What are the primary stimulus modalities detected by animal sensory receptors? I

Question

What are the primary stimulus modalities detected by animal sensory receptors? In other words, what are the different kinds of receptors and what do they sense. For each modality, please give an example of an animal that is particularly well developed in terms of utilizing that modality, and explain why (evolutionarily) it is so well-developed in this animal Example (you may no longer use this modality, but there are at least 5 more): Chemoreception is the detection of chemical signals, such as in the detection of taste, smell, blood. and CO_2- An animal that uses chemoreception particularly well is the catfish, as discussed in lecture. The catfish has taste buds all over the surface of the body and uses these to detect food and dangerous stimuli such as noxious substances or chemicals released by fishes under attack. Because they live in very dark environments, they have evolved to rely on this sense over vision. What are the primary stimulus modalities detected by animal sensory receptors? in other words, what are the different kinds of receptors and what do they sense. For each modality, please give an example of an animal that is particularly well developed in terms of utilizing that modality, and explain why (evolutionarily) it is so well-developed in this animal.

Explanation / Answer

The different kinds of animal sensory receptors are listed below:

1. Photoreceptors: These are vision receptors and they are activated by photons of light. Living organisms such as insects have thousands of compound eyes which are practically identical units which encompass nearly the entire sphere of space around their bodies that gives a broader prospective of dangers and food around them in comparison to vertebrates. Another example is the hawk which has nearly 1 million photoreceptors per sqmm in its retina. This makes a hawk vision to increase 4 times compared to humans.

2. Mechanoreceptors: Hearing receptors or hair cells are kind of mechanoreceptors which normally detect the patterns of air pressure caused by vibration of objects and interpret the data by sending signals to the brain. An organism that utilizes this kind of receptor under water is drum fish. The drum fish collects the sound vibrations under the water with an air bladder. The signals are transmitted to a "Weberian apparatus" located in the middle of ear and then to the inner ear. Hair cells which are localized in the inner ear transmit the sound information to the brain. Another example is grasshopper which has hairs all over the body to detect air movement and therefore can easily the fluctuations of air pressure in the surroundings.

3.Balance receptors: The balance receptors in the vertebrates are located in a specialized organ in the inner ear called the vestibular organ. Signals from the vestibular organ are helpful in making the eye and head movements to fix on a particular target and responsible for stabilizing the image. This allows the organisms to balance for example when a cat walks top of fence.

4.Magnetic receptors: Worker honey bees consists of ring of iron oxide (known as magnetite) around their abdomens which can be used to detect the changes in earth's magnetic field and therefore can be helpful for navigation purposes.

5.Sound receptors: Animals such as bats use sound frequencies. Their sense of echolocation is helpful in getting information about the type of insect or food located. They can be able to perceive frequencies between 3000 to 12000Hz. On the otherhand like bats dolphins also uses echolocation for movement and location of objects. They can perceive sound frequencies of atleast 100000Hz.

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