ERTH 2403 Introduction to Oceanography

Lecture 10 Marine Animals

Plankton
Size range from 2 micrometers (heterotrophic flagellates protists) up to
several meters jellyfish
Heterotrophs
Primary consumers/herbivores: feed primarily on phytoplankton
(zooplankton)
Primary consumers/carnivores: feed primarily on other zooplanktons
(animals)
Detrivrores: feed primarily on dead organic matter (detritus)
Some unicellular Protista
Some multicellular Animalia

1. Protista
a. Foraminifera
i. Calcareous shell composed of a series of chambers; calcareous
ooze sediments: 30 micrometer to 1-2 millimeter, most
abundant 40oN 40oS
b. Radiolarians
i. Spherical cells with silica capsule; 50 micrometer to several
millimeter; siliceous ooze sediment, cold water and deep sea
c. Feed on diatoms
2. Animalia
a. Arthropods (Crustaceans)
i. Copepods
1. ~70% of all zooplankton
2. 0.5 mm
3. Most abundant and widely distributed animal in the world
ii. Krill
1. Euphasia superba
2. ~2cm Shrimp-like
3. Feeds on diatoms
4. Base of Antarctic ecosystem
iii. Jellies
1. Various Animal group
2. Transparent structures
3. Jellyfish (cnidarian)
4. Pteropods (snails)
5. Salps (primitive chordates)
3. Non-Plankton

Invertebrates
90% of all living and fossil animals
Soft bodied
No internal skeleton to support muscles
Most have exoskeleton of
o CaCO3 (Calcium Carbonate)
 o Chitin (Organic Material)
o SiO2

Porifera
Sponges
Calcium Carbonate or silica spicules
Porous
Cnidaria
Cnidoblasts-stinging cells
o Anemones
o Corals
o Jellyfish
Medusa
o Free living jellyfish
Polyp
o Sessile benthos coral
Larva
o Meroplanktonic stage
Corals
o Vary in size
o Calcium Carbonate exoskeleton
o Solitary or colonial
o Feed at night
o Ahermatypic Corals
o Hermatypic Corals Zooxanthellae
Warm water Topics
Clear water (sunlight for zooxanthella)
Turbidity blocks sunlight
Low nutrients
Nutrient rich = algal blooms block light


Worms Vermes
Bilateral symmetry
Most free living
Some parasitic

Platyhelminthes
Flatworms
Up to 3cm
Most free living-predators/scavenger
Primitive
No respiratory system
Gases exchange by diffusion

Nematoda
Roundworms
Have mouth and anus
All environments
Most successful of worms ~12000 species
Microscopic to 4 cm
Most free living some parasitic

Annelida
Segmented worms
Most advance: ~5400 species
All environments
Example : Polychaetes (many bristle)
o Most important marine annelids
o Include infauna/epifauna
o Detritus feeders
o Size from 1-15cm
o Tubeworms

Mollusca
Advanced invertebrates
Large, varied group
Advanced digestive tract
Developed nervous systems in some
Three classes
o Gastropoda
Stomach foot
A few plankton
Most calcium carbonate shells
Single spiral unit
Some grazers (herbivores)
 Some carnivores
Example
Snails
Limpets
Pterepods
Slugs
o Pelecypoda (Bivalvia)
Hatchet foot
Two shells/valves
CaCO3 mother of peral. nacreous
Sessile benthos: live on or in the substrate
Epifauna or infauna
Burrowers
Siphons filter feeders
Mussels, oyster, clams, scallops and geoducks
o Cephalopoda
Head foot
Most highly developed of invertebrates
Advanced nervous systems: Learn/remember
Many with highly developed eyes
Most carnivores
Octopus: Can change colors ink
Squid giant squid, cuttlefish
Only one with exoskeleton (Nautilius)

Arthropoda
Joint-fotted, articulating
Rigid exoskeletons: chitin + some CaCO3
Exoskeletons molts
Striated muscles, strong, allow rapid movment
Body takes on water, burst skeletons
New soft larger skeletons

Insecta
Largest subgroup
Almost entirely marine

Crustacea
Very large group, mainly marine
All feeding strategies
Some plankton many benthos
Some sessile (barnacles), other mobile
Includes: copepods, krill, lobster, shrimp, crab, barnacles

Echinodermata
All marine
Pentamerid symmetry
 Form most of benthic deep sea biomass
Unique water vascular system: a complex of water filled canals, valves, and
projection used for locomotion and feeding
Include
o Sea stars(Starfish)
o Brittle Stars (deep sea)
o Sea Urchins (voracious predators)
o Sea cucumbers

Chordata
Stiff dorsal notochord
Tubular nervous systems
Gill slits behind the oral opening
Notochord embryonic only
Tunicates
o Sponge like
o Suspension feeders

Amphioxus (genus)
Transitional between invertebrates and vertebrates
Dorsal tubular nerve tube
Notochord
Semi transparent

