Biol/Cosmol.

 INDEX
General Biology and Origins

(Not linked)

SCROLL DOWN FOR RHYMING STUDY AIDS

Birth of the Universe (Big Bang Theory)
Earth Formation (Solar Nebula Hypothesis)
Solar System
First Life on Earth (Popular Theories)
First Evolution Speculation
Evolution and the Tree of Life
Everything Evolves

Timeline, (A) Precambrian Eon

Timeline (B) Phanerozoic Eon
Timeline (C) Paleozoic Era
Timeline (D) Mesozoic Era
Timeline (E) Cenozoic Era

Timeline (F) Paleogene Period

First Farming Speculation
Human Taxonomy
Evolution, Ducks and Dinosaurs
Yeast

Photosynthesis
Flowers
Camels
Capybara
Cheetah

Elephant
Hippopotamus

Kangaroo

Platypus

Tardigrade
Predator and Prey

Symbiosis
Metamorphosis

Trophic Tree

Skeletons

Attributions at the end of this page.
 

Birth of the Universe (Big Bang Theory)

                                                                                         By Yinweichen

Scientific data supports the origin of the universe about 13.8 billion years ago.

Lucky thirteen and point eight
Billion years ago (a rough date)
A Big Bang occurred
But no sound was heard.
Universal creator.
(People turned up later).

                                                                By Alan Beech

Earth Formation (Solar Nebula hypothesis)

After the Big Bang our Universe grew

Gassy clouds, debris and stars all were new.

When gravity collapsed one gas cloud in

Our Sun was formed and it started to spin.

Our Sun attracted all nearby debris

The debris soon also was spinning free.

Spinning debris flattened out as it flew

To a disk protoplanetary grew.

Gravitation in rotating debris

Coalesced it to the planets we see.

Including planet Earth, the one we know

About four point five billion years ago.

                                                                                           By Alan Beech

Solar System

                                                                                       By WP

The sequence of planets in our Solar System from the Sun  is 
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.

Eight little planets cool are we,
From the Sun we are number three.
Beautiful Venus next we see.
Nearest the Sun, tiny Mercury.

First on the right is Mars the red
Where the Roman war god bled.
Jupiter's next, huge blob of gas
Eight moons or more around it pass.

Nearly as big gassy Saturn see
A ball in a ring of ice debris.
Uranus and Neptune, so far away
Gassy & huge, little more to say.

                                                                                By Alan Beech

First Life on Earth (Popular Theories)

The fossil record shows that life began on Earth about 3.5 billion years ago.

For a billion years after its birth
There was no sign of life on the Earth.
At least we haven't found
Any traces of it around.

Three point five billion years ago
A self-copy compound did grow
An important contribution
On the path to evolution.

Did a muddy shelf one day
Make some stuff like RNA?
A perfect copy of itself
With ingredients off the shelf.

Did life start deep in a sea

From H₂S and heat energy?

Did new life species invent

At a hydrothermal vent?

Did stellar dust originate

Chemicals that could replicate?

The chemicals that gave birth

To the tree of life on Earth.

Life origin may not be resolved

Though fossils show it evolved.

Scientists accept the position

“Unknown” trumps superstition.
                                                                                By Alan Beech

First Evolution Speculation

An SRO is a Self-Replicating Organism

The first successful thing alive

Needed to reproduce to thrive.

Using reactive chemicals at hand

Also energy it could command.

Self-Replic Organism One (First)

Made SRO 2, 3 and 4 dispersed

Into the home they lived as a group

A highly reactive chemical soup.

As more and more SROs came along

Some were weak and some were strong

The chemical soup changed and some died

Some could not reproduce when they tried.

But some SROs survived and overcame

They were fittest in the survival game.

Each change in conditions that they see

Culled out the weak, and others unlucky.

Other SROs came competing

For food the first group were eating.

No quarter given, they’d struggle and strive

The mantra always “The fittest survive”.

