Hydra vulgaris - a polyp the size of a grain of rice!

 Hydra are simple cnidarians that live in freshwater and are as small as a grain of rize. Aproximately 50% of their body is made up of stem cells. They can make perfect copies of their stem cells, basically forever. It's called non-senescence which is basically biological inmortatily. Researches hope to understand their amazing ability to recover and regenerate so as to some day slow down human aging.

CNIDARIASN: POLYPS AND JELLYFISH

 Watch this interesting video about cnidarians where you can appreciate some in the medusae form and others in the polyP form.

FUNGI SPORULATION

 In this video you can observe the amount of spores released by only one mushroom!! 

 Many cnidarian species use alternation of generations to reproduce. In other words, one generation reproduces asexually (the polyps), ususllya by fragmentaion or budding and the next generation reproduces sexually ( the jellyfish). In that way these animals benefit from both types of reproduction

You can read a lot more about jellyfish by clicking on the following link:

https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/invertebrates/jellyfish-and-comb-jellies#section_16508

You can also check out the following video:

ACTIVITY - NOMENCLATURE

Watch the video carefully and make a list of all the specific names that come up.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF PLANTS. A VARIETY OF STEMS, ROOTS AND LEAVES

ALL ABOUT PLANTS

 

HYBRIDS - THEIR ROLE IN EVOLUTION

 During the class about taxonomy and binomial nomenclature we introduced the definition of species. Many of you brought up the subject of hybrids and questioned if they were considered species or not. Most hybrids are not fertile descendants,so in this case, neither  their progenitors are considered members of the same species nor are they accepted as new species. Nevertheless cross reproduction and the appearance of hybrids is one of the fastest ways of creating new species on the planet and therefore play a vital role in evolution. It has always been known to be frequent in plants. These are considerd new species if they are fertile, reproduce and begin to conquer and adapt to their ecosystem.

 After talking about this in class I came across this national geographic article which I think may be of your interest. Click on the following link to read about this interesting topic!

National Geographic Ligers, zorses, and pizzlies: How animals hybrids happen