feathers or hair, lays eggs, and breathes with lungs. Is it a bird or a mammal? What might it be?
Neither!
It could be a reptile (e.g. a turtle or snake). Birds have feathers; mammals have hair. This animal has neither, so it doesn't fit either group