                                                                                               By Alan Beech

Evolution and the Tree of Life

"On the Origin of Species"
Biology centerpiece is.
The theory of evolution
Led a science revolution.

To explain evolution to you and me

The example Darwin used was a tree.

Tips of its growing twigs can diverge

Species evolving also diverge.

Species DNA classifies them today

The new Tree of Life is a complex display.

                                                                   By Alan Beech

Everything Evolves

Change is always in the air

Ubiquitous or everywhere,

Everything evolves.

                           By Rocky Mountain Laboratories

Fecal E. coli divide

Thrice an hour in full stride

Everything evolves

                                                        By André Karwath

Drosophila, that fruitful fly

Three times a month can multiply,

Everything evolves.

                                                      By D. Sharon Pruitt 

Three generations for you and me,

Can take up to a century
Everything evolves.

Some breed fast, some breed slow

Species come and species go,

Everything evolves.

                            By Alan Beech

Timeline (A) Precambrian Eon

Times in billion years ago (bya) from
4.6 Hadean 3.8 Archean 2.5 Proterozoic 0.46

Though Earth has a four point six billion year history

Four billion years, Precambrian, is a mystery.

The earliest eon of pre-history

The Precambrian is divided in three

First Hadean (Hell) before life began

Then archway from hell to life Archean

The first tiny fossil cells oceanic

Then two billion years of Proterozoic.

                                                                                                           

                                                                                                         By Wikipedia

Times in mya from
4600 Hadean 3800 Archean 2500 Proterozoic 542 Paleozoic 251 Mesozoic 66 Cenozoic present.

Timeline (B) Phanerozoic Eon

Five hundred and forty million years since then

Life flourished and erased many times again.

Species rose and died but life was stoic

Throughout the eon Phanerozoic.

That five hundred forty million years go

Into -zoic eras Paleo, Meso and Ceno.

                                                                                            By Alan Beech

Timeline (C) Paleozoic Era

Times in mya. from

541 Cambrian 485 Ordovician 443 Silurian 419 Devonian 359 Carboniferous 299 Permian 252  

Paleozoic era has six periods of life distinct

Ending when many organisms were extinct.

Cambrian, when species exploded

Seas with fish and other life loaded.

Extinction ended the Cambrian

And the Ordovician began.

Oceans held plants and sea animals too

Too hot for land life, too much CO₂.

Another extinction then Silurian

A primitive land plant invasion began.

Insects and amphibians could thrive

But still too hot for much to survive.

Fish evolve fast in Devonian known

First armored placoderms then fish with bone.

Improvements in leaves, seeds and roots too

Help plants to grow fast in the high CO_2.

Many forests in the early Carboniferous

Amphibians and insects also were numerous.

Till a climate change and tectonic plates shear

Then the continents drifted to form Pangaea.

In Permian lots of species diversified

Deserts were formed when rain forests dried.

First tiny mammals but a reptile expansion

The period ended with a massive extinction.

                                                                                                                By Alan Beech

Timeline (D) Mesozoic Era

Time in mya. from 252 Triassic 201 Jurassic 145 Cretaceous 66

Life was sparse when the Triassic started

Yet more extinctions when it departed.

First true dinosaurs and mammals grow.

Pangaea splits, lands north and south go.

Jurassic, with dinosaurs everywhere

Species evolved for land, sea and air.

The climate changed, forests grew too

Marine minerals trapped lots of CO₂.

Cretaceous period dinos still alive

Till an extinction few could survive,

An asteroid impact ended this era.

Mammalian ascendency was nearer.

                                                                                                  By Alan Beech

Timeline (E) Cenozoic Era

Time in mya 66 Paleogene 23 Neogene 2.6 Quaternary to present.

Paleogene, birds only dinos’ that survive

Many mammal species diversify and thrive.

Continents approach the shapes that we know,

Earth cools, so that seasonal plants can grow.

