CHAPTER 14 Animals of the Pelagic Environment

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CHAPTER 14 Animals of the Pelagic Environment
http//www.yoto98.noaa.gov/books/whales
http//www.aloha.com/lifeguards
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How to avoid sinking
http//www.fineartradiography.com/images/nautilus-
pos.jpg

• Increase buoyancy
• Gas containers
• Rigid container such as shells (internal or
  external) or
• Swim bladder

Fig. 14.2
http//www.geocities.com/darthdusan/nautilusNYCaqu
arium.jpg
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How to avoid sinking
http//www.rpgroup.caltech.edu/natsirt/aph162/web
pages/dylanandco/lab1/image
http//www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/people/klf/MicroGalle
ryLarge_files/Forams1.jpg
Foraminifers

• Float less dense than SW or neutral
• Microscopic zooplankton have shells or tests
• Radiolarians
• Foraminifers
• Copepods
• Macroscopic zooplankton may have oil droplets
• Krill (resemble mini-shrimp or large copepods)

Fish egg with oil droplet
Krill
http//www.sfos.uaf.edu/research/arcdiv/watercolum
n/euphausiid/images
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Figure 14.6
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How to avoid sinking

• Floating macroscopic zooplankton
• Cnidarians
• Hydrozoan (Portuguese man-of-war) gas-filled
  float
• Scyphozoan (jellyfish) soft low-density bodies

http//www.aboututila.com/Photos/AdamLaverty/
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How to avoid sinking
http//i184.photobucket.com/albums/x245/Aquaman195
6/fish_swimming.gif

• Active swimming
• Fish swim by curving body from front to back

http//www.jupitergreetings.com/files/anims/thumbn
ails/266_sm.gif
Fig. 14.9
http//www.wissenschaft-online.de/sixcms/media.php
/591
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How to avoid sinking
http//www.mbari.org/news/news_releases/2001/dec21
_clague/squid_swimming-400.jpg
Unknown deep sea squid

• Active swimming Squid
• Swim by trapping water and expelling it
• Also swim by using fins

http//www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issue
s96/may96
http//www.fishingnj.org/jpegs
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How to avoid sinking

• Active swimming
• sea turtles use flippers
• marine mammals use up/down tail movements

Sperm whale
http//www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/southflorida/evergla
des/estuarine/images/
http//www.biltek.tubitak.gov.tr/canlilar/img
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Fin designs in fish

• Vertical fins as stabilizers dosral and anal
  fins
• Paired pelvic fins and pectoral fins for
  steering and balance
• Tail fin (caudal) for thrust

http//www.biologycorner.com/resources/fish_fins.g
if
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Fin designs in fish

• Rounded caudal fins flexible, maneuver at slow
  speeds
• Truncate fins and forked fins, useful for both
  maneuvering and thrust
• Lunate fins rigid, lots of thrust for fast
  swimmers
• Heterocercal fins asymmetrical, lift for buoyancy
  (shark)

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Fin designs in fish
Fig. 14-10a
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Adaptations for finding prey
http//www.emeraldinsight.com/fig/0170960108002.pn
g

• Mobility
• Lungers wait for prey and pounce (grouper)
• Mainly white muscle tissue
• Cruisers actively seek prey (tuna)
• Mostly red muscle tissue

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Adaptations for finding prey

• Swimming speed
• Speed generally proportional to size
• Can move very fast for short time (mainly to
  avoid predation)

http//images.inmagine.com/img/imagezoo/iz125/iz12
5022.jpg
http//chemistry.csudh.edu/faculty/jim/cozmay06bes
t/barracuda.jpg
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Adaptations to finding prey

• Most fish cold-blooded but some are warm-blooded
• Homeothermic-body temperature above sea water
  temperature
• Modifications in circulatory system
• Mainly in fast-swimming fish

http//www.sciencedaily.com/images/2005/10/0510311
33653.jpg
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Adaptations of deep-water nekton

• Mainly fish that consume detritus or each other
• Lack of abundant food
• Bioluminescence
• Fishing lures
• Large, sensitive eyes

