NS TO EXPLORE

Shape of Life
Video Questions
Basic Questions
1. What is the name of the animal group featured in the episode?

2. How are the animals of this group alike? Different?

3. What special features or adaptations do the animals in the episode have to help
them
survive in their habitats?

4. How do the animals move?

5. How do the animals get food?

6. How do the animals breathe?

7. Does the episode mention any animals that lived long ago? If so, how are they
different
from animals that live today?

8. What kinds of scientists are featured in the episode?

9. What questions did the scientists in the episode investigate?

10. What do you like most about the animals in the episode? Why?

11. What is your favorite animal featured in the episode? Why?

12. In what ways could you group the animals in the episode? In several episodes?

13. What animal behaviors did you observe in the episode?

14. What senses do the animals in the episode have? How do they use their
senses?

15. Explain how the scientists use observations and experiments to learn more
about
animals. Describe any tools the scientists use to help them in their research.

16. Do scientists ever arrive at different conclusions? Explain.

17. How did the scientists benefit from working in a team?

Episode 1:“Origins”(Sponges)
Before the video:

1. What do you think the first animal looked like?

2. How do you think that first animal differed from today’s representatives?

3. Why do you think there would even have been a first animal?

After watching the video:

4. What was the first animal group? What is the evidence for this conclusion?
Sponge – simplest life form that exhibits characteristics of animals; such as
heterotrophic, multicellular, eukaryotic, lack cell walls
5. How long ago did the first animal appear on Earth?
650 – 545 million years ago

6. How are scientists currently defining the group called “animal”?

The current characteristics of animals are: multicellular, eukaryotic,
heterotrophic organisms that lack cell walls and are motile at some point in
their life (except sponge)
7. Should protozoans be considered animals? Why or why not?
No, not all protozoans are multicellular or eukaryotic. Some protozoans are
heterotrophic and others are autotrophic.
8. What does “multicellular” mean? What is meant by “specialized” cells?
Multicellular refers to an organism that is composed of more than one cell.
Specialized cells have a specific function or job to do that will aid the
organism in survival.
9. What do sponges eat?
Bacteria, phytoplankton

10. What do you think “evolution” means?

Evolution means to change in complexity over time.

11. What were the little organisms that were flying along the sponge tunnels?
Learn more
about them by first exploring what “plankton” means.
Phytoplankton; plankton are single celled organism not capable of moving
against the water current
12. How have relationships between animal groups been determined in the past?
How is
molecular and genetic research influencing our classification of animals into
related
groups?
In the past animal groups were based on physical characteristics
In the present: scientists use the biochemical analysis and genetic tests to
determine how closely related organism are to each other

Episode 2:“Life on the Move”

(Cnidarians)
1. In what way are cnidarians more complex than sponges? What
characteristics did they add?
Characteristic Sponge Cnidarian
Symmetry None Radial symmetry
Motile Can’t move Can move at some point in life
Mouth None Centrally located mouth
Tissue layers 1 2
Projections None Tentacles with nematocysts
Nervous system No nerve cells or Nerve cells; but no central nervous
tissues system
Muscles No muscles Muscle cells allow for some movement

2. What do these additions allow cnidarians to do?

Cnidarians can capture and eat larger prey. Cnidarians can also move

3. Name and describe the two different versions of the cnidarian body plan.
Polyp – sessile flower like stage
Medusa – Motile (free swimming) bell shaped stage of life
4. Draw a moon jelly’s life cycle.

5. What are nematocysts? What do they do?

Namatocysts are the stings cells are the tentacles of the
Cnidarians. They are full of poison that can paralyze or perhaps kill the prey.

6. If the pulsing of a jellyfish isn’t only for locomotion, what else does it do?
The pulsing is also used for obtaining food.

7. How do animals without brains perform and control their activities?

Instead of a brain, "true" jellyfish possess an elementary nervous system, or
nerve net, which consists of receptors capable of detecting light, odor and other
stimuli and coordinating appropriate responses .

8. What kind of a skeleton does an anemone have, and how does it work? How is it
different from the human skeleton?
Since the anemone lacks a skeleton, the contractile cells pull against the
gastrovascular cavity, which acts as a hydrostatic skeleton. The stability for
this hydrostatic skeleton is caused by the anemone shutting its mouth closed,
which keeps the gastrovascular cavity at a constant volume, making it more rigid.
On the other hand, humans have an endoskeleton. A support system inside
their body to maintain shape and for muscles to attach to.

