Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Filter feeders can play an important role in condensing biomass and removing excess nutrients (such as nitrogen and phosphate) from the local waterbody, and are therefore considered water-cleaning ecosystem engineers. They are also important in bioaccumulation and, as a result, as indicator organisms. Filter feeders can be sessile, planktonic ...
Aquatic feeding mechanisms. Grouper capture their prey by sucking them into their mouths. Aquatic feeding mechanisms face a special difficulty as compared to feeding on land, because the density of water is about the same as that of the prey, so the prey tends to be pushed away when the mouth is closed. This problem was first identified by ...
Graptolites are a group of colonial animals, members of the subclass Graptolithina within the class Pterobranchia. These filter-feeding organisms are known chiefly from fossils found from the Middle Cambrian (Miaolingian, Wuliuan) through the Lower Carboniferous (Mississippian). [3] A possible early graptolite, Chaunograptus, is known from the ...
Barnacles are exclusively marine invertebrates; many species live in shallow and tidal waters. Some 2,100 species have been described. Barnacle adults are sessile; most are suspension feeders with hard calcareous shells, but the Rhizocephala are specialized parasites of other crustaceans, with reduced bodies.
The lophophore surrounds the mouth and is an upstream collecting system for suspension feeding. Its tentacles are hollow, with extensions of a coelomic space thought to be a mesocoel. The gut is U-shaped with the anterior mouth at the center of the lophophore. The anus, where present, is also anterior, but is dorsal to the mouth.
In suspension feeders, the trophi are covered in grinding ridges, while in more actively carnivorous species, they may be shaped like forceps to help bite into prey. In some ectoparasitic rotifers, the mastax is adapted to grip onto the host, although, in others, the foot performs this function instead.
Surf zone. The surf zone or breaker zone is the nearshore part of a body of open water between the line at which the waves break and the shore. As ocean surface waves approach a shore, they interact with the bottom, get taller and steeper, and break, forming the foamy surface called surf. The region of breaking waves defines the surf zone.
This page was last edited on 9 May 2006, at 04:42 (UTC).; Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply ...