CHELYDRA serpentina : Snapping Turtle
This is how the habitat of a snapping turtle must look like or at least have similar characteristics.
SYNTHESIS
The Snapping Turtle is able to produce slime and sperm inthier bodies. They also can produce eggs but the main product is respiration.
This is the equation for the Snapping Turtle'so respiration.
All the molecules are organic except gluccose.
Eukaryote or Prokaryote
This organism is obviously a Eukaryote for 3 reason.
This organism is made of multiple cells makeing it a eukaryote and each cell has a nucleus which is a special trate of a eukaryotic cell. The snapping turtle is also made up of cells that unite to make a single shape. Thier is no possible way that the snapping turtle is a prokaryote.
This organism is made of multiple cells makeing it a eukaryote and each cell has a nucleus which is a special trate of a eukaryotic cell. The snapping turtle is also made up of cells that unite to make a single shape. Thier is no possible way that the snapping turtle is a prokaryote.
Negative Factors in the Enviroment
Abiotic Factors
Dry seasons will impact the snapping turtles health.
Water has to be in the turtles habitat becuase they need it for camouflage and food.
Biotic Factors
Snapping Tutles have few animals that pray on them but when they have eggs many animals may try eating them like water snakes and other large turtles.
Snapping Turtles have few predators becuase of thier defensive shell and thier offensive bite that is the second strongest bite in the world (first being the alligator) .
Dry seasons will impact the snapping turtles health.
Water has to be in the turtles habitat becuase they need it for camouflage and food.
Biotic Factors
Snapping Tutles have few animals that pray on them but when they have eggs many animals may try eating them like water snakes and other large turtles.
Snapping Turtles have few predators becuase of thier defensive shell and thier offensive bite that is the second strongest bite in the world (first being the alligator) .
Sources
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_snapping_turtlewww.aqua.org/snapping-turtles
TRANSPORT
OSMOSIS: Passage of a solvent (such as water) from a lower-concentration solution
to a higher-concentration solution, through a semi-permeable membrane (that
allows the solvent to pass but not what is dissolved in it) separating the two solutions.
The flow of solvent stops when both solutions become equal in concentration. In
nature, osmosis is an essential process by means of which nutrients are delivered
to the cells.
Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/osmosis.html#ixzz3VPAIt9Hq
Example: When a Turtle is swiming thier is more water outside thier body then inside. Thier skin starts to get slimy to try to absorve less water but when its a dry season thier skin gets really dry and it makes it easy for water to get absorved.
Diffusion: Diffusion is when thiers a tendency of molecules to spread into an available space. Without other outside forces at work, substances will diffuse from a more concentrated environment to a less concentrated environment.
Importance to Animal: Diffusion is a very important way for many animals (including Snapping Turtles) to smell thier pray. When molecules spread through the air it can be picked up by the animals nose. In a snapping Turtle this helps the creature pick up blood under the water and makes it easy to find fish.
Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/osmosis.html#ixzz3VPAIt9Hq
Example: When a Turtle is swiming thier is more water outside thier body then inside. Thier skin starts to get slimy to try to absorve less water but when its a dry season thier skin gets really dry and it makes it easy for water to get absorved.
Diffusion: Diffusion is when thiers a tendency of molecules to spread into an available space. Without other outside forces at work, substances will diffuse from a more concentrated environment to a less concentrated environment.
Importance to Animal: Diffusion is a very important way for many animals (including Snapping Turtles) to smell thier pray. When molecules spread through the air it can be picked up by the animals nose. In a snapping Turtle this helps the creature pick up blood under the water and makes it easy to find fish.
Active Transport
Cell Membrane
GROWTH
DNA
This is our DNA strand: ATGCCTTTACATTGA
Replication: To replicate a DNA strand you need to know the rule which is A-T and G-C. This means all our A's will go to T's and G's will turn into C's and Vice Versa. We will also have to split the letters into codones which is a group of 3 letters.
Example: Original DNA: ATG CCT TTA CAT TGA
Replicated DNA: TAC GGA AAT GTA ACT
Transcription: The process of turning DNA to RNA which is made from this rule A-U and G-C which means that in RNA all of our T's will be gone.
