Immune System and Its Types

Question 1

A). The distinctions between innate and adaptive immunity are that innate immunity activates the system very fast in a matter of minutes to a few hours after a foreign invasion in the body. The adaptive system is usually responsible for the multifaceted reactions and only gets activated after the innate has been fully activated. Innate immunity consists of the skin, stomach gastric juice, and mucus membrane. The adaptive immune system consists of the generating memory of the antigen to save their characteristics in the memory cells for the initiation of a particular response in the future after the same pathogen enters again.

B). The primary difference between between the humoral and the cell-mediated immunity is that there is the use of B cells in tagging and destroying the foreign antigens in the humoral immunity, whereas the cell-mediated immunity utilizes the T cells in doing so.

C). The example of the adaptive cell-mediated immunity is the Delayed-Type Hypersensitivity or the tuberculin test, and that of the innate cell-mediated immunity is the Contact Sensitivity. The streptococcus is the example of the adaptive humoral immunity, and that of the innate humoral immunity is the B lymphocytes.

Question 2

A). The reproductive strategies found in the animal species include, among others, courtship, parental care, amniotic egg, and precocial development. The advantage of the reproductive courtship strategy is that there is surety for the females to find the suitable males such as the strongest, while its disadvantage is that the behavior that is in association with courtship may attract not only the females but also the predators. In the parental care, the merit is that there are high chances for the offspring survival due to the protection from the parents whereas its demerit is that when the parent dies or stay away for many days, there is the likelihood of the offspring to perish too. When it comes to the amniotic egg, its principal advantage is that there is the protection of the embryo and there is no dehydration due to the surrounding of the fluid-filled amnion. The drawback of the reproductive strategy is that there must be land to lay the egg, and the place has to be a level ground to prevent movement. In the precocial reproductive strategy, the goodness with it is that the offspring can find and eat food on their own while its disadvantage is that in most cases, the young ones take a long time before they fledge (Pearson, p. 7).

Question 3

Different animal species utilized various reproductive means to make it possible to colonize the land. The first example is the elephants that only give birth to one baby each time and at a slower rate and the whole group takes care of the youngsters through maturity thus ensuring their survival. Another strategy is the overproduction of the young ones, for instance, the frogs lay millions of eggs so that at the end of the day, even with intense predation, quite a number can still survive to maturity. There is also the carrying capacity strategy which man has utilized to prevent the death of the babies by coming up with the population check like birth control and postponement of the marriage age. The fourth strategy that the land animals have used to colonize the ground is the rapid production such as in insects such that even with the use insecticides, they can still multiply and dominate the habitat (Viau, p. 1).

Question 4

A). Sexual selection is the theory that postulates that the development of some outstanding physical qualities like coloration and beautification in animals may award the bearers of such traits more success in getting the mates (Ayala, p. 1). The sexual selection differs from the natural selection in that it selects the features that allow males to dominate other males

B). Sexual selection varies from the natural selection in that there is no competition involved in the natural selection, but in the sexual one, there is always a stiff competition for the mates.

Question 5

A). The female elephants always have the responsibility of leading the heard as the rest believe that it is a survival advantage as their decisions help in avoiding the random walk in search of water and food as they know exactly where to find them. It is also believed that they have the right wisdom especially when it comes to the adoption of the strategy for the anti predators.

B). The proximate causes of the matriarch to lead the other group members is because it is always larger and thus becomes easy to identify. In most cases, the other team members are always the immediate cousins and siblings thus leaving them with no option but to take care of them given the experience she has on the habitat (Meyer).

Question 6

A). In evolution, an animal behaves altruistically when the other organisms benefit from its behavior at its cost. Most animals, for instance, the monkeys do engage in the altruistic behavior when there is a danger, or the predator is around. It makes noise to alert others so that they can escape but at the same time it attracts danger as the predator realizes where the sound is coming. The behavior is always to protect the other members from danger so that they can live for long and reproduce (Okasha).

B). The optimal foraging theory is a model that aids in the prediction of the animal behavior when in the search for food. The search for food always demands both energy and time even though the food offers strength to the insect. For that case, the animal should get more energy at the least cost when foraging. The butterflies have to forage from one flower patch to the other, and the patches are far apart and also bearing a different number of flowers. So the butterflies must exercise their fitness by moving from one piece to the other. They have to travel straight in search of patches and not to revisit a sport twice and waste much energy. Moreover, the butterflies can also decide to go for the area restriction search especially when there is patchily distribution of resources so that they don’t miss out on the high-quality patches and also use less energy.

Works Cited

Ayala, F. J. "sexual selection | biology | Britannica.com." 9 July 2016, www.britannica.com/science/sexual-selection.

Meyer, A. "Role of Matriarch Elephant." 2015, www.elephantsforever.co.za/matriarch-elephant.html.

Okasha, S. "Biological Altruism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)." 2013, plato.stanford.edu/entries/altruism-biological/.

Pearson, C. "» Precocial versus Altricial Development Maine Birds." 6 Aug. 2009, web.colby.edu/mainebirds/2009/08/06/86/.

Viau, E.A. "World Builders: Breeding Strategies E Viau CSULA." 2003, www.world-builders.org/lessons/less/biomes/breeding.html.