Mollusk Discovery!

Gastropod!

Common Name:

Red Foot Moon Snail

Species Name:

Norrisia norrisi

Taxonomy:

Kingdom Animalia

Phylum Mollusca

Class Gastropoda

Order Vetigastropoda

Family Trochidae

Genus Norrisia

Species norrisi

Characteristics of group:

 Gastropod means "stomach foot." This means organisms that are apart of this group move by gliding around on a muscular foot. Gastropods have a single shell. With this shell, they can move their entire body inside of the shell and close this trap door like thing called the operculum to hide from predators or wait for the tide. These organisms have radula, a ribbon tooth like structure for eating. Gastropods can be herbivores, who scrape algae using their radula, and some detritavores that eat dead things and some which are carnoviores who are active hunter and feed on small fish for example. Snails on land or in the water are very similar!

  The picture above is of the Red Foot Moon Snail

Click here for a cool video on Moon Snails!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h6wtTnaWs4

Crustaceans and Echinoderms

• The similarity between Crustaceans and Echinoderms is that they both have bilateral symmetry when the Echinoderm is in the larvae stage. 

• The differences include: Crustaceans have an exoskeleton and Echinoderms have an endoskeleton, (when the Echinoderm is out of the larvae stage) Echinoderms have radial symmetry and Crustaceans have bilateral symmetry, Crustaceans have body segments and Echinoderms do not, Crustaceans molt Echinoderms do not.

Crustaceans!

 

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/profile_crustaceans.htm

1. The first picture all the way to the left is a Mantis Shrimp. Here is the taxonomy of the Mantis Shrimp:Kingdom is Animalia, Phylum is Arthropoda, Class is Malacostraca, Order is Stomatopoda, Family is Gonodactyloidea, Genus is Pseduosquilla, Species is cilliata.
2.  The second, or middle picture, is a Crawfish. Here is the taxonomy of the Crawfish: Kingdom is Animalia, Phylum is Arthropoda, Class is Malacostraca, Order is Decapoda, Family is Cambaridae, Genus is Cambarus, Species is acanthura.
3. The last picture all the way to the right is a Sally Lightfoot Crab. Here is the taxonomy of the Sally Lightfoot Crab:Kingdom is Animalia, Phylum is Arthropoda, Class is Crustacea, Order is Decapoda, Family is Grapsidae, Genus is Percnon, and Species is gibbesi. 

Echinoderms!

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://universe-review.ca/I10-82-echinoderms.jpg

The top left picture is a Sea Star. Here is the taxonomy of the Sea Star: Kingdom is Animalia, Phylum is Echinodermata, Class is Asteroidea, Order is Forcipulatida, Family is Asteriidae, Genus is Pycnopodia, and Spcies is helianthoides.


The top right picture is a Sand Dollar. Here is the taxonomy of the Sand Dollar: Kingdom is Animalia, Phylum is Echinodermata, Class is Echinoidea, Order is Clypeasteroida, Family is Curculionoidea, Genus is Echinarachnius, and Species is parma. 

The bottom left picture is a Sea Cucumber. Here is the taxonomy of a Sea Cucumber: Kingdom is Animalia, Phylum is Echinodermata, Class is Holothuroidea, Order is Aspidochirotida, Family is Holothuriidae, Genus is Holothuria, and Species is paradalis.

Follow this cool video link to learn more about Echinoderms!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1067581086327048501#

Biofilm Simulation at the G.C. Marine Reserve

 Biofilm Simulation at the G.C. Marine Reserve

 

Dear Mama,

On Friday in Mrs. Richardson's Marine Ecology class we learned about organisms growing in the ocean on a surface called a Biofilm Plate which means in simpler terms life on a thing. In our experiment the paper towel simulated as the ocean. Then we used icing which simulated Extracellular Polymeric Substance, or in simpler terms "slime", that allows the organisms to settle on the biofilm plate. As you can see from the picture above we had a lot of yummy goodies on our graham cracker! Those yummy goodies simulated as organisms and bacteria that grow in the ocean.The life saver in the middle acted like a bolt to keep the plate stable. The red sugar crystals simulated for Red coralline algae' the brown long johns for Diatoms, the rainbow sprinkles and marshmallows for Barnacles, the rainbow long johns for coral, and the blue or green dots for oyster. Then what we did is we counted how many of each organism we had! For the Red coralline algae I had 58, for the Diatoms I had 18, for the Barnacles I had 41, for the Coral I had 15 and last but not least for the Oyster I had 9! I compared and contrasted the different numbers my classmates had for their organisms and learned that in the ocean its the same way. Every biofilm plate has a different variety and number of organisms that grow on it. The best part about the experiment was that we got to eat the graham cracker and it was super yummy! :) I enjoyed this experiment!

Signs of Spring!

Signs of Spring!

(Observation Site 1) 

 At this site located at the JV football field, it was a cold chilly day for observation seeking. The wind had a gusty breeze which blew the trees and you could hear the leaves and trees blowing in the wind. At this site we saw a bunch of plants and weeds. But the first sign of spring spotted were the blooming of the growing honeysuckle plants.

