Sea swallow

G L A U C U S     A T L A N T I C U S 

also known as 

t h e   s e a s l u g,  t h e  s e a  s w a l l o w,   b l u e   d r a g o n,  b l u e   s e a  s l u g

or the

b l u e  g l a u c u s,  b l u e  o c e a n  s l u g,  b l u e  s w a l l o w  s l u g

Phylum: Mollusca

Class: Gastropoda

Body Structure: Sea Swallows grow up to 3-5 cm. They have flattened bodies and six appendages which branch out into attachable cerata which help in respiration. Most have exactly 84 cerata. They have radula with barbed teeth. Their heads contain oral tentacles and rhinophores used to smell/taste food. They have eyes but they can only detect light or dark, they are severely limited compared to our eyes. Most interestingly, they have an anus on the side of their bodies. They have stomachs to puff in air which I will mention more later. Structurally and colour-wise, they are closely related to Glaucilla marginata.  

Ventral Side Anatomy

Feeding: G atlanticus are carnivores. They will eat venemous Portugese Man O Wars and steal their cnidocysts and use it for themselves on their cerata; toxic blue snails, by-the-wind jellyfish, blue buttons and other sea swallows. They seem to only eat blue things as their main source of prey. Everywhere the Portugese Man O War can be found, the Sea Swallow more or less follows. Due to this, they can be found in tropical and temperate waters. 

Counter-clockwise from top left: By the Wind Jellyfish (prey), Portugese Man O War (prey) and the Blue Button (prey)

Digestion/Excretion: The mouth has a sharp radicle which thrusts into the prey. Food goes through a simple gut and through the anus which ultimately removes waste. On most nudibranchs, the anus is on the "forehead." There are digestive glands in the gut that break down the food into enzymes. The mouth has a sharp radicle which thrusts into the prey. Protective hard-barrier discs lining their guts can handle the poisons from the Portugese Man O Wars and such. Somehow, these species have a gas-filled stomach, but nudibranchs are supposed to not have stomachs, so I suspect that these are not "true stomachs." In fact, its stomach is only for swallowing air bubbles so it can float upside down. More on that later. 

Dorsal Side

Circulatory System: Nudibranchs, like abalones, have a two chambered heart and an open circulatory. The blood flows through gaps in the tissue. The blood will pass through a kidney and then the heart again to complete the cycle. 

Respiration: Gas exchange takes place in the cerata mostly but also everywhere on the body. Fun fact: Nudibranchs fart too. 

Anatomy of the average nudibranch. 

Movement: The Sea Swallow has an air sac on what seems to be the dorsal side.  It spends its life after the larval stage floating upside down. So while it can wriggle sometimes for movement, it mostly lets itself get carried by the sea currents. It is like a balloon. As such, these sea swallows can get beached very easily, as Florida and Miami and Hawaii may attest. 

The "Beads"
in sexual reproduction

Defence Mechanisms: The Sea Swallow has cerata which it can detach, spewing a milky substance and wriggling around in hopes to distract a predator. By re-using the defense organisms that it eats, the sea swallow carries all the stingers it steals from its food. After eating jellyfish and other cnidarians, the sea swallow will digest their stinging cells and accumulate them in their cerata and "arms." In this sense, they are very resourceful. They can hurt humans and especially children with their borrowed nematocysts and cnidocysts. 

Reproduction: The Sea Swallow is hermaphroditic. It has a hole on its right side which contains both the male and female reproductive organs. Apparently, the Sea Swallow has a penis that's usually longer its entire body. The female organs produce strings of 10 to 12 eggs. Sometimes, in the thrill of sex, Sea Swallows will try to eat each other's penises. 

Most important thing to keep in mind, sea swallows are a species of------

N U D I B R A N C H S

-bilaterally symmetrical-

(internally and externally)

and

contain three germ layers!

(epi-, meso-, endo-)

AND

they are protosomes!

(spiral cleavage, ventral nerve cord)

They are carnivores that eat, grazing on algae, sponges, anemones, corals, barnacles, and even other nudibranchs. Nudibranchs get their coloring from the food they eat, which helps in camouflage, and some even retain the foul-tasting poisons of their prey and secrete them as a defense against predators.

