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Thursday, February 12, 2009 Y 7:58 PM The beauty of Chek Jawa is that several different ecosystems can be seen in one small area. These ecosystems and the plants and animals found there are no longer common in Singapore. They are also fast disappearing elsewhere in the world. One of the examples is sea stars which are commonly known as starfish.  Sea stars are going to extinct soon and the beauty of the sea stars are so beautiful. There are many different types of sea stars with many different shapes, colors and sizes. Most sea stars have five arms or multiples of five. The arms radiate from a central disc. A few species have multiples of six. Their backs are covered with knobby spines and their undersides with rows of tiny tube feet. Each tube foot is tipped with a small suction cup which helps it hang on tight to things and pry open mussels or clams. It can stay motionless on a rock for weeks. Sea stars eat by inserting their inside-out stomach into a shell and digesting their prey. When the meal is done they retract their stomach back into their bodies. Sea stars exhibit a superficially radial symmetry. They typically have five "arms" which radiate from a central disk (pentaradial symmetry). However, the evolutionary ancestors of echinoderms are believed to have had bilateral symmetry. Sea stars do exhibit some superficial remnant of this body structure, evident in their larval pluteus forms.
Sea stars do not rely on a jointed, movable skeleton for support and locomotion (although they are protected by their skeleton), but instead possess a hydraulic water vascular system that aids in locomotion. The water vascular system has many projections called tube feet on the ventral face of the sea star's arms which function in locomotion and aid with feeding. Sea stars usually hunt for shelled animals such as oysters and clams. They have two stomachs. One stomach is used for digestion, and the other stomach can be extended outward to engulf and digest prey. This feature allows the sea star to hunt prey that is much larger than its mouth would otherwise allow. Sea stars are able to regenerate lost arms. A new sea star may be regenerated from a single arm attached to a portion of the central disk.
As for our personal point of view, we have always thought that animals and plants in Chek Jawa are seen in Singapore, but we am wrong. They are found at Pulau Ubin and we really found it intresting to find out so many others animal and plant. And they are so beautiful, it will be a pity if we don’t cherish what we have now, or else these will be extinct very soon and we can pass it down to our next generation. Starfishs are very special animal and they have very special festures too. If we have the opportunity to go to Chek Jawa, we would really want to visit and take a picture with the starfish!
Taken at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_star & http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/a001.htm Photos are taken from yahoo and google ! Vanessa && Yixn :D
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Vanessa Tan 2E2; Respect 2! Studying in ChongBoonSecondarySchool! This is MY Englishhh blog :D Respect me &&& I respect youu tooo! No cbox (!)(: Bygones
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