Question

(a) “Organisms may be conformers or regulators.” Explain this statement and give one example of each.

(b) Why are there more conformers than regulators in the animal world? [3]

Answer 1

(a) Organisms may be conformers or regulators. Conformers are those organisms which cannot maintain a constant internal environment under varying external environment conditions [0.5] e.g., all plants, fishes, reptiles, amphibians etc [0.5]. While, regulators are those organisms which can maintain homeostasis by physiological or behavioural means [0.5] e.g., birds or mammals. [0.5]

(b) There are more conformers than regulators in the animal world because the process of thermoregulation is energetically expensive and hence not favourable for all organisms. [1]