The Alien Life Park

Arthropods are invertabrate meaning without a backbone. Animals of the Phylum Arthropoda have a segmented body, jointed appendages(legs, antennae, claws and extrenal mouth claws) and an exoskeleton, tough outter covering. The outter covering offers an attachment for the muscles and a barrier to water loss for those living on land. It’s made up mostly of Chitin, a rigid, complex carbohydrate, and is usually covered by a hard, waxy cuticle. The cuticle allows the body to move left or right. During periods of time the Exoskeleton sheds of, called molting, the the soft animal then swells in size and new, larger exoskeleton hardens. Anthropods are classified into two categories, chelicerates, meaning “Clawed horned one,”which are divided into two parts: a fused head and a thorax, and an abdomen. Chelicerates have no antennaes, and most of them have four pairs of jointed legs. The next category is mandibulates meaning “Jawed one,” they have one or two appendages that functions as antennae on their head, with the next pair modified as jaws used for feeding.

Special Exhibition- Lobster

Lobsters are invertebrates, they have a hard exoskeleton and like most anthropods they molt in order to grow.Lobsters have 10 legs, with the front ones adapted to claws. Lobsters live on rocky, sandy or muddy shore lines, living singly in crevices or in burrows under rocks. They typically eat live food, like fish, worms and some plants. There has been found that lobsters eat their sheded skin once they molt. The oldest lobster on record lived to be 100 years old. Since lobsters live mainly in murky environments their eye vision is really poor, so they use their antennae as sensors. Lobsters like snails and spiders have blue blood due to the presence of haemocyanin, which contains copper. Inside lobsters there a green goopy substance called tomalley, which serves as the hepatopancreas, gratifying the functions of the liver and pancreas. Lobsters move really slow, but in any case it needs to flee they can swim backwards by curling and uncurling their abdomen at a speed up to about 11mph, this action is known as the caridoid escape reaction.

Special Exhibition- King Crab

King crabs, also called stone crabs are mainly found in cold seas. Beacause of their size and taste, they’re cought abundantly and sold sold as food. They’re believed to originate from the hermit crab ancestory, which may be the reason why the adult form is still found asymmetry. The evidence for this explanation comes from the asymmetry of the king crab's abdomen, which is thought to reflect the asymmetry of hermit crabs, which must fit into a spiral shell. King crabs have 6 legs, one larger crusher claw and one smaller pincher claw.

Special Exhibition- Ants

Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae belonging in the order Hymenoptera. They range in size from 8/100 to 1 inch. Their body are divided into three sections: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. The thorax, or mus section is connected to the abdomen bya small waist section. The mouth consist of two sets of jaws. The outter part is used for carrying food and building nest, while the inner jaw is used for chewing. Most ants have simple eyes, called ocelli, on top of the head, as well as the compound eye with many lenses on each side of the head, but their vision is poor, but the most useful than the eyes are the antennae, two slender rods that wve constantly when ants move about. The antennae is used for their sense of smell and touch, they also use the rods located on their antennae to recognixe their nest and colony. They communicate by tapping with their antennae and can easily detect intruders by smell. Nirsemaid ants clean the young with their antennae and toungue ,but they also use a sort of comb called a strgil, located at the forelegs. The queen and males are normally winged, although their used once in their mating fligh, the others lack. Ants can sting their predator by ejecting vapor of formic acid, while other ants, such as the bulldog ants and the fire ants, have powerful stings at the tip of the abdomen. Ants don’t have lungs, but breathe through small holes called spiracles, located along the abdomen and thorax.

Special Exhibition- Funnel Web Spider

Funnel webs are large spiders, 1.5 - 4.5 cm body length with glossy dark carapace. The abdomen is usually dark plum to black and not patterned. Female Funnel web spiders spend most of their life in their burrows, but do occasionally hunt at night. Males however wander in search for females, mainly during summer and autumn. The males spend their whole short adulthood seeking as many receptive females to mate. They approach the females in their burrows by following their chemical attraction scent. During mating, the male must restrain the female from striking him with her fangs using the spurs on his second legs, while he transfers sperm into her genital opening. The female then spins a pillow shaped silk egg sack, which holds up to 100 eggs. They hatch in about three weeks later and stay with their mother for a few months. They mature in about two to four years , females living up to 10 years, male dying about 6 to 10 months after maturity.

