Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Hominidae
Genus: Homo
Species: H. sapiens
Dr. Godshalk typically lives in the science center, making a small den for himself on the third floor next to Roon lecture hall. It is believed that he is a diurnal animal that comes out to feed on freshmen biology 101 students four to five times a week. He can reach a height of about six feet tall with a dark brown hair covering the top of his head.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Suborder: Brachycera
Infraorder: Tabanomorpha
Superfamily: Tabanoidea
Family: Tabanidae
This is considered the world's largest true fly, with over 4,500 species worldwide they make up both important pollinators and human pests.
The horse fly feeds mainly on nectar and pollen but females require a blood meal for reproduction. The female uses its mandible to rip open the flesh of usually a mammal to get to the blood.
The eggs of the horse fly is laid nearby water on either a stone or vegetation where upon hatching the larvae will go into the water feeding on small invertebrates like snails and worms
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Ostreoida
Suborder: Ostreina
Superfamily: Ostreoidea
Family: Ostreidae
Ostreidae or true oysters are in the order of pterioda. True oyster species are hermaphroditic though some species produce generations that produce either male or female gametes.
Once the oyster is fertilized it sends up millions of eggs into the open water which develop into larvae in about six hours then mature fully in about two weeks.
Oysters are filter feeders using the mucus coating their gills to pull in suspended particles and plankton. The oyster can filter 5 liters of water a day. The oyster can also exchange gasses through their mantle which has small thin walled blood vessels lining it
Hederellid is an extinct reef forming animal that lived from the Silurian to the Devonian. Throughout history they were thought to be a type of bryozoans but do to their branching pattern and lack of a microstructure they do not fit in that phylum. It is now believed that they are more closely related top either phoronids or lophophorates.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Family: Theridiidae
Genus: Latrodectus
Latordectus or Widow Spiders is a genus of spiders containing 31 different species. They get their name from the mating rituals commonly found in this genus of the female spiders eating the male after mating although this is not found in most species in this genus.
The venom found in the most famous species the black widow spider is called latrotoxin which is a neurotoxin resulting in latrodectism. Latrodectism is caused as the venom moves through the body causing the release of neurotransmitters. The symptoms start with severe pain in the bitten area then slowly spreads to surrounding muscle tissue, and then once the venom enters the blood it is carried by the circulatory system causing the toxin to spread to the nerve endings this stops the nerve endings from relaxing the muscle tissue causing tetany. The bite is particularly harmful from female black widows do to their large venom glands.
The characteristic hourglass is actually not always present in female spiders sometimes appearing all black. Male black widows are about a quarter the size of the female with a bite that is not considered dangerous to humans.
The silk form the species L. Hesperus is six times less dense then steel and has a tensile strength of 1290 plus or minus 160 MPa making them also stronger then steel. The problem from comes when you consider harvesting the silk, the spiders have to be kept in their own container and it takes a long time to get a lot of it making it difficult to use.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Subclass: Ammonoidea
More closely related to squid and octopuses then to nautiloids (having had convergent evolution) they are a good index fossil having a wide range in both time span and area. Ammonites first appeared during the Devonian period and did not go extinct until the end of the Cretaceous, the later species started to develop more and more complex sutures. There are three type of suture patterns found in ammonites Goniatitic which had undivided lobes this is found in earlier species, Ceratitic which has lobes that are subdivided and rounded undivided saddles this is found in ammonites of the early Mesozoic, and Ammonitic which has lobes and saddles that are both subdivided and this is found in species of the late Mesozoic.
It is supposed that most species lived in open oceans (having only found there fossils in rock layers with no benthic species) cat scans have shown plankton in parts of the buccal cavity hinting that plankton was there main food source. The presence of ink is also found in specimens at times so ammonites may have used ink to avoid predation like modern day squids.
The main difference between the Ammonite and the Nautiloids is that the siphuncle of ammonites runs along the ventral periphery of the septa while in nautiloids it runs through the center.
Ammonites may have had a jaw apparatus called aptychus in Mesozoic ammonites it would have been a pair or calcified aptychus.
Do to the long history of ammonites and their great diversity their size ranges from 23 cm to up to 2.3 meters depending on the species.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Apidae
Subfamily: Apinae
Tribe: Bombini
Genus: Bombus
There are over 250 species of Bumble bee living today; their blood is carried by an open circulatory system allowing the blood to surround the organs.
The queen stores the males sperm in a special organ called the spermatheca, before she lays her eggs she will either use them or not the non-fertilized eggs will grow into males while the fertilized ones will be female.
The queen also suppresses the hormones that would stimulate the growth of the ovaries in the female worker bees.
The bumble bee eats by extending its proboscis and drawing out nectar by capillary action.
