Cool!

The quiz is now closed. Thank you for your participation.

1. Which trait of the salamander’s makes it feel cool to the touch?

a. Slimy skin. A salamander’s skin secretes slime; the rapid evaporation of the fluid slime from off the fingertips of one who has touched it causes the person to sense coolness.

29.0%

b. Ectothermic nature. A salamander’s body temperature is influenced by its surroundings which are generally cool wet places.

71.0%

2. For Illinois songbirds, such as cardinals, their core body temperature usually ranges from102 to 109 degrees F. When the temperature outside rises to above 104 degrees F, a bird’s metabolic heat will make it feel like a hot potato. Hyperthermia can be lethal. Which strategy enables a northern cardinal to play it cool?

a. You won’t see a cardinal playing in water. The absence of glands that produce oil for waterproofing feathers means the cardinal’s feathers absorb water readily. A saturated cardinal will have difficulty flying. So, a cardinal will get a quick drink and then chill out in the shade.

27.4%

b. Evaporative cooling is one way that helps regulate a cardinal’s temperature, but that results in water loss. So, the cardinal goes to water for a splash and a drink. With a flutter and a shake of waterproofed feathers, the refreshed cardinal can fly away.

72.6%

3. Cool Hand Luke, that’s what I’d call a firefly or lightning bug. That crazy beetle keeps its cool even when it’s all aglow! What process allows the firefly to avoid overheating while giving off light?

a. Recently scientists have discovered that bioluminescence is not the process by which a firefly produces light without giving off much heat, rather the process is fluorescence or atomic de-excitation during which an atom falls to a level below its ground state and gives off a low-energy UV photon.

48.7%

b. The firefly produces light by pumping oxygen into a mixture of organic molecules, thereby setting off a chemical reaction and producing light energy much more efficiently than an electric bulb.

51.3%

4. If you’ve seen a big tom turkey all puffed up and strutting, you know that an eastern wild turkey has quite a pelt of feathers. How, on a hot day, can a wild turkey be too cool to care?

a. The turkey may do gular fluttering; the rapid, open-mouth breathing and quick vibration of moist throat membranes. Moisture evaporates, and excess heat leaves the bird’s body with each exhalation.

55.1%

b. Panting just doesn’t cool a big thickly feathered turkey enough, so on a sultry afternoon, the eastern wild turkey will remain fairly inactive and will go to roost late. It will forage actively from dusk to dark, especially if the night is illuminated by a full moon or waning gibbous moon.

44.9%

5. We humans have a physiological mechanism for temperature regulation called sweating or perspiring. It is one form of evaporative cooling. As liquid evaporates, it pulls the heat away with it. The turkey vulture or buzzard also utilizes evaporative cooling, how so?

a. A turkey vulture’s head is not feathered; so when the bird’s body temperature rises, the sympathetic nervous system stimulates the vulture’s sweat glands on its head to secrete water which then evaporates.

32.8%

b. Turkey vultures don’t sweat it. A vulture defecates on its legs, and since the bird’s excrement is liquid, it works to cool the bird through the process of evaporative cooling.

67.2%

6. On a lazy summer day beneath a glaring sun at the farm pond, blue dashers (dragonflies) are anything but lazy. They are chasing, mating, egg-laying, patrolling and hunting. They must like sunshine on their shoulders. They’ve got to be as hot as blue blazes. How do blue dashers cool off?

a. Upon vegetation at the edge of the pond, a blue dasher will momentarily perch with wings positioned forward and abdomen pointed upward toward the sunshine; thus, the surface area exposed to the sun is reduced, minimalizing the absorption of solar energy.

36.0%

b. Repeatedly a blue dasher will strike the water’s surface with the tip of its abdomen. This quick, yet frequent, contact with the cool pond water allows for heat dissipation.

64.0%

7. The gender of a red-eared slider turtle is determined by the temperature at which the eggs are incubating at critical stages during early development. That phenomenon is called temperature-dependent sex determination. Which incubation temperature results in which gender?

a. Cool dudes, hot mommas

62.2%

b. Hot dudes, cool mommas

37.8%

8. Some animals just chill out awhile by becoming dormant when weather conditions are very hot and dry. Their breathing rate, heart rate and metabolic rate decrease to conserve energy under these harsh conditions. It’s called estivation. Which animal creates an epiphragm — a disc created from a secreted mucous — to avoid the dry heat before entering this state of estivation?

a. A mussel (bivalved mollusk) glues its valves temporarily together.

27.5%

b. An air-breathing land snail locks itself within its home.

72.5%

9. Certain fish species exhibit an external reproductive behavior called spawning. Into the water female fish release ova or eggs and simultaneously males release spermatozoa. During springtime, bluegill and largemouth bass spawn in Illinois’ lakes with water temperature being a significant factor in the timing. Which fish begins spawning at cooler temperatures than the other?

a. Largemouth bass spawn at lower water temperatures than do bluegill.

57.8%

b. Bluegill spawn at lower water temperatures than do largemouth bass.

42.2%

10. Colors can send a message to pollinators about floral heat as well as about nectar. On a cool day a bumblebee may select to come in out of the cold to warm itself upon the hearth of a flower. Large temperature differences are seen within some floral displays. Which part of the flower of an Asteraceae (aster, sunflower and daisy) is the warmer?

a. The disc florets at the center of a compound inflorescence of an Asteraceae plant are warmer than the rays or petals.

74.0%

b. Because the petals’ bright colors catch the sun’s warmth more readily than do the disc florets, petals or rays of an Asteraceae’s compound inflorescence are warmer.

26.0%

Create your quiz