 Also while at this site we saw many trees with blooming buds on the end of the branches. I tried to get as close up as we can but with my phone I could only zoom in but so much. So if you look closely you can see the little buds on the ends of the branches. With all these trees around we could hear birds chirping and we could see them flying from tree to tree, but once again due to my phone, i couldn't get a picture of the birds because of my phone.

 As you can see from the picture above, on this branch there is a little blooming bud on it which is a sing that spring is soon on its way!!

Observation Site Two!

When we were on our way to site two, I spotted a dog footprint in the dirt. It seems maybe someone brought there pet down through the woods or the dog had wandered off by itself.

At site two we were located by the pond. By the pond the weather was cold and it was 43 degrees outside, but with the wind blowing it felt as though it was 34 degrees outside. With the wind blowing you could hear the trees and the leaves blowing, and of course all the people chattering and talking. At this site we saw more plants beginning to bloom. As you can see from the picture above this tree is beginning to bloom because spring is on its way!

AAAAAACCCCHHHOOOOOO!!!  Get ready to sneeze with these plants. You definantly know spring is coming when these plants start coming up. These are called Alder Catkins. These plants produce pollen. Spring isn't spring without its pollen! :)

This picture made me the happiest. When I saw theses blueberries growing it made me not only happy to know that spring is on its way, but also very hungry! I tried not to touch the blueberries because as you can see the vine that they grow on has little prickleys on them!

Observation Site Three!

From site three on the opposite side of the pond you can see that we saw even more plants were blooming! At this site you could see the tree buds, the plants, the pond, and I even saw a spider web. The weather was beginning to warm up and get a bet sunnier and warmer. The wind wasn't that strong and all I could hear at this site was just the chattering of all the students. 

 Observation Site Four!

 

We found a really good sign of spring at site four by the pipes and bus garage! If you look closely at the picture above you can see the branch go from brown to red. The brown color is from the fall/winter and the red is showing the newly growing plant for spring! At this site the sun was still shining and it was getting a bit warmer but the wind began to pick up again which began to make it cooler. At this site I heard the trees and leaves blowing, people chattering, and someones phone ring. 

 

 As you can see from the picture above flowers are beginning to bloom and be pretty!:) Spring is so beautiful with all the pretty flowers!

Algae in the Cupboard!

Algae in the Cupboard!!

In my cupboard at home, I found three items that had algae in them. Ranch salad dressing, Jimmy Dean breakfast biscuits, and Coffee-mate creamer. Each of these item all had the type of algae called Carrageenan. But sadly, I couldn't find any of the other two algae that Mrs. Richardson had assigned us to search for which were, Alginates and Beta Carotene.

Plankton Wars & Algae in the Cupboard!

--->Plankton Wars!<--

(hey NOW, HEY now)

Ika Wika!

(Wanaey)

This is Me (left) Autumn (Right) and don't ask me why, but Lydia ( on top). The little blue figure Autumn and I are holding is the one and only.. IKA WIKA!! That is our plankton. She is beautiful, as you can see. Though she was beautiful, her good looks didn't make her at all successful. She was too heavy at the tail and sank to the bottom quickly. We did get fourth place out of the class though and she landed feet first so we were proud of our plankton! We used a lot of clay because clay is pretty buoyant in water, and also we used a sponge as her head to try and soak up the water to keep her floating. We think the reason our plankton wasn't very successful was because we put a brad as her tail along with a paper clip that dragged her to the bottom. I think if we wouldn't have used the brad, we would've done a lot better!

Observation Site Day 5!

Observation Site 1

At this site we began observing birds for the Backyard Bird Count. I didnt get any pictures from this site though:( But Mrs. Richardson did.We began by listening carefully for the birds.We would listen for their chirps, the flap of their wings and their callings. We went over by the pond and sat quietly for five minutes and observed everything we heard and saw. We heard: hammering in the distance (banging noise), birds chirping, intercom, people whispering, car starting up, phone ringtone, bus starting and horns. I felt the pine needles sticking into me as sitting on the ground, the wind blowing against me. It was nice and sunny outside so it was a beautiful day for observing. At this site we saw a Cardinal, Black Volture, 3 Crow, Chickadee, 2 buzzards. 8 geese, 1 squirrel, 1 sparrow and 6 junco, Downey Woodpecker and a Warbler.

This photo is credited to Mrs. Richardson. This is a Warbler, it is a small bird and is quite quick. They eat mostly small insects.

Observation Site 2

At this site we saw lichen moss on a lot of the trees surrounding the area. As you can see from the picture above, the moss is a light pale green and is crusty looking. 

At this site it was warm! The temperature was great with a light breeze. As you can see from the picture above the sun was shining brightly which made the observations more enjoyable!:)

Observation Site 3

(Unfortunantly the last stop that we made...)

At this site we observed a tree that was broken and on the ground. The tree was smoother because one of Mrs. Richardson's classes had previously ripped most of the bark off the tree and left some bark on it. As you can see from the two pictures above there were fungi on the tree. The white fungus on the left was found more on the tree than the bright orange fungus on the right. Little bugs were also found under the bark of the tree, but I wasn't able to get a picture because the little guys moved to quick!

Kim Dabney found a salamander under part of the tree. The salamander was a dark grey and was about 2 inches long. It almost looked more like a worm than a salamander! The salamander likes the dark and cooler areas, just like under the tree. At this site it was also nice and warm with a gentle breeze!