(MIV) Marine Invertebrates Module Overview

Image reads Module Overview Oceanography

Marine Invertebrates Module Overview

Introduction

This unit will focus on the invertebrates found in the ocean, their individual methods of adaptations, identifying characteristics, and contributions to the marine ecosystem.

Essential Questions

Here are the essential questions this module will seek to help you answer:

  • How do marine organisms adapt to live within seawater?
  • How are the animal phyla represented in marine ecosystems and food webs?
  • What organisms represent the foundation for the marine food chain?
  • How do organisms change and adapt as the grow and develop?
  • How are the animal phyla related?

Key Terms

Pay attention to these key terms as you come across them:

  • Zooplankton - Animal or animallike organisms
  • Meroplankton - Organisms that are plankton temporarily such as larvae
  • Haloplankton - Organisms that spend their entire life as plankton
  • Bryozoans - Small aquatic animals that form mosslike or branching colonies
  • Protozoans - a single-celled microscopic animal of a group of phyla of the kingdom Protista, such as an amoeba, flagellate, ciliate, or sporozoan.
  • Pseudopodia - a temporary protrusion of the surface of an amoeboid cell for movement and feeding
  • Cilia - a short microscopic hairlike vibrating structure found in large numbers on the surface of certain cells, either causing currents in the surrounding fluid, or, in some protozoans and other small organisms, providing propulsion
  • Flagella - a slender threadlike structure, especially a microscopic appendage that enables many protozoa, bacteria, etc. to swim.
  • Porifera - An animal phylum comprising the sponges
  • Detritus -Small particles of dead or decaying organism
  • Coelenterate - Animal phylum which contains hydras, jellyfish, sea anemones and corals
  • Cnidaria - Animal phylum that has characteristic stinging structures
  • Ctenophora - Animal phylum of the comb jellies
  • Echinodermata - Animal phylum with exoskeletons, often covered with spines and radial symmetry
  • Mollusca - Invertebrate animal phylum with soft unsegmented body, and mantle
  • Arthropoda - An animal phylum with organisms with a segmented body, jointed limbs, and a shell made of chitin
  • Chordata - Animal phylum consisting of organisms with a dorsal nerve cord, notochord and gill slits
  • Cephalopods - Marine mollusks with an ink sac such as an octopus, squid, or cuttlefish
  • Bivalves - A mollusk with two hinged valves such as an oyster clam
  • Gastropods - Mollusks with a single coiled shell, muscular foot, and eyes and feelers

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