Day at the Museum (and C.K. Choi Building!): Part I

My biology 11 class recently took a fieldtrip to the Beatty Biodiversity Museum and C.K. Choi Building at the University of British Columbia. Above is me pictured with my favourite specimen that I encountered at the Beatty Biodiversity Museum, a mounted northern pintail duckling (Anas acuta).

Here is the famous blue whale (in this case, Balaenoptera musculus musculus) skeleton hanging in the Atrium at the Beatty Biodiversity Museum. Its pectoral flipper is homologous to a human's arm, as it contains the same bones as our arm, merely modified in the whale's case into a flipper, as a result of their common ancestor with us also having the same bones as both us and whales do in their forelimbs.

   Here is the tooth of an extinct "megalodon" shark (Charcharodon megalodon).

The fossilised foot of the dinosaur Lambeosaurus.

My hair being chewed on by a sable antelope (Hippotragus niger spp.). Just kidding, it was mounted and behind glass!

Me with a mounted penguin (family
Spheniscidae), situated nearby the mounted sable antelope in the Museum.



Me with, from left to right, a preserved elephant shrew, baby crocodillian, and bat (family Macroscelididae, order Crocodilia, and order Chiroptera, respectively).

Me with the preserved wrasses and parrotfishes (families listed above).

And now for a picture from the C.K. Choi Building:

One of my partners in the biology 11 UBC fieldtrip scavenger hunt standing in front of one of the C.K. Choi Building's recycled brick walls.

Bug-eyeing

Here are two pictures of me with some beautiful preserved framed arthropods. The first is a picture of me with a frame containing assorted arthropods, and the second is of me with a frame containing strictly beautiful butterflies. Some of the arthropods pictured above include a stag beetle (family Lucanidae), a frog beetle (genus Sagra), and what is probably a jewel beetle (subfamily Cetoniinae).

Say Hello To My Little Friend 2

Here is a picture of me with a captive azure damselfish (Chrysiptera hemicyanea). Native to the tropical pacific ocean, damselfish like this one are usually small but surprisingly aggressive. Their aggressiveness, however, cannot save them from being the basis of a predatory food web of bigger animals on Pacific tropical reefs! The picture is somewhat blurred, as there is algae growing on the inside walls of the fish tank containing the fish and debris on the outside walls.

Say Hello To My Little Friend

A captive adult male green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis) rests in the shade. Green anoles are small, mainly insectivorous lizards, the only species of anole native to mainland North America. Although they look somewhat like geckos, they are actually more closely related to iguanas, an example of convergent evolution.

The Glass House of the Scorpion

Pictured is me with a mounted scorpion (probably Pandinus imperator) in a clear plastic case. This photo was taken in my biology 11 classroom. Scorpions are members of the class Arachnida (animals with four pairs of jointed legs) with a front pair of legs modified into grasping claws and a tail ending with a venemous stinger. They are strict carnivores, and can be found in regions all around the world.

Biosphere Jar

I have embarked on a project to create a self-sustaining (almost) ecosystem in a jar which will reside in my biology 11 classroom as a collection of live specimens alongside the numerous preserved specimens already on display in the room. The jar itself is glass and holds approximately two litres of water when full. The inhabitants of this "biosphere" in a jar are a shrimp (Neocaridina heteropoda), a Java moss plant (Taxiphyllum barbeiri), algae, various species of beneficial nitrifying bacteria, and other microorganisms. The concept behind this biosphere is that the nitrifying bacteria convert ammonia into nitrite and then nitrite into nitrate. The plant photosynthesises from light coming through the jar's glass, absorbs carbon dioxide and excretes oxygen, and takes in fertiliser in the form of nitrate. The shrimp eats algae and microorganisms growing on and off of the plant, breathes in oxygen and breathes out carbon dioxide, and excretes waste that break down to form ammonia. The algae fulfills the same role as the plant (except it is eaten by the shrimp). Because of this interdependent food web, this biosphere requires no outside input except light to maintain life inside itself.

This biosphere, however, is not a perfect ecosystem. Because the shrimp does not actually eat the plant, the plant will eventually need trimming back in order to prevent it from taking up too much space in the jar. Also, I determined that the light in the classroom was not supplying the biosphere with enough thermal energy, and so the jar is now placed atop a small raised pane of glass with a heating pad attached to its underside. My homemade biosphere was officially sealed on 5 November 2010. It will reside in my biology classroom for the rest of the school year.

The Case of the Mysterious Bug

This is one of only two pictures taken of a mysterious bug captured inside my high school on 27th October 2010. I apologise for the photo's poor quality, as it was taken on my cell phone. After doing some research, I have tentatively classified this mysterious creature as an assassin bug, family Reduviidae, though it is possible it could be a species in a related family. Assassin bugs are a group of carnivorous insects so named because of their method of hunting: they jump onto their prey and stab them with a single mandible (known as a rostrum) that can be folded in against their body when not needed. They then inject their prey with their saliva through their rostrum, which, like a spider's venom, turns their prey's insides into liquid, which is then sucked out through the rostrum. They thus "assassinate" their prey. Assassin bugs, if provoked, will also "assassinate" humans, which, while not harmful to the humans, is very painful for them. In hindsight, it was thus quite foolish for me to handle this specimen with my bare hands! This mysterious bug was released outdoors on 29th October 2010.

Why Lamarck's Theory Is No Longer Accepted

No matter how many flying lessons I give this chicken, her future chicks will not be any better at flying as a result. This is because her experiences during her lifetime do not alter her genes. Unless she somehow teaches her chicks to fly using the experience she has gained through flying lessons, they will most likely be as poor flyers as their parents would've been without flying lessons.