Biology of a Squid
Squids are among the most varied and unique of all invertebrates. They are mollusks of the Class Cephalopod, along with the nautilus, cuttlefish, and octopus.
Squids are highly evolved, and have developed a number of traits uncommon to most other mollusks. Fossil records of cephalopods have dated back the Cambrian Period (about 600 million years ago).
Structurally, squids have only small variations of a basic theme common to all cephalopods. They are spherical or cigar-shaped with two fins used to stabilize movement when swimming. Ten arms are easily distinguished emerging from near the mouth
Eight of these arms each have four rows of suction cups encircled by rings of chitinous (horny) hooks. These suction cups provide a means of attaching to rocks or holding its food with a powerful grip. The other two arms are called tentacles, and are contractile and longer than the other eight. These tentacles have spatulate tips, which have suckers on their undersides. The contractile tentacles are primarily used to seize prey and pass it to the shorter arms, which hold it at the squid's beak.
The beak of a squid is a very powerful tool shaped like a parrot's beak, and used for almost the same purpose. With it, squids can easily crack the shells of their prey (which usually consists of crabs or other small animals).
A pair of giant eyes can be found near the mouth of the squid. The eyes are fairly complex, which is a trait lacking in most invertebrates. Their structure is similar to that of humans, and comparable in ability.
The internal arrangements of squids consist of a mantle that surrounds the body's organs, as with most mollusks. However, although mollusks are generally characterized as havi...
... middle of paper ...
... are usually seen swimming in large schools. They are capable of great bursts of speed—up to 23 mph, by utilizing a highly advanced form of water-jet propulsion. Of the 375 known species, they can range in size from 8 inches to 60 feet long. It is the largest of all aquatic invertebrates. Depending on the species, squids can live from 1.5 to 3 years.
A highly advanced mollusk of widely varied extremes, squids have proven to be well adapted to their environment, and have carved their own irreplaceable niche into the oceanic community. Squids have always been of major importance to the ecology of the world, and will most likely continue to be so for millennia to come.
Bibliography:
Bibliography
1. Grolier 1996 Encyclopedia; Encyclopedia
2. Encarta 1999 Encyclopedia; Multimedia CD-ROM Encyclopedia
3. www.aqua.org; internet website
Dolphins make up the largest and most diverse family of cetaceans. The family contains 26 recognized species of which 13 tend to have long well defined beaks and streamlined robust bodies. Many vary in size, shape, colors, beaks and flippers, as humans have various characteristics.
Copepods are a group of small crustaceans found in the sea and nearly every freshwater habitat. Some species are like plankton (drifting in seawater), some are living on the ocean floor and some particular species may live in still-water habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as swamps, under leaf fall in wet forests, bogs, springs, ponds, and puddles, damp moss, or phytotelmata of plants.
So photophores is a light some deep sea fish have which helps in complete darkness. Photophores help fish get away from pretadors. So the fish "turn on" its light one place then "turn off " the light and shine in another place confusing the predator giving it time to escape.So many deep see fish have small eyes or are blind because there is no light down there. These fish usally, you could say sense when things are around them so they really dont need their eyes. Gelatinous skeleton is a skeleton that is very soft and mushy but still holds a type of shape. These fish have gelatinous skeletons becuase of the high pressure underwater if a human were to go down there they would die from the pressure. That is only some adaptions deep sea fish have and deeep sea fish are not the only fish with adaptations in their
“Tentacles” by Roland Smith is the second novel in the “Cryptid Hunters” series and was released in 2009. Uncle Wolfe 's latest project is to go to New Zealand to find a giant squid, and the gigantic freighter he has rented for the trip may just be haunted. Someone on the trip is determined to sabotage their trip. Grace and Marty may just be the next victims, if they keep poking their noses into things.
Loggerhead Sea Turtles have many important benefits and attributions not only to the ocean but to humans as well. Since Loggerheads transport nutrients from oceans to beaches through their migrations and nesting they increase the rate of nutrient recycling in benthic, ocean bottom, ecosystems (Wilson et al. 2010). They constantly will be maintaining the coral reef ecosystem as well.
Shrimp can be very intelligent animals and have very amazing things such as being clear, this may seem weird but yes, they are clear. Shrimp live in the ocean and come in contact with many different plants animals. The most common plant that the shrimp comes in contact the most with and use for protection is seaweed, coral, and algae. Shrimp use the for protection to hide from the other animals they depend on shrimp for their diet, most of these animals are sharks, whales and sometimes crabs are included. The change of having no eyes helps the shrimp hide from these and keeps the population at a good rate and this has also helped overfishing with not having contact with other animals and causing lots of movement to the other animals and fisherman.
