Today was the most interesting and fun day of class so far. As always, we began with discussion of the articles we were assigned to read. Today, though, we were taught by our peers, with a little help from Dr. Grunninger and Mr. Kirby, of course. We talked about how Butterfly fish feed on coral polyps and how mullusks are one of the most diverse groups of animals out there, as well as one of the most endangered. We then went into a very breif discussion of invertibrates.
After our break, we went into the lab and began our first hands on part of the class, disections. We first individually disected a starfish, looking out for certain parts shown to us on our ipads. The first thing i realized was that their skin was a lot harder than i had expected. I also realized they have a special gland for digesting that was spread across all five arms, as well a a seperate stomach, which is a somewhat forein concept, seeing as most animals we’re familiar with digest food in their stomach. We then partnered up for the squid disection. The squid was really interesting because it’s organs were protected from the environment, but also would be exposed to sea water. They also have no swim bladder, but instead use jet propulsion to get where they want to go.