Nudibranchs are simultaneous hermaphrodites, and can mate with any other mature member of their species. Their lifespan varies widely, with some living less than a month, and others living up to one year.

Anyways, 

G. atlanticus are very important species because they eat other dangerous cnidarians like bluebottles. Turtles, fish and sea stars all eat this specific type of sea slug in turn. At the same time, for nudibranchs in general, they may eat unwanted algae that damage coral.  The more these soft-bodied mollusks appear in the environment, the healthier the ecosystem. They are also brightly coloured and beautiful. They look like candy, which is why I like them because I like candy. Without the sea swallow, the ocean would be less strange and beautiful. If it went extinct, I think everybody would think that's a shame. Why are nudibranchs so brightly coloured? This is because they will appear toxic to their predators--and sometimes, they are. 

I like this species because they are so colourful and epic and regal while being only a few centimeters long. Although they seem so perfect, they are very strange, spending their lives floating upside down and eating each other's penises. 

In conclusion, respect the sea swallow. 

Australia, East of Grafton in the North

These were found in Florida. This one is albino. 

Locality: Byron bay, washed onshore, N.S.W, 2 feb 2010, beach. 

Length: 17 mm. Photographer: steff.

SOURCES

http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22413

http://animalfacts.tumblr.com/post/8646741171/glaucus-atlanticus-is-a-specialist-predator-of

http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/marineinvertebratezoology/glaucusatlanticus.html

http://www.zimbio.com/Fish/articles/2O5IRsBbAKS/Glaucus+atlanticus

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/nudibranch/

SquidZhong

On Thursday, we dissected squids (phylum Mollusca, class Cephalopoda), creatures stranger than fiction and oddly endearing with their squiggling tentacles and wide eyes. The purpose of the lab was to identify in person the different adaptations and unique body parts of the squid and to observe how a simple funnel, crown of tentacles and fins can operate a weirdly shaped organism which such a big head. Cephalopods are excellent examples of biodiversity, unique organisms that heighten our appreciation when we compare how different they are from humans. We examined the external  and internal parts of the squid carefully because there's a difference between tentacles and arms on the squid and although the innards of the squid may seem just like a mass of goop, there is a  little ink sac like a silvery fish and gills and even a pen, something of an internal shell, similar in touch to plastic--not as simple as a mass of goop. The funnel and the ink sac are very funny but vital parts for escape and movement. When you compare a squid with snails and other slow mollusks, squid seem even more unique. Their 'feet' have evolved into tentacles, of all things--and even two very flexible tentacles, or arms, for additional survivability skills. Squids have some of the largest eyes in the animal kingdom, in fact, the colossal squid is the largest invertebrate alive. In conclusion, squid, like all cephalopods, are very unique from all other animals--certain squid can even fly short distances, their pen is like a glass/plastic pen for their ink, certain squid also have penises 60 cm in length and their feeding system of using jet propulsion, snaring tentacles and a snapping beak is very interesting too, reminiscent of a jungle of living vines and bird all rolled into one organism.
When we dissected the squid, it was very surprising how easy it was to cut through it. There was some confusion between me and my partner about differentiating between the funnel and the ink sac or the pancreas and the digestive glands, or what was the caecum. However, we got our footing eventually. Jaimie correctly identified the squid beak to be constructed of chitin. Throughout the dissection, I thought it was interesting how squid could be "as small as a  thumbnail or as large as a house." Maybe this is because their adaptations are so successful they can survive in any number of sizes. It was a shame throwing the squid into the garbage can; they looked very chewy, destined to be pan-fried.

Here is a picture of a squid,
similar to one we dissected in colour and size. 

Here is a picture of what could've been. 

                                                              EXTERNAL ANATOMY

1.
Our squid, not mutilated even at the tips,
has eight arms and two tentacles,
depending on how you classify
arms and tentacles. The arms are small.
The tentacles are longer and snaring.

2.
Squid have long tentacles with suckers at the tips.
However, arms have suckers that run down the
length of the arms. In this way, tentacles can
grab at prey far away and arms make sure
that the prey stays clung to the squid.
I believe octopi have
8 tentacles,
no arms.

3. The squid will move opposite
to the direction that the jet is propelled
from. The funnel draws water
into the mantle cavity by expanding
its muscles.

