Rating 4.93 out of 5 (7 ratings in Udemy)

• Understand how temperature affects animals' metabolism
• Understand how enzymes are engineered to function well at a particular temperature
• Understand how to calculate the energy cost of homeostasis
• Understand the concept of the operative temperature and how it relates to the thermal niche
• Understand the energetic foundation of biogenetic rules such as Bergmann's rule
• Understand the concept of the thermal energy budget and how it shapes the nature of adaptation to environmental temperature
• Understand the role of evaporation from the skin and lungs in adaptation of animals to hot environments
• Understand some of the mechanism for reducing or recovering water lost by evaporation from the skin or lungs
• Understand how heat capacity of the body can be used as an adaptive mechanism for reducing evaporation losses in hot climates
• Understand the nature of adaptive challenges of cold environments
• Understand how animals manage freezing of body water, including antifreeze mechanisms and controlled freezing
• Understand the effect of cold on cell membrane fluidity and how membrane fluidity is managed in cold conditions
• Understand the fundamental energetic constraints that promote hibernation and torpor among animals
• Understand the concept of the water budget and how this ties in to adaptation to different hydric environments
• Understand the different types of hydric environments and the water balance challenges each poses
• Understand the basic mechanism of kidney function and the roles of filtration, reabsorption and secretion
• Understand how nephron function is managed and the relationship of salt recovery from water recovery
• Understand the basic hormonal control systems for kidney function, including the renin-angiotensin system and anti-diuretic hormone
• Understand how nephron morphology relates to kidney function and the changes in nephron morphology that have accompanied the transition to terrestrial life
• Understand the adaptive conflict between salt recovery and water recovery in terrestrial environments and some of the ways animals manage it, including salt glands
• Understand how the nitrogenous waste products of amino acid metabolism tie into the water budget of animals
• Understand how the kidneys of mammals and birds produces urine that is more concentrated than the blood and why the nephrons of the lower vertebrates cannot
• Understand the Malphighian tubule system of insects and how these illustrate the different ways animals meet the same adaptive challenges