Chordates

In order to classify a chordate, an animal must have these characteristics. The Notochord which is a rigid structure that lies in front of the nerve chord. This is present in the embryonic development, and it develops into the vertebral column. The dorsal tubular nerve chord, which is the hollow part of the nerve cord filled with nourishment nerve cells need and in the vertebrate, the verbrae surrounds and protect the chord creating the spine. Pharyngeal pouches, visible only in the embryonic stage, which becomes the gills or gill slits. Finally chordates should all have tails, an extension of the nerve chord and body behind the anus. All chordates as well have an internal skeleton, providing protection to the internal organs. With the endoskeleton's capability to grow with the body of the animal, the animal can grow and extend in the development of other organs.

Tunicates

Tunicates are marine animal of the phylum Chordata. Adult sea squirts are sedentary, filter-feeding, cylindrical or globular animals, usually found attached to rocks, shells, or boat bottoms. The soft body is surrounded by a thick test, or tunic, often transparent or translucent and varying in consistency from gelatinous to leathery. The tunic is secreted by the body wall of the adult animal. It is composed of cellulose, a uniquely occurrence of that material in the animal kingdom. Two siphons project from the animal's body; water enters the incurrent siphon at the top of the body and leaves the excurrent siphon at the side. Food particles are filtered from the water by the pharynx, which occupies most of the body, and are then passed into the digestive system. Some species reproduce by budding, resulting in the formation of colonies of sea squirts, joined at their bases by slender stalks or embedded in a slab of common tunic material. Nearly all species reproduce sexually and are hermaphroditic. The free-swimming larva, called a tadpole, has a muscular tail and is similar in appearance to a frog tadpole. The larva has the characteristic chordate features also found in the embryos of vertebrates: a dorsal, hollow nerve cord; a stiffening rod, or notochord; and gill slits leading into the pharynx. The tadpole eventually settles and undergoes a drastic metamorphosis into the adult form.

Sharks

Sharks are huge, heavy fishes; their skeletons are made up of cartilage than bone, must sharks must keep moving in order to breathe and to stay afloat. Their wide spread of pectoral fins and the upward curve of the tail fin provide lift and sweeping movements of the tail drive, making them good swimmers. Sharks have pointed snouts; their crescent shaped mouths are set on the underside of the body containing several rows of sharp, triangular teeth. They breathe using gills, usually five on each side. They breathe by taking in water and letting it out over the gills. They have two additional respiratory openings on their heads, called spiracles. Fertilization is internal in sharks; the male has paired organs called claspers for locating sperm in to the cloaca of the female. Compared to bony fishes, sharks tend to mature later and reproduce slow.

Special Exhibition- Great whites

Great whites are the largest predatory fish on earth. They can grow up to an average of 15 feet in length and weighing up to 5,000 lbs. They have gray upper bodies to blend with the sea floors and white underbellies. They are shaped like a torpedo giving them the advantage to propel through the water with their powerful tail up to 15mph. Their mouths are lined up to 300 ragged, triangular teeth arranged in several rows; they also have an amazing sense of smell to detect their prey. They can even sense electromagnetic fields generated by animals. Great whites are being listed as an endangered species due to over fishing and accidental catching in gill nets.

Bony Fish

Thousands of bony fish species are less than a few centimeters long as adults. They have a variety of body shape, but the typical body shape is roughly cylinder and tampering at both ends, that shape is quite energy efficient for swimming. There are varies types of body shapes common to the bony fish , such as, the compressed body shape , flattened side to side for those who live in dense cover or within the coral reefs. The depressed body shape is flattened, top to bottom. Then there’s the elongation body shape, for example the eel. Most species have pigmentation that helps camouflage avoiding predators as well as confusing them.

Special Exhibition- Flounder

Flounders are found on muddy, cold, shallow northern waters, it migrates during winter into deeper waters to breed. Flounders feed on worms, crustaceans, and other small bottom invertebrates. Their body structure is known to be flat, while both eyes are suited on one side of the head, flounders aren’t born that way. Thought their life they’re involved in metamorphosis, one eye migrates to the other side of the body so both eyes are situated on the upward facing side of the body. After that phase in life, flounders lie on one side of the ocean floor wherever the up right side faces upward. Flounders sizes vary from 5 to 15 inches.