9. What is “symmetry”? What kind of symmetry do cnidarians have? How is it

different
from the symmetry of your own body?
Symmetry refers to the regular arrangement of the parts of an organism.
Cnidarians have radial symmetry which refers to the fact that the organism
can be cutting through the center of in any direction and it the two halves will
be mirror images of each other. Humans are bilaterally symmetrical. That
means that the body can be divided into two halves that are mirror images of
each other by cutting along one plane and one plane only.

Episode 3:“ The First Hunter”

(Flatworms)

1. How can paleontologists find fossils of flatworms if flatworms don’t have bones?

2. In what ways are flatworms more complex than cnidarians?

Characteristic Cnidarian Flatworms
Symmetry Radial symmetry Bilaterial symmetry
Motile Can move at some point in Motile
life
Mouth Centrally located mouth Located near head
Tissue layers 2 3
Projections Tentacles with None
nematocysts
Nervous system Nerve cells; but no central Nerve clusters and ventral
nervous system nerve cord (centralized
system)
Digestive Gastrovascular cavity Gastrovascular cavity
system
Excretory Expulsion from diffusion
s;ystem Gastrovascular cavity &
simple diffusion
Circulatory Distributed to cells that Distributed to cells that
system line Gastrovascular cavity line gastrovascular cavity
Respiratory No special structure – No special structure –
 system diffusion diffusion
Skeletal system Fluid filled gastrovascular Fluid filled gastrovascvular
cavity cvity

3. What is it about the flatworm body plan that makes it a good hunter? What are
the
advantages of having a bilaterally symmetrical body? What are the advantages
of
stereo senses?

4. What are cilia? How does a flatworm use them?

Cilia are small hairlike organelles that line the surfaces of certain cells and
beat in rhythmic waves, providing locomotion to some flatworms.
5. Name four kinds of habitats where different types of flatworms live.

6. Where is the mouth of the flatworm?

The mouth is located in the middle of body on the underside.

7. What is a mutation?
A change in the gene message

8. Name the special genes that control whole sets of other genes.

9. What do we call an animal that produces both sperm and eggs? What are the
advantages and disadvantages of such a design?
Hermaphroditic –
Advantages –
Disadvantages

10. What were some special adaptations developed by parasitic flatworms? Use
the
tapeworm as an example.

11. How do genes control development and the formation of a body plan?

12. Flatworms aren’t the only kind of worm. There are roundworms, ribbon worms,
arrow
worms, acorn worms and segmented worms. Can you name others? What do
you think
the term ‘worm’ actually means? What other living organisms or parts of living
organisms are shaped like worms? What do you think the benefits of having a
wormlike body might be?

Episode 4:“Explosion of Life”

(Annelids)

1. What complex body features were developed in annelids that their

flatworm-like ancestors didn’t have?
Characteristic Flatworms Annelids
Symmetry Bilateral Bilateral
Locomotion Longitudinal muscles Longitudinal and circular
muscles
# of body openings 2 2
Number of tissue layers 3 3
Nervous system Nerve clusters and ventral 2 nerve cords & ganglia in
nerve cord each segment; brain
Digestive system Gastrovascular cavity Complete digestive tract;
mouth and anus
Excretory system Diffusion Nephridia
Circulatory system Distributed to cells that line Closed
cavity
Respiratory system No special structure; Moist skin or gills
diffusion across cell
membrane
Skeletal system Fluid filled gastrovascular Hydrostatic skeleton
cavity

2. When did the majority of animal body plans appear?

3. In what way is the annelid digestive tract different from the digestive systems of
cnidarians and flatworms?
The annelid digestive tract is a one way digestive system. This means the
food enters the body through one opening in the body and leave through another
opening in the body. The digestive system of Cnidarians and flatworms is 2 way
digestion. That means the food enters the one body opening and the wastes exit
the same body opening.

4. How do earthworms move? How are the body segments involved in this action?
Earthworms use a combination of circular and longitudinal muscles to move.
Each segment has a set of circular muscles and then there is the longitudinal set
that runs along the whole body to helop in movement. One set of muscles allows
the earthworms to expand and anchor one part of their body while the other set
contracts and pushe the rest of the body forward into the sediment.

