Comparative Animal Biology

Thought I would give an update on what has been going on with my studies here in New Zealand. I woke up this morning at 5:30AM feeling great! I made some tea, got some cereal, and turned on the BBC news that's played through the web. I stumbled upon an interesting link leading to the National Geographic site and saw one of the coolest things: prosthetic limbs for an injured 20-year old loggerhead sea turtle! The turtle was found intertwined in fishing nets in Japan she also had various wounds caused by sharks (lost half of one forelimb and a third of the other). Loggerhead turtles are endangered and it is amazing that scientists have developed this solution!


Today in my Comparative Animal Biology lecture we discussed the Phylum Chordata (includes vertebrates). The lecturer was pretty comical. We learned about the supergroup that includes the Hagfish and Lamprey. Ugly creatures! They are jawless and my lecturer made a joke that "you can see the teeth better on a circumcised one." We all found that pretty funny. It's scary knowing that these creatures eat dying fish by starting at the anus and eating the flesh from the inside out! He then joked that from now on we'll all be swimming with our legs together. I can already tell that this section will be fun!

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