Nurse Shark Facts Description, Habitat, and Behavior

The nurse shark  (Ginglymostoma cirratum) is a type of carpet shark. This slow-moving bottom dweller is known for its docile nature and adaptation to captivity. It is a different species from the grey nurse shark (one of the names for the sand tiger shark, Carcharias taurus) and the tawny nurse shark (Nebrius ferrugineus, another type of carpet shark). Fast Facts: Nurse Shark Scientific Name: Ginglymostoma cirratumDistinguishing Features: Brown shark with rounded dorsal and pectoral fins and broad headAverage Size: Up to 3.1 m (10.1 ft)Diet: CarnivoreLifespan: Up to 25 years (in captivity)Habitat: Warm, shallow waters of the Atlantic and East PacificConservation Status: Not Evaluated (Insufficient Data)Kingdom: AnimaliaPhylum: ChordataClass: ChondrichthyesOrder: OrectolobiformesFamily:  GinglymostomatidaeFun Fact: Nurse sharks are known for snuggling with each other while they rest during the daytime. Description The sharks genus name Ginglymostoma means hinged mouth in Greek, while the species name cirratum means curled ringlets in Latin. The nurse sharks mouth has a puckered appearance and opens much like a hinged box. The mouth is lined with rows of tiny backward-curled teeth. An adult nurse shark is solid brown, with smooth skin, a broad head, elongated caudal fin, and rounded dorsal and pectoral fins. Juveniles are spotted, but they lose the pattern with age. There are numerous reports of nurse sharks occurring in unusual colors, including milky white and bright yellow. Scientists have discovered this species of shark is able to change its color in respond to light. The largest documented nurse shark was 3.08 m (10.1 ft) long. A large adult may weigh about 90 kg (200 lb). Distribution and Habitat Nurse sharks occur in warm tropical and subtropical waters off coasts of the Eastern and Western Atlantic and the Eastern Pacific. They are bottom-dwelling fish, living at a depth appropriate to their size. Juveniles prefer shallow reefs, mangrove islands, and seagrass beds. Larger adults live in deeper water, taking refuge under rocky ledges or reef shelves during daytime. The species is not found in cooler deep water. Distribution map for Ginglymostoma cirratum. Chris_huh Diet During the night, nurse sharks leave their group, venturing out for solo feeding forays. They are opportunistic predators that disturb bottom sediment to uncover prey, which they capture using suction. When captured prey is too large for a sharks mouth, the fish violently shakes its catch to tear it or uses a suck-and-spit technique to break it apart. Once captured, prey is crushed by the sharks strong jaws and ground by its serrated teeth. Usually, nurse sharks feed upon invertebrates and small fish. Where nurse sharks and alligators are found together, the two species attack and eat each other. Nurse sharks have few predators, but other large sharks do occasionally feed on them. Behavior Nurse sharks have a low metabolism and generally expend minimal energy. While most sharks need to move to breathe, nurse sharks can rest motionless on the sea floor. They face against the current, allowing the water to flow into their mouths and across their gills. During the day, nurse sharks rest in contact with one another. Colors and shapes of underwater world / Getty Images In the daytime, nurse sharks rest on the sea bottom or hidden under ledges in groups as large as 40 individuals. Within the group, they appear to snuggle and cuddle with each other. Scientists believe this may be an example of social behavior. Nurse sharks are most active at night, when they hunt. Reproduction Male nurse sharks reach sexual maturity between 10 and 15 years of age, while females become mature between 15 and 20 years of age. As in some other shark species, the male bites the female to hold her for mating. Since many males may attempt to mate with a female, its not uncommon for a female nurse shark to bear numerous scars. The species is ovoviviparous or live-bearing, so eggs develop in an egg case within the female until birth. Gestation typically lasts 5 to 6 months, with the female giving birth in June or July to about 30 pups. It is not uncommon for the pups to cannibalize each other. After giving birth, it takes another 18 months before the female produces enough eggs to breed again. Nurse sharks live 25 years in captivity, although they may reach 35 years of age in the wild. Nurse Sharks and Humans Nurse sharks adapt well to captivity and are an important species for research, primarily in the area of shark physiology. The species is fished for food and leather. Because of their docile nature, nurse sharks are popular with divers and ecotourists. However, they are the responsible for the fourth highest incidence of human shark bites. The sharks will bite if threatened or injured. Divers are usually safe around nurse sharks and other carpet sharks, but bites occur when the fish are disturbed or provoked. Andrey Nekrasov / Getty Images Conservation Status The IUCN List of Threatened Species has not addressed the conservation status of nurse sharks, due to insufficient data. Generally, experts consider the species to be of least concern off the coasts of the United States and Bahamas. However, populations are vulnerable and declining elsewhere in their range. The sharks face pressure from their close proximity to human populations and are threatened by pollution, overfishing, and habitat destruction. Sources Castro, J. I. (2000). The biology of the nurse shark, Ginglymostoma cirratum, off the Florida east coast and the Bahama Islands). Environmental Biology of Fishes. 58: 1–22. doi:10.1023/A:1007698017645Compagno, L.J.V. (1984). Sharks of the World: An annotated and illustrated catalogue of shark species known to date. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. pp. 205–207, 555–561, 588.Motta, P. J., Hueter, R. E., Tricas, T. C., Summers, A. P., Huber, D. R., Lowry, D., Mara, K. R., Matott, M. P., Whitenack, L. B., Wintzer, A.P. (2008). Functional morphology of the feeding apparatus, feeding constraints, and suction performance in the nurse shark Ginglymostoma cirratum. Journal of Morphology. 269: 1041–1055. doi:10.1002/jmor.10626Nifong, James C.; Lowers, Russell H. (2017). Reciprocal Intraguild Predation between Alligator mississippiensis (American Alligator) and Elasmobranchii in the Southeastern United States. Southeastern Naturalist. 16 (3): 383–396. doi:10.1656/058.016.0306Rosa, R.S.; Castro, A.L.F.; Furtado, M.; Monzini, J. Grubbs, R.D. (2006). Ginglymostoma cirratum. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN. 2006: e.T60223A12325895.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ( Ocd ) - 1260 Words

The characterization of recurrent disturbing, anxiety-provoking thoughts and/or repetitive behaviors that cause marked distress or interference is what is known as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) (Thompson-Hollands, Edson, Tompson Comer, 2014). OCD is a highly debilitating mental disorder affecting between 1% and 3% of individuals in the United States in a given year and 2.7% of individuals across a lifetime (Thompson-Hollands, Edson, Tompson Comer, 2014). Approximately, 1-2% of children and adolescents suffer from interfering obsessions and/or compulsions (Iniesta-Sepulveda, M., Rosa-Alcazar, A., Rosa-Alcazar, A., Storch, E, 2014). While the onset of this disorder often occurs in childhood or young adulthood, research on the effects of gender has generally reflected higher prevalence in females (Thompson-Hollands, Edson, Tompson Comer, 2014). Given the pseudonym of the client, presenting problem, supporting theory, identifying information, and most relevant developmental his tory; this paper aims to clearly outline a theoretical conceptualization, detailed treatment plan and detailed response(s) to case personalize clarification questions. Identifying information Dilip was an 8 year old male of Indian descent. His father had moved the family to America to complete a residency in internal medicine. Dilip attended private school and had two older siblings, ages 13 (female) and 15 (male). Dilip’s mother was a full time homemaker. Presenting Problem While DilipShow MoreRelatedObsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)1756 Words   |  8 Pages Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a disorder that can affect children and adults. In order to fully understand OCD, many different areas of the disorder must be reviewed. First, OCD will be defined and the diagnosis criteria will be discussed. 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Potato Lab Free Essays

