✓ ~~~ The branch of biology that deals with the functions of living organisms and their
parts
natural selection
✓ ~~~ Organismal function has been shaped by _________ in different environments.
Darwin's 4 postulates of natural selection
✓ ~~~ 1. Phenotypes vary within populations
2. Some of this variation is passed on to offspring
3. In every generation, more offspring are produced than can survive
4. Some individuals survive and reproduce more effectively that others, and this
success is associated with their phenotypes
predict
✓ ~~~ Evolutionary reasoning allows us to ________ physiology based on knowledge
about local environments, not just
catalogue it across organisms and environments.
Intergrative
✓ ~~~ Physiology affects and/or responds to all levels of biological organization;
Physiology is an inherently ________ discipline.
Mechanisms and Origins
, ✓ ~~~ What are the 2 broad types of questions in animal physiology about?
What is the mechanism by which a function is accomplished?
✓ ~~~ State the question on mechanisms.
proximate causation
✓ ~~~ What is the question about mechanisms about?
How did that mechanism come to be?
✓ ~~~ State the question on origins.
ultimate causation
✓ ~~~ What is the question about origins about?
Mechanism
✓ ~~~ Interactions between the components of living animals that enable these animals to
perform and function as they do.
Mechanism
✓ ~~~ The field of physiology is most clearly differentiated from other fields (e.g. ecology,
animal behavior) by this focus on _______.
Evolution
✓ ~~~ Questions about the origin of a physiological function are fundamentally about the
________ of that function and its broader ecological and adaptive significance
Inference
, ✓ ~~~ Answers to questions about origin are usually understood with less certainty than
questions about mechanism, because they often rely on indirect forms of _______.
Adaptations
✓ ~~~ Physiological mechanisms are almost always _________—traits that have arisen as
a result of natural selection.
Animal Physiology
✓ ~~~ ________ is an inherently integrative field of study that asks questions about the
origin of, and mechanisms underlying, animal function.
Evolutionary
✓ ~~~ The field of animal physiology is based heavily in _______ biology, and specifically,
the ways in which physiological features have arisen via natural selection.
Predict
✓ ~~~ Evolutionary theory allows us to ______ what physiological functions a given
species might have, and it gives us a basis for making hypotheses.
Continuous; dynamic
✓ ~~~ The atoms of animal bodies undergo ________ and _______ exchange with the
atoms of their environments
organization
✓ ~~~ In animals, it is the general ________ of these atoms that persists through time,
rather than the individual atoms themselves
Energy
✓ ~~~ To maintain organization of atoms, animals require the input of ______.
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