The Big Apple: Day 3, Part 5: Start of American Museum of Natural History

Continuing on with our adventure for the day... hmmm...where did I leave off.  Oh, yes, now I remember!  Nika and I got on the subway at our hotel and rode it a short ways (subway time) to get off at the American Museum of Natural History stop -- right outside the building on the lower subway level.  This is so neat! I am now fascinated with subways.  Did you hear -- this was my first subway ride, too!!

So, where exactly are we at?  The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).  Never heard of it or not quite sure if you have? Well, let me give you a gentle reminder.  I am sure you have heard of, and even seen, the 2006 film Night at the Museum.   That movie was of the AMNH. Apparently, all the interior scenes were shot at a sound stage in Vancouver, Canada, but exterior shots of the museum's facade were actually done at the AMNH. Now you remember? Okay, then let's step inside and get cracking. 


American Museum of Natural History:  The American Museum of Natural History is located across from Central Park on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and is considered to be one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world. It is comprised of 25  buildings that are interconnected which house 46 permanent exhibition halls, research laboratories, and its renowned library.  And if that sounds like a lot, hang onto your hats, because its collections contain over 32 million specimens!  Although, only a small fraction of these collections can be displayed at any given time.  It employs a scientific staff of more than 200, and sponsors over 100 special field expeditions each year.

Musk Oxen and Me

In November 2011, Travel + Leisure magazine ranked AMNH seventh in its list of "the most-visited museums in the world" and fourth as the most-visited museum in America.  

Before we start our tour, a couple things. First, you need to know one specific term.  Diorama. 

Diorama--What is it?  The term "diorama" refers to a partially three-dimensional, full-size replica or scale model of a item for purposes of education or entertainment. 

Miniature dioramas are typically much smaller, and use scale models and landscaping to create historical or fictional scenes. Such a scale-model based diorama is used, for example,  to display railroading.  Modern museum dioramas may be seen in most major natural history museums, such as AMNH. Typically, these displays use a tilted plane to represent what would otherwise be a level surface, incorporate a painted background of distant objects, and often employ false perspective, carefully modifying the scale of objects placed on the plane to reinforce the illusion through depth perception in which objects of identical real-world size placed farther from the observer appear smaller than those closer. Often the distant painted background or sky will be painted upon a continuous curved surface so that the viewer is not distracted by corners, seams, or edges. All of these techniques are means of presenting a realistic view of a large scene in a compact space. A photograph or single-eye view of such a diorama can be especially convincing since in this case there is no distraction by the binocular perception of depth.

Carl Akeley, a naturalist, sculptor, and taxidermist, is credited with creating the first ever habitat diorama in the year 1889. With the support of curator Frank M. Chapman, Akeley designed the popular habitat dioramas featured at AMNH, where he (Akeley) also has an exhibition hall named in his honor.

Second term to know, is the cladogram. The great fossil collections that are open to public view occupy the entire fourth floor of the Museum as well as a separate exhibit that is on permanent display in the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall, the Museum's main entrance. The fourth floor exhibits allow the visitor to trace the evolution of vertebrates by following a circuitous path that leads through several Museum buildings. On the 77th street side of the Museum the visitor begins in the Orientation Center and follows a carefully marked path, which takes the visitor along an evolutionary tree of life. As the tree "branches" the visitor is presented with the familial relationships among vertebrates. This evolutionary pathway is known as a cladogram.

To create a cladogram, scientists look for shared physical characteristics to determine the relatedness of different species. For instance, a cladogram will show a relationship between amphibians, mammals, turtles, lizards, and birds since these apparently disparate groups share the trait of having 'four limbs with movable joints surrounded by muscle', making them tetrapods. A group of related species such as the tetrapods is called a "clade". Within the tetrapod group only lizards and birds display yet another trait: "two openings in the skull behind the eye". Lizards and birds therefore represent a smaller, more closely related clade known as diapsids. In a cladogram the evolutionary appearance of a new trait for the first time is known as a "node". Throughout the fossil halls the nodes are carefully marked along the evolutionary path and these nodes alert you to new traits representing whole new branches of the evolutionary tree. Species showing these traits are on display in alcoves on either side of the path.

