CHAPTER 1

Life: Biological
Principles and the
Science of Zoology

1-1
1-2
 The Uses of Principles

■ Zoology:
The scientific study of animal life

■ Knowledge of the animal world is gained

by actively applying important guiding
principles to our investigations

■ Exploration of the animal world depends

critically on our questions, methods, and
principles
1-3
 The Uses of Principles
■ Principles of modern zoology are derived
from:
■ Laws of physics and chemistry
■ Scientific method

■ Because life shares a common

evolutionary origin, principles learned from
the study of one group often pertain to
other groups as well

1-4
 Fundamental Properties of Life

■ Does Life Have Defining Properties?

■ What is life?

■ No simple definition
■ The history of life shows extensive
and ongoing change called evolution
■ Answer must be based on the
common history of life on earth

1-5
 Subdivisions of Zoology

1. Animal Morphology- the study of animal

form as a whole.
2. Animal Histology- the study of
microstructure of tissues.
3. Gross Anatomy- the study of the general
visible structures of animals as revealed by
dissection.
4. Animal Physiology- the study of the living
processes and functions of parts of the
animal body.
1-6
 Subdivisions of Zoology

5. Animal Embryology- the study of the

development and growth of the new
individual within the egg or within the
mother.
6. Genetics- the study of the laws of
heredity and variation.
7. Ecology- the study of the relationships of
the animals to their environment.
8. Taxonomy- the study of animal
classification.
1-7
 Subdivisions of Zoology

9. Paleontology- the study of fossil animals

and their distribution in time.
10. Zoogeography- the study of the
distribution of animals according to space
and region.
11. Ethology- the study of animal behavior.
12. Evolution- the study of the origin and
differentiation of animal life.

1-8
 Subdivisions of Zoology according to the study of a
particular animal

1. Protozoology- the study of protozoans.

2. Ichthyology- the study of fishes
3. Ornithology- the study of birds
4. Malacology- the study of mollusks
5. Anthropology- the study of man
6. Mammalogy- the study of mammals
7. Parasitology- the study of parasites
8. Conchology- the study of shells
9. Herpetology- the study of reptiles and
1-9 amphibians
 History of Zoology

1. Aristotle (384-322 BC)- the Father of

Zoology; wrote the ‘The History of Animals’
which include the miscellanyy on the
structure and the habits of animals native to
Greece, Macedonia and Asia Minor.
2. Galen (130-200 AD)- the first experimental
physiologist and performed many
experiments to study the functions of
nerves and blood vessels.

1-10
 History of Zoology
3. Pliny (23-73 AD)- wrote the ‘Natural
History’, an encyclopedia of thirty-seven
books mostly dealing with plants and
animals.
4. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)- an Italian
engineer, inventor, painter, anatomist and
paleontologist.
5. Karl Ernst von Baer (1792-1876)- worked
on the origin of the mammalian and human
egg and the developmental history of
1-11 animals.
 History of Zoology
6. Antoine Van Leeuwenhoek- devoted his life
to microscopic work, making many lenses
himself.
7. Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778)- established
the universal system of classification and
nomenclature. The father of Taxonomy .
8. Robert Hooke- discovered the cell using
cork tissue.
9. Robert Brown (1773-1858)- described the
nuclei in plant cells.
1-12
 History of Zoology
10. Mattias Schleiden and Theodore Schwann-
formulated the cell theory which states that
all living things are made up of cells and
their cell products.
11. Charles Darwin (1809-1882)- established
the theory of evolution based on natural
selection.
12. Louis Pasteur (1809-1882)- laid down on
the foundation of immunity and he is
referred to as the father of bacteriology.
1-13
 History of Zoology

13. Johann Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)- he

formulated the laws of genetics, now
known as Mendelian Laws, based on his
experiments on pea plants. He is
referred to as the father of Genetics.
14. Watson and Crick- they created the
nobel-prize winning model of the DNA.

1-14
 Fundamental Properties of Life
■ This common history can be traced backward
through time from the diverse forms observed
today and in the fossil record to their common
ancestor that arose in the atmosphere of the
primitive earth

■ Life's history of descent with modification

gives it an identity and continuity that
separates it from the nonliving world

1-15
 General Properties of Living Systems

■ Chemical Uniqueness:
Living systems demonstrate a unique and
complex molecular organization
■ Small molecules are assembled into
macromolecules:
1. Nucleic Acids
2. Proteins
3. Carbohydrates
4. Lipids

1-16
 General Properties of Living Systems

■ Although living systems are

composed of the same kinds of
atoms obeying the same
fundamental laws of chemistry as
nonliving matter, the organizational
structure of the macromolecules
makes them unique

1-17
1-18
 General Properties of Living Systems
■ Complexity and Hierarchical Organization:
Living systems demonstrate a unique and
complex hierarchical organization
■ In living systems there exists a hierarchy of
levels that includes:
Macromolecules
Cells
Organisms
Populations
Species
1-19
1-20
1-21
1-22
 General Properties of Living Systems
■ Reproduction:
Living systems can reproduce themselves
■ At each level of the biological hierarchy living
forms reproduce to generate others like
themselves:
■ Genes replicated to produce new genes.
■ Cells divide producing new cells.
■ Organisms reproduce, sexually or
asexually, to produce new organisms
■ Populations may fragment to produce new
populations
■ Species may split to produce new species

