Do you ever wonder about..............LEAVES?

Hey!  It's me Sofia! Today on my blog I am going to talk about " Why leaves change color and how?".  Now at this time of year the leaves are AMAZING!
I bet if you took a look outside you would see what I am talking about!









Fall is one of  my favorite seasons ever! YAY! The colors are so fantastic and I bet you wonder how! Well, the fresh green color that you see in spring and summer is made by chlorophyll! But it starts to fade away and it is time for the others to SHINE!!!




Most of the time you will see Orange, Red, Yellow, and brown leaves! But in winter you see no leaves on trees or on the ground! Where do all the leaves go?Well, it goes like this,  the leaves die and become brown and crispy and fall off! After they have fallen, they are on the ground and after a while it becomes the soil in the ground for the tree and makes new leaves after the winter is over!


How leaves grow back?


Leaves grow by little buds that allow them to grow back in the spring! At my house in spring we have pinkish - redish buds on our 3 trees in our front yard! 
After a while the become small little green leaves to huge super green ones! After that the whole process starts over again from buds to little green leaves to big green leaves to the beautiful fall colors and to a no leaves tree! 




Where does that fall color come from?


That fall color comes from when the chlorophyll dies away, when the days get shorter and there is not enough sunlight to produce chlorophyll. To make the greenish color which is made by chlorophyll you need light, to have photosynthesis which feeds the leaves to keep its green color, and I mean lots of sunlight.  When the chlorophyll brakes down the carotenoids, which make yellow, orange, and brown colors, and the anthocyanins, which make red, purple, and pink color, begin to show after they have been concealed by the chlorophyll.

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Thank you for reading my blog! I REALLY  hope that you like it!  Come again to learn awesome things! Bye!  Bye bye now! Adios! Byeeee! :)

The Flappy, Happy, Stingy Rays!! :)

                                                
Hey everybody! Well you know me! I am here to have a fun learning experience about RAYS! Yay! I can't wait, can you? OK! I am going to teach you about.....

• I will compare and contrast rays to sharks! I blogged about sharks before! ( This will be fun! )
• I will describe the ray's body and tail!
• What do they eat and how do they get their food!
• The ray's defenses!
• Some fun interesting facts!
• Last but not least.... The Southern Stingray!
• The difference between skates and rays!

So now you know what you shall be learning about! Yay, FUN! So, rays have tails that electrocute for defence! So you better watch out of rays because you might get stung by it horrifying tail! But don't worry, at the Aquarium they cut the tails off so they don't kill you!  You can pet them as much as you like! :)
  Comparing Rays to Sharks!!

1.  They both have cartilage skeletons!   
2. Sharks and Rays both have jaws!
3. Some species of Sharks and Rays are endangered!
4. There are around 400 species of Sharks and 400 species of Rays!

Rays

 

Sharks

Contrasting Rays to Sharks!!

1. Rays have more flattened bodies while the Sharks have long, slender bodies!
2. They  have a different way of using their tail, Sharks use it to swim and Rays use it for balance and defence!
3. They use their fins in different ways, Sharks use their tail to lift and steer, while Rays use it to swim!
4. Rays have their gills on their underside of their body and Sharks have it on their sides.

                                     
The Rays Body and Tail!!

Most of the Rays, Stingrays to be specific, tail is used for it's defence. They will sting an enemy with their poisonous stinging tail that gives electric shocks! Their tails can range from short, stubby ones to amazingly long that are up to 10 ft. long! Wow!



Their body is smooth and flat! They have gills on their underside of their body along with their mouth. Their eyes on on top of their head. Also, Rays have large, flappy fins that they use for swimming!  A cool thing about them is that they can be shaped like an oval, a cirlce, a triangle , or a wedge-shaped body! Fantastic!




As you can see the MANY cool shaped rays that can be out there! I really like the designs that they have too! They can have poka-dots, circles, lines, and eights!

What do Rays Eat and How do They Get It?!?!

Rays are carnivores and usually eat crustaceans, mollusks, and worms!! Rays mostly hunt their prey at the ocean floor, they dislodge it from the floor, grab it, and then crush it with their teeth.



Isn't SO cute?!?!??  It is! ;)


What are the Rays Defences!??!? Hmm....
Well, is that so hard! The Rays use their tail as defence!  Stingrays use it and regular Rays use their poisonous tail, or they use their whip-like tail to lacerate their enemy! Also camouflage is another one of their BEST defences!


