INTRODUCTION

 An innate mechanism that controls the physiological

activities of an organism which change on a daily,
seasonal, yearly or other regular cycle.
 An inherent timing mechanism in a living system
that is inferred to exist in order to explain the timing
or priodicity of various behaviour and physiological
states and processes.
 Biological clocks have been found in every
eukaryotic organism tested ( Hastings , Rusak and
boulos, 1991)
 Light intensity
 Temperature
 Relative humidity
 Barometric pressure
 Geomagnetism
 Cosmic radiation
 Electrostatic field
 Gravitational pull
 Daily rhythms
 Lunar day rhythms
 Semilunar rhythms
 Monthly rhythms
 Annual rhythms
 Animals restrict their activities to a specific portion
of day.
 Example : hamster , cockroaches, bats, mice
and rat activated at night.
Human, songbird other mammals
activated at day.
 In moth species the female entices a male by emitting
a potent sex attractant, the biological clock plays an
important role.
 Example : Female moths of genus Hyalophora
male moths of H.cecropia, H.promethea
costly reproductive mistakes are avoided because
both species activated at different times of day.
 The highest tides are caused by gravitational fields
of the moon and the sun operationg together.
 Sun, moon and earth are in line so to augment affect
of each other.
 New and full moon causes highest high tides and
lowest low tides so termed as spring tides.
 Quarter moon causes lowest high tide and highest
low tide so termed as neap tides.
 The interval from full moon to full moon corresponds
to a length of time it takes the moon to revolve once
around the earth. Some organism possess a clock that
allows them to program their activities to occur at
specific times during this cycle.
 Example: reproductive activities of Samoan palolo a
ploychaete.
 occur once a year
 Example: golden mantled ground squirrels
hibernation.
 These animals were isolated from birth and kept
continuously in darkness at near freezing
temperature, they have no cues for season changing
still showed yearly hibernation.
 Anticipation of environmental change
Adequate time for preparation of
behaviour.
 Synchronization of behaviour with an
event that can not be sensed directly
 Continuous measurement of time