And, the third thing -- let's just talk briefly about the history and makeup of the museum and how it came to be. 

Elk

History:  Founded in 1869 and prior to the construction of its current complex, it was located in the Arsenal building in Central Park. Among others, Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., the father of the 26th U.S. President and a wealthy New York City philanthropist, merchant, and partner in the family glass-importing firm (where the Rockefeller family obtained their wealth), was one of the founders of the museum. To establish a natural history museum in New York was the dream of naturalist Dr. Albert S. Bickmore, who lobbied for years for its establishment. Backed by powerful sponsors, his proposal finally won the  support of then-Governor of New York, John Thompson Hoffman, who signed a bill officially creating the American Museum of Natural History in April 1869. 

Teddy Roosevelt, Sr., passed away just four years after construction began on the museum.  The New York State Memorial to Teddy Sr. was completed in 1936.  It stands as an overscaled Beaux-Arts monument in the Central Park West entrance.  If you have seen the movie Night at the Museum, you will recall Teddy Sr. on his mounted stead (played by Robin Williams) and when inanimate was located in this entrance bearing his name. 

Wolves

Famous names associated with the Museum include the paleontologist and geologist Henry Fairfield Osborn; the dinosaur-hunter of the Gobi Desert, Roy Chapman Andrews (one of the inspirations for Indiana Jones); biologist Ernst Mayr; pioneer cultural anthropologists Franz Boas and Margaret Mead; explorer and geographer Alexander H. Rice, Jr.; and ornithologist (branch of zoology that studies birds) Robert Cushman Murphy. 

Exhibition Halls: The Museum has habitat dioramas of African, Asian and North American mammals, a full-size model of a Blue Whale suspended in the Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life, a 62-foot Haida carved and painted war canoe from the Pacific Northwest, a huge 31-ton piece of the Cape York meteorite, and the Star of India, the largest star sapphire in the world.  An entire floor is devoted to vertebrate evolution. The Museum has extensive anthropological collections: Asian People, Pacific People, Man in Africa, American Indian collections, general Native American collections, and collections from Mexico and Central America.

Akley Hall of African Mammals: Since its opening in 1936, the Akeley Hall has been considered by many to be one of the world’s greatest museum displays. The hall is named after Carl Akeley, who was an explorer, conservationist, taxidermist, sculptor and photographer.  He who visioned, designed and created the hall. Akeley led teams of scientists and artists on three expeditions to Africa during the first two decades of the 20th century, in which he and his colleagues carefully studied, catalogued, and collected the plants and animals that even then were disappearing. He brought many specimens from the expeditions back to the Museum, and used them to create the hall, with its twenty-eight dioramas. 

The dioramas replicate specific animals in specific geographic locations at a specific time in their natural habitats. What Akeley did was change the taxidermy practice of stuffing and mounting of the skins of animals which before then was where animal skins were stuffed with straw or wood shavings. He began re-creating the animal’s shape with outside structure made of wood, wire, and sometimes parts of the actual skeleton, then the tedious process of using clay to add on each muscle, tendon, and vein. When this was done, he prepared a cast of it, and fit the animal’s skin over the cast.  What Akeley wanted to do and did do, was apply meticulous attention to everything having to do with that animal's reproduction down to the plants, background paintings and even the light in the dioramas which resulted in fantastically realistic, vivid reproductions of the world that he saw and wanted to preserve.

Unfortunately, Akeley died in 1926 during his final expedition when he became ill from an infection while exploring the Kivu Volcanoes in his beloved Belgian Congo, an area near to that depicted by the hall's gorilla diorama. He was buried in Albert National Park (now Virunga National Park), the first wildlife sanctuary in central Africa, which he had helped to establish. The mountain location of his grave is near the scene depicted in the gorilla diorama in this hall.  Since then, renowned naturalists, artists, photographers, taxidermists and other Museum personnel have carried on this tradition to create the great habitat dioramas which can be found in halls throughout the Museum.

With the 1942 opening of the Hall of North American Mammals, diorama art reached its climax. It took more than a decade to create the scenes depicted in the hall which includes a 432 square foot diorama of the American bison.

