Mollusk Discovery

Chiton

http://www.bukisa.com/articles/69011_chitons-colorful-and-unique-sea-creatures

Above is a picture is a Butterfly Chiton. It's Scientific name is Cryptoconchus Porosus.

Characteristics:
-It has Eight shells.
-Has very strong suction
-Can roll into a ball to protect itself.
-Scrapes algae and eats detritus.

Taxonomy:
Kingdom-Animalia
Phylum- Mollusca
Class- Polyplacophora
Order- Neoloricata
Family- Acanothochitonidae
Genus- Cryptoconchus
Species- Porosus
http://s701.photobucket.com/albums/ww14/LamboAM/Album%202/?action=view&current=StomaVid.mp4Chiton

Above is a video of a chiton in someone's fsh tank. I could not find a video of a Butterfly Chiton, so I had to get a video of a regular Chiton.

Crustaceans and Echinoderms

Differences in Crustaceans and Echinoderms:
-Echinoderms have a spiky skin with an endoskeleton, while Crustaceans have a hard outer skeleton, Exoskeleton.
-Crustaceans molt, which means when they grow and when their about to shed their exoskeleton they reatian extra water to break the old exoskelton for the new one to harden. Since Endoskeletons, have their skeleton grow with them you often find 'tests' left on the beach when they die.
-Echinoderms have radial symmetry, while Crustations have Bilateral symmetry.

Simularities in Crustaceans and Echinoderms:
- The only simularity is that the Echinoderm's larvae has Bilateral symmetry, just like the Crustaceans.

Pictures of Echinoderms:
http://www.sciencephoto.com/images/download_lo_res.html?id=670054840

Above is a picture of Bilateral symmetry of a Echinoderm's Larvae.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/common-starfish-jessica-winder.html


Above is a Starfish.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Asteroidea
Order: Forcipulatida
Family: Asteriidae
Genus: Asterias
Species: Asterias Rubens



Above is a Sea Cucumber.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Holothuroidea
Order: Aspidochirotida
Family: Holothuriidae
Genus: Holothuria
Species: Holothuria Pardalis
Pictures of Crustaceans:

http://www.dpughphoto.com/crustaceans,_mollusks.htm

Above is a picture of a Ghost Crab.
 Kingdom: Animaliahttp://thehumorlessfeminist.tumblr.com/post/1145876585/today-is-brought-to-you-by-the-peacock-mantis
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Family: Ocypodidae
Genus: Ocypode
Species: Cancer Ceratophthalmus


Above is a Peacock Matis Shrimp.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Stomatopoda
Family: Odontodactylidae
Genus: Odontodactylus
Species: Odontodactylas Scyllarushttp://www.sealordphotography.net/Food/seafood/European-shellfish/3659967_GS7e8/1/103527860_ou2sh


 Above is a Eurupean Clawed Lobster.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Family: Nephropidae
Genus: Homarus
Species: Homarus Gammarus

Cool Video: Check it out!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5219672612991804355#docid=7933887031585756957
Matis Shrimp Vs. Crab! See who wins! http://www.starfish.ch/c-invertebrates/seewalzen.html

Signs of Spring

Signs of Spring!

The picture above I found at site one. After searching a while I found these cute little berries. I'm sure an animal would love to eat these, if they're not poisonous I saw more green around me then in the winter months. I could hear birds off in the distance, the wind blowing through the trees. I could feel the breeze and the sun peeking out from behind the trees and hitting my face.

Above are Alder catkins. If you squeeze them a little they puff out pollen. It was pretty interesting. I could see the pond water, and beams of sun shining down on the pond. I could hear crows in the distance and the wind blowing. I felt cold, and the wind blowing so hard!

In the above picture you see an acorn sprouting in time for spring to come. This is a sure sign that Spring is coming. I could see the sun and the water current in the pond; feel the sun warming me up, and hear the wind through the tress with the birds chirping in the distance.

The picture above is a tree bud. This definitely shows that the trees are ready to grow and the conditions are right! I could see Lydia coming through the drain pipe and hear the running water, a plane and rocks hitting against each other. I could feel the breeze and my feet getting a little wet. At the end of site four Mrs. Richardson and I ran down a Hawk and she got some great pictures of it. I wasn't able to because my phone wouldn't zoom in that fair. Check out her blog for the pretty hawk!

