Arctic wolf Biology
Introduction
The Arctic Wolf is a descendant from the most common wolf, the Grey Wolf.
CLASSIFYING AND EXPLORING LIFE
Characteristics of life
- ORGANIZATION: Arctic wolves are multicellular organisms because they are made up of many cells.
- GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT: Arctic Wolves grow because their cells increase in size and number.
- ENERGY: Arctic Wolves require energy, so they need to eat food. Most of their preys are Caribou, Arctic Hare, Seals, etc.
Classifying
The scientific name of the Arctic Wolf is Canis Lupus Arctos, the same as the name of the Grey Wolf, but the only difference is the Arctos because of the habitat of the ARCTIC wolf. It is from the domain Eukarya and the kingdom Animalia.
CELL STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION
Cells and life
Macromolecules
- PROTEINS: the diet of Arctic Wolves is based on proteins because they are carnivores and meat has lots of proteins.
- LIPIDS: in arctic wolves lipids are very important because they use them to maintain the heat in their bodys.
- NUCLEIC ACIDS: the nucleic acids contain the genetic information, this information passes from parents to offspring and has the instructions for lots of processes.
- CARBOHIDRATES: because of their carnivorous diet, wolves can't digest well carbohydrates.
The cell
The Arctic Wolf has animal cells. The animal cell has lots of organelles, each of them has a function.
- MITOCHONDRIA: this organelle processes energy for the cell. Its very important because every organism needs energy to work, wolves have to be fast when they atack their prey's, without energy they can't.
- RIBOSOMES: this organelles are small structures that produce proteins
Moving cellular material
So the Arctic Wolf cells can have oxygen and carbon dioxide, this small molecules have to pass to cells, there is two different ways. Passive transport and active transport. Passive transport is when the cell doesnt require to use energy and active is when it does.
FROM A CELL TO AN ORGANISM
The cell cycle and cell division
Arctic Wolves reproduce sexually so the process they use to make more sex cells is meiosis. But they also use the cell cycle to make more cells.
Results of cell division
One result of cell division is REPAIR. For example, if an Arctic Wolf cuts itself, cell division produces new skin cells. Growth its another result of cell division. When Arctic Wolves GROW, cells divide and increase in number.
Sexual reproduction
Arctic Wolves reproduce sexually, because the information of two cells combine to produce an offspring.
GENETICS
Patterns of inheritance
THE ENVIRONMENT AND CHANGE OVER TIME
Fossil evidence of evolution
The Arctic Wolf its in high risk of getting extinct because of the human hunters and the global warming. The Arctic Wolf has started getting extinct in the southern places, but its still survives in the northern parts. Hunters want to hunt them because of their fur and global warmung has started killing the main resources of food of the Arctic Wolves like the Arctic Hare, without food, wolf populations have started decreasing.
Theory of evolution by natural selection
FUNCTIONAL: Some scientists think that wolves may have adapted so they could eat the food of the human settlements various years ago, they say that domestic dogs evolved from wolves.Their stomach adapted so they could eat carbohydrates.
STRUCTURAL:The fur coat of the Arctic Wolf is white so they can camouflage in the snow.
STRUCTURAL: Small ears so they dont have to loose heat.
BEHAVIORAL: Wolves travel in packs and hunt like a team. Wolves have their own social positions. Alfa, Beta, Omega.
MODEL ADAPTATIONS IN AN ORGANISM
How can night vision help Arctic Wolves?
In the Tundra the seasons make days and nights different. In winter the night lasts 24 hours per day and in summer, day lasts 24 per day. So Arctic Wolves could hunt in winter their eyes adapted so they could hunt with termo vision and see their preys better. When this happens their eyes change to a red color. If wolves didn't have termo vision it would be almost impossible for them to hunt in winters. This change is a gradual change because its not sudden.