Unit 7 Activities – Animal Structure and Function

Be sure to explain how negative feedback is needed for the system to work. What would
happen if the negative feedback loop were not working properly?
As changes occur in both the external and internal environment of an animal,
equilibrium is needed to maintain a ‘normal state’, and this is biologically known as
homeostasis and controlled by the nervous and endocrine systems. This biological
equilibrium is needed for the physiological and healthy functioning of the organism.
A representative example of a homeostasis mechanism is blood glucose regulation,
which occurs after eating a meal, especially containing carbohydrates that are ultimately
digested to glucose. Subsequently, blood glucose levels rise and the specialized cells in
the nervous system and the pancreas sense the change. Therefore, β cells from the
pancreatic islets synthesize and release insulin as a homeostatic mechanism that aims
to glucose regulation through negative feedback. Insulin levels cause glucose to be
stored in cells, lowering its blood levels. Specially hepatocytes store glucose in the form
of glycogen. When this process reaches its objective, which is to normalize blood
glucose levels, insulin-releasing ceases (Rye et al., 2016). As insulin is the hormone
that regulates glucose levels, this negative feedback loop is essential to maintain
glycemia. If this homeostatic mechanism does not function properly, glucose may not be
regulated. Therefore, many physiologic processes can also be affected, causing
diseases like diabetes mellitus mainly, but also obesity, heart disease, etc. Specifically
in diabetes mellitus, whether it is type I or type II diabetes which have different
etiologies, insulin levels are not enough to regulate glycemia and it has several effects
on other organ systems’ functioning. Therefore, treatment is needed to help the patient
regulate blood glucose levels.
References
Rye, C., Wise, R., Jurukivski, V., DeSaix, J., Choi, J., & Avissar, Y. (2016). Biology.

OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/biology/pages/1-introduction
Chose a simple/small animal and a complex/large animal and compare the use of organ
systems to meet a metabolic or reproductive need. You will focus on a single function;
e.g., respiration, circulation, digestion, excretion, or reproduction. In your opinion, does
increased size provide an adaptation for this function? Explain your position.
Write a 2 – 3 page (500 – 750 words, 12 point font) paper including the following
elements. Be sure to compose your work with your own words. Do not copy and paste
from any source.

 Analyze the limitations size puts on function.

 Describe an organ system needed for a small animal.
 Describe an organ system needed for a larger animal.
 Compare and contrast the system in small and larger animal.
 Analyze increased size as an adaptation and explain the rationale.

Every trait that defines the size and shape of an animal is genetically determined

and its development has been highly influenced by its environment as an adaptation to

habit, survive, reproduce in it. Therefore, there is a wide variety of size and shape

among species that resembles their metabolic and reproductive needs, their main

behaviors within their habitats and how they interact with it.

Animals’ tissues perform different body functions, and even group with other

tissues to form an organ, which then group to form organ systems that guarantee

physiological conditions when homeostasis is possible. All animals’ cells need oxygen

to produce energy and fulfill its functions, so being able to get oxygen from the

environment in an effective way, and the respiratory system does it, although it may

have similarities and variations between different animals. For example, land-dwelling

animals gather oxygen directly from the air to their lungs, while ocean-dwelling animals

filter it from the water through their gills, and invertebrates get oxygen diffused through

their exoskeletons. Even with these variations, all animals are able to get oxygen for
their metabolical needs and excrete carbon dioxide as a waste product of respiration

(Strauss, 2020).

The zebrafish is a typical specimen of cyprinid fishes, and as such,

retains many of the common structures associated with the respiratory

system. The mechanics of respiration include the flow of water in through the

mouth and oral valve and passage through the buccal and opercular

chambers. The gills are the primary sites of gas exchange in adult zebrafish,

while embryos and larvae primarily rely on cutaneous gas exchange. There

are four gill arches on either side of the zebrafish, and each is composed of

supportive gill arches and gill filaments that give rise to many respiratory

lamellae. The gills are also innervated and retain

respiratory chemoreceptors that mediate ventilation frequency. This chapter

outlines the important structures of the respiratory system in zebrafish for the

researcher or student interested in using zebrafish as a model organism in

biological or biomedical research.

Oxygen and carbon dioxide dissolve in water, and most fishes exchange

dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide in water by means of the gills. The gills lie behind
and to the side of the mouth cavity and consist of fleshy filaments supported by
the gill arches and filled with blood vessels, which give gills a bright red colour. Water
taken in continuously through the mouth passes backward between the gill bars and
over the gill filaments, where the exchange of gases takes place. The gills are protected
by a gill cover in teleosts and many other fishes but by flaps of skin in sharks, rays, and
some of the older fossil fish groups. The blood capillaries in the gill filaments are close to
the gill surface to take up oxygen from the water and to give up excess carbon dioxide to
the water.

Most modern fishes have a hydrostatic (ballast) organ, called the swim bladder, that lies
in the body cavity just below the kidney and above the stomach and intestine. It
originated as a diverticulum of the digestive canal. In advanced teleosts, especially the
acanthopterygians, the bladder has lost its connection with the digestive tract, a
condition called physoclistic. The connection has been retained (physostomous) by
many relatively primitive teleosts. In several unrelated lines of fishes, the bladder has
become specialized as a lung or, at least, as a highly vascularized accessory breathing
organ. Some fishes with such accessory organs are obligate air breathers and will drown
if denied access to the surface, even in well-oxygenated water. Fishes with a hydrostatic
form of swim bladder can control their depth by regulating the amount of gas in the
bladder. The gas, mostly oxygen, is secreted into the bladder by special glands,
rendering the fish more buoyant; the gas is absorbed into the bloodstream by another
special organ, reducing the overall buoyancy and allowing the fish to sink. Some deep-
sea fishes may have oils, rather than gas, in the bladder. Other deep-sea and some
bottom-living forms have much-reduced swim bladders or have lost the organ entirely.

The swim bladder of fishes follows the same developmental pattern as the lungs of land
vertebrates. There is no doubt that the two structures have the same historical origin in
primitive fishes. More or less intermediate forms still survive among the more primitive
types of fishes, such as the lungfishes Lepidosiren and Protopterus.

References
Jonz, M. (2020). The Zebrafish in Biomedical Research.

Rye, C., Wise, R., Jurukivski, V., DeSaix, J., Choi, J., & Avissar, Y. (2016). Biology.

OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/biology/pages/1-introduction

Strauss, B. (2020). The 12 Animal Organ Systems. ThoughtCo. Retrieved from:

https://www.thoughtco.com/animal-organ-systems-4101795