Biases and Judgments Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Biases and Judgments - Essay Example The decision entailed reflection aimed at enhancing the progress of the organization and improve performance. These decisions also promote efficiency in the staff and management. This decision could act as the basis of action since the policies could be implemented (Salaman, 2001). Emotions can influence the decisions that the management of an enterprise makes. Emotions can affect rational decision making; those who follow emotions make irrational decisions. As such, businesses should not come up with decisions based on emotionality as the decisions, may have a negative impact. Fairness should prevail while making decisions; all departments within an organization should be treated equally (Yates, 2003). According to Salaman (2001), reflective decision making includes examination, contemplation, critical meditation and analytical thoughts when making decisions. Therefore, reflective decision makers ensure that managers critically analyze the decisions they make. Reflection means that the decisions have to be given a deep thought before implementation; implementers take their time before coming up with the decision. On the other hand, expedient decision making entails solving problems that require immediate solutions. Expedient decisions mainly stem from the need for them; business organizations mainly make them when need to do so arise. For example, an organization may decide to lay off employees instantly. Yates (2003) asserts that biases may arise when making decisions; they include dependency on one form of information where decisions makers tend to over rely on one course of action. Other biases may include overconfidence on the decisions made and selective gathering of informat ion. Thus, in conclusion, the essay has discussed business decision making. It has addressed the role of decision making, which enhances progress in a business. Emotions and biases have a negative impact on the decisions made; they may lead to poor

Evaluation of TV show or movie Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Evaluation of TV show or movie - Essay Example But as the new episodes are aired, the personalities which we have assigned to each characters seems to be invalid when different mishaps at the firm arisesand the characters are on an emotional roller coaster ride, revealing their true selves to the audience. Although on the surface, the serial outlines the show having uncaring and unemotional characters but involvement of one young and sympathetic associate attorney have them questioning their ways, bringing out their uncertainty and feelings and evoking their allegiance which makes all the ladies in the audience gush out â€Å"Oh my God, Harvey is such a darling!†. Hence, Suits depicts faithfulness, trust and loyalty as a medium to achieve a feat and not only competence. Played by a skilled actor Gabriel Macht, Harvey Specter is a self-centered and unemotional man whose main concern is winning for which he can do anything, but as we approach season two we see that to keep his associate, Mike Ross - who does not clear the eligibility of the job, in the firm he goes to great length by threatening to leave his job if the kid got fired, which illustrated the care he had for his associate. Moreover, in the mid of the same seasonin a critical situation where Harvey is to be disbarred on the accusation by his enemy for burying evidences, he teams up with the firm’s former managing director Daniel Hardman (who again gets involved in the firm after his wife died), whom he regard as an enemy, rather than voting for Jessica’s decision of going to a trial because that would jeopardize everyone in the firm, showing his loyalty and commitment to the organization. Similarly, in the same manner it is revealed in the upcoming season that being in compa ny of his associate; Harvey is starting to value those things, which initially were nuisance to him. Moving to the female leading character, Jessica Pearson is a hard woman who will go to any length to keep her surname on the wall of the firm

Wynn Resort Essay Example for Free

Wynn Resort Essay Executive Summary 1.) Purpose To know if what is the overall strategy of Steve Wynn to make Wynn Resorts, Ltd. on the right track and quite a remarkable company. 2.) Statement of the Problem There are three problems which I found out in the case, and these are the three challenges that Wynn will have to face, and the future may throw some curveballs along the way. First is need to secure a way to maintain the competitive advantage as increased competition is introduce both domestically and abroad into the gaming industry. Second, The Macau government reserves the right to take control of the Wynn Casino in 2017; this would be detrimental to the profits for the company, and some solutions will need to be devised to ensure that the survival of the company is not majorly dependent on the revenues generated by Wynn Macau resort and casino. A third concern about future success, but certainly not the final concern, is the loss of Steve Wynn himself. Losing Steve Wynn would mean losing his expertise, passion and governmental ties. In the most likely scenario, a loss of Steve Wynn may result in the sale of the firm to a competing company, such as MGM Inc. 3.) Alternative Courses and Actions Wynn must focus on differentiating the company by concentrating on the atmosphere and design of the resorts. Wynn Rsort must enhance customers service and luxury as full-service provider. 