5. Name an annelid worm that sucks blood from other animals for its food.
leech

6. What kind of annelid worm lives near hot-water vents in the deep sea?
Pogonophora, also known as Siboglinidae, are tube-dwelling marine annelids.
They rely on endosymbiotic chemoautotrophic bacteria for nutrition and their
anatomy and physiology are adapted to their need to obtain both oxygen and
reduced sulphur compounds.

7. What reasons are offered to explain the rapid occurrence of body plan evolution
known
as the Cambrian Explosion?

8. How did the burrowing of worms contribute to keeping Earth from entering a
major ice
 age?
Worms kept the soil aerated so plants could grow

9. What are the advantages of having a segmented body?

Episode 5:“The Conquerors”

(Arthropods)
1. Define these terms: exoskeleton, appendage, molting,
terrrestrial, detritus, and robotics.
Exoskeleton: A hard outer structure, such as the
shell of an insect or crustacean, that provides protection or support for an
organism.
Appendage: part or organ, such as an arm, leg, tail, or fin, that is joined to
the axis or trunk of a body.
Molting: To shed periodically part or all of a coat or an outer covering, such
as feathers, cuticle, or skin, which is then replaced by a new growth.
Terrestrial: living on or in the ground
Detritus: Loose matter resulting from the wearing away or disintegration of
a tissue or substance
Robotics: using the study of arthropods movement to create machines that
can explore habitats that humans might not be able to explore otherwise

2. What is special about arthropod appendages?

The appendages are jointed

3. Where did the first arthropods live?

The first arthropods lived in water

4. What features of the arthropod body plan allowed them to invade land?
The legs; exoskeletons seal out harsh dry land; appendages developed into a
variety of different tools (tasting, sensing, grasping, wings) – like a Swiss army
knife

5. What did the first arthropods on land eat?

Algae scum & early plants; dead & decaying matter (detritus) was easier to
digest and therefore, were good at recycling nutrients back into the
environment

6. See how many different uses of arthropod appendages you can list.
Arthropods use appendages for: eating, moving, grabbing, digging, jumping,
swimming, clinging, mating, making sounds, spinning silk, carrying food,
cleaning or tasting

7. What arthropod structures are used to extract oxygen from water? What
arthropod
structures are used to extract oxygen from air?
Oxygen from water: book gills (underside of body; kept in constant motion)
Oxygen from air: book lungs (in exoskeleton) & tracheal tubes
8. What two major habitats of Earth were arthropods the first animals to explore?
Devonian period – tiny lichens and lush plants provided a new frontier for life;
Plant life growing densely provided micro environments
9. What role might algal mats have played in the land invasion?
Might have served as base camps providing food and habitat; conditions were
tempered to help invade land – allowed the animals to adapt to their
environment
10. What are the advantages and disadvantages of having an internal skeleton like
ours as
opposed to an external skeleton that is shed in order to grow?
Exoskeleton:
Advantages: protects internal organs; provides attachment for
muscles; provides a lever for movement between movable pats; prevents water
loss and other other body fluids; light and strong
Disadvantage: limits the size of the organism; organism must mold
and during molting the organism is defenseless; the weight of the exoskeleton
can limit size.
Endoskeleton
Advantages: protects internal organs; can grow larger in size;
organism does not have to molt
Disadvantages: doesn’t prevent water loss like the exoskeleton

11. What are the advantages and disadvantages of undergoing metamorphosis?

What
animals, besides arthropods, undergo metamorphosis?
Advantages: allows animal to move into a different type of environment
(water to land)
Disadvantages: susceptible to predators

12. What are the characteristics of animals that live in many different kinds of
places?
Characteristic: ability to fly allowed for diversification of habitats

13. Humans often think of insects as creepy-crawlies that are up to no good.

Though some
insects do sting or bite, others pollinate our crops. Make a two-column list of
some of
the good things and some of the bad things about insects with regard to their
immediate impact on humans.

Good of insects Bad of insects

Pollinate crops Damage crops
Maintain ecological balance – lady bird Damage stored food
beetles eat aphids which damage beans
Silk Stings – itch & infect
Honey Spread diseases
Shellac
Cleansing wounds (maggots)

14. Insects are an enormously diverse group of organisms that often play key roles
in
their respective ecosystems. Write a few sentences describing three roles that
 insects play in the natural world to help maintain ecosystem services.
Provide essentials services to keep life running. Nature’s recyclers. Play role in
birth of some of most beautiful living things on earth (flowers). Dine on nectar and
transfer pollen from flower to flower.

