Sea mouse. Sea mouse (polychaete) Paragraph XL Marine landings, or sea expeditions

A sea mouse is a worm from the class of polychaete rings. He received this name because his body is covered with "wool", and the size of an adult is the same as that of a small rodent. Its Latin name is Aphrodita aculeata.

What does it look like

The worm grows up to 20 cm long and up to 5 cm wide. The body is divided into 35-40 segments, each of which ends with black processes - parapodia. They help to move along the seabed and burrow into the sand.

On the "face" there are two pairs of jaws with which the polychaete catches its prey.

The body of sea mice is covered with amazing bristles that resemble felt. They reflect even the weakest light and change color depending on the angle at which it falls.

Interesting!

This includes the presence of marine life and how the sea mouse looks in the photo. Its cover, washed from silt and dirt, shimmers with all the colors of the rainbow and sparkles under the rays of light.

If the rays go straight, then the bristles turn red. If the light falls at an angle, then the "wool" of the worm glows blue, yellow or green.

Mouse hairs are not for beauty at all. They perform several important functions:

1. Provide breathing.
2. Protect his body.
3. Helps to burrow into the sand.
4. They serve as a "home" for eggs.
5. They scare away natural enemies, acquiring a red color.

The structure of the bristles resembles an ordered honeycomb. Scientists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology studied this phenomenon. They were trying to find out if the bristle channels could be used to make a nanowire. The experiment showed that in this way it is possible to create a structure up to 2 cm in length.

Where does it live and what does it eat

The sea mouse spends its life at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, as well as in the northeastern part of the Atlantic. It can live at a depth of up to two kilometers. It prefers muddy bottoms where it can burrow into the sand for recreation or hunting.

Some sea mice prefer a plant-based diet. Others are predators. The latter use wool as bait. They burrow into the mud, leaving bristles on the surface that reflect light. "Lights" attract crustaceans, small mollusks, worms, which Aphrodite hunts. The worm can also feast on its relative, if it has a smaller size.

Interesting!

Aphrodite the sea mouse is not an exemplary parent. She can eat her offspring. Therefore, the larvae that emerged from the eggs quickly swim away from the negligent mother.

Living at depth makes it difficult to study the worm. But thanks to him, scientists have made a breakthrough in nanotechnology.

Not only eat! She is not alone yet! It turns out that fish are called sea mice (from two families - Antennariidae and Ogcocephalidae), as well as a species of polychaete worms (polychaetes). The latter will be discussed in our article.

Why could a worm be called a mouse? Of course, for the appearance. Although this animal lives under water, however, looking at it, you might think that this is really an ordinary mouse decided to “wander” along the seabed.

According to the scientific classification, the sea mouse (lat. Aphrodita aculeata) belongs to the family Aphroditidae, order Phyllodocida of the class Polychaete worms. The Latin name of the animal has a very unusual origin.

Notice the first word in the scientific name "Aphrodita". This is not a coincidence: Aphrodite is named after the ancient Greek goddess of love (Aphrodite).

And all because the discoverers of this creature thought that the shape of the animal's body is very reminiscent of the female genitalia ... a bit strange logic ... however, the name turned out to be beautiful in the end.

What does a sea mouse look like?

The entire body of the animal is covered with numerous bristles, outwardly similar to the hair of a small rodent. The length of the sea worm can be from 10 to 20 centimeters, the width is about 5 centimeters. The entire body of the sea mouse is divided into numerous segments, the number of which can be from 35 to 40.

Each such segment has a kind of process, scientifically called parapodia. These processes are necessary for the animal to move along the seabed.

Depending on how and from which side the light falls on this animal, it can change its color. Sometimes it seems that the sea mouse has a grayish-olive hue, and sometimes the tips of the bristles completely shimmer in different colors.

Such a phenomenon could not but interest scientists, but we will talk about this later. In the meantime, about: where you can meet sea mice in natural conditions.

Where do sea mice live?

These unusual "worms in a fur coat" can be seen in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, as well as in the northeast Atlantic. The depth of habitat of sea mice is different: from the very shallow water to 2000 meters!

