Animal Physiology Overview

The study of how animals function, including their physical processes, behaviors, and interactions with their environment.

A perspective that emphasizes the mechanistic basis of animal function, how traits evolved, and how different animal groups compare.

The processes that animals use to maintain their internal environment, such as regulating temperature, water balance, and nutrient levels.

The study of how physiological traits have evolved and how they contribute to an animal's success in its environment.

A key characteristic of animals, meaning their bodies are constantly exchanging matter with their environment.

Animals are organized into systems that require energy to function and maintain their structure.

Time and body size play important roles in the lives of animals, influencing their physiology, behavior, and lifespan.

The study of how physiology and ecology are interconnected, including how organisms adapt to their environments and how these adaptations evolve over time.

Animals can maintain a steady internal environment, despite changes in the external environment.

Animals allow their internal environment to change along with the external environment.

The hierarchical organization of an animal's body, from atoms and molecules to the larger complex systems like organ systems.

The relationship between an organism's internal environment and its external environment.

The ability to maintain a stable internal environment despite external changes.

Animals can be regulators for some aspects of their internal environment and conformers for others.

The internal environment of an animal, which includes all of the fluids and cells inside the body.

The conditions outside an animal's body, including factors like temperature, salinity, and oxygen levels.

The study of how an animal's size relates to its physiology, ecology, and evolution.

The conditions and factors that surround an animal and influence its survival, growth, and behavior.

The temperature of the air, water, or any other material, determined by the intensity of the random motions of its atoms and molecules.

The continuous, random movement of atoms and molecules within a substance.

Low oxygen levels in deep water due to consumption by organisms.

The process where organisms use up available oxygen.

Increase of organic matter in water bodies leading to excessive microbial growth and oxygen depletion.

The ability of some fish to breathe air, adapting to low oxygen environments.

The process where plants produce oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis.

The process where organisms use oxygen to produce energy.

A unique pattern that describes how an individual’s phenotype changes in response to different environments.

The ability of an individual to alter its phenotype in response to the environment.

A type of phenotypic plasticity that occurs when an individual's phenotype changes in response to a few specific environmental changes.

The process by which natural selection favors individuals with a particular norm of reaction, making the reaction norm itself evolve.

An example of a norm of reaction, where individuals with lighter skin tones can tan in response to sun exposure.

The ability of a trait to evolve over time, including the capacity of norms of reactions to evolve.

The process of changes in an organism's physiology that are programmed into its development.

Changes that occur in two time frames: 1) very rapid and reversible (e.g., acclimation), 2) slower and programmed during development.

Certain Arctic insects survive extremely cold temperatures by entering a state of suspended animation, where their metabolic activity is greatly reduced. This allows them to survive harsh winter conditions.

Animals often adapt to their environments through the development of special features or behaviors. These adaptations can be physical, such as fur or thick blubber, or behavioral, such as migration or hibernation.

Some animals, particularly those living in cold environments, have adapted to have very low freezing points in their tissues. This allows them to survive even in temperatures well below zero.

While many animals in cold environments are inactive, the communities in polar seas are often surprisingly active and diverse. They have adapted to thrive in these cold, challenging conditions.

The Canadian tiger swallowtail butterfly, Papilio canadensis, is one of the butterfly species that lives farthest from the equator. This demonstrates that species can adapt to a wide range of environmental conditions.