Example: Replicated DNA: TAC GGA AAT GTA ACT
RNA : AUG CCU UUA CAU UGA
Translation: This is the process of finding the amino acid for each codone. To do this we need our amino acid table and follow the letters in each codone to find our amino acid.
Replication: To replicate a DNA strand you need to know the rule which is A-T and G-C. This means all our A's will go to T's and G's will turn into C's and Vice Versa. We will also have to split the letters into codones which is a group of 3 letters.
Example: Original DNA: ATG CCT TTA CAT TGA
Replicated DNA: TAC GGA AAT GTA ACT
Transcription: The process of turning DNA to RNA which is made from this rule A-U and G-C which means that in RNA all of our T's will be gone.
Example: Replicated DNA: TAC GGA AAT GTA ACT
RNA : AUG CCU UUA CAU UGA
Translation: This is the process of finding the amino acid for each codone. To do this we need our amino acid table and follow the letters in each codone to find our amino acid.
Example: RNA strand: AUG CCU UUA CAU UGA
Amino Acid: Meth Pro Leu His Stop
That is our amino acids.
Amino Acid: Meth Pro Leu His Stop
That is our amino acids.
Chromosomes
Turtles can have 22 to 66 chromosomes in each cell but snapping turtles commonly have 42 chromosomes.
This means after replication each cell will have 42 chromosomes inside.
This means after replication each cell will have 42 chromosomes inside.
Sources
This is were most of my information was found.
Tortoisetrust
http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/snappers.htm
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_snapping_turtle
Biology.com
http://biology.about.com/b/2012/08/31/what-is-diffusion.htm
Tortoisetrust
http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/snappers.htm
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_snapping_turtle
Biology.com
http://biology.about.com/b/2012/08/31/what-is-diffusion.htm
Reproduction
Phenotypes
There are a couple of dominant traits in a snapping turtle. This includes having yellow eyes, spiked she'll, spiked tail,long claws. Most of the snapping turtles in the world have dominant traits. The snapping turtle also has recessive traits that include green eyes, smooth tail, and short claws. None of the traits are sex linked so the only way to tell if the turtle is female or male is by looking at the bottom of the belly.
Genotype
Let's give an example for a genotype.
The phenotype is yellow eyes so the genotype is AA and Aa
The phenotype is green eyes so the genetype is aa
There are a couple of dominant traits in a snapping turtle. This includes having yellow eyes, spiked she'll, spiked tail,long claws. Most of the snapping turtles in the world have dominant traits. The snapping turtle also has recessive traits that include green eyes, smooth tail, and short claws. None of the traits are sex linked so the only way to tell if the turtle is female or male is by looking at the bottom of the belly.
Genotype
Let's give an example for a genotype.
The phenotype is yellow eyes so the genotype is AA and Aa
The phenotype is green eyes so the genetype is aa
Punnett square for Aa and aa
In this punnett square Aa is the genotype for yellow eyes And aa is for green eyes. If the parents have genotypes of Aa and aa than there is a 50 percent chance that the off spring will have yellow eyes and anot her 50 percent chance that it will have green eyes.
Traits
Yellow eyes:AA,Aa
Green eyes:aa
Traits
Yellow eyes:AA,Aa
Green eyes:aa
Punnett Square for Aa and Aa
Now that the parents are both Aa there is a 75 percent chance of the off spring to be born with yellow eyes and only a 25 percent chance of the off spring to have green eyes.
Incomplete Dominance
If the traits have incomplete dominance than both traits will show up when the genotype is Aa.
AA: Round shell
aa: Bumpy shell
Aa: Round bumpy shell
AA: Round shell
aa: Bumpy shell
Aa: Round bumpy shell
Sex linked Traits
Here are some traits that are sex linked.
XB XB : female with spiked shell
XB Xb : female with spiked shell
Xb Xb : female with smooth shell
XB Y : Male with spiked shell
Xb Y : Male with smooth shell
XB XB : female with spiked shell
XB Xb : female with spiked shell
Xb Xb : female with smooth shell
XB Y : Male with spiked shell
Xb Y : Male with smooth shell
Sex linked Punnett Square
In this example all the females will have spiked tails and half the males will have spiked tails and the other half will have smooth tails.