Special Exhibition- Tuna

The tuna is a sleek fish, plump in the middle and narrowing to the points at either ends. They have two spaced out dorsal that rises from its back. The tuna’s dorsal side is generally a metallic dark blue color; while the underside is silvery or whitish. Its size rarely exceeds three feet. The tuna’s sexual maturity ranges from three to five years depending on the species. A spawning female may lay as 100,000 eggs per 2.2lbs of body weight. After 30 hours, the eggs are ready to hatch, few manage to live adulthood. Tunas grow rapidly and are long lived.

Amphibians

Amphibians are cold-blooded, they derive heat from outside their body, and the temperature of the amphibian depends upon their surroundings. Their really active around warm environments and tend to act slowly to the exposure of cold temperature. Their life cycle begins underwater and works its way up onto land. Amphibian’s habitats are wet, and damp such as wetlands and shallow marshes. They eat meat, making them a carnivore; different species have different eating habits. Most breed in fresh water, while others breed in moist places, the eggs are covered in a clear jelly substance that protects them from desiccation. Most amphibians experience metamorphosis, usually accompanied with a sudden change in habitat and behavior.

Special Exhibition- Bufo

Toads have a stocky figure and short legs, which makes them poor jumpers. In the family Bufonidae, they all lack tails and teeth, they have horizantal pupils,dry thick warty skin. They have parotoid glands, these glands let out a fatty, white poisonous which acts as a detterent to predators. Toads can inflate their bodies when threatened; males are usually smaller than females and possess an incomplete ovary. Toads also let out a poisonous steep throught their skin, if swallowed by a a large dog it can be fatal.

Special Exhibition- Rana

Rana is a genus of frogs, members of this genus can be found in Eurasia, North America, Central America, and the northern half of South America. This species is usually characterized dur to their slender waists and wrinkled skin, lacking warts. They’re great jumpers due to their long slim legs, the webbing located at their hind feet allows them to move easily through water. They breed in early spring, although other species mate throught the year, males do the calling, while few species are thought to be voiceless. Females lay eggs in larger clusters, producing up to 20,000 at one time.

Snakes

Snakes constitute the suborder Serpents (or Ophidians). Snakes lack limbs, but have a few traces of hind limbs. Their skin consists of mostly scales, and shed many times a year. Most snakes have one lung fully developed, even though the Boa family has two. Their jaws are severely flexible; they have neither ears nor movable eyelids, but have very good vision. Snakes have no larynx or vocal chords, but are capable of producing a hissing sound. They move by muscular contractions of their abdomen. Many believe that they are decedents of lizards, but aren’t sure how they evolved limbless. Their teeth are designed for catching and holding prey, but not for chewing, the construction of their jaws and ribs are flexible allowing them to swallow larger preys. Some snakes are poisonous producing venom by modified saliva glands, for which is passed through a rove or hallow bore in the fangs. Some female species can hold sperm for several years to ensure future fertilization; the males have paired copulatory organs, either of which may be used in mating.

Special Exhibition- Boa

Boa constrictors are found perferably in rainforests but can be also found in the savannahs.Boas vary in size,marking and colors, they can be as long as 10-20 feet in length.In warmer areas, the boa constrictor is active throughout the year. However, in the cooler climes, it may spend long periods of time inactive. After fertilization, the eggs remain in the female's body, where they develop over several months inside thin membranes. Unlike its close relative, the python, the boa constrictor gives birth to live fully formed young. The protective membranes rupture as the young are released. As many as sixty snakes are born at one time, each measuring 17-20 inches. It is sexually mature at 2-3 years when it reaches 6-10 feet. Their diets vary, from young’s eating mice’s, small birds to fully adults eating monkeys and wild pigs. After eating a large prey they do not eat for a whole week.

