MARINE

Common Starfish

Starfish often feed on mussels and scallops and they have a very strange way of eating! They grip the mussel shells and force the 2 shells apart by suction to reach the 'meat' inside. The starfish then wraps the 'meat' in its large stomach, which is pushed inside out through its tiny mouth. It then digests its prey outside its own body.

Bloody Henry

The five, slender arms of this purple starfish can sometimes get damaged or broken during storms. They can be quickly re-grown though. Even if only one arm and half the central disc is left the whole animal can be restored.

Bread-crumb Sponge

It may seem hard to believe but sponges are animals. This breadcrumb sponge consists of many very simple individual animals living together. They can't move around to get their food so they do a special kind of eating called 'filter feeding'. They can draw water through their bodies and strain out fine food particles from the water.

Cockle

The cockle is a bivalve seashell. This means that it has 2 shells joined together by a hinge and its body is hidden in between the 2 shells.
Cockles live buried in muddy sand, burrowing down using a powerful muscular 'foot'. They feed by extending a long siphon - like a straw - to the surface and sucking in water which has small food particles in it.
Empty cockle shells are often found washed up on the beach - try and find one which still has the 2 shells joined together.

Dog Whelks

Dogwhelks are like 'sea snails'. They live on rocky shores and when the tide is in they move around feeding on barnacles on the rocks. When the tide goes out they have to protect themselves from the drying wind and sun and from predators. So they just hide their soft bodies inside their hard shells and wait for the tide to come back in.

Edible Crab

Unlike us crabs have their skeletons on the outside of their bodies, like a 'shell'. This 'exoskeleton' cannot grow as the crab grows, like our skeleton does. So the crab has to shed its exoskeleton or shell every so often in order to get any bigger. It swallows lots and lots of water until the pressure cracks the shell. The crab then crawls out of its old shell and after 3 or 4 days a new shell hardens, a third larger than the previous shell! Cast crab shells can sometimes be found washed up on the shore.

Knotted Wrack (Ascophylum nodosum)

All the seaweeds illustrated here belong to a group called 'wracks'. These are all brown seaweeds that live on the part of the shore where, twice every 24 hours, they are uncovered by the sea as the tide goes out. To avoid drying out and dying when the tide is out they all have thick leathery fronds or leaves and these are coated in a slippery coating called mucus.
There is a definite pattern to where the different wracks live on the shore, called zonation. Channel wrack likes to live very high up the shore, uncovered by the sea for many hours at a time. Bladder wrack and knotted wrack live in the middle and serrated wrack lives down nearer the low tide mark, because it must be covered by water for more than 6 hours out of every 12.
Knotted Wrack has long fronds with many side branches and large egg shaped bladders. It differs from bladder wrack in that the bladders are always single, not in pairs.

Serrated Wrack (Fucus Serratus)

Serrated or saw wrack lives up to its name! Each frond has a toothed edge like a saw.

Bladder Wrack (Fucus Vesiculosus)

This seaweed is named after the air sacs or bladders that it has on its fronds. These bladders help the fronds to float in the water when the tide is in. Bladder wrack always has its bladders in pairs.

Channel Wrack (Pelvetia canaliculata)

Living very high up on the shore, above the high tide mark, this seaweed has to cope with sun, wind, rain and frost. It gets its name from its fronds, which are rolled inwards to form little channels.

5 Bearded Rockling

This fish has 5 tentacle-like 'barbels' on its head. These barbels have taste buds on them, like our tongues. The rockling uses them to feel over the seabed and taste where the food is. It eats small fish, crustacea and molluscs (sea shells).

Sea Slug

For active hunting a heavy shell could seriously slow you down. So some snails have done away with their shells altogether. These are the sea slugs. Having no shell does mean you are more likely to be eaten by someone else though. Some kinds of sea slugs have found a clever solution to this. They eat jellyfish and retain the jellyfish stinging cells in their own bodies - meaning that they can give any predators a nasty sting. They are often brightly coloured as well, in the animal world this usually means "I don't taste good".

Sea Urchin

Its hard to know where the mouth is on this spiky animal! Its mouth is underneath and it even has a kind of jaw with 'teeth' for grazing algae off the rocks. It's also hard to imagine how a sea urchin can move - but it does, it can even climb up rocks! It has small finger-like protusions - called tube feet - which have suckers to help pull it along, and its spines act like levers.

Teretia Anceps

A pretty, rather unusual Philbertia or cone shell. Show on a background of 1mm squares!

Skeneopsis Planorbis

This flat coiled shell is very common in rock pools in summer but needs careful looking for. Show on a background of 1mm squares!

Tiger Scallop (Palliolum Tigourium)

A pretty little shell found on sandy beaches but not common.

Gari Tellinella

A small sunset-shell, whose colour tells its name. It is found on most sandy bays.

Alvania Punctura

This small gastropod, a yellow reticulated rissoa, is mostly found in shell sand on beaches facing the Atlantic. However, sharp eyes are needed - it's only 2mm long!