100 percent of females will have spiked tails
50 percent of males will have spiked tails.
50 percent of males will have smooth tails.
100 percent of females will have spiked tails
50 percent of males will have spiked tails.
50 percent of males will have smooth tails.
Sources
Creature control
http://www.creaturecontrol.net/Snapping%20Turtles
Wikipedia
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_snapping_turtle
http://www.creaturecontrol.net/Snapping%20Turtles
Wikipedia
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_snapping_turtle
Response
The snapping turtle has developed many adaptations over time.
The Shell was a defense adaptation because the turtles ancestors were to exposed and easy to eat.
Their ability to swim came from their ancestors needing to feed out of fish.
Their jaws also were an adaptation that came from animals becoming to difficult to kill. The stronger jaw allowed the turtle to easily crush through bone.
The Shell was a defense adaptation because the turtles ancestors were to exposed and easy to eat.
Their ability to swim came from their ancestors needing to feed out of fish.
Their jaws also were an adaptation that came from animals becoming to difficult to kill. The stronger jaw allowed the turtle to easily crush through bone.
In this cladogram you can see that the turtle adapted from a salmander by keeping their jaw power and vertebral column which helps them swim and added a shell and amniotic eggs.
Organism Interaction
The snapping turtle is located in the animalia kingdom because it has traits like,sexual reproduction, consuming to obtain energy, and having eukaryotic cells.
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Subphylum:Vertebrata
Class:Reptilia
Order:Testudines
Family:Chelydridae
Genus:Chelydra
Species:C. serpentina
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Subphylum:Vertebrata
Class:Reptilia
Order:Testudines
Family:Chelydridae
Genus:Chelydra
Species:C. serpentina
Abiotic Factors
Abiotic Factors are non living factors that affect the organism.
some examples are
Temperature
Weather
Location
Water
some examples are
Temperature
Weather
Location
Water
Biotic Factors
Biotic factors are living factors that affect the turtle such as
Snakes: snakes who are predators.
bacteria: causes diseases.
Viruses: causes viral Infections.
Snakes: snakes who are predators.
bacteria: causes diseases.
Viruses: causes viral Infections.
Human Interaction
Humans affect the snapping turtles too. Many fisher man have made many ponds and swamps extincted of fish because of over fishing causing many turtles to run out of food. Many factories also dump waste in ponds were snapping turtles happen to be.This pollution cause many numbers of turtles to diminish.This could all cause many turtles to die because of lack of food and space.
Symbiotic Relationships
Parasitism: Many types of Tape worms can be found in snapping turtles that cause harm to the turtles nutrient supply.
Mutualism: Many snapping turtles provide a home for algae to grow in their backs which helps the turtle camouflage
Commensalism: Snapping turtles provide shelter to some insects and the turtle is not harmed.
Mutualism: Many snapping turtles provide a home for algae to grow in their backs which helps the turtle camouflage
Commensalism: Snapping turtles provide shelter to some insects and the turtle is not harmed.
Innate behaviors
When turtles are born they have an innate behavior to run into the water for safety. They also try to hide in mud to try to hide from predators,the baby turtles also seem to like plants to eat rather than meat.
Sources
Cladogram
http://kenpitts.net/hbio/2010/evolution/cladogram_species.html
Symbiotic Relationships
http://alligatorsnapsnapturtal.weebly.com/symbiotic-relationships.html
Organism Interaction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_snapping_turtle
http://kenpitts.net/hbio/2010/evolution/cladogram_species.html
Symbiotic Relationships
http://alligatorsnapsnapturtal.weebly.com/symbiotic-relationships.html
Organism Interaction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_snapping_turtle
Geochemical Cycle
This image does not include the turtle but it fits into tertiary consumers. These animal eat other animals and produce CO2 that gets released into the atmosphere
Species Interactions
The snapping turtle belongs in a sub tropical rainforest biome. They are mostly predators in many food chains. The only predators they have are when they are babies. The snapping turtle has lots of prey to choose from like fish, insects, snakes, and even birds. They are mostly carnivores in their ecosystem but as babies they prefer to be omnivores, They are affected by many limiting factors such as overpopulation, climate change, and food shortages. The snapping turtle is a very controversial niche in its ecosystem.