Lifestyle and basis of the diet of the sea mouse

Despite the completely harmless appearance, the sea mouse is a predatory animal. However, there are among the representatives of sea mice and those who eat plants. Predators also consume small crustaceans, gastropods, small worms.

This species of polychaete worms has been little studied by researchers, so information about its reproduction and any details of its lifestyle is currently limited.

What, nevertheless, in this unusual animal interested physicists?

As we have already said, the back of the sea mouse is covered with long bristles. The angle of incidence of the light beam can color the surface of the animal's body in different ways. For example, if the angle of incidence is straight, then the bristles appear red. If a beam of light hits the surface of the bristles at an angle, they turn yellow, blue or green. What's the secret?

The mystery lies in the special structure of the bristle, which resembles a honeycomb. All these "cells" are strictly ordered. It is thanks to the hit of the light beam on these structural elements that the very unique refraction of the stream of light and its transformation into multi-colored "lights" occurs.

Scientists from one of the universities in Norway, engaged in developments in the field of nanotechnology, have already become interested in this phenomenon of the sea mouse. Soon they plan to borrow this scheme to improve the process of creating nanowires.

Not only eat! She is not alone yet! It turns out that fish are called sea mice (from two families - Antennariidae and Ogcocephalidae), as well as a species of polychaete worms (polychaetes). The latter will be discussed in our article.

Why could a worm be called a mouse? Of course, for the appearance. Although this animal lives under water, however, looking at it, you might think that this is really an ordinary mouse decided to “wander” along the seabed.

According to the scientific classification, the sea mouse (lat. Aphrodita aculeata) belongs to the family Aphroditidae, order Phyllodocida of the class Polychaete worms. The Latin name of the animal has a very unusual origin.

Notice the first word in the scientific name "Aphrodita". This is not a coincidence: Aphrodite is named after the ancient Greek goddess of love (Aphrodite).

And all because the discoverers of this creature thought that the shape of the animal's body is very reminiscent of the female genitalia ... a bit strange logic ... however, the name turned out to be beautiful in the end.

What does a sea mouse look like?

The entire body of the animal is covered with numerous bristles, outwardly similar to the hair of a small rodent. The length of the sea worm can be from 10 to 20 centimeters, the width is about 5 centimeters. The entire body of the sea mouse is divided into numerous segments, the number of which can be from 35 to 40.

Each such segment has a kind of process, scientifically called parapodia. These processes are necessary for the animal to move along the seabed.

Depending on how and from which side the light falls on this animal, it can change its color. Sometimes it seems that the sea mouse has a grayish-olive hue, and sometimes the tips of the bristles completely shimmer in different colors.

Such a phenomenon could not but interest scientists, but we will talk about this later. In the meantime, about: where you can meet sea mice in natural conditions.

Where do sea mice live?

These unusual "worms in a fur coat" can be seen in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, as well as in the northeast Atlantic. The depth of habitat of sea mice is different: from the very shallow water to 2000 meters!

Lifestyle and basis of the diet of the sea mouse

Despite the completely harmless appearance, the sea mouse is a predatory animal. However, there are among the representatives of sea mice and those who eat plants. Predators also consume small crustaceans, gastropods, small worms.

This species of polychaete worms has been little studied by researchers, so information about its reproduction and any details of its lifestyle is currently limited.

What, nevertheless, in this unusual animal interested physicists?

As we have already said, the back of the sea mouse is covered with long bristles. The angle of incidence of the light beam can color the surface of the animal's body in different ways. For example, if the angle of incidence is straight, then the bristles appear red. If a beam of light hits the surface of the bristles at an angle, they turn yellow, blue or green. What's the secret?

The walkers leave entirely (c).

