Blue-ringed Octopus

Blue ringed Octopus

Blue-ringed octopuses live in Indo-Pacific waters from southren Japan to Australia in depths of up to 30m (100 ft). They are usually found on reefs, in crevices and rock pools, and occasionally on sandy seabeds. A tiny, golf ball-sized killer lurks quietly in the tidal pools and coral reefs of the Pacfic and Indian Oceans. When threatened its vivid blue rings ‘glow’ on its body. this warning that animals or people ignore at their peril – the blue – ringed octopus is so venomous, its bite can kill a person in minutes. What’s more thereis [Read more]

Edible Sea-Urchin

Echinus esculentus

Sadly, the beautifully colored edible sea-urchin has become a familiar sight in beach souvenir shops. The animal is collected extensively because its test (shell-like internal skeleton) makes popular decorative objects and souvenirs. Sea-urchins are spiny-skinned invertebrates that are in the same phylum Echinodermata-as sea lilies, starfish, brittle stars, and sea cucumbers. Like other echinoderms, they have no head and no true brain, and their bodies have a skeleton of chalky plates. There are about 800 species of [Read more]

Broad Sea Fan

Eunicella verrucosa

The sea fan is a type of coral made up of many simple polyps joined together to form a colony in a fanlike pattern. In common with a number of other marine invertebrates, sea fans are beautiful and often form major attractions in “submarine gardens.” A slow growing animal, it is now under threat from overcollection. Sea fans are found in most of the world’s seas and oceans. They may grow from shallow water down to the edge of the continental shelves and beyond; they are even found at depths of about 13,000 feet (4,000 m) in some parts of the world. The broad sea fan occurs in the northeastern [Read more]

Ant

any member of the approximately 8,000 species of the insect family Formicidae (order Hymenoptera). Ants occur worldwide but are especially common in hot climates. All ants are social in habit; i.e., they live together in organized colonies, and they range in size from 2 to about 25 millimetres (about 0.08 to 1 inch). Their colour is usually yellow, brown, red, or black. A few genera (e.g., Pheidole of North America) have a metallic lustre. Typically, an ant has a large head and a slender, oval abdomen joined to the thorax, or midsection, by a small waist. The antennae are elbowed. The mouth has two sets of jaws: the outer pair is used for carrying objects such as food and for digging, and the inner pair is used for chewing. Some species have a powerful sting at the tip of the abdomen. There are [Read more]

Evolution and paleontology ( reptile)

Historical development

Reptiles occupy an evolutionary position between amphibians, on the one hand, and the birds and mammals on the other, the last two classes having evolved from reptilian ancestors. Reptiles first appear in the fossil record of the Carboniferous Period, more than 280,000,000 years ago. By the Triassic, about 50,000,000 years later, they began to dominate the terrestrial life of the world and continued that dominance through the Mesozoic Era (65,000,000–225,000,000 years ago). Reptiles succeeded in adapting to deserts, swamps, forests, grasslands, rivers, lakes, and even the air and the seas. Coincident with the rise of mammals at the end of the Mesozoic, most reptilian groups [Read more]

Natural history ( bird )

Locomotion

Because of their body structure and their feathery body covering, birds are the best fliers among animals, better than the insects and the flying mammals, the bats. There are, however, considerable differences in flying ability among various birds. Penguins cannot fly but spend much of their time in the water swimming with their paddlelike wings; such birds as ostriches and kiwis have rudimentary wings and are permanently afoot. At the other extreme are the long-winged swifts and frigate birds that move from their perches only to fly, never to walk. Most birds alternate some walking or swimming with their flying.  Birds usually fly when they have any considerable distance to travel; there are exceptions, [Read more]

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