Invertebrate

Brachiopod (2)
Coelenterate (129)
Comb jelly (60)
Invertebrate (64)
Sponge (73)
Starfish (22)
Worm (588)

Synopsis: 4.4. animals: Invertebrate:

down by a hungry army of sea urchins. In this film marine ecologist Professor James A Estes, cameraman Doug Allan, ecological economist Pavan Sukhdev,

Dr M Sanjayan, reveal how sea otters eat sea urchins which would otherwise devour the kelp and disrupt the rich web of life that relies on it.

which, although made from tiny alien worms, is supposedly as good as 23rd century eating gets. It may seem bonkers to pin our hopes of feeding all the world's billions on some entirely new species,

and waters warm there will be a global shift"from a fish to a jellyfish ocean Â. Its author Ferdinando Boero, Professor of Zoology at Salento University,

eat them Â. So look out for jellyfish cookbooks. And keep the salt, pepper and ketchup handy.

The practice of biomimicry already taps into nature's ingenuity oe for example, the famous hexagonal skin of Norman Foster's Gherkin was inspired by the Venus Flower Basket sponge,

-which enables us to grow organisms that do not exist in nature by manipulating their DNA oe to create trees that produce a natural light-producing protein usually found in jellyfish.

Worm therapy: Why parasites may be good for youjim Turk initially put his symptoms down to stress.

Two months after discontinuing the worm treatment the lesions rebounded to an average of 5. 8."The beauty of this is that the number of new lesions is really an objective, brutally honest answer,

 Old friendsfleming's trial in 2008 was the first to infect multiple sclerosis patients with live parasitic worms, also known as helminths,

and a shift away from farming lifestyles decreased our contact with soil, faeces and contaminated food where bacteria and parasites like helminths live.

Many of our human ancestors would have been infected with helminths, as are large numbers living in developing nations today.

When helminths infect individuals and attach themselves in their hosts'gastrointestinal tracts, the immune system launches an attack,

when Elliott and Weinstock first found that helminths protected mice against colitis, news spread fast.

In 2007, self-infected entrepreneurs Garin Aglietti and Jasper Lawrence founded a worm therapy start-up called Autoimmunetherapies in the US by harvesting hookworms plucked and sterilised from their own faeces,

However in 2009, the Food and Drug Administration defined helminths as biological products that could not be sold before having undergone a series of clinical trials

Herbert Smith, a financial analyst in New york bought hookworms, and pig and human whipworms from Wormtherapy and Autoimmunetherapies,

either travelling to Mexico or receiving mail-order worms from Lawrence. Smith was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 1996,

Today, he maintains a healthy population of hookworms, which he says have caused a complete remission."

Moises Velasquez-Manoff, a journalist, also visited Aglietti's Tijuana clinic to receive a dose of 30 hookworms for his allergies and asthma,

Fleming says he advises the multiple sclerosis patients who email him at a rate of around one a week against self-infecting with helminths."

 Testing stagenowadays, most researchers investigating helminthic therapies have abandoned bloodsucking hookworms in favour of pig whipworms,

who suffer from gluten intolerance, with hookworms. Gluten is introduced slowly into their diets to see

if the hookworms will suppress the disease's inflammatory response. Back in Wisconsin Fleming is continuing his studies on multiple sclerosis.

seeking to understand how helminths inhibit disease. Coronado Biosciences, a Massachusetts-based company, hopes to have results from two large studies being carried out in the US into the use of pig whipworm eggs to treat Crohn's disease by the end of the year.

It may therefore make sense to administer helminths as living probiotics. In the case of whipworms this means patients swallowing doses of live eggs;

in the case of hookworms they apply gauzes containing live larvae to their skin.""When you give someone a live worm,

it's like giving them the factory that makes the products and letting the factory do

"These worms are not benign, says Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.

bona fide treatments based on the biology of the worms that can be scaled up and manufactured without the complexities

Hotez and others including Weinstock's group are working on identifying the molecules responsible for the effects of treatment with worms

Several discoveries have already been made with hookworms such as a protein that inhibits white blood cell activity and another with anticoagulant properties.

or England to attain illicit worms, awaits the trial results. He occasionally speaks to multiple sclerosis support groups about his experiences,

says one so-called"tutor queen Â. Can a jellyfish unlock the secret of immortality? Nathaniel Rich New york times 28 november 2012like Benjamin Button, a species of Turritopsis does something unusual oe it appears to age in reverse,

The idea that the secret to human immortality lies within this jellyfish is overstated somewhat, its cells may be immortal,

but who by night is a karaoke singer and minor celebrity called Mr Immortal Jellyfish Man.

and attracts microorganisms, worms and insects, which help maintain soil fertility and provide ecosystem services.

scientists ran an experiment b y giving the C. elegans worm small doses of alcohol to track the affects of withdrawal.

