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Tentacular Club
All cephalopods possess flexible limbs extending from their heads and surrounding their beaks. These appendages, which function as muscular hydrostats, have been variously termed arms, legs or tentacles. Description In the scientific literature, a cephalopod ''arm'' is often treated as distinct from a ''tentacle'', though the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, often with the latter acting as an umbrella term for cephalopod limbs. Generally, arms have suckers along most of their length, as opposed to tentacles, which have suckers only near their ends.Young, R.E., M. Vecchione & K.M. Mangold 1999Cephalopoda Glossary Tree of Life web project. Barring a few exceptions, octopuses have eight arms and no tentacles, while squid and cuttlefish have eight arms (or two "legs" and six "arms") and two tentacles.Norman, M. 2000. ''Cephalopods: A World Guide''. ConchBooks, Hackenheim. p. 15. "There is some confusion around the terms ''arms'' versus ''tentacles''. The numerous lim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Illex Illecebrosus
''Illex illecebrosus'', commonly known as the northern shortfin squid, is a species of Neritic zone, neritic squids in the Family (biology), family Ommastrephidae. Squids of the genus Illex account for 65% of the world’s cephalopod captures. Illex is formed by four taxa distributed throughout the Atlantic Ocean (I. argentinus, I. coindetii, I. illecebrosus and I. oxygonius), whose identification and phylogenetic relationships based on morphological characters remain controversial.They are found in the northwest Atlantic Ocean, from off the coast of eastern North America to Greenland, Iceland, and west of Ireland and the United Kingdom. They are a highly migratory and short-lived species, with lifespans of less than a year. They are commercially important and are fished extensively (primarily by the United States and Canada), mostly for the Canadian and Japanese markets. Northern shortfin squid is a migratory species of squid with a distribution ranging from Florida Straits to New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tentacle
In zoology, a tentacle is a flexible, mobile, and elongated organ present in some species of animals, most of them invertebrates. In animal anatomy, tentacles usually occur in one or more pairs. Anatomically, the tentacles of animals work mainly like muscular hydrostats. Most forms of tentacles are used for grasping and feeding. Many are sensory organs, variously receptive to touch, vision, or to the smell or taste of particular foods or threats. Examples of such tentacles are the eyestalks of various kinds of snails. Some kinds of tentacles have both sensory and manipulatory functions. A tentacle is similar to a cirrus, but a cirrus is an organ that usually lacks the tentacle's strength, size, flexibility, or sensitivity. A nautilus has cirri, but a squid has tentacles. Invertebrates Molluscs Many molluscs have tentacles of one form or another. The most familiar are those of the pulmonate land snails, which usually have two sets of tentacles on the head: when extended ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acetabulum (morphology)
Acetabulum (plural acetabula) in invertebrate zoology is a saucer-shaped organ of attachment in some annelid worms (like leech) and flatworms. It is a specialised sucker for parasitic adaptation in trematodes by which the worms are able to attach on the host. In annelids, it is basically a locomotory organ for attaching to a substratum. The name also applies to the suction appendage on the arms of cephalopod molluscs such as squid, octopus, cuttlefish, ''Nautilus'', etc. Etymology Acetabulum literally means "a small saucer for vinegar". It is derived from two Latin words ''acetum'', meaning "vinegar", and ''-bulum'', a suffix denoting "saucer" or "vessel" or "bowl". The name is used because of the saucer-like structure in the invertebrates. Structure Annelids In leeches, acetabulum refers to the prominent posterior sucker at the extreme end of the body. In fact it forms a head-like structure, while the actual head is relatively small. It is a thick disc-shaped muscular system ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydrostatic Pressure
Fluid statics or hydrostatics is the branch of fluid mechanics that studies the condition of the equilibrium of a floating body and submerged body "fluids at hydrostatic equilibrium and the pressure in a fluid, or exerted by a fluid, on an immersed body". It encompasses the study of the conditions under which fluids are at rest in stable equilibrium as opposed to fluid dynamics, the study of fluids in motion. Hydrostatics is a subcategory of fluid statics, which is the study of all fluids, both compressible or incompressible, at rest. Hydrostatics is fundamental to hydraulics, the engineering of equipment for storing, transporting and using fluids. It is also relevant to geophysics and astrophysics (for example, in understanding plate tectonics and the anomalies of the Earth's gravitational field), to meteorology, to medicine (in the context of blood pressure), and many other fields. Hydrostatics offers physical explanations for many phenomena of everyday life, such as why ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Collagen
Collagen () is the main structural protein in the extracellular matrix found in the body's various connective tissues. As the main component of connective tissue, it is the most abundant protein in mammals, making up from 25% to 35% of the whole-body protein content. Collagen consists of amino acids bound together to form a triple helix of elongated fibril known as a collagen helix. It is mostly found in connective tissue such as cartilage, bones, tendons, ligaments, and skin. Depending upon the degree of mineralization, collagen tissues may be rigid (bone) or compliant (tendon) or have a gradient from rigid to compliant (cartilage). Collagen is also abundant in corneas, blood vessels, the gut, intervertebral discs, and the dentin in teeth. In muscle tissue, it serves as a major component of the endomysium. Collagen constitutes one to two percent of muscle tissue and accounts for 6% of the weight of the skeletal muscle tissue. The fibroblast is the most common cell that crea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vampire Squid
