http://www.ck12.org Chapter 12. Understanding Biodiversity: Animals: Birds
12.10 Meleagris gallopavo: Wild Turkey
Common Name
- Wild Turkey
Description
The wild turkey is colorful, with red, black and brown. They can weigh 7,400 grams. Wild turkeys don’t get very
old, living only a few years. They weigh 3.6 to 11 kg, and the average length of a wild turkey is 117cm. The wild
turkey has a brown and white pattern for feathers. Benjamin Franklin proposed it should be our national bird instead
of the bald eagle!
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Class: Aves
- Order: Galliformes
- Family: Phasianidae
- Genus:Meleagris
- Species:M. gallopavo
Habitat
The wild turkey lives in most of the United States, mainly in woodland and grassland areas. They also live in Europe
and New Zealand.
Biology
Cell Biology
The wild turkey has eukaryotic cells (cells with nuclei). Eukaryotic cells have many different organelles such as
nuclei, ribosomes, lysosomes, and mitochondria. The nucleus is the core of the cell and contains genetic information.
The ribosomes are used in the process of creating protein. The lysosomes break down foreign material, and the
cytoplasm fills in the cell. The cell membrane coats the outside of the cell and protects it.
The cells divide with mitosis and meiosis. Mitosis is when a parent cell multiplies, and the daughter cell shares the
same amount of chromosomes as the parent cell. Meiosis is almost the same process, but the new cell shares 1/2 of
the chromosomes as the original cell. Meiosis produces reproductive cells called gametes.