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Fairy Shrimp
Anostraca is one of the four orders of crustaceans in the class Branchiopoda; its members are referred to as fairy shrimp. They live in vernal pools and hypersaline lakes across the world, and they have even been found in deserts, ice-covered mountain lakes, and Antarctic ice. They are usually long (exceptionally up to ). Most species have 20 body segments, bearing 11 pairs of leaf-like ''phyllopodia'' (swimming legs), and the body lacks a carapace. They swim "upside-down" and feed by filtering organic particles from the water or by scraping algae from surfaces, with the exception of '' Branchinecta gigas,'' or "giant fairy shrimp", which is itself a predator of other species of anostracans. They are an important food for many birds and fish, and some are cultured and harvested for use as fish food. There are 300 species spread across 8 families. Description The body of a fairy shrimp is elongated and divided into segments. The whole animal is typically long, but one species, ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artemia Salina
''Artemia salina'' is a species of brine shrimp – aquatic crustaceans that are more closely related to '' Triops'' and cladocerans than to true shrimp. It belongs to a lineage that does not appear to have changed much in . ''Artemia salina'' is native to saline lakes, ponds, and temporary waters (not seas) in the Mediterranean region of Southern Europe, Anatolia, and Northern Africa. Considerable taxonomic confusion exists, and some populations elsewhere have formerly been referred to as this species, but are now recognized as separate species. Description ''Artemia salina'' has three eyes and 11 pairs of legs and can grow to about in size. Its blood contains the pigment hemoglobin, which is also found in vertebrates. Males differ from females by having their second antennae markedly enlarged, and modified into clasping organs used in mating. Life cycle Males have two reproductive organs. Prior to copulation, the male clasps the female with his clasping organ, assuming ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hypersaline Lake
A hypersaline lake is a landlocked body of water that contains significant concentrations of sodium chloride, brines, and other salts, with saline levels surpassing those of ocean water (3.5%, i.e. ). Specific microbial species can thrive in high-salinity environments that are inhospitable to most lifeforms, including some that are thought to contribute to the color of pink lakes. Some of these species enter a dormant state when desiccated, and some species are thought to survive for over 250 million years. The water in hypersaline lakes has great buoyancy due to its high salt content. Hypersaline lakes are found on every continent, especially in arid or semi-arid regions. In the Arctic, the Canadian Devon Ice Cap contains two subglacial lakes that are hypersaline. In Antarctica, there are larger hypersaline water bodies, lakes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys such as Lake Vanda with salinity of over 35% (i.e. 10 times as salty as ocean water). The most saline water body ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antenna (biology)
An antenna (plural: antennae) is one of a pair of appendages used for Sensory system, sensing in arthropods. Antennae are sometimes referred to as ''feelers''. Antennae are connected to the first one or two Segmentation (biology), segments of the arthropod head. They vary widely in form but are always made of one or more jointed segments. While they are typically sensory organs, the exact nature of what they sense and how they sense it is not the same in all groups. Functions may variously include sensing tactition, touch, air motion, heat, vibration (sound), and especially insect olfaction, smell or gustation, taste. Antennae are sometimes modified for other purposes, such as mating, brooding, swimming, and even anchoring the arthropod to a substrate (biology), substrate. Larval arthropods have antennae that differ from those of the adult. Many crustaceans, for example, have free-swimming larvae that use their antennae for swimming. Antennae can also locate other group members i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compound Eye
A compound eye is a Eye, visual organ found in arthropods such as insects and crustaceans. It may consist of thousands of ommatidium, ommatidia, which are tiny independent photoreception units that consist of a cornea, lens (anatomy), lens, and photoreceptor cells which distinguish brightness and color. The image perceived by this arthropod eye is a combination of inputs from the numerous ommatidia, which are oriented to point in slightly different directions. Compared with single-aperture eyes, compound eyes have poor image resolution; however, they possess a very large view angle and the ability to detect fast movement and, in some cases, the Polarization (waves), polarization of light. Because a compound eye is made up of a collection of ommatidia, each with its own lens, light will enter each ommatidium instead of using a single entrance point. The individual light receptors behind each lens are then turned on and off due to a series of changes in the light intensity during mov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chirocephalus Diaphanus Male Head
''Chirocephalus'' is a genus of fairy shrimp in the family Chirocephalidae. It contains the following species: *'' Chirocephalus algidus'' Cottarelli ''et al.'', 2010 *'' Chirocephalus anatolicus'' Cottarelli, Mura & Özkütük, 2007 *'' Chirocephalus appendicularis'' Vavra, 1905 *'' Chirocephalus baikalensis'' (Naganawa & Orgiljanova, 2000) *'' Chirocephalus bairdi'' (Brauer, 1877) *'' Chirocephalus bobrinskii'' (Alcock, 1898) *'' Chirocephalus brevipalpis'' (Orghidan, 1953) *'' Chirocephalus brteki'' Cottarelli ''et al.'', 2010 *'' Chirocephalus carnuntanus'' (Brauer, 1877) *'' Chirocephalus chyzeri'' Daday, 1890 *'' Chirocephalus croaticus'' Steuer, 1899 *'' Chirocephalus cupreus'' Cottarelli, Mura & Özkütük, 2007 *'' Chirocephalus diaphanus'' Prévost, 1803 *'' Chirocephalus festae'' Colosi, 1922 *'' Chirocephalus hardingi'' Brtek, 1965 *'' Chirocephalus horribilis'' Smirnov, 1948 *'' Chirocephalus jaxartensis'' (Smirnov, 1948) *'' Chirocephalus josephinae'' (Grube Gru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tagma (biology)
