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Monday, March 28, 2011

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.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

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
Download now
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


Sea Cucumbers - Holothuroidea - Seewalzen / Seegurken: Species on this page: Synaptula, Opheodesoma, Euapta, Holothuria, Bohadschia, Stichopus, Stichopus, Thelenota, Pentacta, Pseudocolochirus, Neothyonidium
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 Scyllarus
http://www.sealordphotography.net/Food/seafood/European-shellfish/3659967_GS7e8/1/103527860_ou2sh

This European lobster, Homarus gammarus, entered a Clive Brown lobster pot off the south coast of Guernsey on the 17 November 1998.  What makes this lobster so unusual is that it is a double-crusher clawed lobster.  Nearly all lobsters have one crusher claw and one pincer claw.  Double-crusher clawed lobsters are rarer than double-pincer clawed lobsters.  File No. 35-252   ©RLLord  fishinfo@guernsey.net
 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

Thursday, March 3, 2011

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

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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!