Last major period, called Neogene

Earliest hominid ancestors seen.

Flora and fauna still come and go

Mostly like the ones that we know.

Quaternary is just a tiny time span

When pre-humans evolved into man.

Ice-ages passed, mammoths too

Will Earth enjoy any future new?

                                                                           By Alan Beech

Timeline (F) Paleogene Period

Time in mya  66 Paleocene 56 Eocene 33.9 Oligocene 23

The Paleogene period, not so long ago

Sixty six to twenty three million years or so

Many dated fossils this period provided

So into epochs and ages it is divided.

A huge asteroid impacted the Yucatan

Extinguished life and the Paleogene began.

The Paleogene period three epochs share between

The Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene.

                                                                                               By Alan Beech

First Farming Speculation

When homo sapiens evolved

Setting up home in caves of old

Jungle justice right or wrong

Favored the strong, the hard and bold.

With hunting weapons crude

They foraged game for food

Gathered insects, nuts and fruit

And new survival skills accrued.

A cave was top notch real estate

A roomy home to perambulate.

Neighbors and animals envied them

So families shared it to populate.

As some men hunted through the day

Guards and protectors had to stay

In case those homeless people tried

To steal their comfy cave away.

Decaying waste and food supplies

Outside the cave, they’d realize

Attracted animals they could kill

The plants and trees it would fertilize.

Perhaps cave dwellers then became

Trappers and ambushers of game.

While they waited for the prey

They tended plants to pass the day.

After a hundred thousand years

Of hunter gatherer sweat and tears

Did that catalyze people to farm

Since the last ten thousand years?

                                                                   By Alan Beech

Human Taxonomy

The description, identification, naming and classification of organisms by domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species. For humans these are respectively  eukarya, animal, chordate, mammal, Tprimate, hominid, homo and sapiens.

By Peter Halasz     Flora and fauna collate In layers one to eight. My slow brain is scarier, My domain eukarya. My income is minimal, My kingdom is animal. My spry chum is your date, My phylum is chordate. My ass is a camel, My class is a mammal. My ardor says why wait, My order is primate. My sanity is on the skid, My family is hominid. My Venus is no mo', My genus is homo. My nieces are shapely ‘ns, My species is sapiens.

                            By Alan Beech

Evolution, Ducks and Dinosaurs

                                                                                  By Zina Deretsky

Birds belong to the class aves. There is strong evidence suggesting that they are

descendants of dinosaurs that survived the great extinction of 65 million years ago.

I never saw 

A dinosaur,

Though I've been told 

That they evolved

Into each bird 

I've seen or heard.

                                       By Alan Beech

Yeast

                                               By Frankie Robertson 

Saccharomyces yeast

Eat sugars for a feast.

They excrete CO₂

To raise the bread we chew,

Ethyl alcohol too

To make our favorite brew.

                                          By Alan Beech  

Photosynthesis

                                                    By At09kg

All the things that people see
When looking at a plant or tree
Are made from water in the ground
And CO₂ from air around
Without any noise or sound.

Chlorophyll is catalyst
These reactions to assist.
It takes a lot of energy
Our Sun donates to them for free
To change a seed into a tree.

Photosynthesis tricks

C six H twelve O six,
These atoms compose

The sugar glucose.

Through phloem it flows.

                                 By Alan Beech

Flowers

                                                              By Mariana Ruiz 

Flowers are a showy lot,

Botanists say that each has got

Female stigmas, pollen acquirers

And male anthers, pollen suppliers.

The orchid, rose and Mexi-dahlia,

All have bisexual genitalia.

Do flowers in a plant or tree

Reach a climax if a bee

Explores their sexuality

While sipping at their nectary?

                                       By Alan Beech

Camels

  

                                                                                                By Jjron                                        

  

                                        By: "2011 Trampeltier 1528".

On dromedaries one hump see
Like one bump on letter D.