They learned no surprise here hat giving the worms more alcohol eased withdrawal symptoms. They also learned with a much bigger surprise that theres an actual oehangover molecule that can be quantified in the recovering brain http://www. stumbleupon. com/su/2k89pc/www. livescience. com/culture/hangover

or those caused by parasitic worms. The sheep whose blood contained the most antibodies lived the longest, the researchers found.

the researchers concluded. oewe predict that this sort of escape behavior in response to mammalian breath may be found among other invertebrates that live on plants

crickets and meal worms, emits 10 times less methane than livestock. The insects also produce 300 times less nitrous oxide, also a warming gas

and candied grasshoppers Mexico The agave worm is eaten on tortillas, and grasshoppers are toasted Cambodia Deep-fried tarantulas are popular with locals

Similar to growing coral in the oceans or crystals in a laboratory growing rocks may become an expansive new area of farming.

The study included nematodes scorpions, dragonflies, barnacles, copepods and centipedes. Remipedes, one of the two species of Xenocarida in the study, had to be fetched from partially submerged limestone caves in the Yucatan peninsula and preserved just so.

From worm lollipops to chocolate-dipped scorpions these bizarre concoctions could be from the dark mind of a twisted Willy Wonka.

Pics) Californian based candy creators HOTLIX have been making people cringe with delight with their outrageous confections for over 25 years. oeour first insect candy was flavoured a tequila lollipop with a worm in it back in 1982,

what he calls the worm ranch where he grows all of the insects for food products,

but we do cut off the stinger just to make sure there is no hint of poison. oewe feed the worms things like oatmeal,

Robotic Earthworm Drivers The most valuable land on the planet will soon be the landfills

In the future, robotic earthworms will be used to silently mine the landfills and replace whatever is extracted with high-grade soil. 39.

We would turn to something more efficient#like huge vats of nematode worms.##He also cautioned that they were eaten best cooked,

head of the Michigan Nursery and Landscape Association, said she has seen not such widespread tree death since the emerald ash borer ravaged ash trees.

if we were able to raise the intelligence of a silk worm, could a silk worm be trained to automatically weave a tie

would it be possible to create a material frame that a silk worm could navigate around,

Corals are marine animals that exist as small polyps, typically in colonies of many identical individuals.

the polyps lay down a skeleton that is characteristic of their species. A head of coral grows by asexual reproduction of the individual polyps.

Cabbage worm. If you start seeing pretty white butterflies fluttering around your broccoli, youre guaranteed to start seeing little green worms all over your broccoli plants.

To avoid this, cover your broccoli plants with floating row cover or lightweight bed sheets. If you start seeing cabbage worms,

simply pick them off by hand. 2. Peas There is nothing like peas grown right in your own garden#the tender sweetness of a snap pea just plucked from the vine is unlike anything you can buy in at a store.

Cabbage worms (see Broccoli, above. 5. Tomatoes Fresh, homegrown tomatoes are the reason many gardeners get into vegetable gardening in the first place.

Tomato horn worm can be a problem in many areas#these large caterpillars should be removed by hand

Heat and cabbage worms. Most leafy greens are cool-weather crops, so theyre best grown in spring

which means they are prone to cabbage worm infestations. Control them with the same methods outlined in the Broccoli#section, above.

the Amazon rainforest will no longer be able to act as a carbon emission sponge, which will amplify the impacts of

and worms that afflict goats and sheep. Dr. Harry G. Preuss, a professor of physiology and biology at the Georgetown University Medical center

The lettuce seeds are planted in sponges in frames that have to be moved manually The lighting equipment, culture solution,

It turns out that our breasts are almost like sponges, the way they can soak up some of these chemicals,

and may even be the farmer s best friend feasting on worms and insects that might harm crops,

and spread on a glass substrate that s covered in a forest of zinc oxide nanowires and titanium dioxide sponges.#

#Glow-in-the-dark pigs created using jellyfish DNA http://www. vimeo. com/82227865 Scientists in China have used jellyfish DNA to create glow-in-the-dark piglets.