Biofilm Simulation at the G.C. Marine Reserve

#1

#2

Dear family, we did a quick experiment on last Friday. This represents a biofilm Which is what Marine Scientists use to collect data about plankton and barnacles. The difference in the first and second picture is the baby barnacles grew up into big barnacles. We got to eat this afterwords. I must say i enjoyed this lab very much!

Plankton Wars / Algae in the Cupboard

Plankton Wars!

 Above is Sabrina and I with our plankton. When we finished it ended up looking like a sattelite instead of plankton so we took a picture of it revolving around the earth.

 (The two pictures above were taken by Mrs. Richardson) 
In this picture above we had just finished our plankton and were very hopeful for a win! At the beginning we were worried it would be to heavy, but when we set it in the water we knew that that was the least of our problems. There was nothing we could do to get ours to even sink and stay under the water unless we held it down with our finger. We definitely should have added some washers to our satellite. Ha

 I lucked out and looked at my Dad's Slim-Fast and found out that it contained Carrageenan. I'm assuming this might help keep it creamy or something of that nature.

(The two pictures above were taken by my brother Drew)
Above is a picture of Ranch Dressing I found in my refrigerator. It contains alginates which is a type of algae. I think Mrs. Richardson made us find algae in things we use everyday to open our eyes up to the different uses algae has and how dependent we really are on it. It was fun looking for the algae, even if I could only find two; Alginate and Carrageenan.

( The picture above was taken by Christa Thomas)
 These Jimmy Dean Sausage Biscuits contain Beta-Carotene. I wasn't able to find anything at my house that contained this, but Christa was nice enough to lend me this picture.

Observation Site Five

Observation Site Five

It was a nice sunny day. The wind was blowing but didn't ruin how pretty it was outside. I looked down when we were about to head back to the school and I saw this light colored moss. It was lighter then the normal moss around the base of trees.

(Picture above taken by Sabrina)  This picture was taken right before I took the picture of the moss. This cute little guy was found under a tree that had fallen and started to rott. I think we should call him Fred. :)

(Picture above taken by Mrs. Richardson) At our first site we sat down by the pong and had five minutes of scilence. In this scilence the geese came out onto the pond and Mrs. Richardson got a great picture of them.

(Picture above taken by: Mrs. Richardson)This Chickadee Was sitting on a tree limb enjoying the beautiful day while we were walking around. Mrs. Richardson snapped a great shot of him/her. I think he should be called George or Gorgena :)

Observation Site Four

  Site One

  When we finally got down to the pond, I was very excited about what we were going to get to do. It was gorgeous outside. I could hear a train, the wind blowing and birds above. Feeling the breeze and the sun on my face was very refreshing. seeing Autumn Wood crushing pine cones and Katelynn falling made the trip even better. The picture above was taken right off the edge of the pond. This phytoplankton looks like a large plant under the water. 

Site Two

This picture is supposed to be in the center but this annoying blog isn't working correctly. I could hear the kids talking and wind when we got here. The wind and sun rays on my face felt amazing. The picture above is right off the shore line. There is some nice Algae   on the leaves and stick in the pond. it's definitely phytoplankton. specifically Cyanobacteria.

 Site Three

This site I found a lot of great things. I could feel the sun shining and the wind blowing. listening to the water running from the pond into the creek and a plane overhead. Above i found more algae in the creek. it was attached to the bottom I believe. This is another example of phytoplankton, specifically Cyanobacteria once again.

 
 Sadly as you can see there is pollution in our creek. Most likely the runoff from the football field or the bus garage gets into the pond then when the pond feeds out to the creek it gets caught on branches and this is what it causes. Pretty gross looking, i couldn't imagine being an animal having to drink that.

 Later down the creek there was a little puddle to the side. I noticed small brown/yellow colored Algae on the leaves in this little puddle. It looked to be slippery if touched.

Observation of Plankton

Phytoplankton Observation

 The star-like shapes are actually the tombs of the once living macro Zooplankton. When seen with the naked eye it's a beautiful white sand on Star Beach in Japan. It's slightly gross to think such a pretty view is actually like a big grave yard fro macro Zooplankton. None the less, it is another contribution from the Zooplankton.

This Micro Zooplankton is most likely a Holoplankton. Tyler was VERY excited when he found this worm. You can easily see it's head, butt and also what's inside him as well.  As a Zooplankton this worm would go out and hunt for his food or lure it to him/her. 