Bactrian camels have two humps
And capital Bs have two bumps.

D for one and B for two,

Camel humps seen in a zoo.

                                                                                  By Alan Beech

Capybara

                                                                                  By VigilancePrime

Biggest animal of order rodentia

The capybara found in South America.

In swampy land these herbivores feed

On grasses, fruit and aquatic weed.

Lifespan in the wild is around years four

Although in a zoo it is eight or more.

They are hunted by eagle and caiman,

Anaconda, jaguar and human.

                                                                                          By Alan Beech

Cheetah 

                                                                                   By Malene Thyssen

Speediest animals, cheetahs

Exceed a hundred kilometers

(That is sixty two miles) an hour

Chasing prey they want to devour.

                                                                        By Alan Beech

Elephant

                                                                                        By Marco Schmidt

Adult African elephants, bull (or male)

Are the largest land animals, tip to tail.

A bull may roam the savannah alone

But he mates at the call of testosterone.

Related cows and their calves band together

An old one (matriarch) leads the band wherever.

If a waterhole dries the band must beat a retreat

The matriarch knows where next to drink and eat.

Three or more species of elephant exist

The Asian Elephant should not be missed.

The Savannah (or Bush) is one African species

 The Forest elephant is also an African species.

                                                                                                 By Alan Beech

Hippopotamus

 

                                                                                         By Paulmaz

One a hippopotamus is

Two are hippopotamuses,

Some folk say hippopotami.

(Latin plural ending, that’s why).

Hippopotami

Are not often dry

To stay cool they romp

In pods, in a swamp.

Twenty or more cows in a group

Cavort with one bull in the goop.

Third largest animal hippopotamus

After the elephant and rhinoceros.

When hunger calls each herbivore

Leaves the pod they all adore

For dryer land and grass that’s green

To dine where others are not seen.

                                              By Alan Beech

  

Kangaroo

For Celia Berrell

                                    By  fir0002

Busy kangarouterus

Always a Joey plus,

When Joey vacates

A new egg awaits.

Joey only stays

For thirty plus days.

Bean-sized it can debouch

And climb to momma’s pouch.

Six months it will hide

Before peeking outside.

Three months more it’s grown

And could live on its own.

But that pouch they adore
So for several months more
They hop out and hop back
For a safe place or snack.

                                                                                By Alan Beech

Platypus

                                                                        By Stefan Kraft

Pommies called us jokes

A mixed–up species hoax.

Our babies nurse, that makes us a mammal

A mammal that is a bit unusual.

We’re duck-billed and lay eggs

Beaver tailed with otter legs.

Male platypus a venom makes

Armament it shares with snakes.

Our fur and skin is like a mole

Our home near water is a hole.

We are swimmers with eyes like a fish

To eagles and crocs we’re delish.

These differences we celebrate

Because we are Australian, mate.

                                                                 By Alan Beech

  
                

Tardigrade

                                                                   By Darron Birgenheier

A tardigrade (waterbear) from drainage of a hot spring in California, on a person’s fingertip.

Tiny tardigrade,

Toughest animal made.

An extremophile

No climate can kill.

                          By Alan Beech

Predator and Prey 

  By Michael Zahra                     By D. Gordon E. Robertson

That fussy eater, arctic lynx

Only dines on snowshoe hare,

A family cat because he thinks

Food is plentiful out there.

Big lynx family eats away,

Eating lots of snowshoe hare.

Then one day, to their dismay,

They cannot find a hare out there.

Starving lynx kits pass away,

Very few of them survive. 

Arctic hares come out to play

It is now their turn to thrive.

They copulate and populate,

Producing many snowshoe hare.

Surviving lynx can captivate

And feast again inside his lair.

Hunter lynx and prey hare shares

Dependent population links.

Too few lynx increase the hares

Too few hares decrease the lynx.

