GenSci Competency No. 4

Competency No. 4
Second Quarter

Name: Date:
Directions: Read the selection carefully and answer the items that follow.

The Selection

Metallic Meal

By Incognito

Aurisaur is a golden lizard that is autochthonous or native to the planet Metallandia. It is a gentle creature that feeds mainly on Cupripterans which are winged copper-toned insects that resemble a dragonfly. Both the Aurisaur and the Cupripterans live under an Argentophyte tree whose silver leaves serve as food to the winged creatures. The winged creatures in turn provide fertilizer to the tree through their copper droppings. One morning in autumn, as the Aurisaur clings from one branch of the Argentophyte to another, a beastly Wolframicarpus predator bird arrived and attacked the golden lizard. The predator bird has a tungsten beak that readily reacts and melts with the golden secretions of the dying Aurisaur. As the tungsten bird gobbled on the golden lizard, little did it know that it has already lost its beak and has thereby lost its lethal predatory weapon. The feasting did not escape the attention of a radioactive leaden snake called Plumboa. Without the bird’s weapon, it proved to be vulnerable to the precision-ambush of the snake. The Tungsten bird yielded its last gasp of metallic air to the leaden snake. But the Plumboa is not without its weakness. Its fissile constitution eventually gave way to the reaction caused by the copper droppings of the starving Cupripterans. The autumn season has shed off almost all the leaves of the Argentophyte leaving very little for the winged creatures to eat, and making their copper droppings most reactive. Ultimately, Natribacters - the bacteria that metabolize sodium - have then started decomposing the Plumboa.

I. List all the alien organisms mentioned in the selection. (12 pts)

II. Diagram a complete food chain for the selection. (12 pts)

III. Illustrate energy assimilation by the organisms using an energy pyramid. (12 pts)

IV. In what type of biome did the story take place? Substantiate your answer. (10 pts)

V. Which organisms exhibited a mutualistic relationship? Substantiate your answer (6 pts)

VI. Which organism(s) exhibited predatory instincts? (6 pts)

VII. Which organism(s) occupied the first trophic level? (5 pts)

VIII. What nutritive function did the Natribacters perform in the food chain? (5 pts)

IX. Assuming that 112,233 KJ of energy has been assimilated by the Wolframicarpus, determine the amount of energy invariably assimilated by the other organisms in the food chain. (10 pts)

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