Invertabrate project

Pelagia Noctiluca

 Phylum: Cnidaria

Class: Scyphozoa

 

Body structure

Like most cnidaria, this pelagia Noctiluca is radially symmentrical. It has one main opening called the gastrovascular cavity (mouth & anus). Has 3 tissues which are the outer epidermis, inner gastrodermis and the middle layer galatinous mesoglia. The mesoglia layer is a cartilege like tissue. Unlike most cnardia's this one does not have a bottom dwelling stage (polyp) only a medusa stage. Around the edges of the unbrella like structure at the top it has light receptors and odar pits for helping it see and smell what is around them. The unbrella strusture can be color ranged from purple to brownish-red and has a frilled edge. It has eight thin stinging tenicals (up to 10cm long) attached to the edges for stunning and capturing prey and four thick lobes coming from its mouth called "oral arms". 
 

Digestion & Excretion

These cnardia are carnivorous and eat zooplankton, small fish, crustaceans, other jelly fish and fish eggs. They catch and sting prey is their tenticals and such their tenticals ito their mouths. They digest their food in their gut cavity either internaly or externaly and when they are done digesting the waste come out of the same opening. They spend most of their time hunting for food.
 

Movement

These cnidaria's, like others move by contracting their muscular ring at the bottle of the bell which propels them. Each of their cells can contract individually but ussualy they go wherever the current takes them.
 

Reproduction

The adult cnidaria have defferent sexes and reproduce by sexual reproduction. They release gametes from their gonads which are in the center of the body. The fertilize externally by releaseing them out into the ocean and hope that the ova and sperm will meet eachother to be fertilized. After the egg is fertilized if forms and planulae which is a mass of cells that swim with the cilia. Ocean currents disperse them throughtout the ocean and unlike other cnardias they do not have a polyp stage so they develop right into young medusa.

There are many different kinda of organisms found in this phyla and here are some pictures of the variety.

These are Normuras Jellyfish, they can grow to be very big and rang in colors.

Spotted jellyfish also known as lagoon jellyfish, they have unique spots on their bell

 

These are some pictures of the exotic cnidaria Pelagia Noctiluca I have chosen for my project.

 

Significance/Deutrosomes or Protosomes

Pelagia Noctiluca have no huge importance but i can infect negitivly to tourism. Getting stung by one of these are painful and can cause scares and lesions but these has been no known death from getting stung. These cnidaria's are neither deutrosomes or protosomes, they are in a group called  Radiata.

 

Instresting Facts/Why i love them!

The name pelagia Noctiluca in german means "night light", they are called this becasue they are very colorful and can leave a lumious mucas behind if they are desterbed or feel threatened.

I love these spacific cnidaria because of how unique they are from the other kinds in the phylum cnidaria

 

 

 

 

 

Earthworm Disection

Earthworm Dissection

The purpose of dissecting the earthworm was to understand and get a first hand look at what their accusal parts look like. The goal was to get a good understanding on how they breath, move, excrete, eat and live. This lab helped me a lot because looking at a diagram I did not really understand and get the idea of what it accualy looks like but getting a first hand looked really helped me get the whole idea. I had a lot of fun dissecting the earthworm and looking at it under the microscope and i learned tons of things from this lab!

1) what is the name is the pumping organs of an earthworm?

The five aortic arches

This is a picture i took of the five aortic arches(hearts)

2) This is a picture I took of the digestive track, and these are the intestines.

 3) Which parts of the earthworm serve as its brain? How are these parts connected to the rest of the body?

The ganglion serves as its brain, it is connected to the nerve collar and the ventral nerve cord and it runs the length of its body. 

 4)Which of the parts of the worm's body that you saw are included in the excretory system?
Mouth(sucks in food), Pharynx, Esophagus, Crop (food is stored until rest of track is clear), Gizzard(food is ground up with stones), Intestines (Nutrients absorbed) and Anus(food is excreted).

 5)How can you find out whether an earthworm east soil?

I looked in the intestine and I found soil (poop) and this proves that it eats soil. 

This is a picture of the intestine and soil under the microscope. 

 6)Among the earthworms structural adoptions are its setae. How do you think the earthworms setae make it well adapted to its habitat?

The setae is well adapted to its habitat because it helps with burrowing and moving through the dirt, without them they would have a much harder time moving through the dirt.

7)How is the earthworms digestive system extracting relatively small amounts of food from large amounts of ingested soil?

The gizzard is a muscular organ used to churn the food and then it moves onto the intestine where absorption of the food occurs.

 8) Your dissection of the earthworm did not go beyond segment 32. What will you observe if you dissected the remainder of the worm to its posterior end ? I did go past segment 32 and I found the intestines and the anus.

9)Where you located the earthworms reproductive organs, use a reference to identify the role of each organ.
clitellums(produces the mucus to hold the worms together during reproduction)  in contact with segments 9-11 of their mating partner. Sperm is made in the seminal vesicals (large organs on either side of esophagus)and is received in the seminal receptacles.Eggs are stored in the oviduct. After they secrete a ring of mucus around the clitellum and it slides of and takes the sperm from the seminal receptacles and eggs frrom the oviducts, it forms into a cocoon for the new baby worms to have nutrients.

zoology

Porifera

Hexactinellida: also called "glass sponge" .It is a deep sea sponge. They do not have an epidermal covering and their skeleton are composed of spicules of silica. These sponges are widely different then the other sponges due to most of their tissues are syncitia, extensive regions of multinucleate cytoplasm.

Calcarea: They are the only sponges that have spicules composed of calcium carbonate. These sponges do not have hollow axial canals. Ussualy Found in shallow waters but one species is know to live in a depth of 4,000 meters.

 

Demospongia: These are by far the most diverse sponge group know as 90 percent of the sponge species are these kinds. They skeletons are composed of spongin fibres and siliceous spicules, some live beneath stones and they do posses axial canals. They can grow to be very large and are found in almost any tropical waters and marine environments. 

Cnidaria

Box Jellyfish: Are also called "sea wasps". Their venom is among the most deadly in the world and they contain toxins that attack the heart, nervous system and skin cells. For humans touching one of their tentacles you can go into shock and drown of die of heart failure. Live in coastal waters of northern Australia. tentacles can grow up to 3 meters in length.

Coral: Most have a white skeleton that is made up of limestone and because of this they are not popular in fossle record. Coral reefs take a long time to grow due to the facts they only grow approximately 1 cm per year. Algae live inside coral and form a symbiotic relationship. The coral benefit from the energy and photosynthesis the algae make and the algae benefit form the protection and nutrients from wastes. 

Hydroids: These are colonies of hundreds of stinging jellies attached to seaweed like base. Hydroids are eaten by sea slugs, file fishes, puffers, and the Moorish Idol. they can get up to 5 cm long and they grow on rocks, hard surfaces, floats and in shallow water. 

Platyhelminthes

Cf. Dimid: Also called the "tiger" flatworm, can live under difficult light conditions. they are ussualy small but they can grow up to 40 mm. They can live in shallow, intertidal, and sub tidal parts of the water and live un to 3 or 4 months. The body colour of the organism can be; white, green, or even orange due to chemical compounds absorbed from eating.

Ferrugineus: This flat worm comes from Okinawa, Japan. their depth can be about 8m and their length 25 mm. 

Giesbrechtii (roseus): Also called the "pink flatworm" This flat worm comes from Mediteranian tropics such as Crete island. They are born with male and female parts which make them hermaphrodites and they can grow up to 3 cm in length.