The infamous box jellyfish developed its frighteningly powerful venom to instantly stun or kill prey, like fish and shrimp, so their struggle to escape wouldn’t damage its delicate tentacles.
Their venom is considered to be among the most deadly in the world, containing toxins that attack the heart, nervous system, and skin cells. It is so overpoweringly painful, human victims have been known to go into shock and drown or die of heart failure before even reaching shore. Survivors can experience considerable pain for weeks and often have significant scarring where the tentacles made contact.
Box jellies, also called sea wasps and marine stingers, live primarily in coastal waters off Northern Australia and throughout the Indo-Pacific. They are pale blue and transparent in color and get their name from the cube-like shape of their bell. Up to 15 tentacles grow from each corner of the bell and can reach 10 feet (3 meters) in length. Each tentacle has about 5,000 stinging cells, which are triggered not by touch but by the presence of a chemical on the outer layer of its prey.
Box jellies are highly advanced among jellyfish. They have developed the ability to move rather than just drift, jetting at up to four knots through the water. They also have eyes grouped in clusters of six on the four sides of their bell. Each cluster includes a pair of eyes with a sophisticated lens, retina, iris and cornea, although without a central nervous system, scientists aren’t sure how they process what they see. Sea turtles are unaffected by the sting of the box jellyfish and regularly eat them. The average life span of one in the wild is less than 1 year.
The grizzly bear is a North American subspecies of the brown bear.
These awe-inspiring giants tend to be solitary animals—with the exception of females and their cubs—but at times they do congregate. Dramatic gatherings of grizzly bears can be seen at prime Alaskan fishing spots when the salmon run upstream for summer spawning. In this season, dozens of bears may gather to feast on the fish, craving fats that will sustain them through the long winter ahead.
Brown bears dig dens for winter hibernation, often holing up in a suitable-looking hillside. Females give birth during this winter rest and their offspring are often twins.
Grizzly bears are powerful, top-of-the-food-chain predators, yet much of their diet consists of nuts, berries, fruit, leaves, and roots. Bears also eat other animals, from rodents to moose.
Grizzlies are typically brown, though their fur can appear to be white-tipped, or grizzled, lending them their traditional name.
Despite their impressive size, grizzlies are quite fast and have been clocked at 30 miles (48 kilometers) an hour. They can be dangerous to humans, particularly if surprised or if humans come between a mother and her cubs.
Grizzlies once lived in much of western North America and even roamed the Great Plains. European settlement gradually eliminated the bears from much of this range, and today only about 1,000 grizzlies remain in the continental U.S., where they are protected by law. Many grizzlies still roam the wilds of Canada and Alaska, where hunters pursue them as big game trophies
The incredibly toxic venom of the geographic cone snail has to be strong enough to paralyze instantly. Otherwise, the fish it preys on would swim away to die, and the slow-moving gastropod would have nothing for its efforts.
Indigenous to the reefs of the Indo-Pacific, geographic cones grow to about 6 inches (15 centimeters) in length and have intricately patterned brown-and-white shells highly prized by shell collectors.
The geographic cone is the most venomous of the 500 known cone snail species, and several human deaths have been attributed to them. Their venom, a complex concoction of hundreds of different toxins, is delivered via a harpoonlike tooth propelled from an extendable proboscis. There is no antivenin for a cone snail sting, and treatment is limited to merely keeping victims alive until the toxins wear off.
Ironically, among the compounds found in cone snail venom are proteins which, when isolated, have enormous potential as pain-killing drugs. Research shows that certain of these proteins target specific human pain receptors and can be up to 10,000 times more potent than morphine without morphine 's addictive properties and side-effects. The geographic cone is nicknamed the "cigarette snail," a humorous exaggeration meaning a person stung by one would have enough time to smoke a cigarette before dying. The size of one is relative to a tea cup.
In case you were wondering (cause they are soooo flexible), snakes actually do have bones. Animals with bones are know as vertebrates -- snakes are vertebrates.
A snake’s backbone is made up of many vertebrae attached to ribs. Humans have approximately 33 vertebrae and 24 ribs. Snakes have between 100-400 vertebrae with as many ribs attached! That is what makes them so flexible and helps them move along!
All those bones and the strong muscles protect the internal organs. The throat of the snake takes up the front one-third of the body. It leads to a really long stomach, which, like the throat, will stretch to the size of whatever the snake is eating.
Snakes also have two long lungs, a long liver, kidneys and intestines. The last quarter of the snake has a small anal opening (they have to poop, you know!) covered by a scale called the anal plate, and the rest is tail made up of more bone.
The grizzly bear is a North American subspecies of the brown bear.
These awe-inspiring giants tend to be solitary animals—with the exception of females and their cubs—but at times they do congregate. Dramatic gatherings of grizzly bears can be seen at prime Alaskan fishing spots when the salmon run upstream for summer spawning. In this season, dozens of bears may gather to feast on the fish, craving fats that will sustain them through the long winter ahead.
Brown bears dig dens for winter hibernation, often holing up in a suitable-looking hillside. Females give birth during this winter rest and their offspring are often twins.