The vampire squid (''Vampyroteuthis infernalis'', lit. 'vampire squid from hell') is a small cephalopod found throughout temperate and tropical oceans in extreme deep sea conditions. The vampire squid uses its bioluminescent organs and its unique oxygen metabolism to thrive in the parts of the ocean with the lowest concentrations of oxygen. It has two long retractile filaments, located between the first two pairs of arms on its dorsal side, which distinguish it from both octopuses and squids, and places it in its own order, Vampyromorphida, although its closest relatives are octopods. As a phylogenetic relict, it is the only known surviving member of its order. The first specimens were collected on the Valdivia Expedition and were originally described as an octopus in 1903 by German teuthologist Carl Chun, but later assigned to a new order together with several extinct taxa. Discovery The vampire squid was discovered during the Valdivia Expedition (1898–1899), led by Carl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haliphron Atlanticus
The seven-arm octopus (''Haliphron atlanticus'') is one of the two largest known species of octopus; based on scientific records, it has a maximum estimated total length of and mass of . The only other similarly large extant species is the giant Pacific octopus, ''Enteroctopus dofleini''. The genera ''Alloposina'' Grimpe, 1922, ''Alloposus'' Verrill, 1880 and ''Heptopus'' Joubin, 1929 are junior synonyms of ''Haliphron'', a monotypic genus in the monotypic family Alloposidae, part of the superfamily Argonautoidea in the suborder Incirrata of the order Octopoda. Description The seven-arm octopus is so named because in males, the hectocotylus (a specially modified arm used in egg fertilization) is coiled in a sac beneath the right eye. Due to this species' thick, gelatinous tissue, the arm is easily overlooked, giving the appearance of just seven arms. However, like other octopuses, it actually has eight. Distribution The type specimen of ''H. atlanticus'' was collected in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hectocotylus
A hectocotylus (plural: ''hectocotyli'') is one of the arms of male cephalopods that is specialized to store and transfer spermatophores to the female. Structurally, hectocotyli are muscular hydrostats. Depending on the species, the male may use it merely as a conduit to the female, analogously to a penis in other animals, or he may wrench it off and present it to the female. The hectocotyl arm was first described in Aristotle's biological works. Although Aristotle knew of its use in mating, he was doubtful that a tentacle could deliver sperm. The name ''hectocotylus'' was devised by Georges Cuvier, who first found one embedded in the mantle of a female argonaut. Supposing it to be a parasitic worm, in 1829 Cuvier gave it a generic name, combining the Greek word for "hundred" and Latin word for "hollow thing". Anatomy Generalized anatomy of squid and octopod hectocotyli: Variability Hectocotyli are shaped in many distinctive ways, and vary considerably between species. The s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coleoidea
Subclass (biology), Subclass Coleoidea, or Dibranchiata, is the grouping of cephalopods containing all the various taxa popularly thought of as "soft-bodied" or "shell-less" (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish). Unlike its extant sister group, Nautiloidea, whose members have a rigid outer shell for protection, the coleoids have at most an internal cuttlebone, gladius (cephalopod), gladius, or shell that is used for buoyancy or support. Some species have lost their cuttlebone altogether, while in some it has been replaced by a chitinous support structure. A unique trait of the group is the ability to edit their own RNA. The major divisions of Coleoidea are based upon the number of cephalopod limb, arms or tentacles and their structure. The extinct and most primitive form, the Belemnoidea, presumably had ten equally-sized arms in five pairs numbered Dorsum (biology), dorsal to ventral as I, II, III, IV and V. More modern species either modified or lost a pair of arms. The superor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Decapodiformes
Decapodiformes is a superorder of Cephalopoda comprising all cephalopod species with ten limbs, specifically eight short arms and two long tentacles. It is hypothesized that the ancestral coleoid had five identical pairs of limbs, and that one branch of descendants evolved a modified arm pair IV to become the Decapodiformes, while another branch of descendants evolved and then eventually lost its arm pair II, becoming the Octopodiformes. The Decapodiformes include: *Order Spirulida: ram's horn squid *Order Sepiida: cuttlefish, pygmy, bobtail and bottletail squid *Order Myopsida: coastal squid *Order Oegopsida Oegopsida is one of the two orders of squid in the superorder Decapodiformes, in the class Cephalopoda. Together with the Myopsina, it was formerly considered to be a suborder of the order Teuthida, in which case it was known as Oegopsina. This ...: neritic squid References Further reading *abstract External links The Taxonomicon: Superorder Decapodiformes Coleo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nautilus
The nautilus (, ) is a pelagic marine mollusc of the cephalopod family Nautilidae. The nautilus is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina. It comprises six living species in two genera, the type of which is the genus ''Nautilus''. Though it more specifically refers to species ''Nautilus pompilius'', the name chambered nautilus is also used for any of the Nautilidae. All are protected under CITES Appendix II. Depending on species, adult shell diameter is between 4 and 10 inches. Nautilidae, both extant and extinct, are characterized by involute or more or less convolute shells that are generally smooth, with compressed or depressed whorl sections, straight to sinuous sutures, and a tubular, generally central siphuncle.Kümmel, B. 1964. Nautiloidae-Nautilida, in the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Geological Society of America and Univ of Kansas Press, Teichert and Moore eds. Having survived relatively u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cuttlefish
Cuttlefish or cuttles are marine molluscs of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses. Cuttlefish have a unique internal shell, the cuttlebone, which is used for control of buoyancy. Cuttlefish have large, W-shaped pupils, eight arms, and two tentacles furnished with denticulated suckers, with which they secure their prey. They generally range in size from , with the largest species, the giant cuttlefish (''Sepia apama''), reaching in mantle length and over in mass. Cuttlefish eat small molluscs, crabs, shrimp, fish, octopus, worms, and other cuttlefish. Their predators include dolphins, sharks, fish, seals, seabirds, and other cuttlefish. The typical life expectancy of a cuttlefish is about 1–2 years. Studies are said to indicate cuttlefish to be among the most intelligent invertebrates. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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