What's the Difference about Skates and Rays?!
You probably wonder what a skate is right? Well, a skate is a cartilaginous fish. There are 200 described species. Skates take a long time to grow and mature, similar to Sharks. Also in some parts of the world, due to overfishing, they are endangered. They are very similar to the Rays.



A Picture of a Skate

1. Rays are more of a kite shape while Skates are more  triangular or roundish.
2. Rays are bigger than Skates, usually.
3. They both defend their selves differently, Skates use their thorns on their back and rays use their tail and camouflage.
4. They give birth differently, Skates lay eggs and Rays give live birth.
5. Rays are more known than Skates.

Awesome Facts about Southern Stingrays!!

• Found in Tropical and Subtropical waters.
• They are very shy animals.
• They are not aggressive animals.

Goodbye everyone! Thank you so much for reading my blog! Blog to you soon!!! :)

The Facts You Did NOT Know About Those Deadly Sharks!

                             

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy! It's Sofia! And I am going to talk about.......SHARKS!! Most people think of sharks in a horrid manner. Perhaps like Jaws! But not all sharks are like that! Shocking Right?!???!                             

                                                

When you see a Shark you probably think it feels all Gooey Ooey and Slimey BUT, its feels like sandpaper actually! Especially if you have the nerves to feel it from head to tail it REALLY feels like sandpaper!They feel like sandpaper because of there scales! Sharks are shaped like a torpedo usually and that is one of the reasons why it's SO  fast! Don't you wish you were shaped like torpedo now!

Shark Scales Feel Like Sandpaper

Shall we talk about there teeth!??! Yes we shall!!! Did you know that sharks have 3 rows of teeth? Well they do! Cool right! If one of there teeth fall out, the one from the next row will replace it. That really help because sharks can lose up to 35,000 teeth in a life time!

Shark teeth are really sharp!

Baby sharks are called pups. When I here pups I think of puppies but, there are no similarities! Sharks can have 2 - 100 pups per group of babies. Most  sharks lay eggs and don't give live birth but, some do!
             

You want to know what we are going to do???? WE are going to talk about a Sharks Sensory System!BIG words right!!! Well, it's like there senses.  Let's label them!  Enjoy .........
    Smell of a Shark!!                   

Some Sharks can detect as little as one part per million of blood in the ocean! So that means that if there were one million people in the ocean and if one of them was bleeding, the shark could smell that one person out of all those people! AMAZING! So don't go in the water with a cut because you could be that un-lucky one! BE CAREFUL!  Most sharks have REALLY good smell!  While other are not so good! So those little fish that are under them must smell bad if they don't even bother to try to eat them. After all.. Part of liking your food is the smell of the food! You better not were your best cologne or perfume!     

  Sight of a Shark!!
Sharks eyes are adapted to the water life around them. It is just like how are eyes are adapted to the air and not to the water. We can open our eyes under water but it burns to most people. When we go under water to jump in the pool and we don't have goggles, we use our eyes lids to close our eyes. Sharks have eye lids but, they don't blink under water because the water around them cleans there eyes. But,  if they are in the air. But sharks like the Great White don't have this membrane, also known as there eye lids to protect them if they are hunting, in the air, or have prey like stingrays so they don't get stung. They have good night-vision while making them colorblind. So they don't even know what color the water is! Suckers! :) Because I know what color it is!!! Blue or dark blue to a clear color or kinda green!



         Sharks Hearing! 
   Even though it is VERY hard to test shark's hearing, they could have a super sharp, crisp sense of hearing if they can hear prey from very far away.  They have small openings in there head leading to the inner ear by a thin channel. You really cant see it!

              Sharks Cartilage!
Sharks have skeletons made out of cartilage like other fish like snakes and rays. Also like Lampreys and Hagfish too! Cartilage is flexible and durable, yet has about half the density of bone. So it is lighter than a bone.  So wonder sharks are so fast! And did you know sharks have no ribs? That's too bad.. you can't make shark back ribs! LOL! Just kidding!!


               A FUN SHARK FACT IS..