Grizzly bears are powerful, top-of-the-food-chain predators, yet much of their diet consists of nuts, berries, fruit, leaves, and roots. Bears also eat other animals, from rodents to moose.
Grizzlies are typically brown, though their fur can appear to be white-tipped, or grizzled, lending them their traditional name.
Despite their impressive size, grizzlies are quite fast and have been clocked at 30 miles (48 kilometers) an hour. They can be dangerous to humans, particularly if surprised or if humans come between a mother and her cubs.
Grizzlies once lived in much of western North America and even roamed the Great Plains. European settlement gradually eliminated the bears from much of this range, and today only about 1,000 grizzlies remain in the continental U.S., where they are protected by law. Many grizzlies still roam the wilds of Canada and Alaska, where hunters pursue them as big game trophies.
Wasp, common name applied to most species of hymenopteran insects, except bees and ants. Insects known as wasps include the sawflies, the parasitic wasps, and the stinging wasps, which are the best known. About 75,000 species of wasps are known, most of them parasitic.
Wasps are characterized by two pairs of membranous wings and an ovipositor (tube for laying eggs) that may be modified in various ways. In some species one sex may be wingless. In the vegetarian sawflies, the abdomen is broadly attached to the thorax and the ovipositor is rigid; in the higher wasps, the abdomen is flexibly attached to the thorax and the ovipositor is movable. The larvae of parasitic wasps consume the bodies of other insects or, in a few cases, consume plant tissue. Most stinging wasps are predators or scavengers; their ovipositors may be modified to inject venom used for killing prey or for defense.
Unlike social wasps, sawflies and parasitic wasps are free-living-that is, they do not build nests. After depositing their eggs on a host plant or animal, the adult wasps fly off in search of food for themselves or more hosts for their larvae. The eggs are left to develop and hatch on their own. However, some stinging wasps live in societies that are more complex than those of social bees and ants.
The stinging wasps rely on a nest from which they conduct many of their activities, especially rearing young. Wasp nests may be as simple as a straight burrow in the ground, like those made by the females of many digger wasps. Some wasp nests, such as those of mud daubers and potter wasps, are above ground, constructed of mud cavities attached to twigs, rocks, or human structures. The simplest mud nests contain only one or a few larval cells and are not used by the adults. Other mud nests contain many cells arranged side by side. Among the most intricate nests are those made of paper fibers collected from dry wood and bark and mixed with the wasps' saliva. The vespoid wasps (yellow jackets, hornets, and paper wasps) build nests of this type. In each paper-fiber nest there are one or more combs, or densely packed arrays of larval cells. The adults may congregate on the combs, and some nests have an outer cover, forming a protective refuge for the whole colony.
In some form, sharks have been around for about 400 million years.
Even before dinosaurs roamed the earth, sharks hunted through the oceans! They're such good survivors that they've had little need to evolve in the last 150 million years.
These ancient predators fascinate adults and children alike.
Scientific Information: Sharks belong to the class of fish, Chondrichthyes.
Sharks have the most powerful jaws on the planet. Unlike most animals' jaws, both the sharks' upper and lower jaws move.
A shark bites with it's lower jaw first and then its upper. It tosses its head back and forth to tear loose a piece of meat which it swallows whole.
Each type of shark has a different shaped tooth depending on their diet. Normally, sharks eat alone. But sometimes one feeding shark attracts others. They swim up as quickly as possible and all begin to try to get a piece of the prey. They bite wildly at anything that gets in their way -- even each other.
The great white shark rarely partakes in feeding frenzies.
A shark may grow and use over 20,000 teeth in its lifetime!
Almost all sharks are "carnivores" or meat eaters. They live on a diet of fish and sea mammals (like dolphins and seals) and even such prey as turtles and seagulls.
Sharks even eat other sharks. For example, a tiger shark might eat a bull shark, a bull shark might eat a blacktip shark and a blacktip shark might eat a dogfish shark!
The teeth of the carnivores are sharp and pointy. Their skeleton is made of cartilage instead of bone, which allows greater flexibility.
Their skin is made of denticles instead of ordinary fish scales. The denticles are constructed like hard, sharp teeth and help to protect the shark from injury.
Not all sharks are fierce carnivores. Some are quite harmless. Oddly enough, the most harmless sharks tend to be the largest! The basking shark, the whale shark and the megamouth sharks all fit this description.
These huge sharks eat plankton, a tiny shrimp-like creature found in the ocean. To do this, they swim forward with their mouths wide open. "Gill rakers" at the back of their throat strain the tiny food from the water.
Think sharks are dangerous? The most dangerous sharks are the Great White shark, the Tiger shark, the Hammerhead shark, the Mako shark and the Bull shark. On average, there are only about 100 shark attacks each year and only 10 of those result in a human death.
You should check it out from their perspective, though! People kill thousands of sharks in a year for sport and for food. Shark skins are used to make products like any other leather would be. Up until the 1950's, shark livers were used as a vitamin A supplement. Shark fin soup and shark steaks are both eaten in many countries (Mako, seen in the top photo, is the most popular in the United States).