Food Web
Trophic Level Pyramid
This pyramid shows how energy moves up as it keeps getting consumed by creatures. Only 10 percent of the original energy mass will be passed down through the next consumer.
Sources
Species Interaction
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_snapping_turtle
Food Web
http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/snappers.htm
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_snapping_turtle
Food Web
http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/snappers.htm
Reflection
This project was very simple at times but there were times when trying to find some information got a little to difficult. Most websites did not have the information so I relied on watching documentaries and using Wikipedia. I managed to find everything for this website with the help of my brother. Trying to find certain information was no where to be seen so my brother got me books about the snapping turtle. Overall I think we found every correct peace of information that we needed to find. This website is more than 95 percent accurate.
I really liked this project mainly because of the animal I chose which I a favorite of mine. I have a snapping turtle as a pet so much of the information I kinda already knew. I knew what they eat and how they live. I knew most of the project from experience because of the pet I had. The snapping turtle is a fun pet to have so this made the project very easy to complete and in joy. I would love to do another project like this in the future because it was very fun to design and create my own website. This project was the most stupendous thing in the whole biology class. Most of the project was an easy a but some parts were difficult to pass but at the end I really liked this project and I wish I could do something like this again because it was really interesting and it also helped us study for upcoming quizzes we had so it was very helpful and fun.
The most difficult part of the project has to be hands down the pictures. Finding pictures for the snapping turtles food Web, habitat,and other things were sometimes impossible so I had to use my digital art skills to draw it myself. It definitely was the longest parts of the project to complete but it was kinda fun completing these parts.I must say that next time I will draw better because some of the images were not that professional. That was the only difficult part of the project, that and some of the information regarding cells.
My favorite part of the project that taught me something new was the section about genes and DNA. I learned how to transform DNA into RNA. I was something I did not know how to do. This section was very fun and it taught me many new skills about genes. How like many traits can only be activated if both parents have a recessive gene or sometimes a dominant gene. I also learned how to find the amino acids in DNA which at first seemed difficult but later turned out to be very simple and easy. I also learned how my organism can help other animals and plants. I never knew algae grew on turtles to clean them and also help them camouflage.This whole project taught me something but at the end it was a very fun project, it helped me study and it helped me learn new things about the turtle. I really like this project and I'm looking forward to see what other websites I will have to create for school or just business in the future. Thank you for viewing my honors biology project it has been a blast.
I really liked this project mainly because of the animal I chose which I a favorite of mine. I have a snapping turtle as a pet so much of the information I kinda already knew. I knew what they eat and how they live. I knew most of the project from experience because of the pet I had. The snapping turtle is a fun pet to have so this made the project very easy to complete and in joy. I would love to do another project like this in the future because it was very fun to design and create my own website. This project was the most stupendous thing in the whole biology class. Most of the project was an easy a but some parts were difficult to pass but at the end I really liked this project and I wish I could do something like this again because it was really interesting and it also helped us study for upcoming quizzes we had so it was very helpful and fun.
The most difficult part of the project has to be hands down the pictures. Finding pictures for the snapping turtles food Web, habitat,and other things were sometimes impossible so I had to use my digital art skills to draw it myself. It definitely was the longest parts of the project to complete but it was kinda fun completing these parts.I must say that next time I will draw better because some of the images were not that professional. That was the only difficult part of the project, that and some of the information regarding cells.
My favorite part of the project that taught me something new was the section about genes and DNA. I learned how to transform DNA into RNA. I was something I did not know how to do. This section was very fun and it taught me many new skills about genes. How like many traits can only be activated if both parents have a recessive gene or sometimes a dominant gene. I also learned how to find the amino acids in DNA which at first seemed difficult but later turned out to be very simple and easy. I also learned how my organism can help other animals and plants. I never knew algae grew on turtles to clean them and also help them camouflage.This whole project taught me something but at the end it was a very fun project, it helped me study and it helped me learn new things about the turtle. I really like this project and I'm looking forward to see what other websites I will have to create for school or just business in the future. Thank you for viewing my honors biology project it has been a blast.