Week Four: Bull Shark

Common Name: Bull Shark

Scientific Name: Carcharhinus leucas


Not-So-Fun Fact: Bull sharks are placed among the most dangerous sharks in the world, next to tiger sharks and great whites, because of their high aggression. It has been postulated that this is because of increased levels of testosterone in the shark’s body in comparison to other fish. An important fact to be considered, of course, is that shark attacks, let alone fatalities, are very rare: it has been estimated that it is more likely for a person to be killed by a collapsing vending machine than for that person to be the victim of a fatal shark attack.

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Chondrichthyes

Order: Carcharhiniformes

Family: Carcharhinidae

Genus: Carcharhinus

Species: C. leucas

Description: Bull sharks are heavyset, extremely powerful sharks. They can measure up from seven feet to more than eleven feet from their muscular tails to their tapering, blunted snouts. Their backs are dark gray and their underbellies are white, in order to camouflage them from other ocean dwellers looking up into the light or down into the depths. Their pectoral fins are remarkably long, and the tips may be a darker color than their backs. A bull shark features an impressively large collection of  sharp teeth, which are lost and replaced at a very high rate.

Environment: Bull sharks enjoy warm, shallow waters, and can be found in any ocean that supplies this habitat. There have been many cases of the sharks swimming upriver and into freshwater habitats, which makes them a greater threat to humans than they might otherwise be.

Reproduction & Development: Unlike most fish, bull sharks give birth to live young, which hatch from eggs inside the female’s abdomen. One to three “pups” may be born at any one time. Gestation is typically ten to eleven months. Bull shark young keep to coastal areas and only venture more widely as adults. A bull shark usually lives up to sixteen years in the wild.

Nutrition: Bull sharks are carnivores at the top of the oceanic food chain, and eat mainly large fish, smaller sharks, and rays, though their selection of prey may extend to shellfish and crustaceans. Bull sharks may even be cannibalistic in some cases.

 

Week Three: Strep

Common Name: Strep

Scientific Name: Streptococcus pneumoniae

Not-So-Fun Fact: Streptococcus bacteria cause the disease of the respiratory system known as strep. The disease is very common among young children and the elderly, and may lead to malaise and even mental disorientation.

Domain: Prokaryota

Kingdom: Bacteria

Phylum: Firmicutes

Class: Bacilli

Order: Lactobacillales

Family: Streptococciae

Genus: Streptococcus

Species: S. pneumoniae

Environment: Streptococcus is a bacterium which infects the upper respiratory system most commonly and occasionally the brain and nervous system.

Description: The Streptococcus bacterium itself is lancet-shaped and possesses a thick, gram-positive cell wall. Symptoms of infection include aching in the part of the body affected, fever, coughing, confusion, and photosensitivity. Severe infections, especially ones that spread to the brain, can lead to permanent hearing loss, brain damage, and death; These are much less common in patients with access to medical treatment, who typically only experience the uncomfortable if considerably less harmful symptoms previously mentioned.

Reproduction & Development: Streptococci do not form spores and cannot move on their own. They usually reproduce by asexual mitosis, and whole populations can double in twenty to thirty minutes in favorable conditions (such as in a laboratory culture). At a certain point, when grouped in cultures that grow to an unstable level, the streptococci undergo a curious process in which the entire colony goes through autolysis using one of its own indigenous enzymes, called “autolysin.”

Nutrition: Streptococcus is a parasitic organism which feeds off its host and absorbs nutrients through its cell pores and cell membrane. It is usually found infecting liquid flows of nutrients, such as ones found in the lungs, spinal fluid, or blood.

 

Week Two: Valley Fever

Common Name: Valley Fever

Scientific Name: Coccidioides immitis

Not-So-Fun Fact: When inhaled, the fungus Coccidioides causes a severe lung infection called Coccidioidomycosis, or Valley Fever.

