Jellyfish, Crabs, and Lobsters, Oh My!

The jellyfish at the New England Aquarium

This week, we went to the aquarium on Tuesday, which was pretty fun. My favorite animals there were the penguins and jellyfish. I learned that jellyfish are not classified as fish since they are invertebrates. Instead, they are the member of the class Scyphozoa. It was mesmerizing to see how they swam. They used their tentacles to help them swim, but then they floated for a while until they reached the bottom of the tank. Then, they would swam back towards the top. I learned that the the fuzzy pinkish that trails away from the jellyfish along with its tentacles are the oral arms. It was interesting to see the other types of jellyfish that the aquarium had.

On Wednesday, my group went to Wollaston Beach in Quincy, where we learned about bivalves. Bivalves are a group of sea creatures with a shell that have two valves that they use to filter water and food into and out of their shells. Their shells have a hinge plate with "teeth" that interlock to hold the shell closed.

On Thursday, we went to a beach bash at Pleasure Bay, and a lobster and a crab to a bunch of children. It was pretty fun, and a lot of kids were interested. Although some kids were afraid to touch them, I was surprised by how many kids did. One interesting fact that I learned was that lobsters pee out of their faces to communicate with other lobsters and they can recognize each others' scent for up to a year.

Lobsters are crustaceans that scavenge for dead animals. They also eat live fish, bottom-dwelling invertebrates, including small mollusks, and seaweed. Lobsters are red, because their diet mostly consists of red things. They have a rigid abdomen, and a flexible tail that enables them to swim backwards. (they cannot swim forward.) They have two claws, one is large, and it is use for crushing things, including its prey, and its smaller claw, which is its dominant claw, is used for precision.