Rocks and Shells
This large body of water separates Long Island from Connecticut.
What is the Long Island Sound?
Fish breathe oxygen underwater using this special organ.
What are gills?
The males of these small, burrowing crab species have a single large claw that resembles a violin.
What are fiddler crabs?
This is any special trait or behavior that helps an organism survive in its environment.
What is an adaptation?
Scientists refer to an animal without a backbone as this
What is an invertebrate?
This carnivorous snail preys upon other snails and shellfish and can drill into their shells.
What is a whelk?
The This special organ allows fish to control their buoyancy.
What is a gas/swim bladder?
This ancient marine animal is often misclassified as a crab, but it is more closely related to spiders than crustaceans.
What is a horseshoe crab?
This is the source of energy for nearly all life on Earth.
What is the Sun?
The gravity of this object in the sky creates the tides.
What is the moon?
This special salt marsh grass can grow in brackish water and has a symbiotic relationship with ribbed mussels.
What is spartina grass?
These cartilaginous fish have multiple rows of teeth and are apex predators in their ecosystems.
What are sharks?
These small crabs make their home in empty snail shells.
What are hermit crabs?
This is a kind of crab-eating heron that removes a crab’s claws before swallowing it.
What is the yellow-crowned night heron?
This is a special kind of brackish wetland found along Long Island’s shore.
What is a salt marsh?
These large, slow-moving bodies of ice covered much of New England during the last Ice Age. Their movement helped to form Long Island.
What are glaciers?
Two people work together to drag a floating net through water in this fishing technique.
What is seining?
This invasive crab species from the western Pacific was accidentally transported to New York in the ballast water of ships.
What is the Asian shore crab?
This is a turtle native to the salt marsh whose eggs are a favorite snack of raccoons and foxes.
What is the diamondback terrapin?
This tree grows abundantly along West Meadow Road. Its small fruit can be foraged and turned into jam.
What is the beach plum?
Mussels use this thread-like structure to attach themselves to rocks and other surfaces.
What is the byssus?
A small, abundant fish found in the salt marsh. Its unusual name comes from a Native American language.
What is a mummichog?
The exoskeleton of crabs and other crustaceans are made of this hard material.
What is chitin?
This large white heron fishes in the salt marshes and has a yellow beak.
What is the great egret?
This conservationist worked to protect the wetlands around West Meadow Creek. The marine conservation center is named after him.
Who is Dr. Erwin J. Ernst?