You've Got No Backbone

You've Got No Backbone or The Big Book of Things You Should NOT Eat by Stony Point Elementary School's 5th Grade Students January 2001 This book is dedicated to the 5th graders who: researched, sketched and wrote about an invertebrate of choice, mixed paint from primary colors using an eraser tip to paint, studied complimentary colors, and were inspired by Chuck Close, the artist and Georges Seurat, the Pointillist. "Pointillism is a technique for portraying the play of light using small dots and tiny brushstrokes of contrasting colors, creating compositions with tiny, detached strokes of pure unmixed primary colors too small to be distinguished when looking at the entire work but the paintings shimmer with brilliance." BLUE-RINGED OCTOPUS By Aaron Hackett The Blue-Ringed Octopus is a mollusk that is very deadly. After it gets close, it will bite and then spit poisonous saliva into its prey’s wounds. Then it moves in for the kill tearing up flesh with its sharp beak. The bright blue rings are a warning for its deadly spit. Even the warning of color is too late before it pops out of the shadows spitting and biting. Be careful the next time you go swimming in Australia because there might be a Blue-Ringed Octopus lurking around! The Snakelocks Anemone by Angus The long, sticky tentacles of the anemone that grows up to be 20cm across vary in color from dull grey brown to vivid green with purple tips. The Seapen The seapen is a coelenterate. That means it has stinging cells. You can find seapens in colder waters like in Canada. They live at the bottom of the ocean burrowing in the deep mud between reefs. They can burrow as much 15 meters into the mud. They also have a muscular foot that they use to move. By Anna Watson Mexican Red-Kneed Tarantula by Ashby The Mexican Red-Kneed Tarantulas are endangered. They can regenerate missing legs. It will take about 7 years for a leg to grow back. If the Mexican Red-Kneed Tarantula is threatened, it will rear up and display its red bristles on its body. It drops poisonous hairs on its victim who will break out in a rash. It also has poisonous fangs that it uses to inject in its prey. Although it has eight eyes, it doesn''t have very good eyesight so it uses the sensitive hairs on its legs for guidance. The Hermit Crab In my picture there is a hermit crab.. I know that they have ten legs.. I learned that when a hermit crab senses danger, it quickly draws back inside its shell and seals the entrance with its hard claws.s A hermit crab is red and orange with white dots. By: Brooke Lilly he Brittle Star By Cadessa Davis The brittle star belongs to the group of echinoderms. The brittle star moves around in the ocean with its fragile arms. They live in a tidepools. The brittle star uses its fragile arms to open up food. They eat oysters, clams, and mostly other shelled animals in the ocean. The brittle star has spiny skin. All of the echinoderms have spiny skin. The brittle star has five arms. The brittle star has red triangles and white dots for color. The brittle star has a blackish brown body. Octopuses Octopuses have eight tentacles, which are good for their wet habitat. Octopuses live in the ocean. Some can shoot an inky substance from their siphon to blind enemies. This one cannot. Octopi usually have beaks. Octopi have four hearts! Octopi change color according to their mood. They change red when they are angry or exited. BBByyy CCCooodddyyy LLLeeewwwiiisss South African Rock Scorpion The Flat Rock Scorpion is supposedly the longest scorpion in the world. It is very terrestrial. It grows to be 5.5” to 7.5 “ long. The Flat Rock does not usually attack somebody unless it attacks its young. At that point, it does not hesitate to pinch. There are so many colors of scorpions -- mine is brown. They are different colors because of their locations. Babies feed on crickets and other small insects. Adults feed on crickets and other big bugs. by Cory Hale A Branching Sponge by Crystal Brittain A Branching Sponge is named after their shape. They stay attached to rocks all their lives. Also many Sponges live on coral reefs. They come in a variety of colors and shapes. They were once thought to be plants but they are animals. They feed by filtering food from water that passes through their body. Spiny Sea Star By Dannette McGee The Spiny Sea Star has a brownish tan looking color to it. It has a lot of different