Wk 6, Looking Ahead to Wk 7

I hope you read all about Protista and Fungi in week 6.

 If you couldn't get enough of it, here are links you might be interested in.   This one is about a group of fossilized fungi thought to be the oldest fossil of a land dwelling organism. And here is an article about an amoeba with an immune response and how it might be helpful in developing treatments for human immune diseases. This one features the musical talents of some teenage biology students extolling the wonders of Protista. And apparently Protista, besides giving rise to Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia, are the ancient Muses of biology rap and have inspired yet another video.

Oh, and check out this article about sending cryptoendolithic fungus into space to see how it fared in mars-like conditions.

ET Found Home?

And speaking of life beyond earth... This week in class we discussed the conditions necessary for life on earth or anywhere for that matter.

Liquid Water
Source of Energy (for photosynthesis, chemosynthesis, etc)
Raw Materials (i.e. organic molecules for building cell structures)
Protection from Radiation
Temperatures at which life has been known to exist (roughly -15 to 120 degrees C)

We then took these parameters and evaluated extraterrestrial planets (and moons) to see which are the most likely to be able to support life. Here is a video that explains astrobiology in simple terms.
This week we will quickly finish up talking about astrobiology, hand out the Astrobiology Mini Project, and move on to the evolution and diversity of kingdom Plantae.

Kingdom Plantae

The plant kingdom has amazing variety, but all species in the kingdom share certain characteristics.  They are all

• eukaryotes
• autotrophs
• multicellular
• have cell walls made of cellulose
• undergo alternation of generations (spend a portion of their lives as haploid organisms, and a portion in diploid form)

The kingdom is made up of many monophyletic groups, but four of these represent the overall phylogenetic diversity of the kingdom.  These are the primitive non-vascular  mosses and liverworts (Bryophytes), the vascular but seedless ferns (Pteridophytes), the vascular naked-seeded plants like pines (Gymnosperms), and the vascular flowering plants (Angiosperms).

Kingdom Plantae includes species which have undergone amazing adaptations (we'll talk more about this in the evolution and ecology units), which account for both variety in beauty and function.  They've also made some pretty weird adaptations too.  Check out this week's videos for more.

13

RSO Ch. 30 Kingdom Plantae

LOE ch 29

CK12 BC 9.1-9.10 and 9.18-9.24

CK12 LSC 7.1 and 7.4-7.14

Plant Evolution - transition, this video has no sound, but gives you a visual walkthrough of plant evolution and the major groups (taxa) of plants Plants Intro - scholar, Bozeman Science video that gives a great intro to the variety of plant Life 10 Most DEADLY Plants on Earth - both, making plants more intriguing, and showing some variety Monocots vs Dicots - both, how to identify these two types of flowering plants, and a few exceptions Plants Behaving Badly: Murder and Mayhem - IF YOU WANT here is a 45 documentary about carnivorous plants, narrated by David Attenborough.  This also makes nice connections to evolution and ecology, our next two units

So for week 7

• do the readings and watch the videos
• keep accumulating vocabulary words
• get your copy of Frankenstein or Jekyll and Hyde lined up (begin reading if you wish, but  if you get stuck or feel overwhelmed I will be handing out a reading guide for Frankenstein in week 8)