1-23
1-24
 General Properties of Living Systems
■ Possession of a Genetic Program:
A genetic program provides fidelity of
inheritance
■ Nucleic Acids: Polymers built of repeated
units called nucleotides
■ DNA: Long, linear, chain of nucleotides
containing genetic information
■ Sequence of nucleotide bases in DNA
determines the order of amino acids in
proteins
■ Genetic Code: correspondence between
base sequences in DNA and the sequence of
1-25
amino acids in a protein
1-26
 General Properties of Living Systems

■ Metabolism:
Living organisms maintain themselves by
acquiring nutrients from their environments
■ Metabolic processes include:
■ Digestion
■ Energy production (Respiration)
■ Synthesis of required molecules and
structures by organisms

1-27
 General Properties of Living Systems

■ Metabolism is often viewed as an

interaction of destructive (catabolic) and
constructive (anabolic) reactions

■ The most fundamental anabolic and

catabolic chemical processes used by
living systems arose early in the
evolutionary history of life

1-28
1-29
 General Properties of Living Systems

■ Development:
All organisms pass through a
characteristic life cycle
■ Development describes the characteristic
changes that an organism undergoes from its
origin to its final adult form

1-30
1-31
 General Properties of Living Systems

■ Environmental Interaction:
All animals interact with their environments
■ Ecology: The study of organismal interaction
with an environment
■ All organisms respond to environmental
stimuli, a property called irritability

1-32
1-33
 General Properties of Living Systems

■ Movement:
Living systems and their parts show
precise and controlled movements arising
from within the system
■ Living systems extract energy from their
environments permitting the initiation of
controlled movements

1-34
 General Properties of Living Systems
■ Movements at the cellular level are required
for:
Reproduction
Growth
Responses to stimuli
Development in multicellular organisms
■ On a larger scale:
Entire populations or species may disperse
from one geographic location to another
over time
■ Movement of nonliving matter:
■ Not precisely controlled by the moving objects
■ Often involves external forces
1-35
 Zoology As Part of Biology

■ Animals originated in the Precambrian

seas over 600 million years ago
■ Characteristics of Animals:
■ Eukaryotes: cells contain
membrane-enclosed nuclei
■ Heterotrophs: Not capable of manufacturing
their own food and must rely on external food
sources
■ Cells lack cell walls

1-36
1-37
 Chief Differences Between Plants and
Animals
Plants Animals
1. Usually autotrophic Usually heterotrophic
nutrition; simple mineral nutrition; they require
from soil and CO2 from air, complex synthesized food
energy from sunlight to from plants or other animals
synthesize complex
materials
2. Presence of rigid cell wall Absence of cell wall and
that contains cellulose cellulose
3. Restricted movement Highly mobile
4. Usually with variable Invariable body form with
body shape and size definite number of body parts
1-38
 Chief Differences Between Plants and
Animals

Plants Animals
6. Growth not Restricted growth
sharply restricted
7. Usually restricted Usually pronounced
response response to stimuli
8. Carbohydrates Carbohydrates stored
stored as plant starch as glycogen

1-39
 Principles of Science

■ Nature of science:
■ Science is guided by natural law
■ Science has to be explained by reference to
natural law
■ Science is testable against the observable
world
■ The conclusions of science are tentative
and therefore not necessarily the final word
■ Science is falsifiable

1-40
 Principles of Science

■ Scientific Method
■ Hypothetic-deductive Method:
Scientific process of making a conjecture and
then seeking empirical tests that potentially
lead to its rejection

1-41
 Principles of Science
■ Hypothesis:
■ Potential answers to questions being asked
■ Derived from prior observations of nature or
from theories based on such observations
■ Often constitute general statements about
nature that may explain a large number of
diverse observations
■ If a hypothesis is very powerful in
explaining a wide variety of related
phenomena, it attains the level of a theory

1-42
 Principles of Science

■ Powerful theories that guide extensive

research are called paradigms
■ The refutement and replacement of a
paradigm is known as a scientific
revolution
■ Two major paradigms that guide
zoological research:
1. Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
2. The Chromosomal Theory of
Inheritance

1-43
1-44
 Principles of Science
■ The scientific method may be
summarized as a series of steps:
1. Observation
2. Question
3. Hypothesis Formation
4. Empirical Test
■ Controlled Experiment
Includes at least 2 groups
Test Group
Control Group
5. Conclusions
Accept or reject your hypothesis
6. Publications
1-45
 Principles of Science

■ Experimental vs. Evolutionary Sciences

■ Experimental Sciences:
■ Seek to understand the proximate or
immediate causes that underlie the
functioning of biological systems at a
particular time and place
■ Goal: To explain how animals perform
metabolic, physiological, and behavioral
functions at the molecular, cellular,
organismal, and populational levels

1-46
 Principles of Science
■ Example:
■ How is genetic information expressed to
guide the synthesis of proteins?
■ What causes cells to divide to produce new
cells?
■ How does population density affect the
physiology and behavior of organisms?
■ Experimental Sciences:
Molecular Biology, Cell Biology,
Endocrinology, Developmental Biology
Community Ecology

1-47
 Principles of Science

■ Evolutionary Sciences:
■ Seek to address questions of ultimate
causes and rely largely on the use of the
comparative method rather than
experimentation

■ Ultimate Cause: The evolutionary factors

responsible for the origin, state of being, or
purpose of a biological system

1-48
 Principles of Science
■ Molecular biology, cell biology, organismal
structure, development, and ecology are
compared among related species to
identify patterns of variation
■ The patterns of similarity and dissimilarity
are used to test hypotheses of relatedness
■ This information is used to reconstruct the
evolutionary tree that relates to the species
being studied
■ Rely on experimental sciences as a starting
point
1-49