Anglerfish w/ males
Lanternfish
http//www.lifesci.ucsb.edu/biolum/organism/pictu
res/myctophid1.jpg
http//www.antoranz.net/CURIOSA/ZBIOR2/C0301
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Adaptations of deep-water nekton

• Large sharp teeth
• Expandable bodies
• Hinged jaws

Gulper eel
http//www.floranimal.ru/pages/animal/b
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Adaptations of deep-water nekton
Fig. 14-13
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Figure 14.12
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Adaptations to avoid predation

• Schooling
• Safety in numbers
• School may appear as single larger unit
• Schooling maneuvers confuse predator

http//www.oceanbrite.com/gallery/d/811-2/Fish_Sch
ool.jpg
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Some taxonomy

• Fish
• Kingdom Animalia
• Phylum Chordata
• Class Chondrichtyes cartilaginous fish
• Sharks, rays
• Class Osteichthyes bony fish

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• Marine Mammals
• Kingdom Animalia
• Phylum Chordata
• Class Mammalia
• Order Carnivora
• Sea otters
• Polar Bears
• Pinnipeds Family Odobenidae (walrus), Family
  Otariidae (Sea lions), Family Phocidae (seals)
• Order Sirenia
• Manatees and dugongs
• Order Cetacea
• Whales

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• Whales
• Kingdom Animalia
• Phylum Chordata
• Class Mammalia
• Order Cetacea
• Suborder Odontoceti (toothed whales dolphins,
  orcas, sperm whales)
• Suborder Mysticeti (baleen whales blue whale,
  gray whale)

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Marine mammals
http//www.colonialzone-dr.com/images/manatee20mo
ther20and20calf.jpg

• Land-dwelling ancestors
• Warm-blooded
• Breathe air
• Hair/fur
• Bear live young
• Mammary glands for milk

http//images.aad.gov.au/img.py/8bb.jpg
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Marine mammals
http//www.sierraclub.org/compass/uploaded_images/
otter-700966.jpg

• Carnivora
• Prominent canine teeth
• Sea otters
• Polar bears

http//www.birdsasart.com/Sea-Otter-w-pup-_T9J9119
-Cordova,-AK.jpg
http//www.gaszappers.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/
04/3-lazy-polar-bears.jpg
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Marine mammals
http//images.livescience.com/images/071008-walrus
-04.jpg

• Carnivora
• Pinnepeds
• Walruses
• Eat crustaceans with tusks
• Seals

http//www.cambriarealty.com/images/seal_pic1.jpg
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Marine mammals
http//www.naturetrek.co.uk/newsletter/images/2007
96947570.Galapagos-Sea-lion-and-pup.jpg

• Carnivora
• Pinnepeds
• Sea lions
• Fur seals

http//neilshedden.com/africa/images/animals/seals
3.jpg
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Marine mammals
http//www.nepa.gov.jm/yourenv/biodiversity/Specie
s/gifs/manatee.jpg

• Sirenia
• Herbivores
• Manatees
• Coastal areas of tropical Atlantic Ocean
• Dugongs
• Coastal areas of Indian and western Pacific Oceans

http//www.cnsweb.org/digestvertebrates/Photos/Dug
ong20CL25_1b.jpg
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Marine mammals
http//www.solcomhouse.com/images/wszhale.gif

• Cetacea
• Stream-lined bodies for fast swimming
• Specialized skin (dermal ridges) structure for
  fast swimming
• Whales
• Toothed - carnivores
• Baleen filter feeders

http//faculty.mccfl.edu/rizkf/OCE1001/Images/whal
es2.jpg
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Cetacea
http//www.alaska-passages-yacht-charters.com/brea
ch_1.gif
Fig. 14.18
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Marine mammals
http//www.flheritage.com/facts/symbols/images/sym
bols/porpoise.jpg

• Dolphins vs. porpoises
• Dolphins (Delphinidae)
• 35 species
• Beaks
• melon (fatty organ in forehead)
• Prominent, curved dorsal fin
• conical, undifferentiated teeth
• Range in size from 1.5 m Hector's dolphin to 9 m
  killer whales
• Porpoises (Phocoenidae)
• 6 species
• Lack prominent beak
• laterally compressed teeth
• More triangular dorsal fin

