BIO 144: Animal diversity
and ecology
Exam type questions and answers. PRT 1
Animal diversity.
Characteristics of animals
1. What characteristics distinguish animals from plants and Fungi?
2. How does the ability of animals to move through the environment relate to their
acquisition of nutrients and energy?
, 3. What is a tissue, and what three primary tissue layers are present in the embryos of
most animals? Which layer is absent from diploblastic animals?
4. What type of body symmetry do humans have?
5. What is the functional significance of the coelom?
6. What does having a segmented body allow some animals to do?
7. What types of body cavities are found in the deuterostomes and protostomes?
Parazoa, Radiata and Bilateria
1. What type of body symmetry do sponges exhibit?
2. How does a sponge gather food from its environment? How does the feeding
mechanism limit the kinds of food that sponges can consume?
3. How do cnidarians capture, consume, and digest their prey?
4. Why is feeding more efficient in cnidarians than the protozoa even though there is
still no digestive system?
5. Which group of cnidarians has only a polyp stage in its life cycle?
6. In which groups do the medusa stage predominate?
7. How can cnidarians and sponges complete bodily functions without organs?
Protostomes: Lophotrochozoans
1. Why is being just a few mm thick important in flatworms that do not have circulatory
or respiratory systems?
2. What organ systems are present in free-living taxa?
3. Which system is absent from tapeworms (Cestoda)? How can these animals survive
without this organ system?
4. What are the three body regions common to all mollusks?
5. Name and describe the developmental process in shelled gastropods that serves to
provide a space in the shell that the body can retract into.
6. What anatomical structures and physiological systems allow squids and other
cephalopods to be much more active than other types of mollusks?
7. What are the main distinguishing characters of annelids?
8. Which organ systems exhibit segmentation in most annelid worms?
9. Why is segmentation so important for annelids?
and ecology
Exam type questions and answers. PRT 1
Animal diversity.
Characteristics of animals
1. What characteristics distinguish animals from plants and Fungi?
2. How does the ability of animals to move through the environment relate to their
acquisition of nutrients and energy?
, 3. What is a tissue, and what three primary tissue layers are present in the embryos of
most animals? Which layer is absent from diploblastic animals?
4. What type of body symmetry do humans have?
5. What is the functional significance of the coelom?
6. What does having a segmented body allow some animals to do?
7. What types of body cavities are found in the deuterostomes and protostomes?
Parazoa, Radiata and Bilateria
1. What type of body symmetry do sponges exhibit?
2. How does a sponge gather food from its environment? How does the feeding
mechanism limit the kinds of food that sponges can consume?
3. How do cnidarians capture, consume, and digest their prey?
4. Why is feeding more efficient in cnidarians than the protozoa even though there is
still no digestive system?
5. Which group of cnidarians has only a polyp stage in its life cycle?
6. In which groups do the medusa stage predominate?
7. How can cnidarians and sponges complete bodily functions without organs?
Protostomes: Lophotrochozoans
1. Why is being just a few mm thick important in flatworms that do not have circulatory
or respiratory systems?
2. What organ systems are present in free-living taxa?
3. Which system is absent from tapeworms (Cestoda)? How can these animals survive
without this organ system?
4. What are the three body regions common to all mollusks?
5. Name and describe the developmental process in shelled gastropods that serves to
provide a space in the shell that the body can retract into.
6. What anatomical structures and physiological systems allow squids and other
cephalopods to be much more active than other types of mollusks?
7. What are the main distinguishing characters of annelids?
8. Which organ systems exhibit segmentation in most annelid worms?
9. Why is segmentation so important for annelids?