4.) Recommendation Wynn must not only focus to target high-end gaming customers, but he must also offer affordable goods and services to the middle-income clients. This segment includes vacationers and younger people looking for relatively inexpensive place to say with the understanding that most of their budget will go to dining and entertainment. Methods of Analysis 1. SWOT Analysis SWOT ANALYSIS Strengths 1. The greatest operational strength Wynn Resorts, Ltd. has is the founder himself, Steve Wynn. 2. The resort has earned AAA five diamond, Mobil five-star, Forbes five-star, and Michelin five star ratings for hotel, as well as one Michelin star for restaurant Wing Lei, and is considered to be one of the finest hotels in the world. 3. One of Wynn Resorts’ greatest marketing strength is strategic development of its product. The product that Wynn sells is a luxury destination experience that makes customers feel pampered and value through high-quality amenities and customer service. 4. Steve Wynn is widely considered the â€Å"Father of Luxury Gambling†, and he is largely responsible for the image change and societal perspective change of the city of Las Vegas. | Weaknesses 1. The company’s complete dependence of Steve Wynn is a significant weakness. 2. Focusing solely on the high-end market could be a marketing weakness in that Wynn is missing a large customer base of middle-income clients. 3. Wynn Resorts’ biggest disadvantage is its youth. MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment are companies with history and territory. They have the majority of premier legal gambling locations such as Atlantic city under their thumb and they will create difficult barriers to entry for Wynn Resorts.| Opportunities 1. As the boomers retire, they are spending more money on leisure and recreation, and they are piling into the casinos, this growing represents an opportunity for the gaming industry and for Wynn Resorts specifically. 2. The development of a casino in Macau is a strategic opportunity. 3. Wynn Macau provides the opportunity for cross-marketing with Wynn Las Vegas, because the target market segment in both Wynn Las Vegas and Wynn Macau is high income, customers have resources to travel and vacation in other parts of the world, which can make cross-marketing very effective.| Threats 1. Social norms in the United States differ from those practiced in Macau and should not be universally applied. 2. The ability of the government to take control of the casino at any time it deems appropriate is a significant threat to the success of Wynn Resorts because it could lose control of its operation in Macau. 3. Another threat exists in the possibility of Wynn Resorts, Ltd. being unable to collect on its gaming debts. 4. The loss of Steve Wynn, himself.| Bibliography 1. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Swot-Analysis-Wynn-Ltd-946073.html 2. http://www.investingvalue.com/investment-leaders/steve-wynn/index.html

Money Cannot Substitute Passion :: Personal Narrative, Autobiographical Essay

Money Cannot Substitute Passion "Tuan, this is the last time I'm going to tell you, you better clean the house." said my father. "I'll do it later," I replied. "Later?" he said. "Why don't you just make some money and hire a maid to do it. Then you don't have to worry about it!" Coming from a blue-collar background, my father constantly reminded me of the importance of money. It was many years ago that he arrived in this country, carrying me in one arm and his hopes and dreams on the other. It was upon arriving in the advertised land of opportunity that he quickly learned that money was the only ticket to upward mobility. It was rough in the beginning. My father was forced to scrape and save in hopes of providing us with a better home. A family of four, we shared a bedroom in which we all slept together, never separated by more than a few inches apart. We did not have much except the daily warmth and undying devotion for one another. Through diligence and sacrifice, his hard work paid off and newfound success smiled upon us, changing our lives forever. As our new home quickly filled with all the luxuries and amenities the newly reaped profits and investments could afford, it seemed to become emptier to me. Money soon became a substitute for our slowly vanishing relationships. Lazy Sundays spent with him at the Japanese gardens feeding goldfish were replaced by late nights at the store and a brand spanking new widescreen television. The once friendly dinner table where our lives were intertwined through bowels of rice porridge and bean sprouts was abandoned for meals in seclusion. We ate not together, but in our own rooms. The doors and the walls sealing us off in our own separate worlds, closing us off from one another, and hence leaving only a bad taste lingering inside of me. It was not until I left home for college that I was able to fully comprehend what was happening. You see, I lived on the inside and my father lived on the outside. Standing on the hilltop of the university, I am able to look out and see all the possibilities my brick and ivy education has opened up for me.