Type: Annelids - Annelides,
Class: Polybristle - Polychaeta
Order: Phyllodocoiformes - phyllodociformes
Family: Aphrodite - Aphroditidae
Aphrodite australis- Aphrodite motley
Aphrodite aculeata- Sea mouse

Aphrodite aculeata- Sea mouse

An extensive class of predominantly marine annelids with at least 10,000 species. The body of polychaetes is distinctly divided into a small head lobe - the prostomium and a long body with numerous segments, bearing special processes on each side - parapodia. At the posterior end of the body there is a small anal lobe - the pygidium. Parapodia in the overwhelming majority of cases bear hard setae, also called setae. Structural features of setae is an important systematic feature in the class of polychaetes. Parapodia are supported from the inside by special internal setae - aciculae. In addition, there are dorsal and ventral antennae (cirrus) and lobes above and below the parapodia.

It can be said without any exaggeration that in no class of marine invertebrates will we see such ecological plasticity, such richness and diversity of morphological structures, as in polychaete worms. They live both in the intertidal zone and at the extreme depths of the ocean and differ greatly in their way of life. Among them there are predators, and herbivorous forms, and consumers of dead organic matter; some species live in the water column, others live in minks or tubes on the seabed.
Source: Institute of Marine Biology named after A.V. Zhirmunsky FEB RAS

About sea mice: Aphrodite australis- Aphrodite is colorful. Very large polychaete (body length up to 13 cm, width up to 6 cm). The number of segments is 35-40. The body is oval, tapering noticeably towards the posterior end. The dorsal side is strongly convex, the ventral side is flat. The head lobe is small, spherical, anteriorly equipped with two hemispherical tubercles, on which there is one pair of eyespots; there are no eye cuttings. There are 15 pairs of dorsal scales hidden under a thick layer of felt from hair-like setae. The parapodia are biramous. The large dorsal setae are very long, curved, forming dense tufts that partially cover the dorsal side of the worm and converge with their ends along the midline of the back in the posterior part of the body. From the dorsal side, the worm strongly irises, large dorsal setae are densely enveloped by adhering small silty particles. Lateral fringe of fine long hair-like setae strongly iridescent. Abdominal setae smooth, with somewhat blunt apex.
On the territory of Russia it is found on the shelves in the Sea of ​​Japan and the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, as well as in the Bering Sea.
It lives at a depth of 2 km, to shallow water, in the intertidal zone.
Source: Red Book of the Russian Federation

Aphrodite aculeata- Sea mouse.
A species similar to Aphrodite motley, but living near the coasts of Australia, England, North America.
Interesting fact: The colored hair of the sea mouse has a very unusual structure. If you place these hairs under an electron microscope, their cellular structure, resembling a honeycomb, becomes clearly visible. This structure is remarkably ordered, and the linear dimensions of the cells are commensurate with wavelengths in the visible light range. Due to this, the hair of the sea mouse has the ability to strongly scatter light, and the degree of scattering depends on the color of the beam, that is, on the wavelength. This means this: from the stream of light incident on the hair perpendicularly, only the red component is reflected; in other words, if you look at the hair at a right angle, it appears bright red. From the stream of light falling obliquely on the hair, it reflects - depending on the angle - either yellow, then green, then blue. We can say that the eye, looking at the hair from all sides, it appears in turn in all colors of the rainbow spectrum. The structure that the sea mouse evolved over millions of years is now being studied for use in next-generation fiber optic cables that have higher bandwidth, i.e. having a small diameter, this fiber carries more information.

Basic information: planaria is a free-moving worm-like. Class: animals. The worm is a multicellular organism with a flat body. Systematic position: belongs to the class of ciliary worms - primitive invertebrates, which are characterized by bipolar symmetry of the body.

Bilateral symmetry allows worms to live both in water and on land. If the planaria had a different body structure (radical), then it could fully exist only in the aquatic environment.

The Planariidae family has 12 genera, the white planaria belongs to Planaria (there are 25 more invertebrate species in this category).

Habitat and lifestyle

Habitat: marine and terrestrial. Widespread habitat: freshwater reservoir. Worms can be found under the pebbles at the very bottom. White planarians can live in different conditions. Sometimes they get into aquariums along with untreated soil, snails and small fish (live food). Flatworms can crawl, so they move freely on the surface of the bottom or land.

