Interactions among living things

~Roaches have been around since before dinosaurs.~The brain of a cockroach is inside its body. ~If a roach loses its head it can still live for over a week, eventually dying because it can not eat.~Breath through little holes on each body segment~Cold Blooded- require much less food~Last one full month without food~Last two full weeks without water~Female mates once, pregnant for life, lays 150 eggs per year~Can hold breath for 40 minutes~Run 3 miles per hour~Eat anything including plants and other insects~Live in dark, warm, wet places~Carry millions of bacteria and other germs on body~Shed skins weekly and secrete oils that are allergens causing allergic reactions.~Cell growth is minimal

Why would a cockroach survive nuclear Explosion?

Questions to Answer

1. How do an organisms adaptations help it to survive?

2. What are the major types of interactions among organisms?

3. What are the three forms of symbiotic relationships?

4. A walking stick is an insect that resembles a twig. How do you think this insect avoids predators?

5. How are parasitism and predation similar? How are they different?

Adapting to the Environment

In response to their environment species evolve. Change over time.

How have our bodies changed

http://humanorigins.si.edu/human-characteristics/bodies

The changes that make organisms better suited to their environments develop through a process called

Natural Selection

Individuals in a population have different characteristics. Those individuals whose characteristics are best suited for their environment tend to survive and produce offspring. Offspring that inherit the characteristics that made their parents successful also live to reproduce. Over many generations individuals with those characteristics continue to reproduce.

On the other hand…..

Over time these poorly suited characteristics may disappear from the population because they are not being reproduced.

Adaptations: behaviors and physical characteristics of species that allow them to live successfully in their environment.

Choose 8 words from our vocabulary list and Illustrate one in each box. Write its definition. under its box.

Every organism has a variety of adaptations that are suited to its specific living conditions.

~ An organism’s particular role, or hot it makes living, is called it niche.~ A niche includes the type of food the organism eats, how it obtains this food, other species that use it for food, how the organism reproduces and the physical conditions it requires to survive.

Organisms niche include how it interacts with other organisms.

There are three major types of interactions among organisms:

CompetitionPredationSymbiosis

competition

Competition is the struggle between organisms to survive in a habitat with limited resources.

Read page E33

Click on the link below: search Animal competitionhttp://www.bing.com/Find an example: explain and illustrate

PredationPredation is an interaction in which one organism kills and eats another.

Read pages 34E – E35Click on the link belowSearch:Predator/PreyPredator AdaptationsPrey adaptationshttp://www.bing.com/Find an example of each: explain and illustrate

Predation and Population Size

Predators have a major effect on the size of a population.

Read page E 36

Click on the link belowhttp://www.bing.com/Search: Effect of predator population growth Find a graph, explain and illustrate its meaning