First trip to the tide pools!

Our first day was very exciting! We went out to the tide pools around 7:00 AM and saw so many different organisms. I made sure to take some pictures of the ones I found particularly interesting. This first picture is of a brittle star we found! You might be thinking "Is this a starfish or a weird octopus?" The answer is neither! It is more closely related to a starfish than an octopus but they are not the same. One difference is the strongly marked off central body present in brittle stars but not starfish. Starfish and brittle stars belong in the same phylum of invertebrates called echinodermata. Echinoderms actually means "rough-skinned" which fits this brittle star well!



Here is another photo! In the photo you can't see how it moves its legs, but the best way I can describe it is like an octopus. However, it does not have a centralized nervous system or suction cups like an octopus has. Instead, it has a decentralized nervous system that consists of a main nerve ring that sits around the center and connects to each arm's radial nerve. It's really cool to watch it in action! This is from Tuesday when we went to a rocky intertidal area and saw more of them! I did notice the ones there were larger and more abundant than the ones we saw at the beach near CEDO. I think this is because they have more space to hide so it doesn't hurt for them to be larger. If they were larger at the beach near CEDO I think they wouldn't have as many places to hide so well.This is a really good example of a biotic factor (competition for space) that limits the population and how they exist.





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