Starfish Dissection

Interesting facts about starfish

1) there are over 2,000 species of sea stars
2) Some sea stars can have up to 40 arms
3) Sea stars are protected by body armor
4) Sea stars have eyes
5) sea stars stomachs come out of their bodies as they feed
6) They are radially symmetrical
7) they do not have a brain
8) they reproduce sexually
9) starfish can live up to 35 years in wild
10) starfish can be distinguished as male or female

Phylum: Echinodermata- they can be seen as being symmetrical

Marine Biology Mollusk Dissections

While dissecting the Clam and the Squid we learned a lot of things about both of them. Both creatures had different characteristics about them. the Clam had a hard shell with a soft inside, while the squid was predominately all soft except for its hard beak. The word Mollusk means soft thing, even if a Mollusk has a hard shell its inside will be soft, having a soft body is the reason for the name of this phylum. Due to mollusks having soft bodies they tend to be more fragile and more susceptible to predators. The Mollusk can be divided into five different classes including pelecypods, bivalves, Gastropoda, Cephalopds, Polyplacophora.

Deep Sea Lights

Essential Question: What deep-sea organisms are capable of bioluminescence, and how does this ability benefit these organisms?


Bioluminescence can occur on land and in the ocean, but it happens more in the ocean. on Land it is rare because not a lot of animals can Bioluminate, the only one i can think of is fireflies. Bioluminescence happens when an organic molecule becomes oxidized. Also it can happen when the two chemicals luciferase and photoprotein combine. Bioluminescence can help deep sea organisms because predators use it to mate and prey use it to defend themselves against the predators. 

Vampire Squid:

The Vampire Squid is about 6 inches long and lives in tropical waters and temperate oceans. It lives between 1800 - 3500 ft. The Vampire squid moves through the water using the two fins that it has on the top of its head, also it can move by rocketing out water of its body. When the squid turns off Bioluminescence it is virtually invisible because of the darkness of the depth it is at, this helps the squid to hunt. Also it uses Bioluminescence to disorient its prey so it can kill whatever its hunting.

http://www.seasky.org/deep-sea/vampire-squid.html 

  

Marine Ecosystems: Energy Flow

If any animal dies in the food web, than the whole food web van fall apart. Every animal counts on another animal to survive. In the food web activity i was the bird, if the three animals that the bird eats die than the bird will either need to either evolve and find something else to eat or it will die.