South China Agriculture University scientists were able to create the glow-in-the-dark pigs by injecting fluorescent protein from jellyfish DNA into pig embryos.

which coral protects itself from UV rays through its relationship with a symbiotic algae that lives within it.

which is converted by the coral into its own UV-blocking sunscreen, benefiting not only the coral

and the algae but also the fish that feed on the coral. This transference has led scientists to believe that

if the compound can be isolated, it could potentially be modified into a human oral sunscreen that would protect both the skin and the eyes.

Prevent birds from destroying high value crops Identify insects, worms, and other unwanted plant devastation Precision pesticide, herbicide,

Swimming with the jellyfish, similar to running with the bulls!..Unicycle basketball, because playing the game was way too easy the other way!..

Xavier Callauaud s garden comes with a worm farm that will encourage plant fertilization and organic recycling.

Wall street journal article Mississippi Annual Worm Race#Kids bring live worm or borrow one from library to race.

When the U s. Forest Service looked at mortality rates in counties affected by the emerald ash borer,

The emerald ash borer had come from overseas and was quickly spreading a literal bug across state and national lines to Ohio, Minnesota, and Ontario.

When the U s. Forest Service looked at mortality rates in counties affected by the emerald ash borer,

Robotic Earthworms The most valuable land on the planet will soon be the landfills because that is where we have buried our most valuable natural resources.

In the future, robotic earthworms will be used to silently mine the landfills and replace whatever is extracted with high-grade soil. 43.

Cape coral, Fla. 155,405 72 Brownsville, Texas 175,210 71 Mckinney, Texas 131,882 71 Coral Springs, Fla. 122

Robotic Earthworm Drivers The most valuable land on the planet will soon be the landfills

In the future, robotic earthworms will be used to silently mine the landfills and replace whatever is extracted with high-grade soil. 147.

Roman philosopher Seneca who lived from 4 B c. to A d. 65 recorded the use of a sponge attached to a stick that did the job.

</p><p>Starfish wasting syndrome is understood a poorly disease that starts out as a small lesion on the animal's body

Starfish don't have scales don't have tails and can't swim so they are therefore not fish.

Instead the rough-skinned multi-legged seafloor dweller is an echinoderm related to sea urchins and sea cucumbers.

Ringworm also known as dermatophytosis is not a worm at all: It is a fungal infection consisting of several different species of fungus that feeds on keratin the substance found in hair nails and the outer layer of skin within humans and domesticated animals.

The infection forms a ringlike pattern on skin that sort of looks like a worm burrow. These common household pets (in the United states)

but studies have shown that the kitchen sponge tops the list. It beats out other germ-laden locations such as the kitchen sink pet bowl

and sanitize your sponge make sure it&#39; s wet then zap it in the microwave for 30 seconds every evening

Be careful when removing the sponge because it will still be hot. &nbsp;</</p><p>To cool off a hot head count to 10

Insects Come to the Table Mealworms wax worms and crickets may not be obvious choices for Turkey Day

Wax worms which are the larva of moths live in beehives and eat exclusively beeswax so they have a slightly sweet taste.

and coral are animals.)Because the algae go dormant in the winter when sea ice blocks incoming sunlight the calcite layers develop visible bands that are similar to tree rings Halfar said.

During the Little Ice age when volcanoes and sun cycle variations caused a global cooling from the 1300s to the 1800s the coral's underwater tree rings narrowed suggesting extensive sea ice cover and short summers.

(which is held by trees such as 5000-year-old bristlecone pines) the discovery does add to the list of long-lived cold-loving species. Sponges in Antarctica may live for up to 10000 years

A modern rodent species that had very similar ornaments on its teeth the African dormouse are seedeaters that also eat some fruit as well as worms arthropods creatures such as insects

and it teems with earthworms beneficial insects and microorganisms. The change is due to several key farming practices including cover cropping and no-till farming

K-Pg extinction event About 65 million years ago nearly all large vertebrates and many tropical invertebrates became extinct in

#Ctenophores Semaphore Information About Earliest Animals This article was published originally at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Livescience's Expert Voices:

Most of us have heard never of Ctenophores or comb jellies but this is about to change. In a publication out today in Science a team of researchers in the computational genomics unit at the National institutes of health in Maryland report that Ctenophora are the most ancient multicellular animals.

This was a spot previously held by sponges. To understand the implications of this finding we have to remember that multicellularity was a big step in evolution that occurred over 550 million years ago.