Michael Castelli Keegan Bauman Potato Lab Dr. Peano Block 1 Introduction: Potatoes are just your average food; they have been around for as long as the human race can remember. In this lab we will make them be a prime example of osmosis, which is a transport mechanism. We will write a custom essay sample on Potato Lab or any similar topic only for you Order Now In this lab the problem being tested was what environment affects the mass of the potatoes the most. The independent variable is the environments used salt, water and iodine solution. The dependent variable is the mass of the potato after being exposed to the environment for 5 days. The control was a potato in no specific environment, meaning it is just sitting in air, no salt and no water/iodine solution. If the potato is exposed to a specific (hypotonic/hypertonic) environment then the mass will increase/decrease because the cell will grow or shrink due to the environment exposed to. Experimental Design: The groups being testes are the hypotonic environment (water and iodine), hypertonic environment (Salt) and the control which is just the potato in just the beaker. The time the potatoes stay in each environment is 5 days. One potato is in 300mL of water and iodine solution, another is in 300mL of salt and the last potato is just in air. The potatoes are all fully peeled with no skin. The potatoes are in 3 different beakers with saran wrap over the top of each beaker. Materials: 3 potatoes Potato peeler 3; 500mL beakers 300mL of salt 300mL water 50 drops of iodine Saran wrap Safety goggles Triple beam balance Procedure: 1. Gather materials above 2. Put on goggles 3. Be safe 4. Peel three potatoes over garbage 5. Take mass of each potato 6. Record 7. Put three potatoes in three different beakers 8. Leave one potato in just the beaker (control) 9. In another beaker put 300 mL of water in with 50 drops of iodine (hypotonic environment) 10. In last beaker put 30mL of salt ensuring potato is covered. (hypertonic environment) 11. Put saran wrap over all the beakers 12. Make sure the beakers are sealed 13. Let potatoes sit in environment for 5 days 14. Take potatoes out of environment after five days 15. Take mass of each potato 16. Record 17. Record change in mass 18. Observe 9. See if hypothesis was true 20. Write lab Data: Mass of Potato in Environments | Control (Nothing) | Hypotonic Environment (Water and iodine) | Hyper tonic environment (Salt) | Starting mass | 129. 6g| 135. 5g| 144. 1g| Ending mass | 128. 6g| 150. 8g| 102. 2g| Change in mass | -1g| +15. 3g| -41. 9g| Mass of Potato in Environment (In Grams) Weight in Grams Environment Results: The results did not have any outcome that was not expected. The control changed only a single gram in mass, the hypertonic environment grew by 15. 3 grams. On the chart above it is below the graph because the starting mass was taken, then the mass after being in the environment was taken, and the result was -15. 3g hence the reason it appears to be negative. The hypotonic got lost 41. 9g of mass. Conclusion: The results that were taken were clear. The hypothesis was correct, based on the environment the potato was in it either grew or shrunk because it was exposed to the (hypotonic/hypertonic) environment. The results are valid because there were no variables in the experiment and also the results were ones that were expected. In the hypertonic environment the potato grew (as it was expected to) and in the hypotonic environment it shrunk (as it was expected to). The potatoes were expected to do so because when a cell is in a hypertonic environment water tends to flow into the cell, while in a hypotonic environment the water flows out of the cell. This was proven in this experiment. There were no changes to the procedure made. There will be no changes to the procedure if the experiment is replicated again. How to cite Potato Lab, Papers

Do You Think That Americans Problematic Racial History Affected the Decision to Drop the Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki free essay sample

Elicia Esquivel January 23, 2013 History Journal 3 Do you think that Americans problematic racial history affected the decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? I do believe that the racial history had an influence in the decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; I think this because America had built up tensions and anger. Their way to release these tensions was to drop the bombs and in their minds at that moment they truly believed that it was the correct response and reasonable thing to do. They in my opinion should have restricted the bombing to the opposing soldiers and not killed civilians. The retaliation mentality that they had created the illusion that killing thousands upon thousands of people would equalize what had happened on Pearl Harbor and is a reasonable response. There were fatalities of both parties that should never have happened. The phrase â€Å"two wrongs don’t make a right† is true for this situation. We will write a custom essay sample on Do You Think That Americans Problematic Racial History Affected the Decision to Drop the Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Can we really rationalize the murders of all the people in world war two? Everyone’s lives that were lost from both sides didnt have to die. I understand that they had to make an example to create fear in the Japanese but why did they kill innocent civilians. Surely they did not think that every single one of those people were responsible for the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Creating the fear in them was essential to prevent any further bombings such as Pearl Harbor, but it also in my opinion wasnt enough to kill all of those people. When it comes down to everything I believe that it wasnt acceptable to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki because the American people were so caught up in the racist hatred that erupted after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Japanese people were all stereotyped into being these horrible people that had to be taught a lesson. I believe that the reason for bombing Hiroshima was because Americas military wanted to try out their weapons and since they already had the support due to the outrage of the Americans they had the ‘okay’ to drop the bombs. Using the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that lived in these cities as experiments was unjust. How can we judge Hitler when we ourselves are responsible for such a massive slaughter of these people? Hiding behind the attack on Pearl Harbor is just a mask hiding a crime, the tragedy on Pearl Harbor should not have been used to destroy so many people’s lives. Based on the various moments in history when America hasn’t had the most moralistic reactions to horrific situations, I believe that in reality we arent what we pretend to stand for. Red, white and blue our flag’s colors red for action and courage white for purity and peace. Blue stands for sincerity and truth yet do we really have these qualities? Stars, they are in the sky above the evil on earth but we arent above evil, and America does not have any moralistic values we all share. How can we use these symbols and say the pledge of allegiance to them yet not live up to what they stand for? We are all frauds for not standing up for what’s right regardless of if it’s for the people of America or the people of Japan or anywhere else. We use these symbols to represent us, because of this we placed the responsibility to live up to them on us as a nation.

