Triple-level Marine Life Quiz - Answers

1a) Common cuttlefish 1b) It's a courting male 1c) 'Sea grapes'	1
2a) Scampi 2b) In burrows in soft mud in deep water 2c) Dublin Bay prawn, Norway lobster, langoustine	2
3a) Brittle stars 3b) Plankton and suspended particles 3c) 10,000	3
4a) A starfish 4b) The spiny starfish (Marthasterias glacialis) 4c) Removing 'free-loaders'	4
5a) Plumose anemone 5b) Orange, green or brown 5c) Pieces break off to form new anemones, a type of asexual reproduction or 'budding'	5
6a) A sea slug 6b) Both! 6c) Sea lemon (Archidoris pseudoargus)	6
7a) No! 7b) The bryozoans - also called sea mosses even though they are animals! This is hornwrack 7c) Lemon	7
8a) A sponge 8b) Filter feeds 8c) Bores into rock (a boring sponge!)	8
9a) You would get a powerful sting! 9b) A lesser weever 9c) Soak the affected body part in water as hot as you can take	9
10a) A dog-whelk 10b) Barnacles and mussels, by drilling into their shells 10c) Females grow male sexual organs and become sterile	10
11a) The wrasse (corkwing) 11b) It's a courting male 11c) Building a nest	11
12a) Coral 12b) Sea pen 12c) It can produce pulses of light	12
13a) It's re-growing from a single arm 13b) Common starfish (Asterias rubens) 13c) The inlet to its hydraulic system (madreporite)	13
14a) Thornback ray 14b) The (now inappropriately named) common skate 14c) They breathe in through holes on the top of their head (spiracles)	14
15a) No, they're in a 'pre-mating embrace' 15b) Just after she has moulted her armour 15c) Omnivore	15
16a) A worm (flatworm to be precise) 16b) Candy stripe flatworm 16c) Tape worms, liver flukes etc.	16
17a) Blenny 17b) Shanny, very shallow water or even out of the water 17c) Almost black (with white lips)	17
18a) Sea squirts 18b) Lightbulb sea squirts 18c) They have a very basic dorsal chord, the forerunner of the backbone in more advanced animals	18
19a) Yes! 19b) Lion's mane 19c) Young whiting, or other members of the cod family	19
20a) Conger eel 20b) Conger conger 20c) Deep water in the mid-Atlantic	20

Give yourself 1 point for every correct Shallow answer, 2 points for a Middling and 3 points per Deep answer, for a possible 120 points.
If you got fewer than 10 points you're barely paddling, but if you got most of the Shallow answers and perhaps a number of the others right, anywhere between 20 and 40 points shows that you're reasonably sound when it comes to basic UK marine life ID.
If you got 50-80, people will say of you that you're deep - you know your stuff. They may want you as a buddy. And if you got anything over 90, you're probably a marine biologist.
See the Questions?

| Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email a Friend | Print this

SEARCH

Home | Marine Life Archive |