In biology, a tagma (Greek: τάγμα, : tagmata – τάγματα - body of soldiers; battalion) is a specialized grouping of multiple segmentation (biology), segments or Metamerism (biology), metameres into a coherently functional Morphology (biology), morphological unit. Familiar examples are the head, the Thorax (arthropod anatomy), thorax, and the Abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen of insects. The segments within a tagma may be either fused (such as in the head of an insect) or so jointed as to be independently moveable (such as in the abdomen of most insects). Usually the term is taken to refer to tagmata in the morphology of members of the phylum Arthropoda, but it applies equally validly in other phyla, such as the Chordata. In a given taxon the names assigned to particular tagmata are in some sense informal and arbitrary; for example, not all the tagmata of species within a given subphylum of the Arthropoda are Homology (biology), homologous to those of species in other subph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exoskeleton
An exoskeleton () . is a skeleton that is on the exterior of an animal in the form of hardened integument, which both supports the body's shape and protects the internal organs, in contrast to an internal endoskeleton (e.g. human skeleton, that of a human) which is enclosed underneath other soft tissues. Some large, hard and non-flexible protective exoskeletons are known as mollusc shell, shell or armour (anatomy), armour. Examples of exoskeletons in animals include the arthropod exoskeleton, cuticle skeletons shared by arthropods (insects, chelicerates, myriapods and crustaceans) and tardigrades, as well as the corallite, skeletal cups formed by hardened secretion of stony corals, the test (biology), test/tunic of sea squirts and sea urchins, and the prominent mollusc shell shared by snails, bivalvia, clams, tusk shells, chitons and nautilus. Some vertebrate animals, such as the turtle, have both an endoskeleton and a turtle shell, protective exoskeleton. Role Exoskeletons c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sexual Maturity
Sexual maturity is the capability of an organism to reproduce. In humans, it is related to both puberty and adulthood. ''Puberty'' is the biological process of sexual maturation, while ''adulthood'', the condition of being socially recognized as an independent person capable of giving consent and taking responsibility, generally implies sexual maturity (certain disorders of sexual development notwithstanding), but depends on other criteria, defined by specific cultural expectations. Most multicellular organisms are unable to sexually reproduce at birth (animals) or germination (e.g. plants): depending on the species, it may be days, weeks, or years until they have developed enough to be able to do so; in addition, certain cues may trigger an organism to become sexually mature. These may be external, such as drought, or fire, that triggers sexual maturation of certain plants, or internal, such as percentage of body fat (certain animals). Internal cues are not to be confused ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Family (biology)
Family (, : ) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, but that family is commonly referred to as the "walnut family". The delineation of what constitutes a family—or whether a described family should be acknowledged—is established and decided upon by active taxonomists. There are not strict regulations for outlining or acknowledging a family, yet in the realm of plants, these classifications often rely on both the vegetative and reproductive characteristics of plant species. Taxonomists frequently hold varying perspectives on these descriptions, leading to a lack of widespread consensus within the scientific community ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Branchinecta Gigas
''Branchinecta gigas'' is a species of fairy shrimp that lives in western Canada and the United States. It is the largest species of fairy shrimp, growing up to long. It is known commonly as the giant fairy shrimp. Description Females reach sexual maturity when they are long, and grow up to long; males reach only . Unpublished records exist of individuals up to long. Despite being the largest species, ''B. gigas'' has the proportionally smallest eyes of any species in the family, and possibly in all Anostraca. Distribution ''Branchinecta gigas'' has been found in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Washington, Montana, Oregon, North Dakota, Utah, Nevada and California. A related species, '' B. raptor'', occurs in Idaho. Ecology and behaviour ''B. gigas'' lives in hypersaline lakes and rivers, with salinity ranging from 1.8‰ to 5.8‰. These waters often have high turbidity (low visibility), and so ''B. gigas'' hunts by touch rather than by sight. When feeding, ''B. gigas'' adopts a "hu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Algae
Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular microalgae, such as cyanobacteria, ''Chlorella'', and diatoms, to multicellular macroalgae such as kelp or brown algae which may grow up to in length. Most algae are aquatic organisms and lack many of the distinct cell and tissue types, such as stomata, xylem, and phloem that are found in embryophyte, land plants. The largest and most complex marine algae are called seaweeds. In contrast, the most complex freshwater forms are the Charophyta, a Division (taxonomy), division of green algae which includes, for example, ''Spirogyra'' and stoneworts. Algae that are carried passively by water are plankton, specifically phytoplankton. Algae constitute a Polyphyly, polyphyletic group because they do not include a common ancestor, and although Eu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Filter Feeder
Filter feeders are aquatic animals that acquire nutrients by feeding on organic matters, food particles or smaller organisms (bacteria, microalgae and zooplanktons) suspended in water, typically by having the water pass over or through a specialized filtering organ that sieves out and/or traps solids. Filter feeders can play an important role in condensing biomass and removing excess nutrients (such as nitrogen and phosphate) from the local waterbody, and are therefore considered water-cleaning ecosystem engineers. They are also important in bioaccumulation and, as a result, as indicator organisms. Filter feeders can be sessile, planktonic, nektonic or even neustonic (in the case of the buoy barnacle) depending on the species and the niches they have evolved to occupy. Extant species that rely on such method of feeding encompass numerous phyla, including poriferans ( sponges), cnidarians (jellyfish, sea pens and corals), arthropods ( krill, mysids and barna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