                                    By Alan Beech

Symbiosis
for Emily Beech

                                                                            By Jan Derk

Poison tipped tentacles of sea anemones

Keep them protected from most enemies,

But tiny invertebrates attack

And anemones cannot fight back.

But invertebrates taste quite delish

To small multicolored clownfish.

Immune from venom of anemones

Each protects the other from enemies.

Whenever we discover

Species pairing with each other

And both species benefit,

Symbiosis we call it.

                                   By Alan Beech

Metamorphosis

                                                                                Public domain

Tadpoles can sit on logs

By changing into frogs.

How do they manage this?

By metamorphosis.

How can a caterpillar fly?

By changing to a butterfly,

How does it manage this?

By metamorphosis.

Can axolotls demand a

Change to a salamander?

Some can accomplish this

By metamorphosis.

But axolotls are strange

Some kinds cannot change

To the shape they demand

They cannot salamand.

                                       By Alan Beech

Trophic Tree

By Thompsma

Every green plant is a factory

Making organics from seed to tree

Harvesting energy from the Sun

Providing food for everyone.

Plants are producers you can see

The bottom rank of the trophic tree.

Herbivores from rabbits to elephants

Dine only on grass and leafy plants.

One rabbit eats lots of grassy weed

The energy helps it to live and breed.

This primary consumer gets biomass

Energy formerly present in grass.

One fox may eat twelve rabbits or more

Carnivorous consumers, that’s for sure

Secondary consumer of biomass

To a different new body now will pass.

The fox may fall prey to eagle or big cat

A tertiary consumer, is what we call that.

Carnivorous carnivore consumers free

To reign at the apex of the trophic tree.

                                                                                                       By Alan Beech

Skeletons

                                                                   By Abnormaal

Endoskeletons inside the body keep

 The shape of human, elephant and sheep.

Exoskeleton on the outside protects

Crabs and lobsters and many insects.

                                                                                                By Alan Beech

ATTRIBUTION OF IMAGES

."07. Camels, Dromedary

Profile, near Silverton, NSW, 07.07.2007" by Jjron - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Camels, Bactrian

"2011 Trampeltier 1528". Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Capybara

VigilancePrime at en.wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0) or FAL], from Wikimedia Commons

Cheetah 

By Malene Thyssen (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

 Ducks and Dinosaurs.

By Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Elephant

By Marco Schmidt[1] (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

 Flowers.

 "Mature flower diagram" by Mariana Ruiz LadyofHats - Own work. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Human Taxonomy.

 By Peter Halasz. (User:Pengo) (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Hippopotamus

Paulmaz at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

Kangaroo

Taken by fir0002 | flagstaffotos.com.au Canon 20D + Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L (Own work) [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Metamorphosis
Public domain via Wikipedia

 Photosynthesis.

"Photosynthesis" by At09kg - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Platypus

By Stefan Kraft [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

 Predator and Prey

 "Canada lynx by Michael Zahra" by Michael Zahra - http://www.flickr.com/photos/mzahra1/4248818181/sizes/l/in/photostream/. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

 Predator and Prey

"Snowshoe Hare, Shirleys Bay" by D. Gordon E. Robertson - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

 Rates of Change

 "EscherichiaColi NIAID" by Credit: Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH - NIAID: These high-resolution (300 dpi) images may be downloaded directly from this site. All the images, except specified ones from the World Health Organization (WHO), are in the public domain. For the public domain images, there is no copyright, no permission required, and no charge for their use. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

.Rates of Change

 "Drosophila melanogaster - side (aka)" by André Karwath aka Aka - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons

 Rates of Change

(Mother and baby) By D. Sharon Pruitt from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, USA [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Skeletons

By Abnormaal (fr:Image:Squelettes.png) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Symbiosis 
By Janderk (Photographed by Jan Derk) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Trophic Tree

By Thompsma (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Yeast.

"Yeast cell english" by Frankie Robertson using Inkscape, own work. - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons