Rays :D

     I'm here it's me Julian. I'm here not to get you bored, but to teach you about rays. Rays can be cool if you think they are. I think they are cool because they are flappy, if that is a word. Oh yeah, if you don't know what rays look like here is a picture of multiple rays.


Body and Tail (of a ray)
   Do you ever wonder what the shape of a ray is? Rays have a flat body and a long tail that can grow over 10 feet long. That is a long tail right there. They have large chest fins. I would never want to have chest fins because they sound weird, but it is normal for rays. They are connected to the rays body to form the rays discs. The disc is circular, oval, wedged-shaped or triangular. Some bodies of rays settle in the sea bed and some just love swimming.
           Can you see the body shape and the long tail?
What Do Rays Eat and How Do They Eat
     You wonder how do rays eat? All rays eat different things, but all of them only eat meat meaning they are carnivores. They eat fish, crustaceans, mullosks, and worms. They mostly hunt on the bottom of the ocean.
     They eat their food somewhat normal. First, they find their meal. Second, they remove their meal from the ocean floor. Finally, they they grab the meal and crush it with their teeth. Then they enjoy their good tasting meal.


Rays Defences: Ka-ra-te
   Rays defenses isn't the chopping wood that we do. They use their whip like tail to cut an animal, sting enemies with a poisonous stinging tail, or they puncture enemies with the hard bony spines. They rarely use their mouths to attack animals. In the human world there are many ways to hurt an animal. Another good defense is what the army does on land, but the rays do it in water. The rays camoflauge in the sea bed.
     This is what they use to sting enemies.

    If you get stung by a ray, hopefully you don't, you would have a fever, get the chills, have naseu, vomit, shake, you can' move, you have seizures, and have decreased blood preassure for as long as 48 hours. Once again don't get stung by a ray.
 

Other Interesting Facts About Rays.
Rays probaly are smarter than sharks because a rays brain weighs more than its rest of its body. Thats a big brain.


They are also very curious. If a diver jumps in rays will observe the intruder. INTRUDER ALERT! They live all over the world. The earliest known ray is the guitarfish. Just because it doesn't have the word ray it is still a ray. It was alive in dinosour time.
Compare and Contrast
  I'm going to compare and contrast a shark and a ray.
   Both have jaws or else they would be in my blog a little bit of  ago with the jawless fish. Both also have cartilage so they are put in the same fish group, cartilaginous fish. If you didn't know what cartilage it is that wiggly thing thing on the bottom of your ear.


They also both have tails, but they use for different things.
             

Can you see that they both have tails?
 
    Time for the differences. First difference is the ray from a shark is that the shark has its gills on the side and the rays have there gills on the bottom of their body. Cooooooooooool. Oh yeah the rays body is flat and the sharks is torpedo shaped. That is a big difference. For my last difference it is wait a moment. Here it is the use of tails. The rays use their long tails for defense and the sharks use it for manuvering. Look at the tail.
         

Difference  (between a ray and a skate)
You probably don't know what a skate is. If you think it is a skate that you skate with your wrong. A skate is this.
                       
I don't know why they called it that but they look nothing alike.
Okay lets start with the differences know. The first difference is rays babies come out alive like humans and skates lay eggs like birds. The second difference is that skates have small teeth kind've like baby teeth and rays teeth are plate like teeth for crushing their prey. Oh yeah and my last difference most rays are bigger than skates.

   My Favorite Ray
     Can you guess what my favorite ray is? I bet you can't. Well, if you guessed Blind Electric Ray you are correct. This ray is my favorite because I like electrical things and I wanted to know why it is blind.

           
    Do you remember my blog about the Levels of Classification. Well the Blind Electric Ray's name is Typhlonarke aysoni. Another name I can't pronounce. It has two nicknames blind legged torpedo or round electric ray.
     It lives in Eastern New Zealand. If you don't know where that is its in the east of New Zealand.



  It is a kind've of short ray. It is only 15 inches in length. It also has a short tail and one dorsal fin.
   
   It has a thin nearly circular chest fins disc with invisible eyes. I want to be invisible not just invisible eyes. That will be so cool.
    Its pelvic fins are divided in to two. Pelvic fins are the fins in the area. It is a weak swimmer and it pushes itself with the pelvic fins.
   It has two kidney shaped electrical organs beside the head so it can shock people for defense.