4.
a. Tentacles/arms are essential to the squid
as they shoot out to catch prey
and then draw them in and keep a snake-
like grip on them, strangling
before eating.
b. The beak is the kind of like
the second half of the
squid's feeding plan. The beak
allows the squid to eat many large
organisms as it is responsible for chopping
apart the organism
into many digestible pieces.

5.
Mollusks have feet and visceral mass.
The visceral mass in this squid
is contained as shown. While
cephalopods do not have the usual
mollusk feet, they have
tentacles and arms that evolved
from feet.

INTERNAL ANATOMY

1. The squid has two pairs of gills,
one on each side.

2. I think the ink sac empties into the water, surprising
and blinding any predators trying to eat
the squid. I like to think that the squid
does it just to piss off other fish, sometimes.

3. The pen is all that remains of the squid's cell
from its ancestral past. It is located by the mantle,
made up of chitin. Without it, muscles
would not be attached to the squid. 

4. I think the waste exits the
squid through the anus. I remember
that the radula is connected to the
mantle cavity. Maybe the mantle
cavity is connected to the digestive
tract and from the digestive tube,
the waste leaves through the anus. 

Annelid Dissection!

On Friday, in conjunction with our lessons on the anatomy of annelids, the entire class was was involved in a worm dissection lab. This was all done for the sake of observation, to understand the works of digestion, and more interestingly, sexual reproduction. Differentiating between the dorsal side of a worm and the ventral side are important when we consider worms, as is the relationship between the external and internal parts of the worm. While the worm may appear primitive, it's very surprising to see how many functions it contained! It was very exciting to handle the organism like a surgeon, trying to be as neat and quick as possible--even incisions are an art, I suppose. The setae we studied in the textbook appeared even smaller and sparser under the microscope, little silver hairs on a mound of pink flesh. The food digesting inside the dead worms appeared as watery dirt. Even the Clitellum was much more subtle as a real specimen than in a diagram. Compared to scientific diagrams, our worms were raw but red in flesh, but I was very proud of the work I did-- the pinning which was enjoyable as well, like I was creating an undead diorama. However, beyond my interest, I learned that annelids had very definite organs and many adaptions: how externally, sperm grooves and setae, like grips on the rungs of ladders, will help with transferring sperm and also traction for movement, but also how internally, a cut on the dorsal blood vessel would be so fatal to the worm because it is so important and one large part of the circulatory system. Worms also have a digestive system kind of similar to our's, where food goes through an esophagus and intestine, though we lack gizzards.
Unfortunately, my partner and I could not upload the phone photos onto the computer, however I made due with Nathan's, thank you Nathan. Earthworms are oligochaetes and this makes me curious about what it might be like to dissect a polychaete. This lab was  very hands-on and there is nothing I'd rather do for a period than look at things under a microscope or taking photos, so I was lucky to do both. I would recommend all courageous Biology classes to step up to the B.C. standards and do this lab. Here's an idea of what it looks like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9HHS1uPFSo

1. What is the name of the pumping organs of an earthworm?
They are called the aortic arches, which are hearts, although
they do not contain valves and chambers.

2. Trace the parts of the digestive tract?
The food passes through the pharynx and
passes through the esophagus, then the crop
and the gizzard and finally through the
intestines.

3. Which parts of the earthworm serve as its brain
The brain is above the pharynx and connected
to the ventral nerves; it is firmly attached 

4. Which parts of the worm/excretory system?
The excretory system goes hand in hand with the
digestive system above. However, a pair of nephridia
in literally each body segment helps remove waste

5. How can you find out whether an earthworm eats soil?
Put it in soil and examine its excrement in a glass jar. Try
adding different things in soil (rotting vegetables, dead
animal corpses, fertilizer). Since earthworms live in the
earth, its also logical to assume that everything
they eat exists in the soil. 

6. What are Setae? Well, they aren't as grey and silver
as I thought. They are like little black stubbles.
Setae are the small bristles that are good
for brushing against the soil, basically, providing
traction in the soil.

7. Highlighted in green are the special organs that
help take in small amounts of soil from large amounts of
food. The gizzard mashes the food while
the churned-up products are moved to the intestines,
so it's a continuous process. Also, their mouths
don't shove in a continuous amount of dirt, I assume
they can close.

