Jaws!
Found in coral reefs; where certain fishes clean the teeth or skin of other fishes.
Cleaning Stations
Strong connective tissue that supports the body and is softer and more flexible than bone.
Cartilage
External skeleton; tough external covering that protects and supports the body of many invertebrates
Exoskeleton
Phylum for mollusks
Mollusca
Large beautiful shell with a wide lip that flares outward; used as a horn for many thousands of years. (This also is the root word for what describes 'the study of shells')
Conch
Extinct marine animal that Dave Westerbeek frequently works into the conversation. Lesser known as the enormous shark that is now extinct.
Megalodon
Considered true rays; have a sharp venom filled spine used for defense.
Stingrays
A crustacean animal that is considered a decapod because it has 10 legs.
Crab
Mollusk with rings on shell; burrows down into sand or mud with foot & can use a chemical plus its shell to dig into hard substances such as wood, coral or rock.
Clam
Scavengers that can smell dead fish in the water and will even catch waves to get to the dead animal faster...within minutes.
Sea Snails
Shark that has eyes on either side of its flattened head.
Hammerhead Shark
Has huge winglike fins which make it appear to fly through the water. Nicknamed, "Devilfish," by sailors who saw them flinging their enormous bodies into the air.
Manta Ray
Dangerous looking crab with giant, armored shell and long spiky tail - actually harmless.
Horseshoe Crab
Slugs and snails are in this group; means "stomach foot" as their body is a mass of organs (the stomach) sitting on top of one large foot.
Gastropods
Structure with tiny teeth used for scraping food particles off a surface & drawing them into the mouth or as a drill to cut into shells.
Radula
Means "jaw"
"gnatha"
Considered a ray but with a long body similar to a shark however mouth, nares, and gill slits are on the underside of its body. Has a long snout with denticles.
Sawfish
The part of a crustacean's mouth that chews the food.
Mandibles
2 tubes that allow a bivalve to breathe, eat, and excrete waste while under water.
Siphon Tubes
Ferocious spiral-shelled predator of that drill holes into shells to suck out the prey; they also eat dead animals.
Whelk
Means "skin teeth"
Dermal denticles
Cartilaginous fish with flattened bodies. i.e. rays, stingrays
Batoids
The small leg-looking paddles under the crustacean's abdomen that help propel the crustacean through the water.
Swimmerets
Organ inside the body of a mollusk with special chemical properties that converts calcium and other minerals into a shell.
Mantle
The door that seals off a snail's shell. (these also cover the gills of fish)
Operculum