Download Sea Creatures - The School City of Whiting

Sea Creatures from the Deep
By Pierce Greer and Abigail Edwards
Pierce and I did a project in class where we made
qualitative and quantitative observations about different sea
creatures. Qualitative data is observations about the characteristic
of an object. Quantitative data is data that includes
measurements. When you use quantitative data, you use numbers.
So, we decided to take this project one step further by
actually researching these amazing sea creatures. The best thing
about it is that we get extra credit in science! You should try it too,
and your essays will be posted on Mrs. Thomas’s school website.
Sea
Creatures
The Puffer fish
Puffer fish, or blow fish, do not swim very well. A
predator that is able to snag a puffer before it inflates
won’t feel very lucky for long. Almost all puffer fish
contain tetrodotoxin, a substance that makes them foul
tasting and often lethal to fish.
Starfish
Star fish are also known as sea stars. They
usually have 5 arms. Acanthaster planci, a species
of star fish commonly known as the crown-of-thorns
starfish, is a large sea star. They have a lot of arm.
Starfish (or sea stars) usually hunt hard, or stony,
coral polyps.
The sharp spines covering nearly the
entire upper surface of the crown-of-thorns are their
defense against large predators. They also have chemical
defenses.
Sea Horse
Seahorse is the name given to 54
species of marine fish in the genus
Hippocampus. "Hippocampus" comes from
the Ancient Greek “hippos” meaning "horse"
and kampos meaning "sea monster.”
Seahorses are mainly found in shallow
tropical and average temperature waters
throughout the world, and they prefer to live
in areas such as sea grass beds, coral reefs,
or mangroves.
Sharks
Sharks are a group of fish that
have skeletons, made of cartilage, five to
seven gill slits on the sides of the head.
Sharks today are known to be related to sting
rays.
I hope you enjoyed this extra credit assignment. We worked
really hard on this.  We only researched a few of the sea
creatures that Ms. Thomas provided for us. We just chose the
ones we thought we really interesting. There were sponges, coral
and a lot of cool stuff! Maybe you feel the urge to make your
own extra credit assignment!