Tuesday 4 December 2012

Annelids


On Friday my class and I had the opportunity of dissecting an earthworm! Unfortunately James and I were not the best at using the scalpel, we think it was dull, but we cut open the intestine. The intestine, being cut opened, oozed dirt everywhere making it hard to see some of the organs. Though. Did our best we sure did make a mess if the worm. Though the cold, wet worm was a little gross I look forward to the future dissection!

(as my partner and I did not have a camera, I will be getting my photos from classmates or the internet many photos borrowed from the great man that is Shaineel Sharma )

1. The name of the pumping organ in the earthworm is pumping vessels, the hearts.



2. Food enters the earthworm through the mouth. After the mouth the food travels to the pharynx, then the esophagus. The food will soon enough reach the gizzard then the intestines where it is excreated through the anus.

3. The earth worm's cerebral ganglia serves as the worms head, and is attached to the rest of the body by a long nerve cord.
4. The only part of the excretion system my group saw were the intestines and anus, as we were not the handiest with the razor.

   5.  One may find out if an earthworm eat dirt by cutting it open.

 6. The earthworms setae are bristles that greatly aid in it's locomotion, as it lets it extend it's body in the desired direction.
7. The gizzard is in large part the adaptation that allows the worm to remove food from ingested dirt.











8.  I would continue to see more digestive system if we continued the dissection past segment 32.











9Earthworms are hermaphrodites meaning that they both have male and female gametes. The earth worms reproduce by fertilizing the others eggs while in turn their own are being simultaneously fertilized.

Tuesday 27 November 2012

The Aquarium.


Last week our Biology 11 class ventured to the Vancouver aquarium. We went to the aquarium to have a real life visual of some of the animals we will be studying, something that lets us relate to the topic. In most of the tanks was at least one thing we have already learned about, or something I am sure we will learn about in the very near future! 
1.     Sea anemones and clownish help each other greatly, the anemones protect the fish and the fish protect the anemones. A perfect relationship in the wild.
 http://arachnoid.com/symmetry/images/clownfish_anemone_symbiosis.jpg
2.     The otter is so clean because the ability of I it’s fur to repel water depends on cleanliness
 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Seaotterrocks.jpg/200px-Seaotterrocks.jpg
3.     Otters died out on our coast, but some were shipped in to repopulate. Otters are found by kelp forests and rocky coasts.
4.     The sea anemones are green next to see the sea otter tank.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipcytodAbdHT_BwXFOh0CTnNzR1bTd5v8XN0iQaLPb7xRP1joVKlH8OGKmEtq6s2yMqVaUKD2EQvT4JtkuSJW4Fske7Kp7KhgwN5DtVqVcRKQ9zOD-FT1_gMzapXe9zSWk2PLwv0s6FhuQ/
5.     I like Box Jellyfish, they are adapted to survive by more or less killing everything that trys to hurt it.
 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Jelly_cc11.jpg/220px-Jelly_cc11.jpg
6.     The scientific name for a beluga is Delphinapterus lecus.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/Beluga03.jpg/220px-Beluga03.jpg
7.     The potbelly seahorses movement is interesting.
http://magicporthole.org/wonders/Potbelly-Seahorse.jpg
8.     The Starry flounder are flat and play dead, and are camouflages, these are their adaptations.
http://calfish.ucdavis.edu/files/79524display.jpg
9.     Moon-Jellies move very gracefully. Their adaptation for feeding on plankton is to contract their head sucking in plankton.
http://www.longbeachislandjournal.com/images/learn/animals/large-moon-jelly.jpg
10.  The octocpus uses its sucksion cups to grasp prey. It is a good predator due to its ability to hide.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0b/Enteroctopus_dolfeini.jpg/220px-Enteroctopus_dolfeini.jpg
11. The different feeding types in sea lions are a wide variety of fish
Steller Sea Lions
12. The caiman is the world’s most terrifying animal, a crocodile.
http://www.edjameson.com/Endangered%20Animals/pages/bcaiman5_files/caiman2.jpeg
13. They are a dark green, as they live in a tropical area this helps hide them.
14. The largest fish in the aquarium is the arapaima
http://www.saidaonline.com/en/newsgfx/arapaima%20fish-saidaonline.jpg
15. The vegetarian fish is the red hook silver dollar, it eats seeds!
http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Tetras124.jpg
16. Piranhas are the biggest threat while removing a hook from their mouth.
http://www.sysf.physto.se/~klere/piranha/pir_idx.gif
17. Sharks have not many bones, as they have zero.
http://d3ny4pswk2x1ig.cloudfront.net/8f16f588be33ed6a993b708bdde1a1fdf40acde01c8d5a8fb0f3f4e3.jpg 
18. In the shark one can find, stingrays, assocted fish, and a turtle.
19. The scientific name for the giant red sea urchin is Strongylocentrotus franciscanus, it has many spines as adaptations to help it survive.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Strongylocentrotus_franciscanus.jpg/220px-Strongylocentrotus_franciscanus.jpg
20. Archerfish find their food by shooting water at them. The shooting of water makes them archers?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/ArcherFish01.jpg/250px-ArcherFish01.jpg
21. The sea turtle in the tropic zone was Schoona

All pictures taken from google.

Monday 19 November 2012

Fun, Fungi Walk!


Polypore

Mica-Cap (Coprinellus Micaceus)
Unfortunately for me I was away last Friday as I was home sick with the flu, caused by the influenza virus type C. I heard of the great excitement of the nature walk, as my fellow classmates were able to see countless types of fungi, I heard that the sight of polypore fungi (abundisporus), was a common one, very cool. The park around our high school is going to prove to provide an endless supply of fungi in the future. Though I was unable to experience the nature walk, I will post pictures of so fungi I could have see! 
The purpose of the walk was so that our class could see the many types of fungi growing in our backyards, to show us that we live in a diverse ecosystem!
Pithya Vulgaris
Orange Peel Fungus (Caloscypha fulgen)

                                                                                                            
Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus).
Yellow-gilled Russula
Western Giant Puffball
Mica Cap (Corpinellus Micaeus)