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Dysidea Etheria
''Dysidea etheria'', commonly known as the ethereal sponge or heavenly sponge, is a species of lobate sponge within the class Demospongiae. This marine sponge is known for its light blue color and can be found in the Caribbean as well as off the coasts of Florida and Georgia.Diaz M.C. (2011) Mangrove and coral reef sponge faunas: untold stories about shallow water Porifera in the Caribbean. In: Maldonado M., Turon X., Becerro M., Jesús Uriz M. (eds) Ancient Animals, New Challenges. Developments in Hydrobiology, vol 219. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4688-6_15 Like all other poriferans, ''D. etheria'' is capable of both sexual and asexual reproduction. The use of spicule collection as well as chemical defenses allows D. etheria to protect itself against predators such as the zebra doris and the orange knobby star. ''D. etheria'' is also known as a host species of the invasive brittle star ''Ophiothela mirabilis.'' Lastly, various molecular biology stu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sponge
Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through them, consisting of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cells. Sponges have unspecialized cells that can transform into other types and that often migrate between the main cell layers and the mesohyl in the process. Sponges do not have nervous, digestive or circulatory systems. Instead, most rely on maintaining a constant water flow through their bodies to obtain food and oxygen and to remove wastes. Sponges were first to branch off the evolutionary tree from the last common ancestor of all animals, making them the sister group of all other animals. Etymology The term ''sponge'' derives from the Ancient Greek word ( 'sponge'). Overview Sponges are similar to other animals in that they are multicellular, he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dry Tortugas
Dry Tortugas National Park is a national park located about west of Key West in the Gulf of Mexico. The park preserves Fort Jefferson and the seven Dry Tortugas islands, the westernmost and most isolated of the Florida Keys. The archipelago's coral reefs are the least disturbed of the Florida Keys reefs. The park is noted for abundant sea life, tropical bird breeding grounds, colorful coral reefs, and legends of shipwrecks and sunken treasures. The park's centerpiece is Fort Jefferson, a massive but unfinished coastal fortress. Fort Jefferson is the largest brick masonry structure in the Western Hemisphere, and is composed of more than 16 million bricks. Among United States forts it is exceeded in size only by Fort Monroe, Virginia, and Fort Adams, Rhode Island. Dry Tortugas is unique in its combination of a largely undisturbed tropical ecosystem with significant historic artifacts. The park is accessible only by seaplane or boat and has averaged about 63,000 visitors annually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orange Knobby Star
The orange knobby star, ''Echinaster echinophorus'', is a species of sea star found in the Caribbean Sea and along the Atlantic coast of South America. Description It is a small species with a diameter of up to . It has a small central disc and five spatulate arms, tapering very little and with rounded tips. The arms are oval in cross section and on the aboral (upper) side have one or two rows of bluntly conical spines, and more rows of spines on the sides of the arms and on the oral (under) surface, on either side of the ambulacral grooves. The colour is usually some shade of red or orange. Distribution and habitat ''Echinaster echinophorus'' is found in shallow water in Florida, the Caribbean Sea, the Bahamas, Venezuela, and northern Brazil at depths ranging from and at a sea temperature of about 27 °C (8 °F). It occurs on reefs, rocks, and areas of coral rubble and sometimes among mangroves. Biology In Florida, ''Echinaster echinophorus'' spawns in late spring an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cell Potency
Pluripotency: These are the cells that can generate into any of the three Germ layers which imply Endodermal, Mesodermal, and Ectodermal cells except tissues like the placenta. According to Latin terms, Pluripotentia means the ability for many things. We can generate Induced Pluripotent cells by using the Induced pluripotency technique by triggering or expressing the genes or the transcription factors of the normal somatic cells. They are abbreviated as iPSC or IPS. We can forcefully express the transcription factors like Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc of a non-pluripotent cell and convert them into a stem cell. This procedure is first studied in a Mouse fibroblast cell in 2006 and followed the same instructions in developing a Human pluripotent cell from a Human epidermal fibroblast cell. The technique is called Regeneration. Though the iPSC has similar properties to embryonic stem cells they were never approved for clinical stage research because they are highly Tumerogenic, hav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fragmentation (reproduction)
Fragmentation in multicellular or colonial organisms is a form of asexual reproduction or cloning, where an organism is split into fragments. Each of these fragments develops into mature, fully grown individuals that are clones of the original organism. The organism may develop specific organs or zones to shed or be easily broken off. If the splitting occurs without the prior preparation of the organism, both fragments must be able to regenerate the complete organism for it to function as reproduction. Fragmentation as a method of reproduction is seen in organisms such as filamentous cyanobacteria, molds, lichens, sponges, acoel flatworms, some annelid worms and sea stars. Fragmentation in various organisms Molds, yeasts and mushrooms, all of which are part of the Fungi kingdom, produce tiny filaments called hyphae. These hyphae obtain food and nutrients from the body of other organisms to grow and fertilize. Then a piece of hyphae breaks off and grows into a new individual ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hermaphrodite