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Common Starfish
	Starfish often feed on mussels and scallops and they have a very strange way of eating! They grip the mussel shells and force the 2 shells apart by suction to reach the 'meat' inside. The starfish then wraps the 'meat' in its large stomach, which is pushed inside out through its tiny mouth. It then digests its prey outside its own body.
Bloody Henry
	The five, slender arms of this purple starfish can sometimes get damaged or broken during storms. They can be quickly re-grown though. Even if only one arm and half the central disc is left the whole animal can be restored.
Bread-crumb Sponge
	It may seem hard to believe but sponges are animals. This breadcrumb sponge consists of many very simple individual animals living together. They can't move around to get their food so they do a special kind of eating called 'filter feeding'. They can draw water through their bodies and strain out fine food particles from the water.
Cockle
	The cockle is a bivalve seashell. This means that it has 2 shells joined together by a hinge and its body is hidden in between the 2 shells. Cockles live buried in muddy sand, burrowing down using a powerful muscular 'foot'. They feed by extending a long siphon - like a straw - to the surface and sucking in water which has small food particles in it. Empty cockle shells are often found washed up on the beach - try and find one which still has the 2 shells joined together.
Dog Whelks
	Dogwhelks are like 'sea snails'. They live on rocky shores and when the tide is in they move around feeding on barnacles on the rocks. When the tide goes out they have to protect themselves from the drying wind and sun and from predators. So they just hide their soft bodies inside their hard shells and wait for the tide to come back in.
Edible Crab
	Unlike us crabs have their skeletons on the outside of their bodies, like a 'shell'. This 'exoskeleton' cannot grow as the crab grows, like our skeleton does. So the crab has to shed its exoskeleton or shell every so often in order to get any bigger. It swallows lots and lots of water until the pressure cracks the shell. The crab then crawls out of its old shell and after 3 or 4 days a new shell hardens, a third larger than the previous shell! Cast crab shells can sometimes be found washed up on the shore.
Knotted Wrack (Ascophylum nodosum)
	All the seaweeds illustrated here belong to a group called 'wracks'. These are all brown seaweeds that live on the part of the shore where, twice every 24 hours, they are uncovered by the sea as the tide goes out. To avoid drying out and dying when the tide is out they all have thick leathery fronds or leaves and these are coated in a slippery coating called mucus. There is a definite pattern to where the different wracks live on the shore, called zonation. Channel wrack likes to live very high up the shore, uncovered by the sea for many hours at a time. Bladder wrack and knotted wrack live in the middle and serrated wrack lives down nearer the low tide mark, because it must be covered by water for more than 6 hours out of every 12. Knotted Wrack has long fronds with many side branches and large egg shaped bladders. It differs from bladder wrack in that the bladders are always single, not in pairs.
Serrated Wrack (Fucus Serratus)
	Serrated or saw wrack lives up to its name! Each frond has a toothed edge like a saw.
Bladder Wrack (Fucus Vesiculosus)
	This seaweed is named after the air sacs or bladders that it has on its fronds. These bladders help the fronds to float in the water when the tide is in. Bladder wrack always has its bladders in pairs.
Channel Wrack (Pelvetia canaliculata)
	Living very high up on the shore, above the high tide mark, this seaweed has to cope with sun, wind, rain and frost. It gets its name from its fronds, which are rolled inwards to form little channels.
5 Bearded Rockling
	This fish has 5 tentacle-like 'barbels' on its head. These barbels have taste buds on them, like our tongues. The rockling uses them to feel over the seabed and taste where the food is. It eats small fish, crustacea and molluscs (sea shells).
Sea Slug
	For active hunting a heavy shell could seriously slow you down. So some snails have done away with their shells altogether. These are the sea slugs. Having no shell does mean you are more likely to be eaten by someone else though. Some kinds of sea slugs have found a clever solution to this. They eat jellyfish and retain the jellyfish stinging cells in their own bodies - meaning that they can give any predators a nasty sting. They are often brightly coloured as well, in the animal world this usually means "I don't taste good".
Sea Urchin
	Its hard to know where the mouth is on this spiky animal! Its mouth is underneath and it even has a kind of jaw with 'teeth' for grazing algae off the rocks. It's also hard to imagine how a sea urchin can move - but it does, it can even climb up rocks! It has small finger-like protusions - called tube feet - which have suckers to help pull it along, and its spines act like levers.
Teretia Anceps
	A pretty, rather unusual Philbertia or cone shell. Show on a background of 1mm squares!
Skeneopsis Planorbis
	This flat coiled shell is very common in rock pools in summer but needs careful looking for. Show on a background of 1mm squares!
Tiger Scallop (Palliolum Tigourium)
	A pretty little shell found on sandy beaches but not common.
Gari Tellinella
	A small sunset-shell, whose colour tells its name. It is found on most sandy bays.
Alvania Punctura
	This small gastropod, a yellow reticulated rissoa, is mostly found in shell sand on beaches facing the Atlantic. However, sharp eyes are needed - it's only 2mm long!