Author: Kristin Rodrigo
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131/150: What has a lion’s mane and lives under the sea? A jellyfish!
Animalia: Cnidaria: Scyphozoa: Semaeostomeae: Cyaneidae: Cyanea: Cyanea capillata (Linnaeus, 1758) The Lion’s Mane jellyfish is the largest species of jellyfish in the world. The largest specimen was found in 1870 at Massachusetts Bay, United States with a bell diameter of 2.3 meters and tentacles reaching 37 meters, which is longer than the length of a…
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51/150: A pea, or not a pea?
Plantae: Magnoliophyta: Magnoliopsida: Fabales: Fabaceae: Lupinus: Lupinus sericeus (Pursh) As attractive and colourful as this pea family member may be, the silky lupine holds its own dark secrets. Native to Manitoba and British Columbia in Western Canada, this stunning plant has been discovered to produce toxic alkaloids known to cause adverse consequences and even death…
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39/150: Are they centipedes or….??
animalia: Arthropoda: Symphyla: Symphyla order incertae sedis: Scolopendrellidae Also known as symphylans or garden centipedes, pseudocentipedes are only distant relatives of true centipedes! They are actually more closely related to pauropods and millipedes of the same subphylum Myriapoda.
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37/150: The real-life Cyclops
animalia: Arthropoda: Maxillopoda: Cyclopoida: Cyclopidae: Cyclops Though the name might seem fitting for a monster, Cyclops is a small copepod that happens to share the same body characteristic of a single large eye on its head region with the mythological giant.
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27/150: The small priceless gems of freshwater ecosystems
Animalia: Arthropoda: Malacostraca: Amphipoda: Hyalellidae: Hyalella: Hyalella azteca (Saussure, 1858) Amphipods are common crustaceans that are found in freshwater bodies such as lakes and rivers and Hyalella azteca is one of the most abundant in North America. Due to their small size, these animals mainly feed on diatoms, algae and organic detritus.
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13/150: Did the opossum play possum?
Animalia: Chordata: Mammalia: Didelphimorphia: Didelphidae: Didelphis: Didelphis virginiana (Kerr, 1792) The Virginia opossum is the only marsupial found in North America. These furry creatures are also one of the oldest mammals on the planet, dating to at least 70 million years ago! Often wrongly mistaken for rodents, the Virginia opossums do not possess hair on…