Biology Collection #2- Kaitlyn Allen

While visiting the San Diego Zoo, I took this picture of a fern, which is known as a frond. A frond is a plant containing large leaves in separate sections.

Keratin is made up of proteins, these proteins make up our hair and nails.

This picture of a woody stem is from my Aunt's backyard. A woody stem is covered on the outside with bark.

This herbaceous stem is from my begonia, most flowers and vegetables have herbaceous stems. A herbaceous stem is not covered in bark, instead it is soft and usually green.

This is a picture of my brother's tongue, amylase can be found in saliva. Amylase is an enzyme that helps convert sugar into starch.

Deciduous leaves are leaves that fall off during a particular season, this leaf that I found while taking a walk through my grandmom's backyard is an example of a deciduous leaf.

These roses outside of my Aunt's house have thorns on it's stem. A thorn is a sharp point attached to the stem of a plant.

The flowers on my begonia plant contain pollen. Pollen is the fertilizing element of a plant, usually consists of a yellow powdery substance.

These flowers are from my mom's garden, they are considered angiosperms because an angiosperm is a plant that flowers; has seeds contained in it's ovaries.

These flowers are all examples of autotrophs, autotrophs create their own food using the process of photosynthesis.

Collection 2: Katie Harrison

I just wanted to add these pictures of my Aunt Sue's garden to the blog, because I wasn't able to really personalize many of my photos that I took when I visited her and I wanted to be able to prove that these pictures are in fact mine, not Google's or anybody elses (I have all the pictures from this post on my phone and camera, too :) ). The first picture is pretty much showing most of the backyard gardens, the second shows the big "island" garden where I found my hummingbird, the third is of the koi/frog pond, and the fourth is of my aunt by the pond with a tamed frog that hopped onto her arm. As for the pictures towards the bottom, I wasn't able to stick anything in the shots because the animals were moving too fast or the camera needed to be zoomed in.

Angiosperm: Angiosperm plants are those that flower and produce seeds or fruits. This cleome plant in my aunt's garden is an angiosperm plant because it produces seeds in pods and is a flowering plant.

Autotroph: An autotroph is an organism that gains its energy from organic food molecules instead of eating another organism. They usually are photosynthetic organisms. These ferns and other plants from my aunt's garden are autotrophs.

Commensalism: when two organisms' interaction causes one organism to benefit while the other is unaffected. This squirrel's nest at my aunt's house is an example of commensalism because the squirrels are able to make a home, while the oak tree is unharmed by the squirrels.

Littoral zone organism: an organism that thrives in the shallow part of a lake, where photosynthesis still can occur. My aunt has a koi fish pound, which happens to have a family of Leopard frogs living in it. I saw five different tadpoles, all about two and a half inches long, right under the surface of the water, eating algae. The second picture was taken later in the day, so the sun had moved and created a reflection on the pond. I had to use my hand to block out the reflection so the tadpole could be seen underneath the surface of the water. I thought it was a pretty nifty picture, so I added it too.

Pollinator: A pollinator is an organism that transfers pollen from one plant to another. Examples of pollinators are butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. T his female Ruby Throated hummingbird at my aunt's house was actually feeding from a flower, which I've never seen before; usually I only see them at the hummingbird feeder.

Exoskeleton: An exoskeleton is the outer skeleton of most arthropods. This is when the skeleton of an organism is on the outside of the body, while the organs are on the inside of the body. In this picture is a cicada's exoskeleton shell which was recently molted; a cicada has to shed the exoskeleton when its body grows underneath the shell.

Tendril of a plant: Tendrils of plants are the stems that climb, attach, and support the growing plants. The tendrils of this Morning Glory on my deck already climbed the small trellace that's in its pot and the railing, so they are starting to attach to one another.

Anther and filament of a stamen: The anther and filament are the male reproductive parts of flowers, where the pollen is held. The anther of this lily is the brown structure that resembles rice at the end of the thin, white structures called filaments.

