h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Okay, these are pretty much ready for Peer Review now, if you go to the the First Entry A21382788 Pond Life they all link through. Feel free to suggest anything extra, and I'll add it in before they are submitted to PR

*tries again (F7969175?thread=6104356&skip=12 )*

Do we have enough copyright-owned-by-author photographs or videos of pond life to AViate this entry? A photo-montage with music in background and audio descriptions of biota based on the entry perhaps?

vp

I have none, as i explained - got to wait for summer here. But then i can produce some truly superb ones - and of course music all origional too. (written and performed)
B

Fair enough, must have missed that...

Sounds fantastic

Might be.

Matt, little posting on Sponges - im afraid to say that i really havent done the subject much justice and now reading over the single celled creatures not much there either - ther is also a great deal on the hydra - however i think each branch/group could form an section of their own - some other day.

Freshwater sponges.
There are two species of sponge found in the uk – the pond sponge Euspongilla lacustris and the river sponge Ephydatia fluviatalis.
Sponges are a strange accumulation of individuals divided into specialist tasks – they therefore come somewhere between unicelled animals such as Amebae and multicelled creatures.
Their colour is normally greyish green but may be completely green depending on the availability of light as they are also colonised by Chlorella.

Sponges often perform the task of providing shelter and more for other creatures, in particular the Spongilla fly Sisyra.
Filtering large quantities of water they require surroundings relatively free of floating sediment, and also lime free. Another interesting little aspect is the use of silica in their skeleto


B

The larvae feed mostly on very small creatures in the water, some, however, are predacious - but as they have feeble mouthparts are not as active as most of the other insects. The larvae have seven pairs of external gills beside the tail, and like the adults three hairs protruding from the rear. The larval stage generally lasts for up to a


This is on mayflies - first part the larvae feed mostly on small creatures int he water - ok but then some however pare redatious - needs changing

Apolagies, extremly tired and root canal work.

No need for sorry's Bertie, relax, I'm not envious of your root canal work at all

I'll add that all as soon as I get a chance

There we go, all added and fixed I think. Have a look and see what you think

Pond Life (1) Intro Comments (tea supplied for clarity of organisation)

Microscopic Life Section, Tardigrades:

If they can be up to 1.5 mm long, I take it some tardigrades can be seen by the naked eye? If so, some explicit "and are the first of our pond life species (no, not species, genus?) which can be seen with the naked eye" type comment would be nice, imo.



Worms Section:

"The Nematodes are a type of worm that are extremely common and often overlooked, however, they are probably the most numerous of any species in the world, some 80,000 having been identified..."

I got confused - it is the different species which are incredibly numerous, yes? Suggestion:

"The Nematodes are a type of worm that are extremely common and often overlooked, however, they are probably the most numerous of any [animals / technical word for family of animals - is that genus again?] in the world, some 80,000 species having been identified..."

"nearly every living creature, including plants, play host to them"
--> plays host.



Flatworms Section:

"...grow to considerable size and most exotic shape and colour - bright reds, blues and greens are common" -->
size uncountable, not so shape and colours --> ...size and most exotic shapes and colours..?



Crabs Section, Cyclops:

"They move on the horizontal plain again by using their antennae, as opposed to the Daphnia who jerk up and down"

Plain plane typo, but also, found this bit confusing initially. Do Daphnia jerk up and down, whereas cyclops jerk left and right? The 'as opposed to' bit made me think Daphnia don't move by antennae, and then I had to reread again to understand its direction which is different.



Thats it for the moment, will read parts 2 and 3 tomorrow and next day (sad rationing of h2g2 time eh?).

vp

/We are meant to have daphnia in a jar in the lab right now, but already we have some sort of nematode breeding in there as well - soon will be full blown 4 litre pond

I think I've addressed those issues vp, thanks for the input!

I've put sponges in with microscopic life, I think that might be incorrect really - they should go in with the bigger stuff shouldn't they? I'll move 'em posthaste.

Microscopic Life Section, Tardigrades:

If they can be up to 1.5 mm long, I take it some tardigrades can be seen by the naked eye? If so, some explicit "and are the first of our pond life species (no, not species, genus?) which can be seen with the naked eye" type comment would be nice, imo.

I understand some amoebae can be seen with the naked eye, fact one is some 5 mm across but that is deep sea - tardigrades - biggest is 1.25 mm, thus visible to the naked eye.

Tardigrades - genus - another interesting little fact they all have the same number of cells no matter what specis.

"The Nematodes are a type of worm that are extremely common and often overlooked, however, they are probably the most numerous of any species in the world, some 80,000 having been identified..."

I got confused - it is the different species which are incredibly numerous, yes? Suggestion:

"The Nematodes are a type of worm that are extremely common and often overlooked, however, they are probably the most numerous of any [animals / technical word for family of animals - is that genus again?] in the world, some 80,000 species having been identified..."

"nearly every living creature, including plants, play host to them"
--> plays host.

PLays host, quite correct.

Most numerous of any animal of any animal in the world, currently some 80,000 specis having been identified - sounds about right

Flatworms Section:

"...grow to considerable size and most exotic shape and colour - bright reds, blues and greens are common" -->
size uncountable, not so shape and colours --> ...size and most exotic shapes and colours..?

whoopps, will have to look this up, many of the tropical ones grow to several feet but got a funy much bigger - correct shortly.

Crabs Section, Cyclops:

"They move on the horizontal plain again by using their antennae, as opposed to the Daphnia who jerk up and down"

Plain plane typo, but also, found this bit confusing initially. Do Daphnia jerk up and down, whereas cyclops jerk left and right? The 'as opposed to' bit made me think Daphnia don't move by antennae, and then I had to reread again to understand its direction which is different.

Thats true, the direction is different - imagine a heavy creature that has to keep moving its arms to get about. It jerks its arms up and down and moves up, but then sinks down again a little, it alos moves forward as it does this - the cyclops on the other hand has very little weight, and so stays on the same plane - dosent tend to sink, therefore all his movements will be on one level.
Cant at the moment think of any better way of putting that - will have a go unless you can?


Daphnia are often nematode carriers - eggs.

For those interested, the 'edited' version of this Entry (and its partners) is now in Peer Review, with all suggestions taken into account

The relevant threads are as follows:

Part One: F48874?thread=6181900

Part Two: F48874?thread=6181903

Part Three: F48874?thread=6181909



(so this can in fact be removed from the EGWW if you like S)

Ah, so this doesn't need to be here any more and can go Back To Entry.

yup

I'd like to second Matt & Tufty's proposal that this go Back to Entry

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This article is Edited as A46380071 Pond Life in the UK - the Larger Creatures

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