Identify and outline the opportunities of current government

The essay briefly focuses on the delivery of the Healthy Child Programme age 0-19 (HCP DOH 2009) and the â€Å"Giving all children a healthy start† policy by the Department ot Health 2013 (DOH 2013). The government brought the Healthy Child Programme 0-19 years old, out in October 009 (HCP 2009) to support partnerships that work closely with children and their families.The HCP has made a great impact on the way the health professionals work, as it gives them a guideline on how to structure the delivery of care given to the families. Ensuring that appropriate preventative health care and support is given to the more deprived families that require more guidance. On the other hand the â€Å"Giving all children a healthy start in life† Policy (DOH 2013) ims to help children who grow up in the most at risk families and to help parents give their children the best possible care.This policy also embraces the aims of the HCP, as one of its main focuses, is to help children be a s healthy as possible by preventing Illness and encouraging healthy behaviours from pregnancy onwards (DOH 2013). Both these policies make an Immerse dfference In which the health professionals deliver their services, particularly the specialist community public health nurses (SCPHN).As the policies are a guideline for the SCPHN to follow, and to make sure that they are delivering and offering the most appropriate support they can give to their clients with their best ability. References Department of Health (2012) Getting it right for children, young people and families. Department of Health (2013) Giving all children a healthy start in life. Department of Health (2009) Child Programme: from pregnancy to the first five years ‘OF2 Department of Health (2009) Healthy Child Programme: from 5-19 years old.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Student: B00227358 University of the West of Scotland Issues Surrounding the Role of Innovation in the Economic Growth Process Introduction The modern world economy shows that the scientific and technological knowledge and innovation are key factors for sustainable economic growth. Much of the competitive advantages that the country holds today derives from the use of scientific knowledge and applied technology become the corporate level to develop new products or services through the management of technological innovation, marketing, and organizational.The world globalization highlights the urgent need for business organizations that produce goods and services for domestic or international market recognize the strategic value of innovation and incorporated into its business management as an instrument or tool that is part of your corporate culture. Innovation is an essential element for any organization in order to survive, grow and significantly influence the direction of any indus try.Development does not; however, guarantee success, but most be followed up with successive streams of innovation and change, from the incremental to the radical. Discussion The most reliable way to be successful in the industry is to innovate better and longer than the competitor, leading companies develops innovation portfolios that they can use to help sustain growth over the long term. Innovation and change is an essential part of any business activity, but only some people recognize its importance and significance.Companies recognize that key factors such as productivity, competitiveness, and productive marketing and organizational efficiency, depend increasingly implement suitable mechanisms to change from the stage knowledge generation (Science and Technology), or import and assimilation of it to the stage of practical application through the process of innovation. In the recent years, entrepreneurship has become the most successful innovation to increase the economical gro wth of the country. Entrepreneurship has long een briefly viewed as a foremost vehicle for financial development and it has captivated investigators from a kind of disciplines with very varied analytical approaches. Audretsch & Thurik, in their paper â€Å"What’s new about the new economy? Sources of growth in the managed and entrepreneurial economies,† demonstrates the change which is being made in the OECD countries. According to them, the reason for this change is the entrepreneurial economy (Audretsch & Thurik, 2001, 267). The paper is an attempt to articulate and identify the differences between the new emerging entrepreneurial economy and the managed economy.According to this paper, there are a total of 14 trade-offs that confronts these two economies. The major economic benefits of European integration will come not through economies of scale, but rather through economies of diversity (Audretsch & Thurik, 2001, 308). The countries that have adopted the entrepren eurial economy have been successful in making additional growth. In another paper, â€Å"Linking entrepreneurship and economic growth,† Wennekers and Thurik looks at the link between the entrepreneurship and the economic growth of a country.The paper concludes that entrepreneurship really matters for the prosperity of a country. In today’s modern world of economics, entrepreneurship