colors. The cool thing about it is that it can regenerate a lost arm. Regenerate means they can re- grow something they lost. Their scientific name is Echinoderm. I found this animal at www.ajkids.com and I found the Invertebrates in an Eyewitness book called Seashore. They have five pairs of legs. On the bottom of the sea star’s arm is a little red dot for them to look up and “see” what’s going on. Sea Stares can be found at the bottom of the ocean. The Giant Squid By Daniel Martin The giant squid is the world’s largest invertebrate. It’s very difficult to study this creature because it’s so hard to find. Giant squids can grow up to 15 meters long and weigh up to 1900 pounds. There was a giant squid washed up on Plum Island in Massachusetts in 1980. It is only the third giant squid found on U.S. shores. The squid was a 9 foot, 400 pound female squid. Its tentacles were gone and its maroon colored skin was gone when it washed on shore. The estimated length of the giant squid's tentacles are about 30 feet. Yellow Seapen By Eden Miller Seapens are coelenterates. They are also very rare. Their habitat is the sandy bottoms between reefs. Seapens are found in colder waters like Canada. They also have a muscular foot to help them move. Between the reefs where they stay, it has to have deep soft mud 15 meters deep. Seapens are lots of different colors. Seapens are hard to find so we don’t know a lot about them, because they are usually buried under the mud. A Nudibranch by Emily My nudibranch’s scientific name is Chromodoris willani. Nudibranch’s are more commonly known as sea slugs. They are a type of mollusk. Mollusks are soft-bodied animals with a muscular foot. They also usually have shells. The Luna Moth The Luna moth lives in Eastern America and Canada. It is also known as a “Moon Moth”. The Luna moth’s wingspan is 5 inches. It has long tails at its end. It has feathery antennae. The head is hidden so many birds in trees will peck at it’s long tail instead of it’s head. By Evan Ware The Imperial Scorpion by Giles Leake The Imperial Scorpion, with a body seven inches long, is the largest scorpion in the world. It is from West Africa. The smallest scorpion is the Typholchactas mitchelli measuring only 0.4 of an inch. THE GYPSY MOTH by Heather The Gypsy Moth is an insect and part of the moth family. The male is brown and the female is white with brownish black spots. The Gypsy Moth goes through 4 stages through their life, 1 an egg and when it hatches, 2 becomes a caterpillar and eats and eats and then 3 makes a cocoon around itself and when it breaks through it, 4 becomes a Gypsy Moth. Saltwater Jellyfish By Jenny Platt This is a picture of a saltwater jellyfish. They are in the crustacean group of invertebrates. Their tentacles have a powerful sting and they can have up to 800 of them. They eat fish, of all types. Jellyfish are soft and ghostly looking. They are about the size of a quarter when fully- grown. The Sea Gooseberry The Sea Gooseberry is a coelenterate. It is called the Sea gooseberry because it resembles the fruit of the gooseberry as it swims with its gelatin body. It can grow up to be 15mm long and have 8 evenly spaced combs. The Sea Gooseberries’ long tentacles originate from bulbs at the base of it. The combs of the sea gooseberry are usually used to propel it forward while it has sticky spots that collects zooplankton and brings it to the mouth. One of the sea gooseberries biggest threats is when it opens its carnivorous mouth and swallows anything that comes in as it swims. If a predator is detected the comb reverses and steers away from danger. You may find this predator on the Pacific coast from Mexico to Alaska By Jeremiah Santana Sea slug The sea slug lives in the sea and can change its color. It has a muscular foot to move around. It is a mollusk and it eats little particles from the sea. By Jessica Charlie The Octopus The octopus in the picture above can lay up to 150,000 eggs in two weeks. The octopus does not eat until her eggs hatch. Most octopuses never get to see their babies because it takes up to fifty days to hatch. When the babies are born they weigh up to one pound and twelve ounces. One octopus has over 100 suckers. They have over 60 suckers on one leg, big or small. The End By Joanna Brown The By The Wind Sailor By Jonathan Pulzone The By The Wind Sailor is a jellyfish.

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