8. Why didn't we go past segment 32? As you can see
fromt he worm already, tons of digesting food and faeces
in the making are visible. The lower we go, the more
dirty gooky stuff we'd see, perhaps dangerous things
that could be breathed in by our noses.

9. These worms are having the time of their lives. I'm
not sure if I was supposed to keep the paper or just post
all my findings on a paragraph online, but I'll do both, in
the honour of vertebrates everywhere.
It's important to remember that worms are hermaphrodites
so they have both MALE GENITAL PORES and
FEMALE GENITAL PORES. Sperm is produced from these pores
and it transfers to the female pores., which also produce pheromones.
Both these pores are located within one segment of each other.
According to cronodom.com, the sperm are transferred
along SPERM GROOVES through the muscle spasms during
worm sex. After going inside the female genital pore of another worm, the
sperm goes the OVARIES, where the eggs are stored. Again, the
ovaries are only within one segment away from the female
genital pore. In conclusion, the multiple sperm pores
on a worm compared to the single female genital pore makes it
easier for one worm to transfer genetics, taking three times
shorter, I suppose. Due to the close proximity of these pores
and grooves, this sexual reproduction can also be
done more conveniently.

Alan's Invertebrates

Phylum: Platyhelminthes
Genus: Pseudobiceros
Species: cf. bedfordi

This specific flatworm is 45 mm. Like other species
in this genus, this hermaphroditic species engages
 in penis fencing to determine who has to bear
the sperm. Many marine flatworms have been discovered
and identified in the last 25 years.
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D2st1piSTQ )

Phylum: Plathyleminthes
Genus: Pseudoceros
Species: bifurcus
This is a racing stripe flatworm found in the Pacific Tropics.
It is 6cm and not well researched.

Phylum: Playthylmenthes
Genus: Pseudoceros
Species: Unknown
Located exclusively in seas
around Thailand, there's not
much available info about this
beautiful flatworm but it's
quite beautiful and it's bright colours
may dissuade predators. 

Phylum: Porifera

Genus: Oceanapia 

Species: sagittaria 

Another Thailan sponge--Usually

this sponge is seen by itself

or growing on rubble in groups. Water

is exhaled from the sponge. 

Phylum: Porifera
Genus: Aphrocallistes
Species: vastus
Sponges have always been in many seas
since the precambrian. They are major contributors
to reef formations. Are they the sponges we know about
as kids? In a way, yes-- the volume of water
through a sponge can be 20,000x its biological volume in
a 24 hour period! However, many kids grow up
not knowing that sponges have calcareous
skeletons.
 This specific sponge is known
as a cloud sponge. To B.C. divers, you can observe them
in our native coasts.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bLjNWpUAyU)

Phylum: Porifera
Genus: Stauro
Species: calyptus
These are a textbook example
of a glass sponge, which some people
think they should be part of their phylum.
That spider is pretty. Implies a symbiotic
relationship

Phylum: Cnidaria
Genus: Carybdea
Species: sivickisi
Cnidarians require zooxanthellae to rake up
sunlight and help convert their digesting prey.
They have two stages: polyp stage, where
they're attached to the ground firmly and
the medusa stage, where they float freely.
This specific species stings people and is
attracted by both artificial and natural light.
Apparently, the Permian period ended 95% of
all marine species, especially Cnidarians. 

Phylum: Cnidaria
Genus: Metridium
Species: farcimen
These "dandelions of the sea" are
found in places that have low kelp
supplies but a lone one might
pop up in a forest.

Phylum: Cnidarian
Genus: Urticina
Species: piscivora

Abundant on rocks without
kelp forests.
It also eats fish--check it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruS2u1-uNko

Phylum: Porifera

Genus: Oceanapia 

Species: sagittaria 

Another Thailan sponge--Usually

this sponge is seen by itself

or growing on rubble in groups. Water

is exhaled from the sponge. 