Today, although the art of diorama has ceased to be a major exhibition technique, dramatic examples of this art form are still occasionally employed.

Coyotes

Arthur Ross Hall of Meteorites:  The Arthur Ross Hall of Meteorites contains some of the finest specimens in the world including Ahnighito, a section of the 200 ton Cape York  weight, at 34 tons, makes it the largest meteorite on display at any museum in the world.

The hall also contains extra-solar nanodiamonds (diamonds with dimensions on the nanometer level) more than 5 billion years old. These were extracted from a meteorite sample through chemical means, and they are so small that a quadrillion of these fit into a volume smaller than a cubic centimeter.

Bernard and Anne Spitzer Hall of Human Origins:  Opened in February 2007, the Bernard and Anne Spitzer Hall of Human Origins, formerly The Hall of Human Biology and Evolution, and originally the "Hall of the Age of Man," at the time of its original opening in 1921.  At that time it was the only major exhibition in the United States to present an in-depth investigation into human evolution. Many of the more famous displays from the original hall can still be seen in the present expanded format which include life-size dioramas of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man.

Harry Frank Guggenheim Hall of Gems and Minerals:  The Harry Frank Guggenheim Hall of Minerals houses hundreds of unusual geological specimens. It adjoins the Morgan Memorial Hall of Gems showcasing many rare, and valuable gemstones. Amongst over 100,000 pieces are such celebrated exhibits as the Patricia Emerald, a 632 carat, 12 sided stone that is considered to be one of the world's most fabulous emeralds and was discovered in the 1920's in a mine in the Colombian Andes and was named for the mine-owner's daughter.  Another on display is the 563-carat Star of India.  The largest and most famous star sapphire in the world. it was discovered over 300 years ago in Sri Lanka.  Also other notable specimens on display are a 596-pound topaz, a 4.5 ton specimen of blue azurite/malachite ore that was found in the Copper Queen Mine in Bisbee, Arizona at the turn of the century; a rare, 100-carat  orange-colored padparadschan sapphire from Sri Lanka, considered "the mother of all pads;" and the Midnight Star Ruby, a 116.75-carat deep purplish-red star ruby.  Hmmm...I guess I have to think that Bob wouldn't be getting me anything like these for a gift!  Besides, they would never fit on my finger!

Theft: On October 29, 1964, the Star of India, along with several other precious gems including the Eagle Diamond and the de Long Ruby, were stolen from the Museum by several thieves. The group of burglars, which included Jack Murphy, gained entrance by climbing through a bathroom window they had been unlocked hours before the Museum was closed. The Star of India and other gems were later recovered from a locker in a Miami bus station, but the Eagle Diamond was never found.  It is suspected that it may have been recut or lost. 

Jack “Murf the Surf” Murphy, a surfing champion, musician, author, artist and convicted murderer who was involved in the biggest jewel heist in American history at the AMNH, is  now an ordained minister, working with inmates in the field of prison ministry.  This heist was the subject of a 1975 movie, called Murph the Surf.  The movie starred Robert Conrad, Burt Young, and Don Stroud (as Murphy).

Milstein Hall of Ocean Life:  The Milstein Hall of Ocean Life opened in 1933 and was renovated in 1969 and later again in 2003. In the first of these renovations the hall's star attraction appeared; the 94-foot-long blue whale model, which is suspended from the ceiling behind its dorsal fin. It was redesigned dramatically in the 2003 renovation: its flukes and fins were readjusted, a navel was added, and was repainted from a dull gray to various rich shades of blue. Other notable exhibits in this hall include the Andros Coral Reef Diorama, which is the only two-level diorama in the Western Hemisphere.

Other notable dioramas, some dating back to the 1930's have been restored in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. The hall is a 29,000 square foot bi-level room that includes a delicately mounted 94 foot long model of a Blue Whale swimming beneath and around video projection screens and interactive computer stations. Among the hall's notable dioramas is the "sperm whale and giant squid", which represents a true marriage of art and science since an actual encounter between these two giant creatures at over one half mile depth has never been witnessed. Another celebrated diorama in the hall represents the "Andros coral reef" in the Bahamas, a two-story-high diorama that features the land form of the Bahamas and the many inhabitants of the coral reef found beneath the water's surface.

