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Life, 4/e

Ricki Lewis, University of New York at Albany
Mariëlle Hoefnagels, University of Oklahoma
Douglas Gaffin, University of Oklahoma
Bruce Parker, Utah Valley State College

Animalia II--The Chordates

Testing Your Knowledge

1. What are the four distinguishing characteristics of chordates?
2. How do tunicates and lancelets differ from tetrapods?
3. List evolutionary trends seen in vertebrates compared with invertebrate chordates.
4. List five adaptations each that enabled:
a. fishes to live in water
b. amphibians to live on land
c. birds to fly
d. primates to live in trees
5. How is an amphibian's skin both an advantage and a liability?
6. In which group of vertebrates does parental care of young first appear?
7. How are opposable thumbs, prehensile tails and large cerebral cortexes adaptive to a primate's lifestyle?

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Additional Questions

1. Describe how the following chordates feed:

a. Larvacean tunicates

b. Ostracoderms

c. Placoderms

d. Lampreys

e. Hagfishes

f. Snakes

2. Distinguish between:

a. Amniotes and anamniotes

b. Diapsids and synapsids

c. Ectotherms and endotherms

d. Ostracoderms and placoderms

e. Precocial and altricial bird hatchlings

3. Which type of chordate has a:

a. Swim bladder

b. Excurrent siphon

c. Lateral line system

d. Chromatophore

4. Contrast how an ostracoderm and a tuna feed.

5. How can amphibians respire in three different ways?

6. List three adaptations that enable frogs to escape predation and three ways that snakes capture prey.

7. How are mammalian and shark teeth different?

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