Acorn Barnacles Lab Report

Acorn Barnacles Lab Report

Food/Predation:

Acorn Barnacles are sessile (fixed to one place) as they are permanently fixed to the rocks. This means that Acorn Barnacles cannot move from place to place to hunt for food, hence why they filer–feed. A structural adaptation that the barnacles have that allow them to feed are specially adapted cirri (legs) that filter organic matter from the water. When the tide comes in, a muscle opens the plates at the top of the Acorn Barnacle's shell. The barnacle then repeatedly waves its long feather–like legs (cirri) which have hairs that sifts the water, collecting plankton and other food particles that are suspended in the water, before transferring them to the mouth for the barnacle to eat. Because of this Acorn Barnacles need ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...Oyster Borers are mobile as they move around from place to place to hunt for their food – barnacles. Oyster Borers feed during high tide, moving up the shore with the tide and retreating to shelter at low tide (behavioural adaptation). A structural adaptation that Oyster Borers have is a strong muscular foot. The Oyster Borer uses this muscular foot to wrench apart the opening plates of barnacles such as Acorn Barnacles, before inserting its proboscis (mouthparts used for feeding and sucking) into the flesh to consume it. Oyster Borers can also drill holes into the shells of other prey such as oysters with their radula (file–like teeth structure used for scraping or cutting food) to feed on living prey. A physiological adaptation that Oyster Borers have is that they use highly evolved chemo–detection to locate their prey/food over long distances and by touch. An Oyster Borers siphon (structural adaptation) serves as a chemoreceptor to locate food. The chemoreceptor is a sensory nerve that converts a chemical signal into an action potential. In this case Oyster Borers have a sensory nerve that detects chemicals (such as the odour of their prey) in the air or on a surface of which their food source has been. This is then passed on as a chemical to the brain or other central processor. This then results in the Oyster Borer to make actions (drill holes into the shells) to eat its prey. This structural/physiological adaptation gives the Oyster Borer an efficient way of locating its prey to

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