Fossil Halls:  Most of the Museum's collections of mammalian and dinosaur fossils remain hidden from public view. They are kept in numerous storage areas located deep within the Museum complex. Among these, the most significant storage facility is the ten story Childs Frick Building which stands within an inner courtyard of the Museum. During construction of the Frick, giant cranes were used to lift steel beams directly from the street, over the roof, and into the courtyard, in order to ensure that the classic museum facade remained intact and undisturbed. The predicted great weight of the fossil bones led designers to add special steel reinforcement to the building's framework, as it now houses the largest collection of fossil mammals and dinosaurs in the world. These collections occupy the basement and lower seven floors of the Frick Building, while the top three floors contain laboratories and offices. It is inside this particular building that many of the Museum's intensive research programs into vertebrate paleontology are carried out.  These fossil halls are great and I can't wait to show them to you in more depth in an upcoming post(s)!

Other areas of the Museum contain repositories of life from thousands and millions of years in the past. The Whale Bone Storage Room is a cavernous space in which powerful winches come down from the ceiling to move the giant fossil bones about. Upstairs in the Museum attic there are yet more storage facilities including the Elephant Room, and downstairs from that space one can find the tusk vault and boar vault.

Many of the fossils on display represent unique and historic pieces that were collected during the Museum's golden era of worldwide expeditions (1880's to 1930's). On a smaller scale, expeditions continue into the present and have resulted in additions to the collections from Vietnam, Madagascar, South America, and central and eastern Africa.

Fourth Floor Halls:  The fourth-floor halls include the Hall of Vertebrate Origins, Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs, Hall of Ornithischian Dinosaurs, Hall of Primitive Mammals, and Hall of Advanced Mammals.  I will share more information on these halls when we tour those in another post. 

Rose Center and Planetarium:  Founded in 1933, the Hayden Planetarium, connected to the Museum, is now part of the Rose Center for Earth and Space, which is a six-story, glass cube containing the spherical Space Theater. The Space Theater is an 87-foot illuminated sphere that appears to float, although it is actually supported by truss work.  Beside the Hayden Planetarium, the 333,500 square foot facility also houses the Department of Astrophysics, and opening in February 2000, the Heilbrun Cosmic Pathway, which is one of the most popular exhibits in the Rose Center.

Library:  From its founding in 1903, the Library of the American Museum of Natural History has grown into one of the world's great natural history collections.  Its collections contain over 550,000 volumes of monographs, serials, pamphlets, reprints, microforms, and original illustrations, as well as film, photographic, archives and manuscripts, fine art, memorabilia and rare book collections. It's 55,000-square-foot space is sealed into five different conservation zones, ranging from the 50-person reading room and public offices, to areas more tightly controlled for humidity and temperature.  Some of the items in its collection go back to the 15th century.

In Popular Culture:  Several scenes in the 2004 movie The Day After Tomorrow were set in the Museum's halls. A scene from the biographic film Malcolm X was filmed in the Hall of African Mammals.

The AMNH is featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV where it is known as the Liberty State Natural History Museum. The AMNH appears as a Resistance-controlled building in the Sierra game Manhunter: New York, and portions of the Sony PlayStation game Parasite Eve take place within the AMNH.

Now that I have sufficiently bored you to death by going through the history, etc.,  let's get on to seeing some of what it holds and learning a tidbit or two about some of those. Let me say one more thing first, before going on.  I wanted to share the above information with you so that you could grasp the magnitude of this structure, all its floors and facility and its contents.  It is enormous and mind-blowing to see.  Okay, without further adieu, let's talk about the world's beasts and beauties. 
 

Musk Oxen

Musk Oxen: These massive animals (pictured above) weigh around 900 pounds, are 6 to 8 feet long and can be up to 6 feet tall. Noted as social animals that tend to move in groups, live in the Arctic Tundra and can survive even if the temperature falls to -148̊F.  Why are they called musk oxen?  If you were stand very near to these, the smell of musk will fill your nose. This odor flows from the thick fur that swaddles their body. They have a short life span of 20-25 years.  Their enemies are polar bears, arctic wolves and arctic fox.  Surprisingly, they do not run away from their foes. In order to defend themselves from attackers, they form a circle with their outward horns facing the enemy. This fortress of musk oxen is impossible to break into. A powerful charge by a musk ox is enough to throw the enemy into the air.  Musk oxen eat leafy vegetation but surprisingly do not chew their food.  They swallow it just like water.

