Errata in George Johnson, The Living World, 4th edition
  1. Table 1.1: "The ants supply the trees with organic nutrients" - what organic nutrients do the ants supply?
  2. Figure 1.5: This diagram on inductive/deductive reasoning is presented in the opposite order from that in the text. The text should also describe these in inductive/deductive order, rather than deductive/inductive.
  3. Figure 1.7: predictions should precede all the experiments.
  4. Figure 1.15: "Thus, although they first appeared before plants, fungi seem to be more closely related to animals than plants." This assertion is false; animals evolved in the Precambrian, well before land plants appeared in the Ordovician. The diagran is misleading in showing the animals branching off later than plants, and also shows a paraphyletic group " invertebrates ".
  5. Chapter 2, p. 24: "Darwin felt it most reasonable to assume all these birds had descended from a common ancestor blown by winds from the South American mainland several million years ago". Darwin did not say anything about an ancestor finch in South America blown by winds.
  6. Chapter 3, p. 56: the structure of amino acids includes "a hydrogen atom (H)"; this is not incorrect, but probably more important is that it contains an asymmetric carbon atom. Figure 3.14: "Thus lemon juice is 100 times more basic than tomatoes" -> "Thus lemon juice is 100 times more acidic than tomatoes"
  7. Chapter 4, p. 89: "collagen, the same protein in fingernails and hair" - the protein in nails and hair is keratin, not collagen.
  8. Figure 4.15 caption "How the endomembrane system works": does not explain what the endomembrane system is. Does it include peroxisomes, for example? If so they are not shown in the figure. What about the nuclear envelope, plasma membrane?
  9. Chap 5 End of Chapter Quiz #9 C: "an inhibitor molecule competes with the substrate for the same binding site on the enzyme." -> "same active site".
  10. Figure 6.23 is illegible.
  11. Figure 6.27: "oxidative respiration" is not described in the text?
  12. Chap 6 Chapter Exam #4 C: the Krebs cycle technically does not require oxygen; the ETC does.
  13. Chap 6 End of Chapter Quiz #10 D: "electron transport system" -> "electron transport chain".
  14. Cyclic and Noncyclic Photophosphorylation animation: "Plants and cyanobacteria utilize two photosystems" -> "Plants and algae utilize two photosystems".
  15. Figure 7.7: what are "polar fibers" and "kinetochore fibers"? They are not defined anywhere.
  16. Figure 7.19 caption "In animals, the completion of meiosis is followed soon by fertilization." This is false; gametes are usually stored after meiosis and in many animals most gametes never reach fertilization. Also, "Germ-line cells are set aside early in development and undergo meiosis" is misleading: human male germ-line cells do not undergo meiosis until puberty.
  17. Figure 7.20 caption "the two homologues of each chromosome exchange portions" -> "nonsister chromatids of homologous chromosomes exchange portions".
  18. Figure 8.2: This diagram does not remotely resemble a pea flower. Also, be consistent in terminology of the flower parts "the petals enclose the male (anther) and female (carpel) parts" -> "the petals enclose the male (stamen) and female (carpel) parts".
  19. Figure 8.21: "white-eye gene" -> "white-eye allele"; "red-eye gene" -> "red-eye allele".
  20. Figure 8.15 caption "Heat-sensitive alleles control this color change." Homeotherms like the arctic fox respond to photoperiod changes, not to temperature. Also, the camouflage value of coat color is probably minimal in the arctic; the insulation provided by hollow white furs is probably a more important factor in this adaptation.
  21. Table 8.2: "homogenistic acid" -> "homogentisic acid", but what's the point of using this obscure compound to illustrate recessive traits?
  22. Figure 9.4: the DNA double helix diagram is illegible; the symbols for the 3' and 5' ends are jumbled.
  23. Chapter 13, photo of peppered moths: The peppered moths should not be shown "glued to" tree bark; they do not perch there in nature. Better yet, do not show this flawed study.
  24. Figure 13.8 caption "Homology among vertebrate limbs" -> "Homology among mammalian forelimbs".
  25. Figure 13.9: "form often follows function" - this commonly abused phrase from the architectural world is not really appropriate in biology: animals do not develop wings in order to fly.
  26. Table 13.2: plants are poor examples of geographic isolation: pollen can easily be transported across a mountain range by wind or flying pollinator.
  27. Figure 14.5: "No tail" is not a shared derived character for the mammalian clade that contains primates.
  28. Chapter 14, p. 301 bottom: "cladistics is the better approach when little information is available about how the character affects the life of the organism". This is very misleading, suggesting that we can infer evolutionary relationships based on "little information".
  29. Figure 17.12 caption "Rhizopagon" -> "Rhizopogon".
  30. Chapter 24, powerpoint slide 14.6: "Birds are lumped with reptiles" -> 'Birds are lumped with crocodilians".
  31. Figure 30.13 caption "Each sperm possesses a long tail" -> "Each sperm possesses a flagellum".
  32. Figure 31.2 caption "The path of energy passes from one trophic level to another and back again...". Energy cannot flow back in trophic levels.
  33. Figure 31.21 caption "A nutrient-rich stream." The text describes a flowing freshwater ecosystem as a "river", not a "stream".
  34. Chapter 31, p. 698 paragraph on Deciduous Forests: "Alligators, for example, are found only in China and southeastern United States." What is the connection between alligators and forests? Alligators live in wetlands and rivers.
  35. Figure 32.12 claims to be "plotted on a logarithmic scale" but is not.
  36. Figure 32.13 caption "Many flowers have coevolved" -> "Many flowering plants have coevolved".
  37. Figure 32.27 caption "Monarch butterflies ... milkweeds and dogbanes...". Monarchs feed on milkweeds but not on dogbanes.
  38. Figure 34.18 caption "The flying fox is a keystone species in many Old World tropical islands." The South Pacific is not considered "Old World".
  39. Chapter 34, p. 759: Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis affects the keratin, not "chitinous" parts of frog skin.
bio1100 Home Feb 20, 2009