Above is a picture of Cyanobacteria (a.k.a Blue-Green Algae) which is Phytoplankton. This is aquatic and photosynthetic.This is microscopic and usually can be found in a cluster or colonies. It is very nice to see in color, So check it out sometime!

This is another picture of Phytoplankton. This is a single-celled Diatom. It's yellow-green with a transparent silica that looks like it surrounded by glass. These are Nanoscopic but can be seen through a microscope.

(All Pictures above were taken by Mrs. Richardson)

Observation Site Three

Site One

           When we first got down to the creek I thought there wasn't going to be much to see, But then as I looked closer I realized there was a lot more to it then a creek. It was freezing and hearing running water didn't help the already red cold hands of mine. Then I saw in the weeds where it looked like deer had been bedding down.

                                              

 After I took the picture of the deer bedding's I looked up and noticed a squirrel nest!  It was highhh up in a tree. It actually looked pretty cozy compared to the cold I was feeling.

Site Two

 After we walked from site one we finally got to the pond. It was still freezing, but now since we weren't in the cover of trees I got to feel the wind too. I could hear the wind and birds crowing in the distance. When I looked down I saw something that I had just seen before, but this time it was a lot smaller. I realized That this must be geese bedding's. Soon as i realized this geese flew right into the pond. I would show you a picture of the geese, but this blog is not letting me insert any more pictures. Sorry for the malfunction of the site.

Site Three

 It was still cold when we got down farther beside the pond. I was trying to listen to what was going on around me but Kim kept talking. Hah :) So that's what I heard. I didn't see much to being with then I noticed where a beaver had gnawed On this tree to cut it down. I wish I could have found where the beavers were.

 Right before we left I noticed a little Goose feather stuck on a peices of pond grass. It must have fell off when the goose was getting in or out the pond :)

Site Four

The last site was after a long walk back up to school. I could hear a lot of vehicles and kids running their mouths. I finally noticed this rotten hole in a tree and realized there was a litttlee bug in one of the little holes it looked like he dug out. It still felt pretty cold outside, the sun made it a little warmer.

Observation Number Two

Observation Site Four

 Coming up on the pond we finally felt some sunlight with a slight breeze. We could hear the geese in the distance and the running water. I tried to get a good picture but the geese were far off. Trust me they were very gorgeous and graceful in the water.

Heading back up to the school Autumn Wood and I Spotted DEER TRACKS! It was very exciting. their were other tracks from smaller deer but i decided to take a picture of the bigger tracks. I'd like to of seen the deer but tracks are fun enough to see :)

Observation Number Two

Observation Site Three

I felt the cold air, it was very windy that day. I heard running water and leaves then I finally found some round fungi on a small branch.

When we were getting ready to leave i noticed all this fungi on a really big fallen tree. It looked like scales on a Dino's back! just on a treee... :)

Observation Number Two

Observation Site Two

I walked over to the creek and heard the running water feeling the thorns from briers when i noticed holes in the side of the creek bank. maybe a fox was living there and was just out for food when he heard us coming.

Farther down the creek i noticed these tracks. They didn't look like the raccoon track from my previous location. They had bigger claws like a fox or dog.

Right before we left i noticed this hugeee piece of fungi on a log.

Observation Number Two

Observation Site One

 When we first arrived to our first location our teacher sat down on a tree. When we took a closer look we determined that some sort of insect had eaten or dug into the tree. It felt very cold and I heard trees and leaves in the wind.

 On the way back to the group Autumn Wood and I found where a tree had fallen over it looked like a small animal had started digging a hole into the loose dirt.

While leaving Site One we noticed POOOPPP! We got SO excited :) It was prob from a deer or a rabbit :)

Observation Number One

Observation Site Four

While me and Sabrina were headed down to investigate nature Autumn Wood and Katelynn Took a picture of this pretty tree. It felt cold and i could hear leaves in the wind.

Autumn Wood took this picture of a hole in a nice size log. A little creature could curl up in that for winter and stay warm.

Sabrina and I finally found something on our adventure. :) In this tree was a nice little whole a small mammal could curl up in. I tried to get a good look in thee but I swore something moved in it so I ran away!

Observation Number One

Observation Site Three

I walked down to the creek hearing the running water, and the cold chill in the air. When I looked down I saw Raccoon tracks in a sandbar in the creek.

After spotting the tracks i noticed this Algae floating gracefully in the creek.

Heading back up to the class me and Autumn Wood noticed this burrow in the ground and thought it would be a nice place for a little mammal to crawl into.