Phylum: Porifera
Genus: Aphrocallistes
Species: vastus
Sponges have always been in many seas
since the precambrian. They are major contributors
to reef formations. Are they the sponges we know about
as kids? In a way, yes-- the volume of water
through a sponge can be 20,000x its biological volume in
a 24 hour period! However, many kids grow up
not knowing that sponges have calcareous
skeletons.
 This specific sponge is known
as a cloud sponge. To B.C. divers, you can observe them
in our native coasts.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bLjNWpUAyU)

Phylum: Porifera
Genus: Stauro
Species: calyptus
These are a textbook example
of a glass sponge, which some people
think they should be part of their phylum.
That spider is pretty. Implies a symbiotic
relationship

Aquarium Zhong

It's like you're a little kid again. 

At the aquarium, 

The world still surprises you,

The wonders still run through you,

and you're still you,

Even ten years later.

Photic blue water with coral crucifixes and brumes of silver fish. Those dungaree toddlers knocking on the glass in hopes of popping a round aperture in which to touch those belugas and otters and turtles and sharks, those kids grow up to be teenagers, still wearing denim- - -just with jeans and no straps, and  after all these years, no matter how hard we squeeze, me and Lyon and Nathan and Darren still can't push our hands through the glass. Damn it.
It's kinda dim and we have to concentrate  just in walking so I don't accidentally knock down any toddlers, seriously. A tourist group will crowd a section of the corridor, maybe. In one of the larger tropic tanks, a green sea turtle and a reef shark brush fins against each other. A 4.5 m arapaimas older looking older than antiquity floats past. Darren caws at a couple of blue-fronted parrots and Lyon is more scared of the butterflies fluttering around the huge greens and heel-gnawed browns of the amazon than the caiman that freaks me out. Nathan wants to steal one of the baby marmosets. Isabel and Kriselda and other girls nickname an adorable upturned sleeping otter after Joseph Han. If I could go here everyday and sit near the thousand animals and just relax and write, eat and sleep, shower and marry and get buried, then I would. Photic blue water with pillowed jellyfish lit up like lanterns and--

The engine rumbles and horns hot sick air against the grey pavement in the afternoon and the bus wheels split the gravel and we're off. Science is explorative but not as rootless as fantasy, the heart that pumps blood and its steel-coiled wires are precedent are precedent to bodies and machines. Our textbooks are important as resources but a relevant field trip can be important--aquariums are playgrounds for the mind.  I think the reason why we went to the aquarium, or at least the reason why I decided to go, was to be inspired by how weird and variated the oceans are and to see how people are trying to save these fish by researching them. And there's always lots of cute kids, too.
What I did take from the aquarium was not answers, but more questions; not questions that a textbook asked me but ones that I tripped over my myself. Do the otters ever feel claustrophobic? How does the arapaima survive so long in the rushing brown rivers of the Amazon, against all the insects and pestilence. Why are the marmosets not considered monkeys?
The afternoon lab was very fun and the instructors were very empathetic by genuinely feeling exciting and being knowledgeable at the same time. The sea cucumbers could literally dissolve in your hands with a little pressure and seeing something so spiked and so soft and strange with its vomiting guts made me wonder how these creatures have survived today. I learned at home that this might be because they are delicious to us and good reproducers; people help to harvest them worldwide and other predators like flatback sea turtles or bottlenose whales are endangered. The balance of each ecosystem tank we could touch was also interesting in how balanced the environments were. A sunflower sea star could wreck any of these tanks because, according to our instructor, it ate basically anything. Also, by being able to identify each and every sample in each phylum tank, an ocean floor would not seem so chaotic and mysterious to us next time, perhaps.

I suppose many species we were confronted with served as pre-cursors to what we would learn later on in class. For example, bloated frogs and mollusks. I once read a National Geographic article on nudibranchs, and seeing one fiery-orange in an aquarium peaked my interest in them again--they're truly the butterflies of the sea, because they're living paintings.
The bell-shaped jellies we witnessed at the aquarium were the same ones we read about in our textbooks, but we got to see their jet propulsion in detail, noticing that they were often very graceful despite the misleading term "jet propulsion." They were scyphozoa--moon jellies in isolated tanks and pacific sea nettles that you can see somewhere down below in this post. They were my favourite invertebrates-- those sea nettles, and they were quite exotic, biological luxuries at the same time as being primitive creatures going back to the time of dinosaurs. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKbarvGFOjw). I wonder what they do with the polyps or where they grow.
Like what we recently learned about the Phylum Platyhelminthes, we saw tube worm masses in the wet lab tank. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykpn-sE_fJI). I confused them with the Sand Eel Worms,  one of the funnier animals. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD-aCmQo3PE). Finally, there were many sea anemones, Anthozoans that Clownfish loved to hide around, despite there not being any predators in the tank or perhaps because there was food stuck to the anemone for them to eat.

