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Orthasterias
''Orthasterias'' is a genus of sea stars in the family Asteriidae. ''Orthasterias koehleri'', the rainbow star or red-banded sea star, is the only species in the genus. It is found in the North Pacific Ocean. Description The rainbow star is a large starfish, growing to a diameter of about with an arm length of . It usually has five slender tapering arms and the aboral (upper) surface is pink or red with irregular patches or bands of darker red, orange or grey. The surface is covered with sharp white or mauve spines, each surrounded by a ring of pedicellariae, tiny pincer-like organs. Distribution and habitat The rainbow star is found in northern parts of the Pacific Ocean with its range extending from California to Alaska at depths down to about . It also occurs in mid-ocean on knolls and seamounts. It is an uncommon species and is usually found on soft bottoms of mud or sand, or on kelp or rock surfaces. Biology The rainbow star is a predator and feeds on a range ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solaster Dawsoni
''Solaster dawsoni'', the morning sun star, is a species of starfish in the family Solasteridae. It is found on either side of the northern Pacific Ocean. It has two subspecies: *''S. d. arcticus'' Verrill, 1914 *''S. d. dawsoni'' Verrill, 1880 Description The morning sun star has a wide disc and 8 to 13 (usually 11 or 12) long, tapering arms, often with turned-up tips. The upper or aboral surface is smooth, and its colour is usually red, orange, grey, or pale brown, sometimes with paler patches. It grows to a width of about . Image:Solaster dawsoni moribund.jpg Image:Dawsons Sun Star001.jpg, Eating. Distribution The morning sun star occurs in the northern Pacific Ocean at depths to about . Its range extends from Japan, China, and Siberia to the coasts of North America as far south as California. It is often found in rocky habitats, but can also inhabit other types of seabed. Behaviour The morning sun star is a predator, feeding mostly on other starfish. It is feared by ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asteriidae
The Asteriidae are a diverse family of Asteroidea (sea stars) in the order Forcipulatida. It is one of three families in the order Forcipulatida. Genera The World Register of Marine Species lists these genera within the family Asteriidae (in a field of 6 families): * '' Adelasterias'' Verrill, 1914 * '' Anasterias'' Perrier, 1875 * '' Aphanasterias'' Fisher, 1923 * '' Aphelasterias'' Fisher, 1923 * ''Asterias'' Linnaeus, 1758 * '' Astrometis'' Fisher, 1923 * '' Astrostole'' Fisher, 1923 * '' Caimanaster'' A.M. Clark, 1962 * '' Calasterias'' Hayashi, 1975 * '' Coronaster'' Perrier, 1885 * ''Coscinasterias'' Verrill, 1867 * '' Cryptasterias'' Verrill, 1914 * '' Diplasterias'' Perrier, 1891 * '' Distolasterias'' Perrier, 1896 * '' Evasterias'' Verrill, 1914 * '' Icasterias'' Fisher, 1923 * '' Kenrickaster'' A.M. Clark, 1962 * ''Leptasterias'' Verrill, 1866 * '' Lethasterias'' Fisher, 1923 * '' Lysasterias'' Fisher, 1908 * '' Marthasterias'' Jullien, 1878 * '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animalia
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in which their body consists of a hollow sphere of cells, the blastula, during embryonic development. Over 1.5 million living animal species have been described—of which around 1 million are insects—but it has been estimated there are over 7 million animal species in total. Animals range in length from to . They have complex interactions with each other and their environments, forming intricate food webs. The scientific study of animals is known as zoology. Most living animal species are in Bilateria, a clade whose members have a bilaterally symmetric body plan. The Bilateria include the protostomes, containing animals such as nematodes, arthropods, flatworms, annelids and molluscs, and the deuterostomes, containing the echinode ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Limpet
Limpets are a group of aquatic snails that exhibit a conical shell shape (patelliform) and a strong, muscular foot. Limpets are members of the class Gastropoda, but are polyphyletic, meaning the various groups called "limpets" descended independently from different ancestral gastropods. This general category of conical shell is known as "patelliform" (dish-shaped). All members of the large and ancient marine clade Patellogastropoda are limpets. Within that clade, the members of the Patellidae family in particular are often referred to as "true limpets". Other groups, not in the same family, are also called limpets of one type or another, due to the similarity of their shells' shape. Examples include the Fissurellidae ("keyhole limpet") family, which is part of the Vetigastropoda clade (many other members of the Vetigastropoda do not have the morphology of limpets) and the Siphonariidae ("false limpets"), which use a siphon to pump water over their gills. Behaviour and ecolo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asteroidea Genera
Starfish or sea stars are star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to as brittle stars or basket stars. Starfish are also known as asteroids due to being in the class Asteroidea. About 1,900 species of starfish live on the seabed in all the world's oceans, from warm, tropical zones to frigid, polar regions. They are found from the intertidal zone down to abyssal depths, at below the surface. Starfish are marine invertebrates. They typically have a central disc and usually five arms, though some species have a larger number of arms. The aboral or upper surface may be smooth, granular or spiny, and is covered with overlapping plates. Many species are brightly coloured in various shades of red or orange, while others are blue, grey or brown. Starfish have tube feet operated by a hydraulic system and a mouth at the centre of the oral or lower surface. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fauna Of The Pacific Ocean
Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''Biota (ecology), biota''. Zoologists and paleontologists use ''fauna'' to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess Shale fauna". Paleontology, Paleontologists sometimes refer to a sequence of faunal stages, which is a series of rocks all containing similar fossils. The study of animals of a particular region is called faunistics. Etymology ''Fauna of Madagascar, Fauna'' comes from the name Fauna (deity), Fauna, a Roman goddess of earth and fertility, the Roman god Faunus, and the related forest spirits called Fauns. All three words are cognates of the name of the Greek god Pan (god), Pan, and ''panis'' is the Greek language, Greek equivalent of fauna. ''Fauna'' is also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enzyme
Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products. Almost all metabolic processes in the cell need enzyme catalysis in order to occur at rates fast enough to sustain life. Metabolic pathways depend upon enzymes to catalyze individual steps. The study of enzymes is called ''enzymology'' and the field of pseudoenzyme analysis recognizes that during evolution, some enzymes have lost the ability to carry out biological catalysis, which is often reflected in their amino acid sequences and unusual 'pseudocatalytic' properties. Enzymes are known to catalyze more than 5,000 biochemical reaction types. Other biocatalysts are catalytic RNA molecules, called ribozymes. Enzymes' specificity comes from their unique three-dimensional structures. Like all catalysts, enzymes increase the reaction ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tunicate
A tunicate is a marine invertebrate animal, a member of the subphylum Tunicata (). It is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords (including vertebrates). The subphylum was at one time called Urochordata, and the term urochordates is still sometimes used for these animals. They are the only chordates that have lost their myomeric segmentation, with the possible exception of the 'seriation of the gill slits'. Some tunicates live as solitary individuals, but others replicate by budding and become colonies, each unit being known as a zooid. They are marine filter feeders with a water-filled, sac-like body structure and two tubular openings, known as siphons, through which they draw in and expel water. During their respiration and feeding, they take in water through the incurrent (or inhalant) siphon and expel the filtered water through the excurrent (or exhalant) siphon. Most adult tunicates are sessile, immobile and perman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barnacle
A barnacle is a type of arthropod constituting the subclass Cirripedia in the subphylum Crustacea, and is hence related to crabs and lobsters. Barnacles are exclusively marine, and tend to live in shallow and tidal waters, typically in erosive settings. They are sessile (nonmobile) and most are suspension feeders, but those in infraclass Rhizocephala are highly specialized parasites on crustaceans. They have four nektonic (active swimming) larval stages. Around 1,000 barnacle species are currently known. The name is Latin, meaning "curl-footed". The study of barnacles is called cirripedology. Description Barnacles are encrusters, attaching themselves temporarily to a hard substrate or a symbiont such as a whale ( whale barnacles), a sea snake ('' Platylepas ophiophila''), or another crustacean, like a crab or a lobster (Rhizocephala). The most common among them, "acorn barnacles" ( Sessilia), are sessile where they grow their shells directly onto the substrate. Peduncul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chiton
Chitons () are marine molluscs of varying size in the class Polyplacophora (), formerly known as Amphineura. About 940 extant and 430 fossil species are recognized. They are also sometimes known as gumboots or sea cradles or coat-of-mail shells or suck-rocks, or more formally as loricates, polyplacophorans, and occasionally as polyplacophores. Chitons have a shell composed of eight separate shell plates or valves. These plates overlap slightly at the front and back edges, and yet articulate well with one another. Because of this, the shell provides protection at the same time as permitting the chiton to flex upward when needed for locomotion over uneven surfaces, and even allows the animal to curl up into a ball when dislodged from rocks. The shell plates are encircled by a skirt known as a girdle. Habitat Chitons live worldwide, from cold waters through to the tropics. They live on hard surfaces, such as on or under rocks, or in rock crevices. Some species live quite hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brachiopod
Brachiopods (), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of trochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, while the front can be opened for feeding or closed for protection. Two major categories are traditionally recognized, articulate and inarticulate brachiopods. The word "articulate" is used to describe the tooth-and-groove structures of the valve-hinge which is present in the articulate group, and absent from the inarticulate group. This is the leading diagnostic skeletal feature, by which the two main groups can be readily distinguished as fossils. Articulate brachiopods have toothed hinges and simple, vertically-oriented opening and closing muscles. Conversely, inarticulate brachiopods have weak, untoothed hinges and a more complex system of vertical and oblique (diagonal) muscles used to keep the two valves aligned. In many brachiopods, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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