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Fungus

Phylum: Ascomycota

Class: Euascomycetes

Order: Onygenales

Family: Onygenaceae

Genus: Coccidioides

Species: C. immitis

Description: Coccidioides is a long, chainlike fungus resembling a jewelry chain studded with square-shaped beads. The symptoms of the disease it causes resemble influenza, and often are confined to the lungs. If it forms spores, however, it can be spread by the victim’s own bloodstream to other parts of the body, including the brain and nervous system. Because it is “dimorphic”, it can change shape to evade the body’s immune system. Other symptoms of Valley Fever include fatigue, rash, headache, muscle ache, cough, and fever.

Environment: This fungus normally rests in the soils of Central America, South America, the southwestern United States, and Washington State. It is spread by inhalation of fungal spores. About 40% of those people who inhale the spores do not suffer the symptoms of Valley Fever. Residents of areas in which the fungus also resides should avoid a large amount of soil inhalation.

Reproduction & Development: Coccidioides reproduces by forming spores and spreading through the air or through the bloodstream. The fungus can reproduce sexually or asexually, though very little is known about the sexual reproduction of this species. Please regard the “Description” for the development of Coccidioides.

Nutrition: Coccidioides is a parasite that feeds off the human body, but also lies in the soil. It cannot survive on the surface of the soil in extremely hot, dry, or wet conditions and prefers a mild climate. Its preferred soil is full of carbonized organic material and various types of salt.

 

Week One: Peacock Flower

Common Names: Peacock Flower, Red Bird of Paradise, Barbados Pride, Ayoowiri, Flos Pavonis

Scientific Name: Caesalpinia pulcherrima syn. Poinciana pulcherrima

 

Not-So-Fun Fact (in fact, a terribly tragic one): The peacock flower, among other common toxic houseplants, was used during the days of brutal slavery in the Americas by oppressed and enslaved women. The women hoped that by ingesting the extremely poisonous seeds, they would either miscarry any children that would be born into a similarly miserable life or be killed themselves.

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta

Class: Magnoliopsida

Order: Fabales

Family: Fabaceae

Genus: Caesalpinia syn. Poinciana

Species: C. pulcherrima syn. P. pulcherrima

Description: The peacock flower is a beautiful shrub featuring long branches rimmed with small, fine leaves. Its also features bright red, orange, or yellow flowers which transform into poisonous flat brown seedpods. In favorable conditions it may reach twenty feet in height. Its bark is covered in sharp spines to discourage contact by non-pollinators.

Environment: The plant is indigenous to the islands of the Caribbean. It thrives in steamy tropical and subtropical climates, such as lowland and highland rainforest. It is also grown as an ornamental shrub, which gave its desperate users easy access while working in the domiciles of wealthy, botanically-minded slave owners.

Reproduction & Development: The peacock flower’s eye-catching blossoms are used to attract its favorite pollinator, the hummingbird, which feeds on the nectar and distributes pollen in summer. During the fall, the plants lose their flowers and grow seedpods which fall to the ground, their toxic seeds germinating into new plants.

Nutrition: Peacock flowers enjoy very wet and warm climates. They absorb nutrients from the soil and are autotrophic, like most plants.

 

Week One, Year Two: Angler Fish

Common Name: Triple-Wart Sea Devil Angler Fish

Scientific Name: Cryptopasaras couesi

Fun Fact: The bioluminescent lure dangling from a female anglerfish’s forehead is lit by millions of resident bacteria, which produce the natural light.

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Actinopterygii

Order: Lophiiformes

The above taxonomy and below sections describe all anglerfish. The following taxonomy deals with the triple-wart sea devil anglerfish in particular.

Family: Ceratiidae

Genus: Cryptopasaras

Species: C. couesi

Description: An anglerfish is a bulbous-bodied deep sea fish. It possesses a gaping mouth filled with long, razor-sharp teeth that prevent it from fully closing its lips. The anglerfish is usually colored dark reddish brown. The female of the species is much larger than the male and features a protrusion of fleshy spine tissue from its forehead which ends in a bioluminescent “lure”. Adult anglerfish can grow from eight inches to more than three feet in length and weigh up to 110 pounds.

Environment: Anglerfish live in the abyss, the deepest level of the ocean. All of their characteristics have evolved over time to suite this unusual, lightless, cold, and nearly barren habitat.