Black Bear

Black Bear: The American black bear, pictured above, is the smallest of the three bears species found in North America, are found only in North America and have short, non-retractable claws that give them an excellent tree-climbing ability.  Their diet consists mostly of plants, fruits, nuts, insects, honey, salmon, small mammals and carrion, but will occasionally kill young deer or moose calves.  Black bears tend to be solitary animals, with the exception of mothers and cubs. The bears usually forage alone, but will tolerate each other and forage in groups if there is an abundance of food in one area.  With a life span of only about 10 years, the black bear, although commonly known to hibernate, only does so depending on the weather conditions and availability of food.  Some may not hibernate at all or only for a brief time.  When females give birth, they will remain denned throughout the winter while males and females without young may leave their dens.  Mating season for the black bear is summer with a gestation period of 63-70 days.  Their litter size is usually 1-6 cubs, 2 being most common.  Cubs remain with the mother for a year and a half or more, even though they are weaned at 6-8 months.  With a height of 2-3 feet at the shoulders, a length of 4-7 feet from nose to the tip of their tail, males weigh an average of 150-300 lbs., while the females are smaller.  Since, for instance, each individual Florida black bear population needs a minimum of 500,000 to 1 million acres of area to find food, shelter, and mates, habitat loss due to development is a major threat to their survival. The leading cause of bear deaths?  Surprisingly, the answer is car accidents. 

Caribou

Caribou: Pictured above, the caribou, a member of the deer family, and although they may look like a deer, they are different in many ways.  They are not shy, are capable of sleeping in water and are herd animals always on the move.  They like to eat moss, lay in the shade and hate flies, which is one reason they are always on the move.  They are identifiable by their long legs, large hooves and large antlers.  Their size ranges from 4-5 feet, weigh approximately 500 lbs., and breed in the fall.  Like the Musk Oxen, they are found in the Arctic Tundra areas of Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland. 

What is the difference between reindeer and caribou?  Caribou are wild; if they are domesticated they are called reindeer.  To prevent freezing in the Winter, caribou eat large quantities of food to increase their internal heat production.  Also to conserve heat they have hollow hairs rooted in a thick layer of fat. They also prevent heat loss from their thin, long legs by having two circulation systems. The circulation through the legs is up to 50 degrees colder than the circulation system for the rest of their body. 

Dall Sheep

Dall Sheep:  Dall sheep, pictured above, have a broad habitat as they are subarctic as well as arctic animals.  The most northern group of these animals live in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The alpine ridges, meadows, and steep, rocky slopes that have "escape terrain" are where the dall sheep live. The flock likes to rest and feed on these slopes. They are also there to keep away from predators because they can flee to the rocks easier than their predators, which include bear, golden eagles, wolves, and humans.  Known for their magnificent curling horns, rams and ewes have a height of around 3 feet to the shoulder, with the rams weighing 200-250 lbs. and the ewes 110-150 lbs.  They are the only wild white sheep in the world.  The horns of a dall sheep, which are made out of keratin (same substance as our fingernails), take eight years to reach full size.  With lambs born in late May to early June and needing a protected spot to quietly birth their young, they will usually seek out rugged cliffs to keep away from predators.  Once the dall sheep chooses a group to join, they never leave it.  Like the caribou who also live in the arctic tundra, they have hollow hair which insulates their body, but also seek out south-facing slopes to get more sun.  For rams, size does matter amongst dall sheep, but in this case it is their horns.  The size of his horns determine his place in the ram hierarchy.  The bigger the horns the older the sheep is.  You can actually tell how old a dall sheep is by counting the growth rings on their horns, since their horns stop growing in the Winter. 