• There are over 400 species and 30 of them are a threat to humans!                                              

 Well thanks for reading my DEADLY SHARKS blog post part 1!!! Let Bugs Bunny say goodbye to you! And a Bye from me too! Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! :) Thanks Again!

                                                 

Lampreys and Hagfish..... Jawless fish!

Heyyyy!! It's me Sofia and I'm going to tell YOU and yes you about JAWLESS FISH! There are two types of jawless fish! I know what fish your Probably thinking about!! Its like this.....


THE CLOWN FISH!!! Also known as NEMO!!!!
But, sadly we are not talking about this fish we are talking about these vampires........


Yuck right? Yeah I know, I feel you! This is a Hagfish which is the first MONSTER I am going to talkie about!



 First thing is first, do you know who they escape from predators? They produce slime out of there mucus glands. They keep going and going until they run out, but that will take a LONG, LONG TIME!
Now have long, skinny bodies, at 16 to 32 inches LONG!!! Also there eyes! There eyes are under there skin! That's why they have BAD, BAD eye sight! That's why they are mostly blind and they use the weird looking tenticles that they have on there head to sense whre they are going!


They tie there selves up in a knot to...

1. To remove slime from it's body!
2. To grasp food!
3. And To attract a mate..

 
Here are 5 cool, sort of interesting facts about hagfish!

• Hagfish have scales
• Hagfish have 5 - 15 pairs of gills
• Hagfish don't have paired fins
• Hagfish can be pink, brown, and black!
• Hag fish have 8, the number ocho tentacles.

You know how we have nicknames? Like Sofie, Jen, Zay Zay, and Rob! Well, the hagfish has a nickname!
It's..................."SLIME EELS!" Intense right!?!??  Do you know where Hagfish lives.... IN WATER! Not any water..... THE DEEP  DARK BOTTOMLESS OCEAN! They are ocean scavengers and not much is not known about them! The really sad thing about them is.. is... well, they are endangered. Lot's of animals are endangered! Like Polar Bears, Giant Panda, Snow Leopard, and the blue whale!




Hagfish eat fish! Alive!Actually they don't! They eat it dead! They use there powerful tongue to turn it inside out! They also don't necessarily eat either!  Gross right???  They suck... Yes! They suck the dead animal because they can't chew! They have no jaws! That's why my blog is called...." Lampreys and Hagfish....Jawlessfish!

                                 LAMPREYS!
Now, The scariest, ugliest, fish out of all..... LAMPREYS! I talked about Hagfish,which wasn't THAT scary by pictures and facts! But this picture will certainly want you to go back to Hagfish!


Ewwwwww! Do you see this blood suckers teeth?? I would HATE to be bitten by one of these!
But I guess some people don't mind.....



I can't BELIEVE that he wants to have a lamprey ON HIS HEAD! One of the reasons is because......
WE are one of the Lampreys predators! Because in China they actually have LAMPREY SOUP!!


Yes! Lamprey soup! No offence China but, I prefer chicken noodle soup! Just like the Hagfish, Lampreys are endangered!!!! There used to be LOADS!!!!   Mostly, the Lampreys are dying out around the Lakes in China because China made them  lunch!!!! I wonder why.......... Hmmmmmmmm.
Lampreys live in fresh AND salt water. Like lakes!

The OTHER reason is because they are parasitic and parasitic means that they live on or in any other creature and in this case they live on....

See, it needs the blood of other creatures... but that's why I wouldn't like to be that guy and can't belive he wants that lamprey on HIM! Anyways, lets' talk about there bodies!



It's body is slim and eel like but, it's very similar to the shape of the Hagfish but, it's skinner and is not slimy so that's why they are not called the "Slime Eels". There eyes are large and not under there skin like the Hagfish. You know how we have a skeleton??? They do to but, they don't have bones! Interesting right?!?!? They have a cartilaginous skeleton!
Guess what!?!? Our human ears and parts of our nose is made of  cartillage!!! :)
                                                


SOME SUPER FUN FACTS!!!!

• They have NO scales!
• They can be 5 to 40 inches long!
• They lack paired fins!
• They have seven gills!
• They have LARGE eyes! ( Unlike the hagfish.)
• They have one nostril on the top of there head!

Woah!! Weren't those facts SUPER FUN!?!??! It was wasen't it! :) Good, because that's it!

NOW, it's time to review and discover there......

                            DIFFERENCES!!!!

