Aquascope Facts
Cliff and rocky beach ecology

Modular construction

Botryllus schlosseri onDilsea carnosa 24 kB
The colony building sea squirt Botryllus schlosseri upon the red alga Dilsea carnosa. Each line in the star formation is an individual. The whole colony is about 7 cm wide.


Besides many of the creatures on cliffs and rocks being attached and unable to hunt food, many of them are also colony builders. . The colony building creatures are special because they are composed of a number of similar units that are connected or modules.

Sexual and asexual reproduction

Colony building creatures have two similarities: they can produce eggs and sperms and reproduce sexually; they also have the ability to reproduce asexually when new individuals grow out of older so that many similar units arise. When sexual reproduction takes place, hereditary material from two different individuals are mixed and the offspring are the result of different mixtures and therefore genetically different.
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Cliffs and rocks are fantastic!
Zoning and flecked occurrence
Animals that are attached
Modular construction
Variation and change
Variations in water level
Wave exposure
Both cliffs and rocks
Freshwater and saltwater
Geography, climate and history
Organisms life cycles
Organisms effect on each other
Energy and the flow of material

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