At the time there was an explosion of forms as life explored the limitations and possibilities of having a body made up of different types of cells.

The arrangement of cell types continues to be the basis of animal classification. Sponges were the obvious choice for the first experiment in cellularity as they have no nervous system few cell types and no organisation of tissues.

Studying evolutionary patterns relies on comparing genetic information. Animals that appear superficially similar (such as jellyfish

and comb jellies) can be quite different at a genetic level. Modern taxonomy has embraced barcoding which uses the DNA sequence of a single gene to distinguish between closely related species

. But one gene never tells the whole story and when looking back to the beginning of metazoan evolution even multiple genes can lead us astray.

The breakthrough in today s paper is the sequencing of the entire genome of a Ctenophore known as the sea walnut (Mnemiopsis leidyi.

Porifera (sponges) Cnidaria (jellyfish and anenomes) and Placozoa (there is no common name for Placozoa. Together these animals comprise the non-bilateria

It now appears that the closest relative of Bilaterians are jellyfish while the most ancient animals are the comb jellies.

Ctenophores are delicate translucent creatures. They have eight rows of comb plates with cilia that provide them with locomotion.

They are carnivorous hermaphroditic marine creatures that do not sting. The sea walnut (M. leidyi) is native to the western Atlantic

but has been introduced to the Black Caspian and North seas where it has caused serious environmental and economic damage by eating native zooplankton and fish.

In terms of cellular arrangements Ctenophores have a nervous system and all three major cell types (endoderm ectoderm and mesoderm).

) Sponges by contrast have no cell types and no nervous system. No wonder we thought sponges were the more primitive organism.

The sea walnut genome contained 16548 protein coding genes 44%of which shared homology-a type of ancestry-with non-Ctenophores.

Comparing these genomes with those of the other major animal groups allowed the authors to reject several hypotheses about early animal evolution.

For example Ctenophores have a nervous system and sponges do not but sponges do have required the genes for nervous system development and function.

This means that the ancestor of all animals may have had advanced quite an nervous system and these structures (but not their genes) were lost in the lineage that led to sponges.

Another major finding concerned the development of the main cell types in early animals. Embryonic cell layers develop into specific types of tissues.

Ectoderm formed the skin and nervous system endoderm formed the gut and mesoderm provided the muscle.

Ctenophores however do have a third cell layer called a mesoglea which acts like muscle.

The nervous system was lost subsequently in the lineages that led to Porifera and Placozoa but survived in the Cnidarians and the Bilaterians.

Finally and most profoundly the shape of the evolutionary tree of all animals has taken on a new shape.

The earliest branch of the animal tree belongs to Ctenophora now confirmed to be the sister lineage to all other animals.

So don t confuse comb jellies with jellyfish. I think of the Ctenophores as a semaphore signalling some profound truths to us (in a blue green glow) across the vastness of time about animal origins and biological organisation.

Susan Lawler has received funding from the ARC in the past. This article was published originally at The Conversation.

In the eyes of the United states Federal Animal Welfare Act animals such as mice and other rodents birds fish and invertebrates receive little

and invertebrates also feel pain. Because access to my earlier essay is restricted let me include here some more of what

Jellylike animals called hydras (Hydra magnipapillata) have low mortality rates that are constant throughout their lives.

Hydra die so infrequently in laboratory conditions that researchers estimate it would take 1400 years for 95 percent of a population to die of natural causes.

so they drew from across the tree of life comparing aging patterns in 11 mammals 12 other vertebrates (animals with backbones) 10 invertebrates 12 plants and a green alga.

Hydras have constant fertility rates their entire lives. And many animals other than humans have life spans that continue past their reproductive years including killer whales (Orcinus orca) mynah birds (Leucopsar rothschildi) and nematode worms (Caenorhabditis elegans.

The diversity of mortality and aging is independent of life span Jones added. It's not only long-lived creatures like the desert tortoise that show declining or constant mortality with age.

#Earthworms Trap Carbon, But Do They Influence Climate Change?(ISNS)--Earthworms have long been the organic gardener's friend.

They aerate soil as they burrow into the earth and release nutrients as soil passes through their digestive systems.

when researchers reported in Nature Climate Change  that earthworms contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.

They claim that as the earthworms go about their soil-transforming business they release carbon dioxide that was trapped in the soil.