plays an essential role in the growth of economy. According to the paper, ICT-revolution and globalization implies the need for a structural change which requires a considerable reallocation of the resources, this increases the demand for entrepreneurship (Wennekers & Thurik, 1999, 140). The Schumpeterian tradition of the analysis which concerns the form, innovation and entrepreneurship is examined in the paper, â€Å"Innovation, entrepreneurship and the firm: a post-Schumpeterian approach. Burton proposes a post- Schumpeterian framework as a remedy for the defects in the Schumpeterian fra mework. The framework presented by Burton is based on four main elements Diffused Entrepreneurship/Entrepreneurial Management; Collaborative Business Arrangements for Knowledge Creation; Knowledge Protection; and Knowledge Creation (Burton, 2001, 7). We can look take assistance from this framework to strengthen the innovation and entrepreneurship in the country. Furthermore, in â€Å"Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Economic Growth: Evidence from GEM data,† demonstrates the occurrence of the high growth prospective of the new emerging firms.There are different rates of economic growths which have been observed in the country. Not every entrepreneurial start-up contributes to the generating economic growth. It shows that other factors also influence the economic growth of a country. Innovation in science and technology is also an essential part in contributing to the growth of economy in a country. Economic growth is a process through which knowledge is transformed into qualit y goods and services that satisfy human needs (Wong et al, 2005, 335).The companies are the means through which scientific and technological knowledge is applied in a practical way through the production process, and is transformed into goods and services increased level or better quality, which contributes to the economic and social transformation. Organizations need a change of approach, which involves focusing attention on existing technologies that when used on a widespread basis through processes of innovation, can have a significant impact on the UK economy.Most countries recognize the importance of science and technology as tools for economic growth, but many developing countries focus exclusively on the generation of knowledge in basic research support. Countries must adopt strategies to improve the infrastructure of basic services, so that the appropriate level of the same foster technological development necessary to achieve sustained economic growth: Without a decent infr astructure of basic services it is not possible to develop major applications of technology.Many developing countries have made the mistake of not giving enough importance to the training of technicians and technologists, and artisans, which are home to many small and medium enterprises. Today most of the curriculum and curriculum of universities in developing countries have become obsolete (Murray & Blackman, 2006, 132). In an increasingly globalized world requires changes in national policies to incorporate science and technology in the design of economic strategies, in order to achieve: 1. The use of existing technology, using the strategy of â€Å"shadow and fast â€Å"using ICT (information) than is available in the world, 2.Attracting Foreign Direct Investment in technological capability and seek to promote links with other firms in the chain, 3. † Upgrade â€Å"of existing technological capacity in the business sector, 4. Identify market niches and incorporated into the chain 5. To promote international technology partnerships, 6. Using technology foresight methodology in the various sectors (Murray & Blackman, 2006, 132). Among the various fiscal and policy instruments that can be implemented to stimulate technological innovation and boost business ties between the actors.We need to promote intellectual property, promote international cooperation in technology transfer, and promote co-financing for technological innovation and venture capital funds for technological innovation. Other than that encourage the creation and development of small and medium enterprises to promote business development centers and technology incubators, implement technology parks; enhance the technological links with companies in free zones are also very important. There are many issues involved in the role of innovation.For many years, we have tried to understand the relationship between innovation and development in global and in particular its economical dimension. This interest has increased significantly. While this issue has been addressed in the literature at least since the 60's and 70's, is the late 80's and 90's in that discussion has intensified in part by the new avenues that are opening the economy informational. A new technological revolution based largely on information, and spread through the global economy, affects the spatial conformation of economic activities (Uljin, 2003, 15).This is due to the characteristics that result from different combinations of endogenous processes such as fixed capital investment, research and development, education, the advantages in the use of technologies, the economies of