BIO120H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Kangaroo Rat, Evaporative Cooler, Metabolic Water
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BIO120H1 Full Course Notes
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Lecture 16: tradeoffs and compromises: conclude and summarize physiological ecology of animals, begin on plants. 2:12 pm why natural selection produces deeply imperfect organisms. Being good at x may necessarily imply being bad at y. Selection builds on what is already there, especially existing developmental programs. Chemical reactions that take place in water solution, these don"t work if solution is too saline or dilute. Kangaroo rat -deserts, never drink water in whole life, conserve water. Metabolic water: water produced inside the body from metabolised lipids. Eat fatty seeds, make metabolic water therefore don"t need to drink from an outside source because they eat it. They collect more than they can eat of seeds because availability of these in the desert is periodic. Seeds have the ability to pull water vapour out of the air and into itself, hydroscopic. The animal breathes, exhales the water and is re-absorbed into the seeds.