Overall the researchers determined that earthworms'burrowing causes a 33 percent increase in carbon dioxide emissions

 Jan Willem van Groenigen of Wageningen University in The netherlands and lead author on the Nature Climate Change article doesn't advocate exterminating earthworms. oeyou cannot say earthworms are good or bad.

Their results published in Nature Communications suggest that earthworms actually trap carbon dioxide in soil for an overall decrease in emissions.

But in a process called stabilization earthworms convert the digestible carbon to a form that stays in the soil.

 Earthworms ingest the organic matter or litter that lies atop the soil. The litter is ground to a pulp in their gizzard broken down and digested by their gut bacteria

Soil digested by earthworms is much richer in nitrogen potassium and phosphates. Their excrement also adds physical structure to the soil that holds in the carbon reduces erosion

and fungi and not at the role of the earthworms that are said eating them Neher.

Researchers found the earthworms provide checks and balances to the soil microbes'carbon dioxide emissions. In the northern part of the U s. forests rely on a layer of litter to regulate the temperature moisture and nutrient content of the soil.

Most earthworm species in the area are invasive. They eat up litter layers more quickly than the forests regenerate.

In a way these earthworms determine which trees will grow there in the future. Knowing the problems invasive earthworms bring the researchers chose to study two invasive species one from Asia and one from Europe.

They measured the carbon dioxide emission carbon mineralization and carbon stabilization of a batch of soil with just microbes and compared that with a batch of soil with microbes and earthworms.

They found that earthworm-stocked soil releases no more carbon dioxide than soil with microbes alone. In fact the earthworms excreted carbon that stuck in the ground rather than releasing it into the air.

Essentially earthworms created a carbon trap. We're losing the litter on the surface of the soil

which has affects on future forest composition but a lot of that may be moving deeper into the soil

and holding the carbon there said Neher. The carbon is just moving into deeper layers in the soil.

The second study was conducted over 54 days too short a time to judge the total effect of earthworms on the environment.

He stressed the importance of understanding the effects earthworms have on plants. If more plants grow because of the earthworm fertilization then those plants would use carbon dioxide in their normal photosynthesis cycle

and help reduce greenhouse gases in the environment. Whether or not earthworms contribute to climate change both sides agree that earthworms have unmistakable benefits.

As Darwin mused It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world as have organized these lowly creatures.

mopane worms in southern Africa; yellow jacket wasp larvae in Japan; and grasshoppers known as chapulines in Oaxaca Mexico to name a few.

At dawn and dusk parents switch roles flying offshore to dive for fish and invertebrates.

Geneticists have bred GMO pigs that glow in the dark by inserting into their DNA a gene for bioluminescence from a jellyfish.

Just 150 big brown bats can eat 33 million root worm pests. Without bats there would be more pests

#Invasive Earthworms Harming Great lakes Forests DENVER Gardeners and farmers may love earthworms for their rich castings

and composting help but in forests near the Great lakes the creatures are alien invaders. No earthworms are native to North america's northern forests (massive ice age glaciers kept the land worm-free.

But in the years since settlers arrived 15 earthworm species have appeared in Minnesota from Europe and Asia.

Some of the invasive species are changing local forests scientists have discovered. After these mixers come in there's a loss in plant species said Kit Resner graduate student

The earthworms eat away at the puffy duff layer blanketing the forest floor where species such as salamanders and ovenbirds live Resner reported Sunday (Oct 27) at the Geological Society of America's annual meeting.

And in the sugar maple forests near the Great lakes the churning worms actually compact the upper soil layers instead of loosening them Resner said.

In agricultural areas where you have compacted soils earthworms aerate the soils. Forest soils are really different than agricultural soils.

The worms also change the soil chemistry decreasing levels of calcium potassium and phosphorous. The net result is a loss of understory plants the young trees ferns

This article was updated Oct 29 to reflect that earthworms decrease soil nutrients not increase. Email Becky Oskin or follow her@beckyoskin. Follow us@livescience Facebook & Google+.

Traditionally in Bulgaria Serbia and other southeast European countries households with infestations of bed bugs have thwarted the evasive little bloodsuckers by strewing kidney bean leaves on the floor at night.

which is marked in the fossil record by an abundance of marine invertebrates. Perhaps the most famous of these invertebrates was the trilobite an armored arthropod that scuttled around the seafloor for about 270 million years before going extinct.

 After the Ordovician period came the Silurian period (443 million years ago to 416 million years ago)

Mollusks and corals also thrived in the oceans but the big news was what was happening on land:

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