So... who's the dangerous predator?
Baby sharks are called pups. Just like there are many types of sharks, there are also different ways that sharks come into this world. There are three ways that sharks are born:
eggs are laid (like birds)
eggs hatch inside the mother and then are born
pups sharks grow inside the mother (like humans)
Sharks can have from 1 to 100 babies at a time, depending on the type of shark. The ones with pups that grow inside the mother have fewer babies at a time than sharks that lay eggs outside the body.
Sharks do not care for their babies after they are born, but they do search for a safe place where they can lay their eggs or give birth.
One of the reasons that sharks are such successful predators is that they have such super senses.
Two-thirds of a shark's brain is dedicated to its keenest sense -- smell.
Some sharks have eyes similar to a cat. A mirror-like layer in their eyes allows them to see better in the water. This allows the shark to hunt in clear seas or murky water.
To top it off, sharks have a few unusual senses. For instance, they are able to feel vibrations in the water using a line of canals that go from its head to its tail. Called a "lateral line", these canals are filled with water and contain sensory cells with hairs growing out of them. These hairs move when the water vibrates and alerts the shark to potential prey.
Sharks also have a sensory organ called the "ampullae of Lorenzini" which they use to "feel" the electrical field coming from its prey.
To wrap it up, let's look at some of the types of sharks we've been discussing.
ANGEL SHARK:
flat body like a stingray -- you can tell the shark is not a ray because the pectoral fins are not attached to the head.
They bury themselves in the sand or mud with only the eyes and part of the top of the body exposed.
They are bottom feeders, eating crustaceans like clams and mollusks and fish that are swimming close to the ocean floor
BASKING SHARK:
second largest shark (about 30 feet long and 8,000 pounds)
filters plankton from the water using "gill rakers"
BLACKTIP REEF SHARK:
does well in captivity so is often found in aquariums (which is why we have so many photos of it)
about 6 feet long.
grey with a black tip on its fins and white streak on its side
BLUE SHARK:
about 12 feet long.
sleek, tapered body
among the fastest swimming sharks and can even leap out of the water
diet consists mostly of squid, but it will eat almost anything
considered dangerous - have attacked people
BULL SHARK:
third most dangerous to people
can swim in salt and fresh water and have even been found in the Mississipi river.
COOKIECUTTER SHARK:
a small shark (less than 2 feet long)
eats perfecty round chunks out of living whales and dolphins by clamping its teeth extremely sharp teeth onto them.
GOBLIN SHARK:
very uncommon and likely the strangest looking shark (rarely seen)
pale, pinkish grey skin with a long pointed snout (it looks a bit like a sword on top of its head)
lives in very deep water.
found off the coast of Japan in 1898... until that time it was believed to have been extinct for 100 million years
GREAT WHITE SHARK:
more attacks on people than any other type.
averages 12 feet long and 3,000 pounds.
unlike most sharks, it can lift its head out of the water.
HAMMERHEAD SHARK:
unlikely to attack people, but considered dangerous due to its predatory nature and its size
eyes and nostrils are far apart, giving it a "hammerhead" appearance and allowing the shark to extend the range of its senses.
MAKO SHARK:
fastest swimmer (43 miles per hour)
known to leap out of the water (sometimes into boats)
NURSE SHARK:
bottom dwelling shark
thin, fleshy, whisker-like organs on the lower jaw in front of the nostrils that they use to touch and taste
hunt at night, sleep by day
common at aquariums
SANDTIGER SHARK:
the sandtiger shark has very pointed teeth -- the better to eat you with (if you're a fish!)
10 feet long
predator (carnivore)
nocturnal (hunts mostly at night)
Babies: The mother shark has two uterus. Many sharks begin in the uterus, but the strongest one in each uterus eats all the others before they are born.
SPINY DOGFISH SHARK:
the most abundant shark
3 to 4 feet long
slightly poisonous spines (not very harmful to people)
used by people for food and research.
THRESHER SHARK:
10 foot tail (1/2 as long as the body) which it uses to herd small fish
TIGER SHARK:
second most attacks on people
eat anything! (have been found with boat cushions and alarm clocks in their stomachs)
WHALE SHARK:
biggest shark and biggest fish
it isn't a whale (whales are mammals, not fish)
grow to 45 feet long and 30,000 pounds, but average about 25 feet long
filters plankton from the water using "gill rakers"
WHITE TIP REEF SHARK:
probably the most common shark encountered by divers and snorkelers on tropical reefs
about 3 feet long on average though it can be as big as 6 feet.
dark grey with a white tip on the first and sometimes on the second dorsal fin as well as the tail lobes
Photo by Yvonne
WOBBEGONG SHARK:
about 8 feet long, but virtually harmless.
lives in Australia and Pacific coastal reefs
lies on the bottom of the ocean waiting for fish to come near.
filters food into its mouth with worm-like projections on its head
razor-like teeth
yellow, brown and gray camouflage colouring.
ZEBRA SHARK:
small, gentle shark that can be kept in an aquarium with other fish.