Special Exhibition- Krait

Kraits ranges between 1 to 1.5m in length, their distinctive colorinf give the snake the ability to camoflougeThe scales along the dorsal ridge of the back are hexagonal. The head is slender and the eyes have round pupils. Kraits have a pronounced dorso-lateral flattening, and are triangular in cross-section. The tail tapers to a thin point. Kraits are oviparous and the female will lay a clutch of 12 to 14 eggs in piles of leaf litter and stay with them until they hatch. All kraits are nocturnal. The snake is more docile during the daylight hours, becoming more aggressive during the night Krait venom is extremely powerful and quickly induces muscle paralysis. Clinically, their venom contains mostly pre-synaptic neurotoxins. These affect the ability of nerve endings to properly release the chemical that sends the message to the next nerve.

Special Exhibition- Turtles

Turtles are reptiles of the order Chelonia, some of their features are strong beaks, toothless jaws and armor-like shell. Carapace, the upper portion of the turtle covers the back and sides of the turtle and the plastron, or the lower portion of the body that covers the belly; the parts are joined by the sides. Turtles are found in temperate, tropical areas and in the open ocean. Many species of turtles are becoming extinct due to Edibility of some species and their eggs; it takes 10 to 40 years for the females to reach sexual maturity. Turtles breathe by the means of lungs, and all lay eggs on land. Land living species, especially those of the family Testudinidae, are commonly called tortoises. Turtles are either herbivorous or carnivorous but rarely both. Their length varies from 5in. to 15in. they have existed over 200 million years ago; studies indicated that crocodiles and turtles are the most modern of reptiles.

Special Exhibition- Galapagos tortoise

Galapagos are known for their domed shape shells, they vary in size from 29 in. 60lbs. to 4ft. 700lbs. Galapagos tortoises are mainly herbivore. Population decreased extremly due to hunting. But as time progresses, foundations are being formed to keep these species captive for recovery . Male shells are concave allowing them to have the ability to mate with the females. Males stalk about looking for females, they make their move by ramming them with their shell and nipping their exposed legs till the female decides to drawn in and immobolize themselves.

Lizards

Lizards are reptiles of the order Squamata, there are over 3,000 lizard species thought the world excluding the Polar Regions. Great number could be found in warm areas, they range in size from 2 ½ in. to 10 Ft. lizards typically have four legs and five toes on each, they’re different from snakes since they have ear openings, movable eyelids, and less flexible jaws. Members of several lizard families, notably the chameleons, undergo color changes under the influence of environmental and emotional stimuli. Many species are well adapted for climbing and are fast runners. Their diet mainly consists of herbs and meat. The only known poisonous species are the Gila monster and the bearded lizard. Among them the single Fertilization is internal in lizards; males have paired copulatory organs, characteristic of the order. In most species females lay eggs, which they bury in the ground, but in some the eggs are incubated in the oviducts and hatched as they are laid. In both types the young have a special temporary tooth for rupturing the shell. In a few species there is true viviparity, or live birth, with the young nourished by a simple placenta.

Crocodiles

Crocodiles have backbones and uses longs to breathe; they can stay under water for up to 5 min. Crocodiles have a valve that closes their air pipe so that water can't enter the lungs while they are underwater. Like other reptiles they’re cold blooded. A crocodile has good eye sight and hearing senses. They can grow in length usually 13 to 18 feet. In their backs they have bony plates, they canb weigh an average of 1350 lbs. Crocodiles jaws are specialized to crush small animal bones when closed, they swallow their food whole. They prefer to live around shallow bodies of fresh or salt water. They also like living in warm tropical places, if it gets too hot or cold they go into hibernation. Female crocodiles build their nest, 20 to 90 eggs are laid. When born, a baby crocodile is about eight inches long. Baby crocodiles eat water insects and shellfish. In some parts of the world, crocodile eggs are used for food.

Special Exhibition- Salt water crocodile

The Salt water crocodile is the largest crocodilian, growing over 20 ft. in kenght and weighing up to 2200 lb. their population is scattered around the east coast of India to Australia. Although their homes are at blackish mongrove waterways, salt water crocs can be found in freshwater habitats. As far as their behavior goes, Adult males are terrirorial and solitary. They mainly feed off of small fishes and crabs when their young, while larger crocs may lie and wait for large mammals. During breeding season females may lay 40 to 70 eggs in mounds of vegetation, she will guard her nest incubating they for 70 to 80 days till they hatch, but still having her guards up for them.