Marine Living Things

Marine Living Things

Here in Panama there is a science research facility available to everyone interested in discovering the marine world that’s very close to us. The Smithsonian Tropical ResearchInstitution (STRI) offers research facilities that allow staff scientists, fellows, and visiting scientists to achieve their research objectives. Here you can observe the beautiful specimes ofplantae, fungie, protista and animal kingdom located just underneath the surface. This center gives you the option to know more about how are marine living things interact and live.
You can find specimenssuch as sea stars, sea lilies and sea feathers, sea urchins and sand dollars, sea cucumbers, brittle stars and basket stars, red and green algae, sponges, jellyfish, corals, comb jellies, flatworms,clams, scallops, oysters, snails, sea slugs, octopods, squids and other types or vertebrates

All these different types of animals habit in this ocean, which we call an ecosystem, a collection ofall the organisms that live in a particular place. Every population lives together, that means groups of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area. The animal kingdom that’shabits this region where the STRI is located it’s composed by animals such as amphibians, birds, fishes, reptiles and mammals. The variety of these animals goes from American crocodiles, boas, snakes,dolphins to crabs, lobsters, shrimps, insects, ribbon worms and sponges or porifera.

Sponges

Sponges are animals of the phylum , their bodies consist of jelly like mesohyl sandwiched betweentwo thin layers of cells. While all animals have unspecialized cells that can transform into specialized cells, sponges are unique in having some specialized cells that can transform into other types,often migrating between the main cell layers and the mesohyl in the process. Sponges do not have nervous,digestive or circulatory systems. Instead, most rely on maintaining a constant water flow...