Giant Anteater

Anteaters, also known as antbears, and commonly known for eating ants and termites, are more closely related to the sloths than they are to any other group of mammals, even to the armadillos, their next closest relations. There are several species of anteaters, mostly all extinct, except for three that are still living: the Giant Anteater, the Silky Anteater, and the Northern and Southern Tamandua anteaters.  Anteaters have an elongated snout equipped with a thin tongue that can be extended to a length greater than the length of the head; their tube-shaped mouth have lips but no teeth. They use their large, curved foreclaws to tear open ant and termite mounds and for defense, while their dense and long fur protects them from attacks from the insects. Anteaters are mostly solitary mammals prepared to defend their 1 to 1.5 square miles  territories. Normally, they do not enter a territory of another anteater of the same sex, but males often enter the territory of associated females. When a territorial dispute occurs, they vocalize, swat, and can sometimes sit on or even ride the back of their opponents.They have a poor sense of sight but magnificent sense of smell.

Having the lowest body temperature of any mammal, fluctuating between 91–97 ̊ F, its daily energy intake from food is only slightly greater than its energy need for daily activities. An anteater normally spends about a minute at a termite or ant nest before moving on to another — and a giant anteater has to visit up to 200 nests to consume the thousands of insects it needs to satisfy its caloric requirements. The anteater's tongue, attached to the sternum, moves very quickly flicking 150 times per minute, is covered with thousands of tiny hooks called filiform papillae which are used to hold the insects together with large amounts of saliva. Swallowing and the movement of the tongue are aided by side to side movements of the jaws. Anteaters can be found as far north as South-eastern Mexico, in central America and as far south as Uruguay and in eastern Brazil.

Bengal Tiger

Bengal Tiger:  The Bengal tiger is native to the Indian subcontinent and in 2010 was classified as endangered. The total population is estimated at fewer than 2,500 individuals .

Bengal Tiger up close

The Bengal tiger's coat is yellow to light orange, with stripes ranging from dark brown to black; the belly and the interior parts of the limbs is white, and the tail is white with black rings.  The males have a total length, including the tail from 110-120 inches, while females range from 94-104 inches, with the average weights at 488 lbs. for males and 308 lbs. for females. 

Adult animals lead solitary lives, hunting individually and establish and maintain home ranges. Resident adults of either sex tend to confine their movements to a definite area of habitat within which they satisfy their needs, and in the case of tigresses, those of their growing cubs. Besides providing the requirements of an adequate food supply, sufficient water and shelter, and a modicum of peace and seclusion, this location must make it possible for the resident to maintain contact with other tigers, especially those of the opposite sex. Those sharing the same ground are well aware of each other’s movements and activities.  A male tiger keeps a large territory in order to include the home ranges of several females within its bounds, so that he may maintain mating rights with them. Spacing among females is less complete as there is typically a partial overlap with neighboring females. They tend to have core areas where new animals become residents only as vacancies occur when a former resident moves out or dies. There are more places for resident females than for resident males.

Me Crouched Next to Giant Oyster Shell

Now let's head over and look at some wonders under the ocean! 

Giant Oysters look just like ordinary ones, except that they are six feet in diameter and stand four feet high. They may be found in nearly any type of watery environment, although they are most often found in cold, shallow water.  While giant oysters do not collect treasure, they do produce large pearls and occasionally sift other uncut gems from the sea bed.

Combat: Giant oysters are usually non-aggressive, but if hungry may snap at nearby creatures.  Since they are protected by an extremely hard shell, the oyster may close up to increase its protection. When closed, a giant oyster may not attack. A giant oyster will close its shell when it bites an enemy, engaging a grapple. When attacked from a distance, a giant oyster closes its shell and does not open for at least 10 minutes.

Now Standing Next to the Giant Oyster Shell

Gotcha!: To use its improved grab ability, a giant oyster must hit with its bite attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If the grapple is successful, the giant oyster maintains a hold on the creature and can inflict bite damage automatically each round. This grappling closes the giant oyster's shell.

Feeling the Tremors: A giant oyster is sensitive to vibrations in the ground and water and can automatically pinpoint the location of anything within 60ft.