scale, the allocation of resources, and a variety of institutional factors that vary between countries. This applies not only within countries but even between regions. The industrial map is diversified, resulting in regional differentiation based on the vocation of the places on those parameters.Innovative industries of the ne w technological revolution do not show a generalized spatial dispersion. On the contrary, are located in regions where they meet the requirements for innovation. Three issues deserve particular attention. First, it increases the importance of knowledge and intelligence as the basic factors of the system. They are the key for access to and ownership of information that feeds the dynamics of innovation by enabling technological transformation and modernization of the economy (Uljin, 2003, 15). Second, it involves growing interdependence among various actors and resources.Among them are companies that make up the economic structure of a region, universities, local government, the labor market, community, entrepreneurship, infrastructure and funding sources. Conclusion This is particularly important as the playing experience with innovation policy has become a panacea for a variety of problems. It is clear that the contexts in which they have successfully implemented these policies cont ain factors that are areas of opportunity for action and that lessons should not be isolated without context.Third, the information economy, enhances the integration between regional and global networks. The paradox of the twentieth century is that, in a global economy, regions and cities become increasingly important, even when they have less power than national governments and are always in constant competition. The regions have enormous advantages to compete globally; from greater flexibility to adapt to changing conditions at the national level can be tackled only with painful effort behind. References Audretsch, A. D. and Thurik, A. R. 2001), â€Å"What’s new about the new economy? Sources of growth in the managed and entrepreneurial economies,† Industrial and Corporate Change, Vol. 10, No 1, Pp. 267-309 Burton, J. (2001), â€Å"Innovation, entrepreneurship and the firm: a post-Schumpeterian approach,† International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovatio n Management Vol. 1, No. 1, Pp. 7-29 Murray, P. & Blackman, D. (2006), â€Å"Managing Innovation through social architecture, learning, and competencies: a new conceptual approach,† Knowledge and Process Management, 13, 3, Pp. 32-143 Uljin, J. (2003), â€Å"Cultural Conditions of Championing Innovation in International Technology-Driven Firms: Ways of Conceptualisation and Assessment,† ECIS Reseach, Pp. 15-19 Wennekers, S. and Thurik, R. (1999), â€Å"Linking entrepreneurship and economic growth,† Small Business Economics, Vol. 13, No 1, Pp. 140-149 Wong, K. , Ho, Y. P. & Autio, E. (2005), â€Å"Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Economic Growth: Evidence from GEM data,† Small Business Economics, Vol 24, Pp. 335 – 350

Success of vertebrates The WritePass Journal

Success of vertebrates   Introduction Success of vertebrates   IntroductionReferencesRelated   Introduction Vertebrate mean backbone and every species in the vertebrate classes has a backbone.   Phylum chordatata contains the most familiar species, which includes humans. All chordates have several things in common that occurs in some stage of their development. They have pharynged slits, which are openings that connect the inside of the throat to the outside of the neck. These are often used as gills, and are only present in humans when they are at the early stage of development (foetus). A tail is also present, which extends past the anal opening.   The main feature is the notochord, which is a rod that supports the nerve cord and this is present in all species. The nerve cord is a bundle of nerve fibres which connects the brain to every muscle and organ in the body. These nerve fibres are used to send messages to organs and muscles from the brain. In most species these features disappear with age. There are about 44.000 species in three subphylum’s groups (Matthew Morris15/05/ 2003). Vertebrata is the largest subphylum with the more well known animals such as: mammals, reptiles, fish, aves, amphibians. Every animal with a back bone is present in vertebrate subphylum. All vertebrates have a skeleton of either bone or cartilage and there brain is protected by a bony cranium which consists of three parts. They have well developed hearts with three or four chambers and have a closed circulatory system. There are 41700 species in eight different groups and they are as follows: Amphibia (frogs, salanders), Aves (birds), Cephalaspidomorph (lamprey), chondrichthyes (hag fish), osteichthyes (bony fish) and reptilian (crocodiles, snakes, turtles). Agnatha which are also known as jawless fish is a lower class vertebrate and the best representative for this vertebrate is the marine lamprey (petromyzon). This fish is eel like in its appearance, but much more primitive in its structure than true eels, which are more developed bony fish. The lamprey body is very soft and scale less and its skeleton consist of just cartilage (it lacks