Sea Studios Foundation
Shape of Life: Sponge Animation: Wild Ride Through a Sponge
Along with other microscopic organisms (dinoflagellates, diatoms, bacteria, etc.), we become a tiny particle and are pulled through the canals of a sponge. Along the way we learn that sponge cells catch food and make spicules(microscopic...
Sea Studios Foundation
Shape of Life: Arthropod Locomotion: Engineering
Robert Full is interested in the biomechanics of arthropod movement. Arthropods move low to the ground using their legs in a tripod fashion, which is inherently stable. Their skeleton provides local control over movement. But the secret...
Sea Studios Foundation
Shape of Life: Bilateral Body Plan
If you draw a line down the middle of the body, both sides are mirror images of each other. With a head and stereo senses leading the way, this body plan is ideal for active hunters. [2:49]
Sea Studios Foundation
Shape of Life: Cnidarians: Deep Sea Research
The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute launches an expedition to explore the depths of the ocean in search of cnidarians. Scientists find that jellyfish and other cnidarians are dominant in both moderate depths and the deep parts...
Sea Studios Foundation
Shape of Life: Genetics: Genes Tell Us About Evolution
Mitch Sogin analyses the genes of a sponge in his search for the origin of animals. In order to sequence the genes, he extracts them from the cells. We see the threads of DNA in a test tube. He compares a similar gene found in all the...
Sea Studios Foundation
Shape of Life: Human Body Plan
The human body plan is bilateral with symmetrical sense organs, a fast responding brain, half the body weight in muscles, a powerful heart, and miles of arteries and veins and a brain that coordinates it all. All large active animals...
Sea Studios Foundation
Shape of Life: Paleontology: Paleontologists Study Tracks and Traces
Jenny Clack visits a site with fossilized tracks of an early tetrapod. She and her assistant hypothesize about what the animal was doing around 370 million years ago. [8:22]
Sea Studios Foundation
Shape of Life: Flatworm Animation: Body Plan
The flatworm's bilateral body plan has a head with a brain and stereo eyes that enable it to actively hunt. Its mouth and pharynx are in the center of its underside. With no circulatory system, the gut distributes food to all parts of...