Reproduction & Development: Because of the difficulty of finding mates in the abyss, the male anglerfish latches onto the first female he finds using his teeth. For the rest of his life, he will rely on her bloodstream for nutrients. His bloodstream fuses with hers, and over time his body and internal organs will dissolve until he has been entirely absorbed by the female. More than six males may perform this process with any individual female anglerfish. The number of males affects the number of fertilized eggs the female may produce.

Nutrition: Anglerfish are carnivorous and feed on almost any prey they can find in their desolate environment. The female’s glowing lure is used to attract fish, which swim toward the light hanging from the anglerfish’s forehead and are devoured by the mouth beneath. This mouth is so large in comparison to the rest of the fish’s body that it may swallow prey up to twice its body size.

Week Thirteen: Paederus Beetle

Common Name: Paederus Beetle, Nairobi Fly
Scientific Name: referring to all of genus Paederus

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order:  Coleoptera

Family: Staphylinidae   

Genus: Paederus

Not-So-Fun Fact: The Paederus beetle is highly attracted to light, which leads it into homes and other buildings. When these lights turn off, the beetle often drops onto the inhabitants of the buildings, causing them to crush the insect’s body in their haste to rid themselves of the pest. When crushed, however, it releases a potentially rash-causing and even blinding toxin called pederin.

Description: This insect warns potential predators about its toxicity by its bright coloring. Its body segments feature alternating colors of black and red or black and orange. Though it is a beetle, it has very short wings and only some species of the genus are capable of flight. The body of a Paederus beetle is long, narrow, and quite small.

Environment: The Paederus beetle inhabits very hot and damp climates across the globe, enjoying swampy woodland areas. Particular regions impacted by this pest include Nairobi and the Iraqi desert.

Reproduction & Development: Paederus beetle larvae are staphyliniform in shape and hatch from small white eggs. Over the course of a few days to a few weeks, they hatch, grow, and pupate into fully grown adults, which live for a relatively long time for a species of beetle. These beetles reproduce sexually.

Nutrition: Paederus beetles eat rotting vegetables, worms, decaying meat, and smaller insects. Their diet classifies them as omnivores. Other than their poisonous excretions when crushed, they are generally harmless in their feeding habits to larger organism, though they may sometimes damage food supplies by their feeding on vegetables and meat stored for consumption by humans.

 

 

Week Twelve: Corpse Flower

Common Name: Corpse Flower, Titan Arum

Scientific Name: Amorphophallus titanium

Note: Many species of the Rafflesia genus are also referred to as “corpse flower”. Here I am researching the titan arum, a specific species of the Amorphophallus genus.

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta

Class: Monocotyledons

Order: Alismatales

Family: Araceae

Genus: Amorphophallus

Species: A. titanium

Fun(?) Fact: The corpse flower is so vividly named because of its terrible stench, which reminded its taxonomists of rotting flesh. This stench is used by the flower to attract its favored pollinators, which include carrion- and feces-eating beetles. 

Description: The corpse flower is an extremely large plant for a regular angiosperm. The flower itself may be five to ten feet tall and features a bulbous central structure known as the spathe, which stores the plant’s new seeds. The petals form a dull pinkish-red bell-shape and fan out elegantly around the pale spathe.

Environment: The exotic corpse flower is indigenous to the Indonesian island of Sumatra, where its preferred habitat is rainforest.

Reproduction & Development: The corpse flower is differentiated as well by its unusual growth and sexual development. Anywhere from two years to ten years may elapse between a single plant’s blooms, as it requires specific environmental conditions to perform this activity. Between blooms the plant retreats to its underground body and root system, called the corm.  When blooming, its stench attracts its beetle pollinators, which become trapped inside the spathe and then are released coated with corpse-flower pollen, which will hopefully be carried inside another blooming plant that has managed to hoodwink the unfortunate beetles.

Nutrition: The corpse flower is a vascular plant, which means it pumps nutrients and water from the soil. Like most other plants, it also produces energy using photosynthesis. Unlike many of my other posts here, it is not deadly at all, merely unpleasantly scented.