Starfish, Coral & Shells
The world under the sea is rich in shape colours and patterns as you can see from this little selection. It is fun to make your own museums of shells and objects that you collect on the beach – you can work out your own captions about each object.
There are two different sea shells in this set. Both are bivalves, which mean that they are hinged and so can open. The one with ridges is a cockle shell that has been washed and bleached by the sun, showing its delicate colours. It is patterned with even ridges that fan out from the hinged area. The other is an example of the more brittle Tellin shell. These are flatter and thinner shells with a pattern of pale stripes. These are often washed up still joined together so that they look like butterfly wings.
What does the piece of coral remind you of? Yes, this is the skeleton of a piece of mushroom coral and you can clearly see why it is called this. It is broken so this is only a half mushroom as the whole is disc-like. It comes from the coral reefs which are found in tropical seas. This and the brain coral are very commonly found.
The last piece in this collection is a starfish. When they are dried out like this one they feel like a hard shell. But you might be surprised to discover that the starfish is not a fish! It is an echinoderm (from the Greek words meaning spiny skin) and is closely related to sea urchins and sand dollars. To avoid this confusion you will sometimes see starfish referred to as ‘sea stars’. There are thousands of different varieties of starfish all over the world living in the different oceans, though there are no freshwater varieties. Most have five arms though there are some species with up to 40. What is interesting about these creatures is that most have the ability to regenerate their limbs. In this example you can see the mouth at the centre of the body and numerous little pads on the arms which are used as suction pads to cling on to their food. They eat shell fish and in a very particular way - the stomach emerges from the body to envelop the food and then suck it back in.
The world under the sea is rich in shape colours and patterns as you can see from this little selection. It is fun to make your own museums of shells and objects that you collect on the beach – you can work out your own captions about each object.
There are two different sea shells in this set. Both are bivalves, which mean that they are hinged and so can open. The one with ridges is a cockle shell that has been washed and bleached by the sun, showing its delicate colours. It is patterned with even ridges that fan out from the hinged area. The other is an example of the more brittle Tellin shell. These are flatter and thinner shells with a pattern of pale stripes. These are often washed up still joined together so that they look like butterfly wings.
What does the piece of coral remind you of? Yes, this is the skeleton of a piece of mushroom coral and you can clearly see why it is called this. It is broken so this is only a half mushroom as the whole is disc-like. It comes from the coral reefs which are found in tropical seas. This and the brain coral are very commonly found.
The last piece in this collection is a starfish. When they are dried out like this one they feel like a hard shell. But you might be surprised to discover that the starfish is not a fish! It is an echinoderm (from the Greek words meaning spiny skin) and is closely related to sea urchins and sand dollars. To avoid this confusion you will sometimes see starfish referred to as ‘sea stars’. There are thousands of different varieties of starfish all over the world living in the different oceans, though there are no freshwater varieties. Most have five arms though there are some species with up to 40. What is interesting about these creatures is that most have the ability to regenerate their limbs. In this example you can see the mouth at the centre of the body and numerous little pads on the arms which are used as suction pads to cling on to their food. They eat shell fish and in a very particular way - the stomach emerges from the body to envelop the food and then suck it back in.
