✪ Arthropod "Dissection" ✪
~Emily Sanchez~ Vu PAP Bio p.2~
✪ Objective ✪
✪ Background Information ✪
Habitat: Everywhere in the world. Arthropoda is a phylum with a wide range of animals that compose it. They can live from the bottom of the ocean to the sands of a hot desert or in the beach.
(From now on, the focus will be on crayfish)
Scientific Name: Cambarus (genus)
Predators: raccoons, opossums, snakes, and muskrats.
Prey: aquatic plants, mollusks, insect larvae, mature insects, tadpoles, amphibian eggs, and small fish are common foods.
Niche: The fundamental niche is that is an omnivoric scavenger
Trophic Level: 2- primary consumer and 3- secondary consumer.
Adaptations: breathing through gills under the carapace, eyes are on
movable stalks to allow sight in different directions, ability to emit chemical
cues to identify one another and signal mating, and can even change color to match their habitat.
✪ Dissection (Observations and Comparing) ✪
✪ Integumentary System ✪
The exoskeleton does not go through growth, but molts. For a crayfish to grow, it must shed its exoskeleton and then re-grow a new and larger one. When a crayfish moults it is very vulnerable to both injury and predation so, they must spend the two or three days it takes to re-grow its exoskeleton relatively inactive in its refugia. Young crayfish molt 6 to 10 times during their first year while older crayfish moult 3 to 5 times during their second (and, typically, final) year of life.
✪ Info From Inside the Exoskeleton ✪
- Living arthropods are divided into four subgroups: Chelicerates (spiders, scorpions), Crustaceans (lobsters, crabs), Hexapods (most insects), and Myriapods (millipedes, centipedes)
- Ancestral arthropods were the first land animals.
- Arthropods employ a variety of reproductive methods.
- When arthropods grow, they must molt their exoskeleton.
- Arthropods comprise over 90% of the animal kingdom.
✪ Sources of Awesomeness Used ✪
(Links are shortened, but will take you to the specific page.)
http://animals.about.comhttps://sites.google.com/site/crayfishdg/niche
http://www.biologyjunction.com
http://urbanflyfisher.com- last picture.