Ectotherm: An ectotherm is an organism with a body temperature that varies with it's surroundings. An example of an ectotherm is this oceanic sunfish, because the fish needs to bask in the sun and warmer water to heat up its body up after long, deep dives. On July 23, my family went on a whale watch cruise up off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island, and while searching for whales, we came across this gigantic fish (yes, both pictures are of the same fish. I know, they look completely different, but I blame it on the cell phone camera). At first, the spotters on the ship thought it was a shark because the fish's dorsal fin was sticking out of the water, much like a shark's would. The marine biologist on the boat estimated this oceanic sunfish to weigh about 200 pounds and be about 5 feet wide by 5 feet tall, which is relatively small compared to the average weight of these monster-size fish (2,200 lbs). I took great interest in these fish, and found out that they eat mainly jellyfish and can even jump out of the water, up to 10 feet in the air! The picture on the left was taken with my camera as the sunfish was basking, while the one on the right was taken with my phone right before it completely flipped over and disappeared under the boat.

Eukaryote: A eukaryote is an organism that is made up of cells that contain a membrane enclosed nucleus and organelles. All animals, plants, and fungi contain these complex cells. During the whale watch, we encountered a pod of these friendly Common Dolphins, nearly 150 strong. The dolphins surrounded the boat, and literally everywhere you looked, there were dolphins jumping and flipping out of the water. I could hear them whistle to each other right next to the boat, and I even saw a few calves, or baby dolphins. They looked like swimming footballs. The adult dolphins were about 5-7ft long, while the calves were about 3 ft long. I was really excited to see these guys because this was my first whale watch, and my first time seeing dolphins in the wild and not at Sea World.

Angiosperm - a plant that produces flowers and seeds, the latter of which are enclosed in a protective structure (e.g. a fruit). A tomato plant is an angiosperm because it starts out as a flower bud with a seed-containing ovary; then, as the ovary grows larger, the flower becomes a tomato, and the seeds are found in the fruit. This angiosperm is from our vegetable garden... even though the tomatoes are technically fruits.

Animal that has a Segmented Body - an animal with a body divided into segmented units, like cars in a train, that often group together into larger functional units. A beetle is an animal with a segmented body. Its body is divided into three regions: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen, each of which has segments of its own. The beetle's legs alone are composed of five main segments. I found this beetle near some grass in my friend's yard, but by the time we photographed the little bugger, it had crawled onto the sidewalk.

Arthropod - an invertebrate with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Butterflies do not have bones (an internal skeleton). Instead, each part of their bodies is covered with a hard coating that protects it (an exoskeleton). Like the beetle above, which too is an arthropod, this butterfly has a segmented body, as well. Attached to the butterfly's head, thorax, and abdomen are various appendages, such as six legs and four lovely wings. The picture of this butterfly on our windowsill is an example of an arthropod.

other five pictues

From now on all my pictures will be on the same post, unfortunately I'm too lazy to fix my older posts so you'll just have to deal with it.
Plants will usually produce thorns in order to deter herbivores from eating said plant. While it works against most animals some will adapt new ways to nullify the threat of thorns. Still, it keeps most beasts away, so why mess with success?

Eukaryotes, such as the frog in this picture (it's there, just look really hard) are one of the most diverse domains of organisms. They can range from being a single-celled protist to complex animals such as cuttlefish, even to simple plants like daisies. The one thing they all have in common is that their cellular structure is organised and contains a nucleus where all the genetic information is held.

Deciduous leaves don't change orange in the fall, they turn green during the spring and summer. The green color is caused by the chlorophyll it produces in order and when winter comes the plant has adapted to shed those leaves due to not having enough sun during the cold season, pretty much its better to fast than waste energy trying to create barely any food at all.

Conifer leaves, commonly known as needles, are specifically designed to be able to endure cold weather and be able to produce chlorophyll even during seasons of less sun. It is mainly achieved due to the waxy skin and small shape of the needles.

An Angiosperm is a plant that produces a nectar filled flower to attract insects. doing so covers the insect in pollen which is then carried to the next plant. Through this method is the plants reproduction obtained.