One of the most beguiling organisms in the world is found drifting dangerously within the ocean, near the shores of Northern Australia. These virulent stingers roam this territory and a few others. Because of their well-defined “box” shaped bell, which is distinguished by four sides, they received their name the box jellyfish. Their bell can grow as big as a soccer ball, or can reach up to 30 centimeters in diameter KE. These simple organisms are composed of specialized cells and developed tissueJ. Their structure is made of 95% water and has a slimy covering presented on its exteriorPJ. This translucent jellyfish is as invisible in the water as a bacteria is in the air because of their “pale purplish, blue tinge” they revealI. Their slimy outer surface and invisibility provides two protection advantages for this ominous animal J.
“In the middle of each flattened side is a collection of sense organs including some remarkably complex eyes.”A Six eyes on each four sides, making up a total of twenty-four eyes in all, are microscopically exhibited on this jellyfish. Although,...
Because of its size and abundance, T. californicus is commonly regarded as the insect of the sea. This creature is generally very small, from 1-3 mm in size as adults. They are cylindrically shaped, and have a segmented body (head, thorax, abdomen) though no noticeable division between body regions (Powlik 1966). Each segment of the body has a pair of legs. They use their 'legs' to propel themselves through the water in short rapid jerks. They have 2 pairs of long feathered antennae, a chitin us exoskeleton and a single eye in the middle of their head, this simple eye can only differentiate between light and dark.
The Byzantine Empire was a primarily Christian empire whose reign started in 330 A.D and ended in 1453 A.D with the capturing of the its capital, Constantinople by the Muslim Sultan Mehmed II. In the years following the fall of the Byzantines, many of the Christian basilicas were transformed into mosques for Islamic worship, inspiring many artists to create works that embodied their religious politics. One of the pieces created following the fall of the Byzantine Empire is the painting of Yusuf Fleeing Zulayhka, created in 1488 by Kamal al-Din Bihzad, a famous Persian painter who worked under the patronage of several Persian sultans. The illustration depicts Yusuf’s struggle to escape his master’s wife Zulaykha as she chases him through her elaborate palace in an attempt to seduce him. The representation was made using paint, ink and gold, and features jewel-like colors in order to portray the extravagancy of the palace Zulayhka has built specifically for the seduction of Yusuf (Stokstad 286). This essay will assess three accounts of the story of Yusuf and Zulaykha and the reasoning behind why the narrative is often labelled as a cautionary tale and of what kind.
The eye is an important sensory organ for vision which houses a sensitive optical apparatus in a relatively isolated tissue compartment. Eye is essentially made of three layers: (1) sclera, (2) uveal tract, and (3) retina with each of these layers performing intricate duties which ensure proper functioning of the eye.
There were many prostitutes during the Victorian era. Most were lower-class women, with the exception of the mistresses kept by upper-class men. According to Victorian standards, respectable women did not consider sexual intercourse pleasurable. It was their duty to be intimate with their husbands. Having affairs was disgraceful (Waters). Prostitutes, on the other hand, were sexually intimate with men because they enjoyed sex. Men enjoyed prostitutes because they could not enjoy their wives. Victorian femininity was not defined by sexual pleasure, while Victorian masculinity was defined by sexual pleasure and conquest.
We started to touch them and the starfish had such a unique texture. Afterwards, we washed our hands and headed outside and joined a line that was heading into a big, blue tent. We went inside and we were both surprised and excited to see tons of different-looking and sized stingrays swimming graciously throughout the pool. Everybody leaned over and reached their hand in the water, hoping that their hand would touch a back of a stingray. At first, I was scared to put my hand in the water because I didn’t want to accidentally touch the tail of the stingray even though they removed the barbs so they couldn’t sting you. Kristen didn’t have any trouble touching them, but for me on the other hand, it took a little longer. Kristen really wanted me to touch one so she grabbed my hand and slowly put it into the water. Having my sister there with me made me feel a lot less scared. We saw a small stingray heading our way, so Kristen lowered my hand and then my hand touched the back of the stingray. I was surprised of how smooth it was. It was as smooth as a fleece blanket. I was really happy at the end that Kristen encouraged me to touch one. After that I was able to touch a few more, except there was a big black covered sting ray with white spots that was probably five times bigger than the rest of them, that I was scared to touch and so was Kristen. We exited the tent and got our picture taken with the view of the city and Lake Michigan.
Our increased appetite for coastal area living, a preference that will likely develop as global temperatures increase, coupled with a rise in seaborne trade and transport, will all contribute to the shaping of future tropical marine ecosystems. Between the years of 1980 and 2000 seaborne trade was shown to increase by 37%, and has continued steadily ever since (Peters 2001). The global mean of ocean transportation is widely acknowledged as a dominant vector regarding invasive species introduction (Carlton 1985), by means of the translocation of larvae and marine microorganisms. One investigation conservatively reported ballast water containing 8 different animal phyla and 5 protist phyla consisting of a total of 81 species (Chu et al., 1997). It is also suggested that at any one moment in time, 10,000 species are transported through ballast water globally (Carlton 1999). An example of a successful invasive transfer via ballast water is the invasion of the comb jelly, Mnemiopsis leidyi, which invaded the Caspian Sea in 1982 (Ivanov et al., 2000). Another ballast water mediated species in recent times is the Pacific brittle star species Ophiactis savignyi, which has now successfully integrated into the tropical West Atlantic (Roy and Sponer 2002). Various management strategies have been manufactured to prevent these ballast tank related problems,
The Great Barrier Reef is home to a remarkable number of organisms. The coral itself is made up of the skeletons of tiny, flowerlike water animals called polyps, held together by a limestone substance produced by a type of algae. Hundreds...
One can almost feel the searing penetration of Lewis Thomas’ analytical eye as it descends the narrow barrel of the microscope and explodes onto a scene of vigorous, animated, interactive little cells—cells inescapably engrossed in relaying messages to one another with every bump and bounce; with every brush of the elbow, lick of the stamp, and click of the mouse…
Though food is everlasting in both the coral reef and deep sea, space is very limited. Organisms in both habitats have to compete for space and survival, having defense mechanisms to keep other species from killing out their kind. Some fishes in the coral reef hide in cracks and crevices along the rocks and corals to hide from their predators. Other fishes camouflage within the brightly colored corals to hide from predators, or even humans looking into their tank. The deep sea holds many small fish, but with large mouths. The large mouths and pointy teeth help the miniscule fish eat their prey, whi...
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.
of the eye, this is what gives form to the eyeball. The vascular tunic has three
Piatigorsky, Z., Kozmik. 2004.Cubozoan jellyfish: an Evo/Devo model for eyes and other sensory systems. Int J Dev Biol 48: 719–729
The Great Barrier Reef is an exemplary model of the famous exotic coral reef seen in a copy of the National Geographic or the popular animated film Finding Nemo. Located on the coast of Australia, it is known as the “largest biological organism in the world” (“Human Impact on the Great Barrier Reef” par. 1). The idea bears that coral reefs are again not an assortment of organisms functioning separately but rather working together to thrive. The groups of coral that are seen in t...
Comb jellies or Ctenophores are basically fake jellyfish. Like jellyfish they are transparent are transparent, but these lacking stinging cells are basically giant balls of see-through goo. These balls of goo are located throughout most marine environments, at varied depths and temperatures they are very good conformers. The most prominent feature of Ctenophores is their cilia. Cilia are hair-like structures that are used to help this species swim. Being fake jellyfish the comb jellies are extremely predacious, they entrap food and suck them up and are known for being cannibalistic and swallowing each other whole.
...mazingly) and we watched the engines start up, with water whirling everywhere below the surface. I ran to the front of the boat to look down into the water and I kept noticing all these little white puffs everywhere. From where I was, they kind of looked like plastic bags floating through the water. I called Kristi and my dad over to see them. As we were watching, these poofy little balls kept appearing out of nowhere, there must have been hundreds. Finally, a really big one floated its way into our line of vision and from the eighth deck we were able to see what they were. Jellyfish! Cute little iridescent balls of cotton.