Giant Squid

Squid  have a distinct head, bilateral symmetry, a mantle, and arms. Squids have eight arms arranged in pairs and two, usually longer, tentacles. They are strong swimmers and certain species can "fly" for short distances out of the water, have highly developed sense organs, including advanced eyes similar to those of vertebrates.

The main body mass of a squid is enclosed in the mantle, which has a swimming fin along each side. These fins, however, are not the main source of locomotion in most species. Under the body are openings to the mantle cavity, which contains the gills  and openings to the excretory and reproductive systems. At the front of the mantle cavity lies the siphon, which the squid uses for aquatic locomotion via precise jet propulsion. In this form of locomotion, water is sucked into the mantle cavity and expelled out of the siphon in a fast, strong jet. The direction of the siphon can be changed, to suit the direction of travel.  If you have ever seen any documentaries or even movies that depict squids, you would certainly remember this notorious movement.  Their skin is covered in chromatophores, which enable the squid to change color to suit its surroundings, making it a chameleon of sorts and practically invisible. The underside is also almost always lighter than the topside, to provide camouflage from both prey and predator.

Stingray

Stingrays are a group of rays,  related to sharks. Most stingrays have one or more barbed stings on their tail, which is used exclusively in self-defence. The stinger may reach a length of approximately 14 inches, and its underside has two grooves with venom glands. The stinger is covered with a thin layer of skin, the integumentary sheath, in which the venom is concentrated. Now this is why they warn you to watch out for stingrays!

Stingrays are common in coastal tropical and subtropical marine waters throughout the world.  The flattened bodies of stingrays allow them to proficiently conceal themselves in their environment. Stingrays do this by agitating the sand and hiding beneath it. Because their eyes are on top of their bodies and their mouths on the undersides, stingrays cannot see their prey.  Instead, they use smell and electroreceptors similar to those of sharks. They feed primarily on molluscs, crustaceans, and occasionally on small fish.

Reproduction: When a male is courting a female, he will follow her closely, biting at her pectoral disc. He then places one of his two claspers into her valve.  The female will bear live young in litters of 5 to 13. 


Stingray injuries: Stingrays do not aggressively attack humans, though stings do normally occur if a ray is accidentally stepped on. To avoid stepping on a stingray in shallow water,  stones can be thrown into the water or a stick used to scare stingrays away. Contact with the stinger causes local trauma from the cut itself, pain, swelling, muscle cramps from the venom, and later may result in infection from bacteria. The injury is very painful, but seldom life-threatening unless the stinger pierces a vital area. The barb usually just breaks off in the wound, but surgery may be required to remove any remaining fragments. 

Starfish

Starfish or sea stars. There are about 1,800 living species of starfish that occur in all the world's oceans, including the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian as well as in the Arctic and the Southern Ocean or Antartic Antarctic regions. Starfish occur across a broad depth range from the intertidal to abyssal depths (>6000 m).

Starfish are among the most familiar of marine animals and possess a number of widely known characteristics, such as regeneration and feeding on mussels. 

What is unique about Starfish?  Most starfish typically have five rays or arms, which radiate from a central disc. However, several species frequently have six or more arms.  They possess a hydraulic water vascular system that aids in locomotion. The water vascular system has many projections called tube feet on the ventral (belly) face of the starfish's arms which function in locomotion and aid with feeding. Tube feet emerge through openings in the endoskeleton (or the internal support structure) and are externally expressed through the open grooves present along the bottom of each arm.  On the end of each arm or ray there is a microscopic eye, which allows the starfish to see, although it only allows it to see light and dark, which is useful to see movement. Only part of the cells are pigmented (thus a red or black color) and there is no cornea or iris. 

Okay, it is getting late and it's time to head back to the hotel to change for our big night out.  So there you have it, for now -- a quick run down of the initial walk through on one small portion of this magnificent museum. Tomorrow when we come back and finish up, we will be hitting the best of the halls and you will have lots more to see and lots more to learn.  Don't you feel like you have acquired a wee bit more knowledge compared to what you knew yesterday?  Yes, I thought so.  Me, too!

Oh, and by the way . . . no homework tonight, students.   See you tomorrow!  Oops, almost forgot -- I will see you next when we head out to the Comedy Cellar tonight for a night of fun and raw comedy! Woohoo!