1. Lamprey's eyes are large and not under there skin like the hagfish.
2. Hagfish produce slime to protect there selves and lampreys don't produce slime.
3. Lamprey feed on live cretures and Hagfish eat dead or dying fish.
4. Hagfish have ANY teeth and Lampreys do.
5. Lampreys don't have nicknames like the Hagfish do.
6. Hagfish have tenticles and lamprey dosen't.
7. Lampreys don't have scales and hagfish do.

Well! That's my blog!!! Thank you SO much for reading it!!!!! Your awesome! Please comment on my blog!!!!! I hope you learend alot!!!! Byeeeeeeeeeee.....



                                                                                              

Taxonomy of a Labrador! :)

Hey everybody! I'm back and in this blog I'm going to teach you about Levels of Classification.
Exciting right??? Also I'm going to help you to understand Taxonomy. The animal I'm going to use for an example of taxonomy is a dog and not just any DOG..... A LABRADOR!!!!!!!!!!

Here is a picture of a Labrador! Cute Right? Yeah I know! :) BTW I have a Lab!! Her name is Daisy and she is the sweetest thing! I love her and that's why I choose a Labrador as my example! :)

So First thing is First!!! ( Awwww Its so cute ) Anyway Here are the levels of  Classification.

The Levels of Classification

• Kingdom
• Phylum
• Class
• Order
• Family
• Genus
• Species

Now, you think that " Well I will never like EVER remember this ya" Well here are 2 easy ways to remember the levels of classification!

1. Kings Play Cards On FAT Green Stools ( I use this one )
2. King Phillip Came over For Good Spaghetti , but this one is weird.....

Kings Stands For: Kingdom
Play Stands For: Phylum
Cards Stands For: Class
On Stands For: Order
Fat Stands For: Family
Green Stands For: Genus
Stools Stand For:  Species

Here is a picture of the Levels Of Classification.......


Now the levels are labeled by MOST  specific to LEASTspecific. To call an animal or any living species
by there Greek & Latin name you have to call it by it's genus and species name. So a Labrador's Greek & Latin name is Canis Familiaris. Want me to show you how I got the name and no I didn't use Ask.com
to find it. I used research and here... this is how you classify a Labrador! ( THEY ARE SO CUTE )

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Canidae
Genus: Canis
Species: Canis Familiaris
Genus + Species =  Canis Familiaris!!!!
That's how I got the Greek& Latin name!!! Heheheheheh!

So now I'm going to tell you what ALL about what those fancy smanchy words mean!

1. Animalia: Is an animal like cats, mice, and tigers.
2. Chordata: Has a spinal cord like fish, birds, and dolphin's.
3. Mammalia: Gives milk to there babies, breathes air, and has hair like elephants and monkeys.
4. Carnivora: Eats meat like bears, gorillas, and crocodiles.
5. Canidae: Its a Canine and all dogs are canines so are wolves and coyotes.
6. Canis: Its In a family with wolves, coyotes, and foxes.
7. Canis Familiaris: Its the Greek & Latin name for it and other animals that have this name are Collies, German Shepard's, and yorkies!

So, if YOU want to ever want to classify an animal that you like this is how! And if you think that " A dog is a dog and a cat is a cat!" Well there are tons of dogs out there! Are a chiwawua and a great Dane alike!??!
No way! A great Dane is bigger than me if it stands up! Here is a picture to show you!



And you think " A plant is a plant!?" WELL! Is a Venus fly trap and a lavender ANYTHING ALIKE! Yes, they are both plants, but one eats flies and one uses the nutrients from the ground! Take a look at these pictures....

 Does this look like this.....


I used these picture's to show you how not EVERYTHING is alike! Yes, you can go, " This is a plant."
Or, " This is an animal." They are, but the Venus Fly Trap eats bugs and Lavender doesn't. And no flower can have look perfectly like one another!

Hey! Lets review! A Labrador is....
 Eats meat....


Has a spinal cord....


Breathes, has hair and gives milk to its babies!!

Is an animal......


Is in the family with wolves, coyotes, and foxes...


It's a canine like wolves and all other dogs...


And if you think that you learned a lot or want to learn more you can go to this website!
http://www.brainpop.com/science/diversityoflife/classification/
http://www.brainpop.com/science/diversityoflife/dogs/