Class at the Museum of Natural Sciences

So we have studied marine life in books, we have observed theme in their natural habitats, and now it was time to observe their anatomy. Today we went to the museum of natural sciences and our professor gave us a lecture in one of the labs. He brought a variety of fish species and explained how to dissect them and what to look for. I really enjoy how he teaches us. He asks us questions before he teaches us to try to get us to figure the answer out on our own by using clues and observations first. For example, today he fired a series of questions at us such as "what type of habitat does this fish live in?", "what does it eat?", "is it a fast swimmer". By looking at the coloring, shape, fins, and more, we were able to determine many characteristics of the different fish. When we began to dissect them, we noticed the heart, liver, swim bladder, intestines, and reproductive organs. My favorite activity however was guessing what was inside the stomach before we cut it open. By looking at the teeth and mouth shape, it was easy to determine what might have been the fishes last meal. Sure enough, once we opened the stomach, we found many of our predictions to be correct. We found a whole crab in one of them! After the dissection, we looked at the seagrass under the microscope. It was amazing to sea how many different species thrive on a single blade of grass. I now truly understand what an important asset the Placedonia oceania is to the Mediterranean. If something were to wipe out the grass, hundreds of species would be affected. Studying this has definitely given me a different perspective on the connectivity of ecosystems. After class in the lab, we looked around at the rest of the museum. It was really interesting to see the natural life, land and sea, that has inhabited or still inhabits the island. Some of the fossils were so amazing to see. My favorite was the tooth of the Megalodon (giant prehistoric shark) found in Mallorca. I have been enjoying learning about marine life so much, today I even considered changing my major to marine biology! But however, my main goal in life is to help protect the environment. In order to do this, I must first learn as much as I can about what I want to protect and this class is definitely helping me accomplish just that.

- Victoria S.