Bottlenose dolphin
Harbor porpoise
http//www-heb.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/community/
education/images/harbourporpoise/teeth2_small.gif
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Cetacea
http//www.keanani.com/dolphin_Animation.gif
http//www.freewebs.com/cetaceanrc/SpermWhale1.jpg

• Adaptations for deep diving
• Use oxygen efficiently
• Able to absorb 90 of oxygen inhaled
• Able to store large quantities of oxygen high
  levels of myoglobin and hemoglobin
• Able to reduce oxygen required for noncritical
  organs
• Slowed cardiac rate
• Muscles insensitive to buildup of CO2
• Collapsible lungs

http//www.uwrf.edu/biology/electives_dir/444_dir/
VSmith/Page1.htmlskin
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Adaptations for deep diving
Sperm whales can dive up to 1 hour, 52 min. and
to 3 km deep
http//www.uwrf.edu/biology/electives_dir/444_dir/
VSmith/Page1.htmlskin
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Cetacea
http//hearingresearch.net/pix/FultonCaldwell.gif

• Suborder Odontoceti (toothed)
• Dolphins, porpoises, killer whale, sperm whale
• Echolocation to determine distance and direction
  to objects
• Clicks produced in nasal air sacs are focused by
  the melon
• Echos received thru lower jaw ? middle ear
• Determine shape, size of objects

http//www.palaeos.com/Vertebrates/Units/520Cetart
iodactyla/520.100.html
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Intelligence in toothed whales
http//www.nodium.com/wp-content/img/article/503.j
pg

• Large brains relative to body size
• Communicate with each other
• Brains convoluted
• Trainable
• Are they intelligent?

http//serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/kinser/images/jeri
son1.gif
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Cetacea
Suborder Mysticeti
Fig. 14.23
Right whale baleen

• Baleen whales
• Blue whale, finback whale, humpback whale, gray
  whale, right whale
• Fibrous plates of baleen sieve prey items
• Vocalized sounds for various purposes

Right whale feeding
http//www.coastalstudies.org/what-we-do/right-wha
les/fieldnotes.htm
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Gray whale migration
http//www.howardhall.com/stories/Gray20Whale1H.j
pg

• 22,000 km (13,700 mi) annual migration from
  coastal Arctic Ocean to Baja California and
  Mexico
• Feeding grounds in Arctic (summer)
• Breeding and birthing grounds in tropical eastern
  Pacific (winter)

Fig. 14-25
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Whales as endangered species

• Fewer whales now than before whaling
• International Whaling Treaty
• Hunting of gray whale banned in 1938
• Gray removed from endangered list in 1993 as
  population rebounded

Fig. 14.26
http//typingisnotactivism.files.wordpress.com/200
8/02/japan-whaling-2008.jpg
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Marine reptiles
http//www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/southflorida/evergla
des/estuarine/images/
Green

• Sea turtles
• Prey depends on species
• Greens eat seagrass (gut flora digests cellulose)
• Loggerheads eat conch
• Leatherbacks eat jellyfish
• Nest on beaches predation, lights on dunes
• Many overexploited

Loggerhead
Leatherback
http//www.fws.gov/endangered/i
http//swfsc.nmfs.noaa.gov/PRD/PROGRAMS/turtles
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• Marine iguanas of Galapagos Islands
• Feed on submerged algae
• Dive for up to 20 minutes
• Must surface before they become too cold and
  cant climb out of water

http//www.exzooberance.com/virtual20zoo/they20w
alk/iguana
http//www.surtrek.com/en/images/Program_pics/phot
ogallery/gps
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• Sea snakes of Pacific
• Highly poisonous
• Truly aquatic - reproduce in water - live-bearers

http//www.gbrmpa.gov.au/corp_site/info_services/p
ublications/sotr/1998/photos
http//www.oceanbrite.com/albums/Fiji/