The freshwater milky white planaria constantly consumes protein, as it is necessary for it to maintain normal life. She feeds on caviar, small fish and crustaceans.

This worm-like predator in every possible way facilitates the process of obtaining food. The creature releases threads into the water, which swell due to exposure to the liquid. With their help, the worm captures and, if necessary, holds the prey.

The external structure of the planaria (Planarii)

This worm-like animal usually does not exceed 2–2.5 cm in length. Dairy planaria, like many representatives of its species, has a pointed body, similar in shape to an oblong leaf. The thickness of her body is from 2 to 5 mm. Two eyes are located at the base of the expanded part of the body. At the front end are also tentacles resembling ears.

Planaria has a perfectly white-milky, more often white, color. The body cover is strewn with cilia, but they can be clearly seen only in close-up photos.

The worm has a cross section that divides its body into two (unequal) parts. In this case, one side of the body is a mirror image of the other due to bipolar symmetry.

What are the systems and organs of the worm

The milky-white planaria has features that distinguish it from a number of flatworms. This creature has additional tissue (mesoderm) located between the endoderm and ectoderm. This factor indicates the development of a multicellular organism.

Sense organs of the worm:

• vision;
• touch (due to the tentacles on the front of the body);
• equilibrium;
• chemical feelings.

Digestive system

This creature has an unusual structure of the mouth opening - it is located in the center of the belly and leads into a cavity with a retractable pharynx. When the worm eats its prey, it clings tightly and swallows it with the help of a "trapping apparatus". Subsequently, food is distributed along 2 branches of the blindly closed intestine: anterior and posterior. In this case, the hindgut is also divided into 2 branches.

Thus, the digestive system of the worm includes: the mouth, the hindgut and the anterior, connected to the pharynx.

Nervous system

The worm has a paired brain, from which two chains of nerves extend, connected by jumpers. Nerve trunks form a thickening (knot) in the front of the body. The nervous system of a planarian differs in that the cells are not scattered throughout the body, as, for example, in hydra, but are collected in 2 seals.

reproductive system

Planaria is a hermaphrodite (bisexual) creature, since male and female sex cells are formed in its body. In front of the body, the worm has ovaries in which eggs develop. On the body are the testes, presented in the form of small bubbles. The testicles contain spermatozoa.

Eggs develop in the inner part of a kind of slimy cocoon. The worm lays several eggs at once, protected by a dense shell (cocoon) from environmental influences. A worm-like animal, as a rule, attaches its future offspring to plants located at the bottom of the reservoir.

The internal reproductive organs of the worm are the ovaries, testes.

excretory system

This system is presented in the same way as in all flatworms. The main organs responsible for the excretion of decay products are branched tubules, which in large numbers penetrate the body of the animal. The worm also has excretory pores and protonephridia.

How does he move? The skin-muscle sac is responsible for movement - a muscular layer located under the epithelium and tightly adjacent to it. It consists of longitudinal, annular and spinal muscles. The movement and change in the shape of a worm-like animal is carried out by contracting the skin-muscular sac.

Development cycle

The development of the white planaria can be considered unique, since this animal, unlike its closest counterparts, does not need definitive or intermediate hosts. The development scheme consists of only 2 stages: first an egg is formed, and then a small worm comes out of it. Over time, the creature increases and grows to an adult.

How do white planarians reproduce?

Since the planaria is a bisexual animal, its reproduction can occur in 2 ways:

1. Asexual. The body of the worm is divided in half. As a result, an adult individual grows from each particle.
2. Sexual. To implement this method of reproduction, 2 individuals must touch their bellies for a few seconds (at this moment fertilization occurs). After contact in the female reproductive system of one worm, the male cells of the other are found. Eggs that have been fertilized form zygotes and begin to accumulate the necessary substances. The final stage: the formation of a protective shell and exit to the external environment. After 2-3 weeks, small worms emerge from the cocoons.

This worm is characterized by pronounced and rapid regeneration. It is for this reason that the creature has a high vitality.

The white planaria is characterized by night and evening activity. These animals move very smoothly in the water due to the constant movement of the cilia on the body.