My Short Story

In the Life of a Mammalia

(In Other Words... a Chimpanzee)

Kelsey Banner

            Inside a dense tropical rainforest lived a chimpanzee named Aku; she was a very beautiful chimpanzee indeed. All the males would fight to get her attention, but she never seemed to pay any mind to that. What she wanted most in life was to see the big, and wide world.

            She has heard lots of other chimpanzees talk about it, but none of the other chimps knew that she was listening. She would always find some nuts to eat and as she chomped them down she would perk her left ear up, because her left ear was her strongest ear, and she would memorize every word they said.

            “There are lots of human out there”, Mama Sadie said to Gertrude.

“Humans?” Avu thought, she had never even thought of what those might look like.

            “I saw one once. They had fingers, ears, and a mouth just like us”, Gertrude whispered.

            “Just like us?” now Avu thoughts began to stir. She decided that she had to see one of those for herself.

            Avu ate as much as she could for dinner that night so that ready she could sneak out at the peak of dawn when nobody was awake. She would have to be agile for nobody in her community would hear. If she made one clumsy mistake it could wake up all fifty family members, especially Papa Lenerd. If Avu woke him up her would pound his chest and show his big wide teeth and yell at her for the rest of the night, Avu knew just what to do.

            “Here Papa Lenerd, just for you!” Avu passed him a mound of fruits just for him.

            “Why thank you Avu, that’s awful nice. A little too nice if you ask me. If I were to analyze your act of selflessness I would assume that you were up to something, but there is no need for that. I know that I can trust my beautiful chimp.

            “No need to worry Papa, when you wake up in the morning I will be snug as a bug right nest to you in my nest,” Avu said with a grin. She was always a terrible liar.

             But Papa Lenerd was even more gullible. He leaned over to Avu and gave her a pat on the back, “I hope you dream of the big, and wide world tonight,” he said with a sincere smile.

            “I will Papa, I sure will,” Avu said with a sly smirk.

To Be Continued….

Mammalia

Three Characteristics:

1. 4 chambered heart
2. Well developed brain
3. Posses hair made of keratin. The evolution of mammalian keratin is believed to be independent of reptilian keratin. Hair provides insulation .

 

North Atlantic Right Whale

• Eubalaena glacialis

 

Chimpanzee 

• Pan troglocytes

Credit Given to:

http://www.preservearticles.com/2011082011055/characteristics-of-class-mammalia.html

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Eubalaena_glacialis/pictures/collections/contributors/Grzimek_mammals/Balaenidae/Eubalaena_glacialis/

Aves

Three Characteristics:

1. Warm blooded with an exoskeleton of feathers
2. No sweat glands
3. Each jaw covered with a keratinized sheath forming a beak

 

Screamers

• Chauna chavaria

  

Spectacled Owl

• Pulsatrix perpicillata

Credit Given to:

http://www.preservearticles.com/2011082011054/characteristics-of-class-aves.html

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Anhimidae/pictures/collections/contributors/grzimek_birds/Anhimidae/Chauna_chavaria/

Reptilia

Three Characteristics:

1. Animals which are cold blooded
2. Two sets of paired limbs (tetrapods)
3. Skin has few cutaneous glands and high levels of keratin, which prevents water loss through the skin

 

Emerald Tree Boa

• Corallus caninus

 

Red-Footed Tortoise

• Chelonoidis carbonaria

Credit Given to:

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Corallus_caninus/pictures/collections/contributors/laurie_vitt/Ccan/

Amphibia

Three Characteristics: 

1. They have moist glandular skin
2. They lay eggs that are non-amniotic
3. They have "true tails"

 

Pipidae

• Silurana tropicalis

 

North Pacific Treefrog

• Pseudacris regilla

Credit:

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Pseudacris_regilla/pictures/collections/contributors/phil_myers/ADW_herps_3_4_03/Hyla_regilla7543/

http://imnh.isu.edu/digitalatlas/bio/amph/main/clasamph.htm

Osteichthyes

Three Characteristics:

1. With a swim bladder providing buoyancy
2. Notochord that evolved into a vertebrate composed of bone
3. One pair of gill slits protected by operculum

 

Flagtail surgeonfish

• Paracanthurus heptatus

 

American shad

• Alosa sapidissima 

Credit Given to:

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Alosa_sapidissima/pictures/collections/contributors/Grzimek_fish/Clupeiformes/Alosa_sapidissima/

http://blue.utb.edu/rlnash/Spring2004/Notes/1307%20notes/Notes%20Fish.htm

Chondrichthyes

Three Characteristics:

1. True teeth made of calcium that grow in rows
2. No swim bladder
3. 5 pairs of unprotected gill slits

  

Sea Fox

• Alepias vulpinus

 

Reef Shark 

• Carcharhinus falcifermis

http://blue.utb.edu/rlnash/Spring2004/Notes/1307%20notes/Notes%20Fish.htm

Myxini

Three Characteristics:

1. They don't have fins or scales
2. Their length ranges from 18 - 30 inches
3. They don't have jaws but rather 2 raspy biting plates

<a href="http://animals.jrank.org/pages/1940/Hagfishes-Myxini-PHYSICAL-CHARACTERISTICS.html">Hagfishes: Myxini - Physical Characteristics</a>

  

California hagfish

• Eptatretus stoutil

  

Atlantic hagfish

• Myxine glutinosa

 

Cephalaspidomorphi

Three Characteristics:

1. Jawless Fish
2. They all have gills
3. Axial skeleton

Animals From This Class:

Eel Sucker

• Petromyzon marinus

Ohio Lamprey 

• Ichthyomyzon bdellium

Cephalochordata

Three Characteristics:

1. They are marine
2. They all have segmented bodies
3. They all have elongated bodies

Two Common Names:

1. Lancelet
2. Amphioxus

Poem:
My size is rather small never longer than inches of four or five,
my circulatory system is closed like feelings insinde my heart.
The ocean is unending amd my existence is small,
the cuts in my heart are like the segments of my body,
small but plentiful.
So I will continue to swim with the pulse of my notochord,
and the beating of my will.

Urochordata

Three Characteristics

1. Contain a tough outer covering or tunic
2. Most are hermaphrodites
3. All are marine

Two Common Names:

• Sea Squirts (displayed in picture above)
• Salps

Poem:
I am found everywhere or in other words world wide,
and I range form colors of pink, red, yellow, and white.
Life is pretty simple for having boy and girl parts,
but I gotta watch out for eels, snails and sea stars.
As food floats inside my filtering mouth,
I realize that it is you that I can't live without.
Stay by my side, please stay near,
for without your unwavering love I would simply dispear.

You Deserve an Introduction...

To sum everything up, we get to dive pretty deep into the phylum chordata in my sixth period zoology class. What a privelage. To hit things off each post will briefly explain each phymlum that i have been assigned, including a picture, and if you are lucky a poem. So here goes nothing:) 


SOMETING TO UNDERSTAND.
Here are some basic characteristics that ALL chordates share:
Credit givne to Mr. Hathaway. These are notes that I took.

1. Notochord.

• a flexible rod structure that extnds the length of the body
• it is the axis of muscle attachment
• it can later develop into a complex jointed skeleton

2. Nerve Chord

• Dorsal and hollow
• can develop into the central nervous system
• brain and spinal chord

3. Pharyngeal Pouches

• slit like openings that lead from pharngeak cavity to the outside
• in the aquatic chordate they break and form gill slits
• in tetrapods (land) the become Eustachian tube, middle ear, tonisls etc..

4. Post-anal Tail

• provides motility for free swimming animals
• waggable tails in animals
• or lose it in embryonic development