The Saber-Toothed Tiger

I've always thought that the Saber Toothed Tiger was really cool. So I'm going to tell you some awesome facts about it. The Saber Toothed Tiger has been extinct for a long time. It lived along with the woolly mammoths in the Pleistocene epoch which was 2.6 million-12000 years ago. This epoch was characterized by mammals that grew strangely large and then went excited for two reasons- climate change and the disappearance of their size. Remember the movie ice age that biome extinct them.

The scientific name for the Saber Toothed Tiger is Smilodon. Did you know that it is hardly related to the modern day cats or tigers! I didn’t even know that. The saber toothed tiger was the name for three different species. The largest of the males weighed half a ton. They often fought a species called the dire wolf, the largest ancestral canine that ever lived. How long were their teeth? They were almost a foot long, but they broke easily. And their jaws were very weak. That's why they had a weird hunting style to protect their teeth. They pounced from tree branches and they would sink their giant canines into their prey’s neck and wait for them to bleed out. Click here for more information. (by Jake)

Compound Microscopes

In 6th grade science we have been using compound microscopes. Compound microscopes are super fun to use. They are definitely no ordinary microscope. The compound microscope has one eyepiece that you look through that magnifies the specimen 10x. In addition to the eyepiece there are three different lenses that you can look though. You switch between them to get different magnifications. The high power lens magnification is 40x, the medium power lens magnification is 10x, and the low power lens magnifies the specimen 4x. We learned that to find the total magnification of each lens multiply the lens power by the eyepiece magnification. So the total magnification for high power would be 400x because 40 times 10 equals 400. Also under the compound microscope everything is the opposite. So if your specimen is too far to the right, and you try to move it left it will appear to move more to the right. And we did a lab on the letter E under the microscope, and it was upside down. We love using the compound microscope! (By Violet)

The Platypus

The platypus is a very strange animal. It has a beak like a duck and webbed feet like a frog. Platypi are venomous mammals, they use their venom against other competition for mates. it has spurs that are located in the back of its body just above the heel of both legs with venom glands attached. Human beings have 5 senses but the platypus has a 6th sense. It's sixth sense is that it can sense the movement of muscles in another animal.This helps it sense where its prey is based on the fact they are living. The platypus can walk on land but awkwardly due to the fact that it's walking on knuckles to protect its webs. I chose this animal because I thought it was cool how we were learning about the special abilities of our pond specimens so I found another animal with cool, special abilities.  Click here to see a video about the platypus. (by Finn)

By Bella P, Maeve, Elijah, and Ed

By Ian, Jesse, and Greta

By Eli, Nathan, Finley, and Tenny

By Sofia, Lolie, and Finn

By Joe, Tim, Cat and Bella R

By Violet, Sakaria, and Russell

By Henry, Haleigh, and Jake

Can you guess our Mystery Photos? (by Julia, Julia, and Cece)

This thumbnail sized creature packs a mighty sting!

I was looking for something to write about and I found this...the Glaucus Atlanticus, or the blue sea slug! This amazing creature is found in the tropical Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The Sea slugs diet includes Portuguese man-o-war and other blue sea slugs. The Glaucus eats the tentacles of man-o-war and while eating, nematocysts from the man-o-war are stored in a pouch for protection later on. The Glaucus is a hermaphrodite which means it has both female and male reproductive organs. This sea slug floats upside down to blend in with the water and they go where the wind takes them. If someone is unlucky enough to pick one of these up it could lead to a pretty painful sting. One weird fact about the Glaucus is that it has cerata which are like arms. The Glaucus has a close relative called the Glaucus marginatus. These two sea slugs look very similar. This creature connects to life science because it's an important part of the ecosystem. My conclusion is that this creature is also a real life Pokemon. Click here to read more about this creature. (by Eli)

Glaucus marginatus  

Glaucus atlanticus

The Colorful Sea Slug

In the Australian ocean there is a slug the size of a cup. This slug is called a Nudibranch. It is beautiful with bright colors and no bones, this creature is often considered one of the most beautiful animals in the world! There are over 3,000 species of Nudibranchs and they live in shallow waters where their food is. Nudibranchs eat coral, sponges, fish eggs. Their teeth are curved which helps them eat these round things. The toxins from their prey gives them their coloring. For example, if they eat something with purple toxins, they take on a purple color. Nudibranchs use the senses on their tentacles to feel where food is. These sea slugs can weigh up to 3.3 pounds and get up to a foot long! Check out this website: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/nudibranch/

I think they are fascinating because of their color. I also think their color is different and more unusual than other creatures. Animals usually have skin or fur that helps them blend in more. It's ok for them to be colorful because it is a warning for other creatures that they are poisonous.

Nudibranchs are similar and different then the invertebrates we studied in class. One thing they have in common is they all only live underwater. One difference is the Planaria, Daphnia, and Hydra all live in freshwater and the Nudibranch lives in saltwater. One more difference is the Nudibranch is much bigger than the other three we studied in class. (By: Julia L)

Narwhals

This amazing, graceful, unicorn of the sea swims in the arctic waters. Have you guessed it? If you guessed Narwhal, you are correct.  The Narwhal is a medium sized whale with a large pointed tooth on the top of its head. Its tooth helps it catch its prey, such as squid, Greenland halibut, shrimp, arctic cod, rockfish, flounder, and crab. The average weight of an adult Narwhal is from 1,800 to 3,500 lbs. Narwhals can be found in the Canadian Arctic, Greenland waters, and Russian waters. The amazing thing about Narwhals is that they can live up to 50 years. But they are killed mostly by suffocation when the sea freezes over in the winter. The population of Narwhals is around 75,000 so they are near threatened. I choose the topic of a Narwhal because I have always wanted to know more about Narwhals because they seem very interesting and they are the unicorn of the sea. This topic connects to life science because it is an amazing animal that has a very interesting role in this world. If you'd like to know more about Narwhals, click here for a video on them. (by Bella P.)

Amazing Organisms

In science class with Lisa we are doing Venn diagrams and then placing them on Thinglink, an app which allows us to share our projects with each other. We're doing the Venn diagrams on the Daphnia, Hydra and Planaria which are three microscopic organisms. In the Venn diagram we compared what each organism has in common. The most interesting thing I learned doing this project is that the planara have two huge eyespots that look the ones from Looney Tunes cartoon characters. The hardest thing about the project was finding facts that could fit into the Venn diagram. The best thing about the project was we got to be creative and design our own poster. Hopefully the next project will be as fun as this one. Click here to see my Venn diagram. (by Tenny)