Natural History

[dreamer_easy]

Well! *claps hands* Which of my neglected LJ projects shall I return to first? I know - it's time for more of Mother Nature's boundless creativity! So today's phylum is the ENTOPROCTA. These are the goblet worms, about 150 species of little marine thingies that filter feed with the help of ciliated tentacles around their mouths. Rudely, their anuses are inside the ring of tentacles too - other animals sensible put their bottoms outside their feeding mechanism.

In 99% of cases, you had never heard of them before this posting. I hadn't. (I suspect that in 99% of cases, you will never hear of them again.)

And here's a picture.

Still not up to the Deuterostomes (you, me, starfish). Only five more phyla to go, though.

Comments

[richardjgrayson.livejournal.com]

If you get bored with the Deuterostomes, does that make it Deuteronomy?

(OK, I'm stretching that.)

[alawston.livejournal.com]

I dunno, could be one of those days, you know... you see a word for the first time and then suddenly it's everywhere.

Yup, there goes a lorry with Ent O. Procters on it, and I'm stuck in an Asimov short story.

I'll probably meet a phylum that turns out to be a Jewish grandparent around six this evening. I'll let you know. But, given what I've just read, I won't share his toothbrush.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Ah, the Bubbezoa.

[drox.livejournal.com]

Rudely, their anuses are inside the ring of tentacles too - other animals sensible put their bottoms outside their feeding mechanism.

Then again, they're filter feeders, so what comes out of there may well be cleaner than what goes in, yes?

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

*gawps at your ikon*

When I was nine, I read Brave New World for the first time, and got very confused about the bit where the babies were being fed "pasteurised secretions". This is just milk, of course, but I had "secretions" and "excretions" mixed up, and to this day some part of my brain thinks those babies were being fed cow poo.

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Are you watching "life in the Undergrowth" on the ABC?

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

No, for our TV reception is terrible. Instead I am watching it ON MY KITCHEN COUNTER. grrrr