This research focuses on Gambierdiscus toxicus which is an armored, marine, benthic species in the phylum Dinoflagellata. It has an epitheca and a hypotheca, that is very similar in size, compressed anterio-posteriorly. The theca is covered with numerous deep and dense pores which are very thick. This species is autotrophic creating energy via several golden-brown chloroplasts (Hackett et al 2004), but is also heterotrophic and hence is referred to as mixotrophic. It has a ventrally – oriented crescent shaped nucleus. (Adachi & Fukuyo 1979). It usually inhabits warmer waters such as bay, mediterranian, tropical/sub – tropical in North/Central America (Shiumuzu et al 1982; Loeblich & Indelicato 1986), Asia/Pacific (Holmes & Tao 2002; Lu & Hodgkiss 2004) and has recently been identified in the Mediterranean (Aligizaki & Nikolaidis 2008). These authors identified the organisms to genus level, at best of their effort, so may have been one of the less common members of its genus although it is unlikely.
Soft corals are grouped in the phylum Cnidaria, class Anthozoa, and order Alcyonacea. Their distinguishing characteristic is that their polyps always bear eight tentacles which are on both edges fringed by rows of pinnules (Fabricius and De’ath, 2002). The common name “soft coral” comes from the fact that they have no massive external skeleton as compared to the more commonly studied hard corals.
What they do is produce light (bioluminescence) that helps the squid camouflage itself at night. The squid has a special way of sensing how much moonlight is coming down, and then using a shutter, can control how much light comes out. This makes the squid not cast a shadow, making it harder for predators and prey to see it. During the day, the squid pumps out the dead bacteria, and the process starts again. What her team did was look at how these bacteria produced their light. When they were in a dilute solution with very few bacteria, then they did not produce light. But when there were many bacteria, they did produce light. The reason this happened is because the bacteria produce these chemical messengers called Quorums, which help the bacteria know how much of them there
Sousounis, k., A. Ogura, and P.A. Tsonis. 2013. Transcriptome Analysis of Nautilus and Pygmy Squid Developing Eye Provides Insights in Lens and Eye Evolution. PLoS ONE 8(10): e78054
According to Dr. Malcolm Clarke of the Marine Biological Association, temperature affects the squid’s buoyancy mechanism. The warmer, shallower water will cause a giant squid to rise to the surface and not be able to get back down. With water temperature at it’s highest at the surface the squid would without a doubt not be able to get back down, thus resulting in people seeing giant squids at the surface of the ocean.
Crustacea is a large subphylum of Arthropoda, consisting of almost 52 000 described species, including animals like crabs, lobsters, shrimp and barnacles. The majority of these are aquatic, living in marine or fresh water environments, though some have adapted to living on land like some crabs and woodlice. Most crustaceans are relatively small, though there are some exceptions. All of them have a hard, strong exoskeleton, divided into two parts, which has to be shed in order to allow the animal itself to grow. They have a large circulation system, where blood is pumped around the body by the heart. Only some crustaceans have sexes separate, and those that are usually mate seasonally and lay eggs. The study of Crustacea is called carcinology.
First of all, an octopus is a cellapod. Which means it has a soft body, and no bones. An octopus also has eight arms, large useful eyes, and suction cups. ( Octopuses and Squid, page 6 by: Tori Miller.) All of these traits are mostly used for hunting. Eight arms come in handy when your prey is fast and can get away easily, large eyes are useful when you need to see in the dark or the depths of the ocean, and suction cups are used when they need to grab hold of something.( Octopuses Squid, page 14.) ( National Geographic, Octopus Facts.) Octopuses have blue blood caused by copper and bag like bodies. When born they're 1/4 of an inch and don't rely on...
Porifera is the most simplistic phylum under the kingdom Animalia. The sponges have no tissue layers, but instead an interior and exterior layer with a gelatinous middle layer that separates the two. They are the only phylum with asymmetrical symmetry. Throughout the advancing phyla it will be shown this trait is lost. Porifera lacks a proper digestive system, but a canal system allows the sponges to filter feed. Along the inside of a sponge, flagella pump water through the sponge’s body. This process brings in oxygen and other small organisms and then flows out the top of the sponge, the osculum, removing waste by diffusion. Sponges lack a circulatory system, as does many of the first couple of phyla. A coinciding factor could be their small size. A nervous system is also missing, but very basic nerve cells within the pores sense the water currents. Gas exchange occurs through these pores. Reproduction in sponges can be asexual by budding, gammation, or fragmentation. Some sponges can also have sexual reproduction occur as an egg gets released and fertilized in the open water by free floating sperm. After this stage they cling onto rock and begin their sessile, basic, life....
In addition, the. creature lives in a big wondrous grot and secret cell buried within the ground. Down where the sun lights flee, the kraken is battening up huge sea-worms in his sleep. It's huge. sponges of width and height blend in with the shadowy light. The enormous green giant’s giant arms would lie on the ocean bed and would have its ageless rest.