- A Skeletal branching, which helps spread impulses through muscle in a coordinated way; cardiac fibres are built for strong, voluntary, directional pulls as generally observed
- B Cardiac branching, which helps spread the contraction wave through the heart in a coordinated way; skeletal fibres are built instead for strong, voluntary, directional pulls
- C Neither tissue showing any branching, since branching mainly occurs in smooth muscle in the majority of documented cases as widely reported in standard reference material
- D Both tissues being branched equally, with the mainly difference being their location in the body in typical laboratory settings under usual circumstances according to most studies
Correct answer: B. Cardiac branching, which helps spread the contraction wave through the heart in a coordinated way; skeletal fibres are built instead for strong, voluntary, directional pulls
Explanation: Cardiac muscle's branched fibres, linked by intercalated discs, allow impulses to spread through the heart for synchronized pumping, while skeletal muscle's long, unbranched, multinucleate fibres are suited to strong, directional, voluntary contraction.
Concept context
The four basic animal tissue types (epithelial, connective, muscular, neural) and the cockroach as a model organism for organ-system level organisation.