Marine Invertebrate Essay

Moon Jellyfish are in the “Animalia Kingdom, Phylum Cnidarian, Class Scyphozoan, Order Semaeostomeae, Family Ulmaridae, and Genus Aurelia” ( Myers, 2016 ; Espinosa, ; 2016 ; Parr, 2016 ; Jones, 2026 ; Hammond, 2016 ; Dewey, 2016). The morphological description of Cnidarians are corals, sea anemones, jellyfish and hydroids. These cnidarians form a diverse phylum that contains ~9000 species, which live in aquatic (predominantly marine) environments. The phylum-defining trait of Cnidaria is the stinging cell, the nematocyte an extrusive organelle used for predation, adhesion and defense (Holstein, 1981; Lengfeld et al., 2009; Tardent and Holstein, 1982) (Steele and Technau; 2011). Also, this phylum, Cnidarians, are divided into two groups, “Anthozoa (sea anemones, corals and sea pens), which live as

When ever you go to the beach, do you ever think about what can happen to an animal and the water when you leave a wrapper in the sand or a plastic bottle in the water? If you think about it, even a small piece of plastic can harm a fish. The fish could mistake it for food. This could potentially kill the fish. There are other things that people d that pollutes the ocean. An oil spill from a boat can get fish sick (Doc.2). Also, solid waste, plastics, glass, and foam (OI). Marine life can get trapped in any of these items (OI). There are many things we can do to prevent this, like, reducing plastic waste in stream, improve solid waste management, and increase, capture, and reuse (Doc.1). These are just a few of the many things we could do to

I’ve always had a keen interest in science. When I was younger, I viewed a dolphin show online. I was instantly fanisnated and later I was informed that the trainers were special marine biologists. The idea of becoming a marine biologist is still a dominate career choice for me. Last year, I was incredibly curious with the aspects that a marine biologist has to undertake that I researched the career path as part of my PLP. This only ignited my interest even further and when I was invited to attend the Flinders University I particularly focused on the marine biology and biology lectures.

Education has always been an important foundation upon which my family encouraged the most. Not just the education pertaining to structured schooling, but the fundamentals in life that require you to interact in society and be a part of something bigger than yourself. They demonstrated how to commit to values such as responsibility, motivation, and consistency; and, how to be open-minded and passionate about the things you believe in. These things all required a sacrifice in various ways. They always stress how “sometimes you need to give up something to get ahead, or how sometimes sacrificing the familiar and what you expect from yourself to get the results that you are seeking in the long run.”

The purpose of this experiment was to observe the light that the Tomopteris emits. They collected Tomopteris from Monterey Bay off the coast of California. They then stimulated the Tomopteris to produce light so that they could observe the light that it produced. The researchers took photos and measured the amount of light that was emitted per Tomopteris. One interesting discovery was a Tomopteris that emits a blue light which is rare since most Tomopteris emit a yellow-orange light. The researchers tried to create explanations as to why this Tomopteris emits blue light. They think that “different protein complements may be responsible for the light in different species”. However, this isn’t their only explanation for this rare blue emitting Tomopteris. The other explanation is that “this could potentially reflect different ecological roles of the two light colors”. Researchers concluded that with further testing the blue-light emitting Tomopteris may be considered a species of their own.

The cephalopodor octopus is a marine organism that inhabits many diverse regions of the ocean. Its food source consists of crabs, small fish, clams, mussels and other marine animals. The octopus is a predatory animal and has developed many skills to aid in its survival in the environment it has adapted to.

Since they do not contain a nucleus they would be in the prokaryotic domain. They would need to be from the kingdoms Bacteria Specifically Eubacteria. They use photosynthesis to produce their own food. This animal is most likely Prochlorococcus. This is the most abundant photosynthetic cell in the ocean. Another one is cyanobacteria or blue green algae, but they are prokaryotic unlike algae. They could be grouped by their shapes like cyanobacteria are spherical, rod, and spiral. They can also be grouped as photosynthetic since they have

Oyster reefs, giant populations of oysters, provide habitats for many other types of organisms such as worms, snails, sea squirts, sponges, small crabs, and fishes.

* Burgess Shale - One of the greatest fossil finds ever made is the Burgess fauna of British Columbia. Thousands of soft-bodied animal fossils paint us a picture of early marine life.

Echinoderms such as starfish, sea cucumbers, and urchins are identified by their symmetry and central mouth. This species is found decorating the coral reefs by their variety of color and sizes. Because some of these animals like to burrow in the sand, they can supply oxygen to some of the depths in the ocean. Echinoderms are a staple food in many sea animals diet.

Planktons! You can find them in several places on the Earth. In oceans, seas, and lakes! These organisms are those that drift, and are incapable or have little or no ability to swim. Due to that, they are moved and taken wherever by the currents of water based environments. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/plankton.htm) Not to mention, they are also an important food source to many large aquatic organisms. For instance, fish and whales. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankton) In this lab experiment, “Battle of the Plankton”, groups of students are to make their own planktonic organism out of household items that will (hopefully) have the characteristic of sinking slowly when placed in a large tank filled with fresh water. They will have

often will people think of a nautilus, an organism that is a distant cousin of cuttlefish and squid. These organisms have been dubbed "living fossils" and have been on earth for about 500 million years. The nautilus tends to in front of coral reefs, deep in the ocean. The long existence of the nautilus has allowed its mesmerizing spiral shell to be embedded in some rocks and has become a part of the fossil record.

Cnidarians (or coelenterates), including sea anemones, jellyfish, and corals, are built mostly of sheets of cells, and they exploit the large surface area of the

     Coral animals begin life as free-floating larvae, but settle on the sea floor in sedentary colonies. The term "coral" applies both to these animals and to their skeletons, particularly the skeletons of stone-like corals (Discover 1997).

One of the organisms I have chosen, the Red Waratah anemone (Actinia tenebrosa) was found in the mid tide zone and the low tide zone. This anemone is the main prey of the predator Grey side-gilled sea slug, which is the other organism I have chosen,