In reproductive biology, a hermaphrodite () is an organism that has both kinds of reproductive organs and can produce both gametes associated with male and female sexes. Many Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrates) do not have separate sexes. In these groups, hermaphroditism is a normal condition, enabling a form of sexual reproduction in which either partner can act as the female or male. For example, the great majority of tunicata, tunicates, pulmonate molluscs, opisthobranch, earthworms, and slugs are hermaphrodites. Hermaphroditism is also found in some fish species and to a lesser degree in other vertebrates. Most plants are also hermaphrodites. Animal species having different sexes, male and female, are called Gonochorism, gonochoric, which is the opposite of hermaphrodite. There are also species where hermaphrodites exist alongside males (called androdioecy) or alongside females (called gynodioecy), or all three exist in the same species ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thalassia Testudinum
''Thalassia testudinum'', commonly known as turtlegrass, is a species of marine seagrass. It forms meadows in shallow sandy or muddy locations in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Turtle grass and other seagrasses form meadows A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artifici ... which are important habitats and feeding grounds. The grass is eaten by turtles and herbivorous fish, supports many epiphytes, and provides habitat for juvenile fish and many invertebrate taxa. Description ''Thalassia testudinum'' is a perennial grass growing from a long, jointed rhizome. The rhizome is buried in the Substrate (biology), substrate deep, exceptionally down to . Some nodes are leafless but others bear a tuft of several erect, linear leaf blades. These are up to long and wide and have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scleractinia
Scleractinia, also called stony corals or hard corals, are marine animals in the phylum Cnidaria that build themselves a hard skeleton. The individual animals are known as polyp (zoology), polyps and have a cylindrical body crowned by an oral disc in which a mouth is fringed with tentacles. Although some species are solitary, most are Colony (biology), colonial. The founding polyp settles and starts to secrete calcium carbonate to protect its soft body. Solitary corals can be as much as across but in colonial species the polyps are usually only a few millimetres in diameter. These polyps reproduce asexually by budding, but remain attached to each other, forming a multi-polyp colony of cloning, clones with a common skeleton, which may be up to several metres in diameter or height according to species. The shape and appearance of each coral colony depends not only on the species, but also on its location, depth, the amount of water movement and other factors. Many shallow-water co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osculum
The osculum (plural "oscula") is an excretory structure in the living sponge, a large opening to the outside through which the current of water exits after passing through the spongocoel. Wastes diffuse into the water and the water is pumped through the osculum carrying away with it the sponge's wastes. Sponges pump large volumes of water: typically a volume of water equal to the sponge's body size is pumped every five seconds. The size of the osculum is regulated by contractile myocytes. Its size, in turn, is one of the factors which determines the amount of water flowing through the sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t .... It can be closed completely in response to excess silt in the water. References Sponge anatomy {{animal-anatomy-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orange Knobby Star
The orange knobby star, ''Echinaster echinophorus'', is a species of sea star found in the Caribbean Sea and along the Atlantic coast of South America. Description It is a small species with a diameter of up to . It has a small central disc and five spatulate arms, tapering very little and with rounded tips. The arms are oval in cross section and on the aboral (upper) side have one or two rows of bluntly conical spines, and more rows of spines on the sides of the arms and on the oral (under) surface, on either side of the ambulacral grooves. The colour is usually some shade of red or orange. Distribution and habitat ''Echinaster echinophorus'' is found in shallow water in Florida, the Caribbean Sea, the Bahamas, Venezuela, and northern Brazil at depths ranging from and at a sea temperature of about 27 °C (8 °F). It occurs on reefs, rocks, and areas of coral rubble and sometimes among mangroves. Biology In Florida, ''Echinaster echinophorus'' spawns in late spring an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Demosponge
Demosponges (Demospongiae) are the most diverse class in the phylum Porifera. They include 76.2% of all species of sponges with nearly 8,800 species worldwide (World Porifera Database). They are sponges with a soft body that covers a hard, often massive skeleton made of calcium carbonate, either aragonite or calcite. They are predominantly leuconoid in structure. Their "skeletons" are made of spicules consisting of fibers of the protein spongin, the mineral silica, or both. Where spicules of silica are present, they have a different shape from those in the otherwise similar glass sponges. Some species, in particular from the Antarctic, obtain the silica for spicule building from the ingestion of siliceous diatoms. The many diverse orders in this class include all of the large sponges. Most are marine dwellers, but one order ( Spongillida) live in freshwater environments. Some species are brightly colored, with great variety in body shape; the largest species are ove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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