Fact Friday

Ctenophore floating thru the water column.

Modern ctenophores, or comb jellies, are soft-bodied, meaning they are 95% water and have no hard body parts.  Ctenophore fossils from the Cambrian period indicate that the ancient form of these creatures had a hard skeleton.  Scientists believe this skeleton was part of a trend to “armor up” during the Cambrian due to intense predation.

Photo Credit: Ken Marks

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Fact Friday

August 30, 2024

Farmer Damselfish

Farmer damselfish get their name because they actually “farm” a patch of algae, including pulling out the weeds! These fish also aggressively defend their crops from other, much bigger fish and even humans. Scientists have discovered that damselfish cannot digest all types of algae. These farmers pull out all algae except for the one they prefer. Often the favored algae seems to grow only on the “farms”. Learn more.

Stegastes migricans By Elapied [CC-BY-SA-2.0-FR (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/fr] 23 March 2006 via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stegastes_nigricans_1.jpg.