The bumble bee is usually found in the northern hemisphere with a few exceptions in New Zealand and Tasmania.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Subphylum: Medusozoa
Class: Scyphozoa
Order: Semaeostomeae
Family: Pelagiidae
Genus: Chrysaora
Species: C. quinquecirrha
The sea nettle is a marine jellyfish that feeds mainly on zooplankton and ctenophores, and other jellyfish. Its mouth is in the center of the body on the bottom end and this oral cavity opens to the gastrovascular cavity. Its mouth is surrounded by tentacles that help capture food. Each tentacle has thousands of nematocysts; on humans this causes a rash. The sea nettle reproduces both asexually and sexually.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Astacidea
Superfamily: Astacoidea & Parastacoidea
Freshwater crustaceans that breathe through feather like gills, they are scavengers that live in the bottom of lakes, brooks, and streams. The body is made up of twenty segments making up the cephalothorax and the abdomen. The crayfish is usually 17.5 cm. the oldest fossil record of the crayfish dates back to the late Mesozoic .
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Myriapoda
Class: Arthropleuridea
Order: Arthropleurida
Family: Arthropleuridae
Genus: Arthropleura
Arthropleura size ranged from 0.3 meters to 2.6 meters making it the largest land invertebrate known to man. It lived during the late carboniferous dying out at the beginning of the Permian as the environment started to dry out. Do to no mouth parts being preserved in any of the specimens what Arthropleura ate is under debate though plant matter found in coprolites seems to suggest that it was an herbivore. The class has "diplosomy, paranotal tergal lobes separated from the axis by sclerotized plates buttressing the leg insertions." The body had 30 pairs of legs on eight segments; tracks are found in Scotland and the northeastern United States that are about 50 cm wide.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Superorder: Odonatoptera
Order: Protodonata
Family: Meganeuridae
Genus: Meganeura
The Carboniferous insect genus Meganeura was the giant forms of today's dragonflies, with a wingspan of 75 cm they are one of the largest flying insects known. There are many theories on way gigantism existed the prevailing theory is that do to the high oxygen content in the atmosphere the limit put on insects size by its tracheal breathing system would have not have been an issue. The fore and hind wings in Meganeura are similar in venation except for the back of the hind wings, and unlike their modern relatives there are pterostigma present. They had large mandibles a large thorax and a long slender abdomen.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Onychophora
Class: Xenusia
Order: Scleronychophora
Family: Hallucigeniidae
Genus: Hallucigenia
Lived during the Cambrian, there are 109 species known from the Burgress shale alone. They are about 0.5-3 cm long closely resembling worms with legs. The head is hard to describe do to the preservation of the specimens (for years paleontologist were not sure which end the head was located) because of the preservation of these specimens there are many theories surrounding the feeding habits of this animal. One theory is that it took food by the two rows of spines lining its back (the spines are also not persevered well making paleontologists believe that they were made of a softer material)
Kingdom: Animalia
Stem-group: Arthropoda
Class: Dinocaridida
Order: Radiodonta
Family: Anomalocarididae
Anomalocaridid's were a group of marine animals that lived during the Cambrian period. They were the apex predator during the Cambrian period. They were free swimming with two feeding appendages towards the front of the mouths. The mouth was circular in shape with a ring of teeth surrounding the central orifice. The teeth were designed to allow it to eat shelled organisms including Trilobites. There were two large eyes towards the front of the body, paleontologists are unsure these were compound eyes or not. They moved by 11 lobes surrounding the body moving in a wave like motion, making them extremely agile. There are five genera known of the Anolmalocaridids all having gone extinct at the end of the Cambrian, having been replaced by large cephalopods
Are benthic marine bivalves with most species having gone extinct at the end of the Permian. Brachiopods have a pedicle that emerges from the pedicle opening to help attach itself to the substrate. The pedicle is a long thin fleshy appendage in some brachiopods it is muscular to help it raise itself off the seafloor and although common it is not present in all brachiopods. Brachiopods are predominately filter feeders, using a crown of tentacles supported by cartilage called a lophophore. From the lophophore it is transported to the mouth, pharynx and then stomach. The lophophore takes up 2/3 of the inside of the shell with the rest of the body occupying the rest. Brachiopods first appeared during the early Cambrian quickly becoming one of the most abundantly found fossil in the world there was a great diversity of species during the Paleozoic but the P-T extinction reduced their numbers dramatically. Brachiopods are used often today as good index fossils.
Is a type of Echinoderms with two forms sessile and free-living. It is a marine species living in at a variety of depths. They have a long history being the first echinoderms to appear in the fossil record, the first evidence of them is during the early to middle Cambrian. They almost went extinct at the end of the Permian with only genus surviving to the Triassic. This one genus (Articula) eventually gave rise to the different forms we see today.
The mouth of the crinoids is located on the top using the feathery like tentacles to gather particles.
Sea Mouse: Is a marine polychaete worm found in several seas in the northern hemisphere. It lives in muddy sea floors around 1000m deep. It is covered in hair like chaetae. It can grow up to 20 cm long with a diet made up of other polychaetes.
Clam Worm: Is a polychaete worm found in many places around the world. Its other names are ragworm or sandworm. It can grow up to 15 cm long. Its head has four eyes two palps and eight tentacles. The clam worm is free swimming getting its food by savaging the sea floor. For protection it secretes a mucus to form a sort of sheath around them