bone completely). There are no traces of paired fins and most of all it is completely jawless. The lampreys rounded mouth cup forms an adhesive disc, which it uses to attach to other fish that it preys on as a blood sucker. It has a rough tongue like structure in the mouth that is good substitute for having no jaw bone. There is just one nostril opening which is situated on top of its head, and having a hypophsial pouch combined with it. The gills passages in typical fish are slits, but in the lamprey they are rounded pouches, which are connected by narrow tubes with the pharynx and body surface. Cartilaginous Fishes (Chondrichthyes) date back to the Devonian period and fossels that were found resembled sharks. The animals of today are made up of about eight hundred species which include; sharks, skates and rays. The cartilaginous fishes got their name from the fact that their skeleton is made of cartilage, not bone. With their gills exposed to sea water, all marine fishes are faced with the problem of conserving body water because Sea water is about 3.5% salt, which is over 3 times that of vertebrate’s blood. The cartilaginous fishes solve that problem by maintaining a high concentration (2.5%) of urea in their blood (which is far higher than the 0.02% of other vertebrates) that is in osmotic balance with sea water. This ability develops late in embryo, so the eggs of these species cannot simply be released in the sea, but there are two solutions to this and they are: Enclose the egg in an impervious case filled with isotonic fluid before depositing it in the sea and, Retain the eggs and embryos within the mothers body until they are capable of coping with the marine environment. Both these solutions require internal fertilization and the cartilaginous fishes were the first vertebrates to develop this. The pelvic fins of the male are modified for depositing sperm in the reproductive tract of the female. Bony Fishes (Osteichthyes) as the name indicates their skeletons are made of bone and they are divided into two groups which are: ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii) and lobe-finned fishes (Sarcopterygii). Ray-finned fishes have thin fins that are supported by the spine and there are around thirty thousand species. the only Lobe-finned fishes that are still around today are one possibly two species called coelacanth, which were thought to be extinct and several species of lungfish that are found in Africa, South America, and Australia.In additions to gills, these fishes had a pair of pouched outgrowths from the pharynx which served as lungs. They were inflated with air taken in through the mouth and may have provided a backup gas exchange organ when the water became too warm and stagnant to carry enough dissolved oxygen. Their kidneys were adapted for the hypotonic environment in which they lived.   These animals diversified through the remainder of the Devonian period (which is oft en called the Age of Fishes). Some migrated to the oceans. In this more stable environment, their lungs became transformed into a swim bladder with which they could alter buoyancy. Their kidneys became transformed as well adapting them to their new hypertonic surroundings. The nostrils of bony fishes open only to the outside and are used for smelling. Some of the lobe-finned fishes developed internal openings to their nostrils. This made it possible to breath air with the mouth closed as modern lungfishes do. These rare modern lobe-finned fishes are the sole survivors of once-flourishing groups that also gave rise to the tetrapods - the four-legged vertebrates. In the Devonian (perhaps as early as 395 million years ago), the paired fins of some sarcopterygians moved under the body and developed limbs (complete with digits). This enabled them to venture out on land. So once again, evolution was opportunistic giving rise to the first land vertebrates, the amphibians. Amphibians in its class included all cold blooded species that are in between the evolutionary development of fishes and reptiles. They Include 4 living species which are the frogs, toads, salamanders and newts. Amphibians were the first vertebrates to move from a water habitat to a earthly one, and they are also the ancestors of all reptiles, birds, and mammals. Although there are a few species that live their lives in water, most spend a lot of time on land. Most Amphibians are species of the class Amphibia and are vertebrates easily recognised by their ability to live on land and water. amphibians have an aquatic larval, or tadpole stage that metamorphises into an adult. Amphibians are believed to have evolved from either the lobe-fin fishes (Crossopterygii) or the lungfishes (Dipnoi). These fishes had an advantage over other fishes by the fact that they had lungs. They could breathe on land which ment that when there was a shortage of water they could use there fins to pull thems elves onto to land to search for another water source and in time they became less dependant on water. Reptiles came into being about 315 million years ago, when amphibians developed two unique features, which were; skin and an egg covering that helped stop water loss and this is how they evolved into reptiles. These two