Drinking Age Essays (420 words) - Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Drinking Age Matchmaker.com: Sign up now for a free trial. Date Smarter! Drinking Age The drinking age is fine, if anything is should get raised. It is hard to ignore the fact that this law is broken everyday. It's the 90's all teens just want to fit in. Kids are drinking at a much younger age. Now, even 10 year olds and 11 year olds are trying to fit in with us older kids. It's amazing and sometimes funny what kids will do just to fit in with the "good" crowd. Well to some of us, that's considered the druggies and drinkers. Our parents call them the "bad" crowd with good reason. I speak from experience. Now I agree with the parents out there who worry about their kids getting into the same kind of troubles as I was in at one point in my life. I'm going to cut the bull shit and talk about the facts. Here's what parties today look like for teens. The setting, a beach or a house with no adults around to say what's wrong. The people are a bunch of teens of both sexes. The environment is any kind of drugs and or alcohol. These consists of hard liquor like Vodka and Jack Daniel's. Then there is beer with the lighter stuff like wine, wine coolers, and fuzzy navel. Teens that drive are in big trouble and are at big risk. I'm not blaming the accidents that involve drunk in just teens. Drunk drivers are of all ages. And I'm not trying to say that all teens drink either. But the ones that do and are stupid enough to say they're sober and can drive home safe. Those are the ones that put innocent citizens at risk. The drunk teens that drive are looking at getting their license provoked. They go to jail, their car gets impounded, and of course they get a DUI. At parties where teens get drunk, they can easily forget stuff. A lot of times that's where teens get pregnant. The girls don't always know their pregnant so they continue drink. This is bad for their baby. When they have unprotected sex there's the risk of diseases. All together I think it's pretty stupid to even think about changing the drinking age to 18. We already have to worry about the illegal drinkers. There will be more drinking by teens if they change the age. What's next? Changing the age to 16? Yes it makes sense that at 18 you can vote, get a job, serve your country, and drive. Why can't you drink? It will increase drunk drivers which will lead to more deaths of innocent people.

After the First Death essays

After the First Death essays After the first death is a psychological thriller. Patriotism plays a big role in it. The behaviour of some principal figures entirely arises from patriotism. And innocents become victims of it. The story begins with a boy, who kept saying he has a tunnel in his chest. The boy named Ben is the son of a general and thats why he eventually ends up on the bridge and there a bullet caused that tunnel in his chest. It all happened on an old railway bridge. Four hijackers, terrorists, captured a bus full of children under the age six. The hijackers were Artkin, who took charge on this operation, he found Miro and his brother Aniel in a refugeecamp, Miro a sixteen-year-old boy (was he?), who had never known his parents and later also lost his brother, who died before doing his duty and two other men called Antibbe and Stroll. Artkin and Miro reviewed the plan for the last time. They had watched the bus route for weeks. Miros assignment was to kill the driver, his first kill. But when the bus arrived the driver wasnt a man as supposed to be but a girl. The girl was Kate, the niece of the busdriver. When Artkin decides to let the girl live for a while, because she could be useful, Miro was disappointed because he wanted his first death to be perfect, so as they planned it to be and now the first thing went wrong already. Artkin drugged the children with drugged chocolate so they would be asleep. But one child was probably allergic to the drug and died. Of course this wasnt planned but Artkin used it as a warning to the world. Then he went to the van where Antibbe and Stroll were also. He had Miro given the order to watch over the children and Kate and win her confidence. In the conversations that Kate and Miro have, Miro tells about himself to win her confidence and Kate tries to be nice and kind to persuade him not to kill her. Kate also have conversations with herself, Am I acti ...

Object Choice Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Object Choice - Term Paper Example Hence the difficulty of relating to other people is likely to lead to uncertainty. The relationship between the drive and objects results from the inside pressure of the organism and the corresponding nee. It is by this relationship that the aim is achieved. The valuable thing is the element of the drive and therefore not fundamentally connected to the drive but has to be constructed. An object does not need to be uncommon but should be anything that is vulnerable to human soul including his body through object human soul and narcissistic. Freud described a sequence of pre-genital stage, that is more understood as defined by the component drives than the genetically terms. Contentment of each part was connected to anal, oral, and phallic. The idea of part object exists in partial drive. The choice of the object therefore unifies the sexual yearning in genetic factors, and orients to others do not occur until puberty. The drive that specifically relates to the part or total object, a part of a person or a whole person, and to total object i.e. love or hatred are clearly differentiated. An object is renowned as a source of pleasure and love which are converted into an ego in the Narcissistic stage (Roussillon 42). In Freud’s, points out that hate and love should not be referred as drives for their objects but reversed for the relationship with the total ego of objects. Therefore, the choice of an object refers to the love object and not the drive object (Mitchell). In ego libido as opposed to object libido as referred by Freud, the object appearance is expressed in terms of limited sense of the external part of an object, which does not involve the ego. Moreover, it vividly emerge that he concentrates on psychological and intra-psychological theory. Roussillon analysis of Freud’s Anaclisis theory in chapter eight required more from self-preservation than is crucial from the object (Roussillon 232). The child was