I hoped you learned something about rays and had a lot of fun. See you next time.


 
    

The Features of Shaks

Its me Julian. I'm here to blog about my favorite thing in science, sharks because  You might think as sharks as the scariest thing ever because it can kill you. They are known as the worst thing in the ocean. Actually we kill more of them than they kill us. Most of them are not dangerous to humans.

 Yes, I know the title is spelled wrong but if you listen to this video you will know what I'm talking about.

   THE FACTS

      I know you think there are not a lot of species of sharks. Well, there are over 400 species of sharks. Yes, the big 4-0-0. Out of those 400 species only 30 species are dangerous to us humans and 12 attack humans on a regular basis. In this picture there are only some of the species out of the 400.



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You might not know the shape of a shark. Maybe you can't describe the shape. Well not all sharks have the same shape. Most of them have a torpedo shaped body. Yes like an actual torpedo. If you think, what does a torpedo shaped shark look like? Well it looks like this:







They look so alike.

You never ever want to touch a shark because you're afraid it is going to bite you. Well to find out how a shark feels biologists had to touch the sharks. They rubbed them from head to tail and they felt smooth. When they rubbed it from tail to head the skin felt rough like sandpaper.

 I bet you they thought it is weird to have the different textures, but it is true. It depends upon your body. Our bodies feel smooth up or down.

    I guarantee you that you don't know what a baby shark is called. They are called pups. When you think of pups you think of small dogs. You can't really tell the difference between a baby shark and an adult shark. Its size is different and how it lives is different. You think the baby sharks are cuter than the adult sharks, but they are the same.



      You never want to see or even touch a sharks teeth, right? The shape of a sharks teeth are triangular. Our teeth are squared in a way. Triangular teeth that are sharper compared to our square teeth. So they must be able to take a way stronger bite than us, but some sharks can't take that big hard bite like us. You think how many rows of teeth do the sharks have. It has three rows of teeth on each jaw! So if one falls out a new one comes in. It it is like a factory.


    Do you ever wonder how many senses a shark has? You probably don't but i'm am still gonna tell you any ways. Unlike us sharks have 6 senses and we have 5. When they are hunting for food if that type of shark has bad eye sight it can sense the electricity waves from the other fish and than eat them. Don't you wish we had that awesome sense. The smell is great for a shark. It can smell blood from a mile away. If I had that sense of smell I would go to Chick- Fil-A right away. Most sharks have good eye sight, but their sense of smell is way better.


3 Cool Sharks
     The first shark that I picked is the megamouth shark. I picked this shark because I thought it had a big mouth. Thats why it is called a megamouth shark.



     It weighs 3000 lbs. You think that is alot, but it is not even close to the heaviest shark in the world. It is  15 ft. in length. It swims from 4 mph. to 11.3 mph. That is about how fast an average human can run. Right? The megamouth shark can live up to 25 years. That is pretty long for a shark. They swim in hot and warm water in the deep ocean. It is not dangerous so don't be afraid. The megamouth shark eats plankton and jellyfish, 2 totally different things. They are extremely rare to find. Scientist don't know if they are endangered.




      The second shark I picked is the cat shark. I picked this because I love cats, but it looks nothing like a  cat.

     
     It weighs  10 lbs. which is a little bit more than a new born baby. It is really small at 3 ft. tall. It can live up to 15 years. They live in hot and warm water. It is not dangerous so don't be scared. They like to eat small fish, squid, and mollusks. So many choices. It is not endangered so there must be many of them.
  


    The  third and final shark I picked is the dusky shark. I picked this because it has a weird name. Listen to this DUSKY shark.

     The dusky shark weighs a strong 350 lbs. It is pretty tall at 13 ft. It can go 20 mph. Which is fast for a human. It can live up to 30 years . That is long for a shark. It lives on coastal waters . That means it lives near land. It is dangerous so watch out. It eats fish and squid. It doesn't have that many choices. It is almost endangered so don't kill it. FUN FACT: The dusky shark has the strongest bite out of all sharks.
    Well, I hoped you learned something about sharks. If you didn't post a comment. Well see ya next time