Do not include the questions on your essays and exams.
Question 1: Flight: Power, Weight and Balance (25 points)
Describe the many adaptations of birds that increase power, reduce weight and distribute weight for balance for flight. Include in your answer:
a. the physiological mechanisms that increase power by heat maintenance, diet, blood circulation, oxygen intake, fuel, etc. b. the structural features that reduce weight and redistribute weight to increase balance. (Do not describe the mechanisms of
flight, just the adaptations that support flight.)
Question 2: Fossil Evidence of Physiology in Dinosaurs and Mammals (25 points)
Compare and contrast the fossil evidence that leads paleontologists to believe that dinosaurs and the early ancestors of mammals were “warm-blooded”. Include in your answer:
a. the definitions of homeotherm, poikilotherm, exothermic, and endothermic and how these terms are applied to a variety of animals
b. a descriiption of the function of each structure that is presumed to indicate “warm-bloodedness” in dinosaurs and mammals and describe why paleontologists associate that structure and its function with “warm-bloodedness”.
Question 3: Evolution of Whales
Describe the evolution of whales and the mechanisms by which dolphins locate food by echolocation. Include in your answer:
a. the sequence of adaptations, fossil evidence and timeline leading from terrestrial mammals to modern whales
b. the structures of the skull that create and receive sound waves, the composition of the melon that focuses sound, and the
nature of sound in water and compare to sound in air