adaptations allowed reptiles to become a dominant life form on land, as where amphibians are dependant on water to survive. The main success for reptiles was being able to produce offspring on land. Most reptiles lay eggs that are hard and brittle, or covered with paper like shell. Some reptiles like snakes and lizards are ovoviviparous, which means they give birth to living offspring that hhatch from an egg from inside the female and then she gives birth. Birds have been termed glorified reptiles but are treated as a different class (aves). They are a far removed species from the general reptilian group because from that group there was a flying species called the pterosaurs. The aves are not descended from pterosaurs, they are descendants from another flying species called archosaur which had feathers instead of membrane. In birds we see a group of vertebrates that in a lot of ways is not considered a high level class of species like mammals. Birds can be trained but seem relatively much less capable of learning by experience than mammals. On the other hand they show innate behaviour patterns of a complexity unknown to mammals. A lot of these patterns are related to social behaviour for example, courtship, nest building and rearing there young. Mammals are vertebrates that have hair, a four-chambered heart and mammary glands (sweat glands), which is where the name mammal came from because they are the only animals that have sweat glands. Mammals first came about 200 million years ago during the Jurassic Period and there are about five thousand four hundred living species of mammals today that differ greatly in size, form and adaptations. Mammals inhabit every country and have occupied a wide variety of places, which include grasslands, wetlands, scrublands, seas and oceans, below ground, forests, mountaintops, Polar Regions and deserts. Mammals range in size from the minute bumblebee bat which measures a mere three centimeters in length, to the massive blue whale, which can measure up to 33 meters from head to tail, which makes it the largest animal alive today. Although mammal’s species vary in form, they do share some rare characteristics and they are; that their lower jaw bone which carries the teeth attaches directly to the skull. In other vertebrates, the jaw bone is one of multiple bones that does not attach directly to the skull. Mammals also have a unique arrangement of three bones, which are; the incus, malleus and stapes, that located in the middle of the ear. These bones turn sound vibrations into neural impulses. Two of these bones, the incus and malleus, originated as bones within the jaw. Another feature which is unique to mammals is that they have two lumps on the base of the skull (known as a double occipital condyle) which are used to hold the skull in the top neck vertebra, but in other vertebrates, the base of the skull has only a single lump. Hair is also unique trait to mammals because no other animals in the other class of vertebrates have true hair and all mammals have hair covering at least some part of their body at some time during their life. Hair grows from skin cells called follicles and it is made of a protein called keratin. Hair serves many functions which differ in different animals and they are to insulate, to conceal, to signal, to protect, and to sense the immediate surroundings. Insulation is to keep heat in the body, but it also helps to protect the body from too much heat as in the case of diurnal desert animals such as the camel. The coloring of hair on animals helps them to conceal themselves from predators or prey because some animal’s fur matches their habitat. Hair also provides by its color a means of signaling other members of ones o wn species (e.g., the white tail of the white-tailed deer, flashed by a fleeing animal to signal danger) or members of other species like the skunk which has a big white stripe down its back which is warning to predators. The hair also serves to protect the skin from abrasion and from excessive UV radiation. The success of vertebrates lies in the evolution and adaptation which helped vertebrates to survive on land, in water and in different climates all around the world. References DeBlase, A. F. and R. E. Martin. 1981. A manual of mammalogy. Second Edition. Wm. C. Brown, Publishers. Dubuque, Iowa. xii+436 pp. Pough, F. H. J. B. Heiser, and W. N. McFarland. 1989. Vertebrate Life. Third Edition. Macmillan Publishing Co., New York. xiv+904 pp. Romer, Alfred Sherwood, Thomas. S. Parsons, The Vertebrate body Fifth Edition, Philadelphia;London: Saunders 1977 Savage, R. J. G., and M. R. Long. 1986. Mammal Evolution, an Illustrated Guide. Facts on File Publications, New York. 259 pp. Vaughan, T. A. 1986. Mammalogy. Third Edition. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, Orlando Fl. vii+576 pp. Young, J, Z, (John Zachary), the life of vertebrates third Edition, Oxford; clarendon Press 1981 Catered to those in Grades 1 through 8: https://bestvpn.org/kids-research-and-education-links-database/ Focused more on college/academic sources: https://bestvpn.org/academic-research-guide-and-link-portal/ Matthew Morris, 15th may 2003 anglefire.com/moz/animals/phylum/chordata.html 18th mar 2011