Episode 6:“Survival Game”

(Molluscs)
1. Name some different activities a mollusc can perform
with its
foot.
The foot is used for locomotion or grasping.

2. What do you call the skin-like tissue that produces the shells of molluscs?
Mantle

3. What is a radula and how does a mollusc use it?

Radula: the rasping tongue of the organism
The radula is used to scrape algae and other food off rocks and drill through
the shell of prey or catch fish.
4. How do squid or octopuses move through the water?
The mantle, the chief swimming organ of the animal, is modified into
lengthwise fins along the posterior end of the body and projects forward like a
collar around the head. As the mantle relaxes and contracts, the squid swims
forward, upward, and downward. Water is expelled in jets from the muscular
funnel located just below the head, propelling the squid backward in abrupt jetlike
motions. Two of the ten sucker-bearing arms (used to steer in swimming) are
tentacles that can seize prey, which is then cut into pieces by the animal's strong
beaklike jaws.

5. Aside from the shell, what other mollusk defenses can you name?
the muscular foot – movement
 the tentacles – swimming quickly (squid/octopi)
the ink - squid

6. How does the mollusk build and repair its shell?

All mollusks possess a fleshy mantle. Some mollusks use this mantle to
produce a shell by absorbing calcium carbonate and other ingredients from their
habitat and food and secreting it in an orderly fashion to form a shell house.
Mollusks keep adding to this shell and keep it under repair for its entire life.

7. How does a chambered nautilus control its buoyancy? Compare the diversity of
forms
of mollusks to that of annelids. Describe which group you think covers the
greatest
range of body form, function, and behavior.
The animal lives in the largest and newest chamber, with a tubular elongation
of the body, known as the siphuncle, extending through the septa to the apex of the
shell. The siphuncle removes liquid from the chambers and replaces it with gas,
giving the animal the buoyancy that permits it to swim (backwards except when
feeding), which it accomplishes by ejecting water through a funnel.

8. Make a list of mollusks you have known. In other words, make a list of mollusks
you
have encountered in your own experiences—in aquariums, at restaurants, in
your
garden, etc. For each one, answer the following questions:
a) Where did you see it?

b) What was it doing or what were you doing to it?

c) Where is its natural habitat?

d) What does it eat?

e) What eats it?

Episode 7:“Ultimate Animal”

(Echinoderms)

1. Give the common names for the four major kinds of

echinoderms.

2. How do sea stars walk and grab?

Sea stars use a watar vascular system to operate the tube feed that also
contain suction cups
3. What term describes how an animal grows new replacements for lost body
parts?
regeneration

4. What is similar about echinoderms and cnidarians? In what way does echinoderm
symmetry differ from that of cnidarians?

5. Describe how some sea stars feed on mussels.

6. What two kinds of structures are scattered between the spines of sea stars?

7. How could you investigate the activities of an animal that doesn’t appear to move
when
you watch it?

8. How does a water-vascular system work?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The water vascular system is a hydraulic system used for locomotion, food and
waste transportation, and respiration. It is a system is composed of canals
connecting numerous tube feet. Echinoderms move by alternately contracting
muscles that force water into the tube feet, causing them to extend and push
against the ground, then relaxing to allow the feet to retract.

9. How can a sea star be so flexible and then suddenly become as rigid as a rock?

10. What are the advantages and disadvantages to eating with an extrusible
stomach?

11. Are there benefits to being headless, brainless, and not bilaterally symmetrical?
What
are they?

Episode 8:“Bones,Brawn &

Brains” (Chordates)

1. What makes a chordate a chordate? Why are tunicates

included in
the same phylum as humans?
2. What is a tetrapod?

3. What are some major groups of vertebrate animals?

4. Most vertebrates have jaws. Why are jaws important?

5. What natural disaster wiped out half of the Earth’s animals 65 million years ago?

6. What are the advantages of having an internal skeleton as compared to an

external
skeleton that is shed in order to grow?

7. What is the function of the notochord ?

8. Why can’t an ant get as big as an elephant?

9. What happened during evolution that led to the appearance of jaws and skulls in
chordates?

10. How can you investigate growth in an extinct animal? How can you investigate
rate of
growth in an extinct animal?
Th

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