Meet Camilla’s Friends

Barnacles

Barnacles are crustaceans.
They are related to crabs.

Barnacles do not walk with legs, but they do eat and breathe with them! Their legs are called cirri, and they use them to sweep tiny food particles from the water and pass them into their mouth parts, inside of their protective plates.

Barnacles do not have gills. Their legs are feathery structures that can take in oxygen from the water.

Barnacles attach themselves to rocks, shells, ships, docks, whales, turtles, crabs and manatees.

A barnacle can be both male and female at the same time.

Barnacles do not have a heart or eyes.

Barnacles lay eggs.

Some people eat barnacles.


Starfish

A starfish is not really a fish. It is an echinoderm. Starfish are related to sea urchins, sea cucumbers and sand dollars.

A starfish does not have a brain, or a heart and it does not have blood.
There are over 2000 species of star fish. Not all starfish have 5 arms. Some have as many as 40 arms!

Starfish can regenerate arms that are bitten off.

Starfish have many little “tube feet” on the underside of the body. These are used to help the starfish move. There are also suction cups on the underside of the arms. These help the starfish hold onto its food.

Starfish eat mainly clams and mussels. The mouth of the starfish is on the underside of the body, in the center. Starfish do not have teeth. To break down their food, the starfish flips its stomach outside of its body and breaks down the food with digestive juices and absorbs the nutrients. Then the starfish pulls the stomach back inside its mouth.

At the end of each arm is a tiny, red dot. These dots are the starfish’s “eyes,” but they cannot really see. They can only sense light and dark.

A starfish can lay up to
2.5 million eggs at a time!





Plankton

Plankton are microscopic plants and animals that float or drift on tides and currents.

Plankton are a very important part of the food chain.

Phytoplankton are microscopic plants. Like plants on land, phytoplankton are capable of photosynthesis (using sunlight to make food), and they take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. They are critical to life on our planet.

Zooplankton are microscopic animals. These tiny animals, such as krill, eat phytoplankton. Bigger sea creatures eat Zooplankton.