Date: January 10nd, 2017

Name: Lucia

Biology 11 Unit 9 Assignment 1: How do sponges, cnidarians, flatworms, and roundworms

obtain food? Virtual Lab
Instructions:
Please complete the How do sponges, cnidarians, flatworms, and roundworms obtain food
Virtual Lab.
External Link:
http://www.glencoe.com/sites/common_assets/science/virtual_labs/LS13/LS13.html
Read the information and procedures provided in the lab and complete the journal questions
(provided below). Please note you should be answering your questions in detail, by providing
support in the form of data values (external or from the lab) and/or scientific
information/research to explain your statements.
Table/Graph Section:
Table 1: Obtaining Food
Name of organism

Types of feeder

Portuguese Man-of-War

Predator

Jellyfish

Predator

Tube Sponge

Filter Feeder

Image of organism (insert

picture/sketch)

Tapeworm

Parasite

Roundworm

Parasite

Coral

Filter Feeder

Sea Anemone

Predator

Rope Sponge

Filter Feeder

Journal Questions:
1. Describe each of the four types of feeders identified in this activity. Explain how various
invertebrates have adapted to feeding in their environment.
Predators hunt and kill their prey for food. Many predators have adapted over time to kill
their prey more efficiently. For example, some snakes use poisonous venom to kill small
animals such as mice. Scavengers obtain food from the remains of dead organisms. A
strong sense of smell proves to be an important evolutionary advantage for scavengers.
Parasites obtain food from a living host organism. Parasites have adapted glucocalyx,
which are small hooks that help them stay attached to their hosts intestinal wall. Filter
feeders obtain food by filtering bacteria, algae, protozoans and other materials from the
water in which they live. Filter feeders have adapted to move water through themselves
extremely efficiently.
2. Why are filter-feeders usually stationary organisms?
Filter feeders are usually sessile because they cant hunt for their food. They get their
nutrients from the water that flows naturally though them, thus they do not need to be
motile.
3. Early scientists classified sponges as plants. Based on your observations of the sponges
feeding system, why do you think scientists now classify sponges as animals?
I think that scientists now classify sponges as animals because they are multicellular,
heterotrophic, and their embryo development resembles that of an animal.
4. Jellyfish cannot swim rapidly, yet they are efficient predators. How are they adapted to
predatory life despite their lack of speed?
Although jellyfish cannot swim quickly to chase their prey, they have adapted special
cells called cnidocytes. These cells are triggered by movement or another stimulus to
shoot out and sting prey, paralyzing them.
5. Why are scavengers usually found in the lower part of the coral reef habitat?
Scavengers usually stick to the bottom of the ocean because that is where their food is.
Dead fish and other aquatic animals usually sink to the ocean floor.
6. How do internal parasites keep from being washed out of their hosts bodies in body
fluids or wastes?
Intestinal parasites have the evolutionary advantage of hooks which help them attach to
the intestinal wall of their host. They also have an outer covering called glucocalyx which
ensure that the parasite does not get digested.

7. How do the methods for obtaining food change as an organisms complexity increases?
As organisms evolve through natural selections their predator/prey relationships evolve
as well. For some animals natural selection will help them become harder to catch, for
others it will help them become better hunters.