I enjoyed the aquarium because honestly, I could hang out with friends and see so many animals it's hard to wrap my head around them all. Little details like stingrays in ponds and even fossilized fish were everywhere, organized only roughly to give a sense of randomness, I guess. The membership cost is 65 dollars for an adult for a year and I'd recommend it to anybody with the money and willpower. The drive and parking might be troublesome. I suggest bussing there instead as its the more financially-savvy thing to do. It's the Vancouver Aquarium--prepare your body.

ALL PHOTOS TAKEN BY ME EXCEPT WHERE SPECIFIED 

SCAVENGER HUNT

1. Sea Otters clean their coats to stay warm by brushing away
cold water.

2. Sea Otters were abundant in many colonies from the Japanese
North to Alaska and from Mexico along the Pacific, but after
centuries of hunting, 1900 years had destroyed all the colonies
except thirteen scattered across the world. California and Alaska
have the most sea otters now. 

3. Anemones provide a home and shelter for the Clownfish. Anemones
are protected by the Clownfish from certain predators. 

4. There was an Anemone tank nearby the Otter Tank kind of
far away but from what I remember they were very dark earth-tone
colours. There were some purples and oranges too. I didn't take
this photo, but it captures a random VanQua indoor tank, anyways.

5. My favourite vertebrate is Darren Kim but my favourite invertebrate is the
Japanese Pacific Jellies they had in an isolated tank. They have stinging
tentacles that can be used to capture prey and also keep themselves
warm. These are their vital Nematocysts. Due to their 96% water
body make up, gas can be diffused through their thinly soft skin. They have
Light detecting organs that lets them know how deep they are in the
water. 

6. The scientific name of these creatures is Delphinapterus leucas.
The Vancouver Aquarium has two belugas, Aurora and Qila.  

7. I did not take this picture. Their little fins
are used to swim and can move
fifty times a second but aren't very fast in
reality.

8. Human Nervous System =0

9. The starry flounder is flat so it can lay low away from
predators. It's also camouflaged. I didn't take this pic.

10. I didn't take this photo. Moon jellies use very
slow jet propulsion from their tentacles and pushing in
and then releasing their bells. They have colenterons
that pulls in the plankton that gets stuck
from their tentacles. 

11. This octopus was really hidden. Their suction cups
hold prey. It is very good at disguising itself, hiding
in the shadows and being rock-colored. Their tight
tentacles function like snakes squeezing their prey
tight and dead and final.  

12. Sea Lions use haulots for resting and rookeries
for rearing the young. These sites vary but include
bouldered areas and beaches. 

13, 14. Check it. This Caiman is from South America.
The true crocodile is a bit larger than this Caiman
and it is the same colour as its environment--
a leathery muddy green and brown.  

15. The Amazon Arapaima is 4.5 meters long and
the largest freshwater fish VanQua has. So ca-ute.

16. Vegetarian Fish in Tamabaqui

17. Piranhas are the biggest threat
to humans when they bleed in the
water? Didn't take this photo, either. 

18. They have no bones. The answer to that question
made me laugh--instead, sharks have cartilage.
Nathaniel Pathoc has 206 bones. 

19. Laced Moray, Common Bluestripe Snappers,
Redtail Butterflyfish, Yellowface Angelfish, Indo-Pacific
Sergeants--examples of other fish living with
the sharks and turtles as listed on the identification
boards below the tank. 

20. The Giant Red Sea Urchin is covered with
spines that tighten and protect it
from animals that can't rip through such sharp
defences. 

21. Archerfish hide in the darkness and raise their
noses to insects, shooting a stream of water
that knocks the insect into the water. Then the
rest is algebra. 

22. This turtle's name is Schoona. He's very busy.   

Thank you for reading this blog!