Chordates (Vertebrates)
Chordates with bony, articulated structure

Fish
Agnathids (most primitives)
o Hagfish
Worm-like shape (up to 1m)
Infauna
Feed on soft tissues inside dead/live prey
Knot for better footing
Eel skin
o Lamprey
Excellent parasites, does not kill
Similar to Hagfish in size and shape
Toothed sucking mouth
Attached to fish or whales
Rasps skin and suck nutrients
Chondrichthyes
o Cartilage skeleton
o Sharks ~350 species
Most <2m
Great white to 7m dangerous
Slightly negative buoyancy
 Sense vibration in water
Sense of smell
Some filter feeders
No gas bladder
o Rays ~ 320 Species
Specialized pectoral fins
Giant manta Ray to 7m
Largest are plankton feeders
Small rays crush mussels for food
Ostechthyes
o Bony fish
o Modern fishes as well as primitive extinct forms
o ~27,000 species (both fresh and marin)
o In every marine habitats
Amphibians
o Frogs
o Salamanders
o Toads
o None are exclusively marine
o Skin is permeable to seawater
o Can dehydrate
Reptiles
o Few marine
o Lungs breath air
o Skin more or less impermeable to seawater
o Salt glands excrete excess salts
o Turtles, crocodiles and snakes
o Turtles
Forelimbs modified flippers
Cannot retract into shell
Most are herbivorous (algae, turtle grass)
Some are carnivorous (crabs, molluscs)
Atlantic Leatherback (largest >2m, 600kg)
o Crocodiles
One marine species
Tropics, west Pacific/Australia
Carnivorous
Hunt in packs
>7m long
Florida versions are not marine and are smaller
o Sea snakes
50 species
Indian Ocean and West Pacific
Flattened tails for propulsion
Skin impermeable to seawater/permeable to gas exchange
All very venomous
Dive to 100m
 Swim slowly, bite, wait for neuro toxin in saliva to paralyze,
swallow whole fish
Aves
o Birds evolved from reptiles ~160 million years ago
o Endotherms
o Light weight/ hallow bones beaks
o Lay eggs
o Marine birds
~270 species = ~3% of all birds
Most southern hemisphere
Sale excreting glands in head
Oiled feather
Most return to land for breeding
Four groups
Tubenose
o All latitudes
o 15,000km trips @ 80km/h
o Continuous gliders
o Beaks highly sensitive
Smell
Air speed
Duct saline water from glands
o Albatross 3.6m wing span
Eat squid and fish
Breed on remote island
o Pelicans and Relatives
Throat pouches
Webbed feet
More or less tropical coastal birds
Wings fold back for diving
Frigate birds amazing flyers
Cannot walk or swim
Eat flying fish and squid
o Gull, Tern and Puffins
Shore birds (marine and terrestrial)
>115 species
Some migrate (Arctic Tern 24,000km round
trip)
Eat anything
Puffins do not fly well good swimmers
o Penguins
Southern Hemisphere only
Non-flight birds
To Galapagos, S. America, S. Africa
Duck Size to >1m
Adapted to cold water
Greasy, peg-like feather
Marine Mammals
o Mammals evolved from common ancestor with reptiles ~200million years ago
o No marine animals in fossil record until about 50-60 m.y.a
o Marine mammals of terrestrial origin

Three living group of marine mammals

1. Cetacea Whales, porpoises, dolphin
2. Carnivora seals, sea lion, otters, walruses
3. Sirenia manatees, dugongs

1. Catacea
a. Entirely marine
b. Evolved from Ugulates (horses)
c. Forelimbs modified to flippers
d. Cigar-shaped body, move from shoulders
e. Elongate skull
f. Blowhole on top
g. Very few hairs
h. Whales porpoise
i. Odontoceti
i. Toothed whales
ii. Predators
iii. Deep divers to 2200 m
iv. Shunt O2 to vital organs
v. Brain to body ration high (+- high)
vi. Echo-sounding food
vii. Low frequency travel great distance
viii. High Frequency short sonar
ix. Sonar is used by all whales
x. Some ultrasonic
xi. Sperm Whale can detect squid at 400m
j. Mysticeti
i. Baleen Whales
ii. Horn-like material
iii. Press tongue against baleen to strain food
iv. Filter feeder krill and other plankton
v. Not deep divers largest living animal on Earth
vi. Up to 3 metric tons of Krill/day ~ million cal.
vii. Complex sound
viii. Blow bubbles in circles to trap krill
ix. Migrate singly or in pods to 18,000km
x. To high latitudes for summer feeding
xi. To low latitudes from breeding and calving

Carnivora
Pinnipeds
o Evolved from land bears
o Seals, sea lions, walrus
 Seals
o No external ears
o Short hair and soft underfur
o Front flippers
o Hind limbs fused and point backward from propulsion
o Great swimmers
o Move poorly on land
o Elephant seals dive to 1560m
Sea Lions
o Have External ears
o Hind Limbs (flippers are not fused)
o Can move about on land
o Hind limbs for propulsion and swimming
Walrus
o 1800kg
o Tusks and whiskers
o Dig for clams
o Tusk are good for climbing on floes

Fissipeds
Sea otter
o Smallest marine mammals ~120cm long
o Warm dense fur
o Intelligent
o Voracious eater
o Mollusk, crustaceans, echinoids
Polar Bears
o Stalk prey
o Predator
o World largest bear 2.5m +800kg
o Swim from floe to floe to 100km in open water
o Travel to 3200km/yr

Sirenia
Gentle
Small-brained
Large to 4.5m 650kg
Herbivores sea grass and algae
In tropical estuaries, some in freshwater/brackish water
Dugongs and Manatees