As humans transport goods all over the planet we also unintentionally transport animals and plants to places that they do not belong. We call these animals and plants non-native or alien species. If conditions are right for the non-native species they can become established and outcompete our own native species for food and habitat. This is when they are called invasive species and could have a negative impact on our native species sharing the same habitat. This is bad news considering all the other pressures on our wildlife.
How do they travel such great distances?
One of the major transporters of marine non-native species are the large goods ships that travel from one side of the planet to the other, taking on ballast water in various ports and ejecting the water at their destination. Ballast water aids the huge ships to balance. At ports, as containers are removed from the ship, ballast water is taken on to keep the whole vessel evenly balanced. The problem is that the water in ports often contains tiny floating animals that are the offspring (or larvae) of mussels, crabs, clams and other invertebrates. These larvae get sucked into the ballast tanks and survive onboard until ejected at the destination port, which is sometimes on the other side of the planet. These animals would not normally have reached these far off destinations naturally.
Aquariums and aquaculture, or the farming of aquatic plants and animals, are another two major contributors towards the invasive non-native species spread. Shellfish farms import juveniles to grow and breed from but these can often escape captivity or have other species attached to them. The Manila clam (Tapes philippinarum) from the Indo-Pacific region was introduced for farming in the south of England in 1989, but has since escaped! Of all mollusc farming in the world, the Manila clam makes up an astounding 25% and this is because the species can grow quickly and reproduce in great numbers. It is also very hardy and has started to spread in the south of England and is breeding with one of our own native species. To learn more about Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) in Wales check out the Wales Biodiversity Partnership INNS pages.
A third, less well-known method of transportation of non-native species is by rafting – or attaching to floating items. Numerous bivalves (eg. mussels, cockles, oysters) have crossed the Atlantic Ocean attached to bait buckets, buoys, crates and other sturdy plastic items. They wash ashore usually after particularly violent storms and are then stranded with the rest of the marine litter. We call these bivalves ‘rafting bivalves’. They attach to their ‘raft’ using byssus threads or cement, depending on the kind of bivalve. Byssus threads are produced by a special gland in the foot of the animal to allow the shell to anchor onto hard surfaces such as rocks. You may have seen this with mussels on our rocky shores. Oysters and other similar bivalves use a special cement to glue themselves onto hard surfaces and so they are also able to attach to the plastic rafts. I am especially interested in learning more about marine bivalve shells that attach to ocean plastics and then wash ashore on our beaches and have started to add them to our Marine Bivalve Shells of the British Isles website.
To find out more about Rafting Bivalves check out next week's blog.
Ming is an Ocean Quahog clam with the scientific name of Arctica islandica. It was nicknamed Ming when scientists discovered that it would have been born in 1499 during the Ming Dynasty of China. Ocean Quahogs grow up to 13 cm long and the oldest one fished off the coast of Iceland was 507 years old, making it the oldest non-colonial animal known to science.
Where do Ocean Quahogs live?
Ocean Quahogs belong to a big group of shells called ‘bivalves’. Most bivalves are filter feeders and suck in water through their tube-like siphons (you can see in the photo, the two holes surrounded by darker pink). While lying on the seabed or buried in the sand or mud bivalves can safely take food particles and oxygen from the water.
Ming was collected from the deep waters around Iceland but we get this species in British and Irish waters too, although it does not live to such a great age here. The waters surrounding our islands are warmer than those surrounding Iceland, which is just south of the Arctic Circle. Warm waters hold less dissolved oxygen than cold water and so around the UK the Ocean Quahog needs to work harder to get oxygen and so has a faster metabolism. A faster metabolism means that it grows quicker but when animals have a fast metabolism they do not live as long. In the colder waters surrounding Iceland the Ocean Quahog has a slower metabolism and so grows slowly and may even live for longer than 507 – scientists just haven’t found an older one yet!
How long do animals live?
Some other bivalve molluscs can live for a long time as well. Giant clams can grow to 4 feet long (1.2 m) and live for around 100 years. They have tiny plant cells in their tissue that photosynthesize producing energy from the sun to give to the clam. This is why they reach such a large size – talk about plant power!
The Geoduck, which lives in the coastal waters of western Canada and USA, can live for 164 years. It is known as Gooey duck and has large meaty siphons that are a popular food for humans!
Come to our Insight gallery at Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd - National Museum Cardiff to to find out more about how long animals can live for and much more...
An introduction to Ming the clam can be found here:
At 507 years of age Ming the clam broke the Guinness World Record as the oldest animal in the world. Collected off the coast of Iceland in 2006, initial counts of the annual rings of the shell put the age at around 405 years old, which was still a record breaker. However, in 2013 scientists re-examined the shell using more precise techniques and the count rose to 507 years old.
This is what remains of the actual shell that was used in the aging study. At 507 years the Ocean Quahog is the oldest non-colonial animal in the world. We say ‘non-colonial’ because some animals such as corals can live to over 4,000 years but they are made of lots of animals (called polyps) stuck together as a collective form. Of the animals that exist alone the Ocean Quahog is the oldest and the Greenland Shark comes in second at around 400 years old.
If you’d like to see Ming face-to-face (well, shell-to-face!) and find out how scientists discovered Ming’s age then come to Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd – National Museum Cardiff and visit our Insight gallery. As well as learning about Ming you can find out about Freshwater snails, prehistoric mammals and lots more....
Dippy yw ein henw ni ar y sgerbwd deinosor hoff, ac rydyn ni’n gwybod fod ganddo hanes diddorol. Ond ai Diplodocus fu’r enw ar y ffosilau yma erioed? Wel, na, mae hynny'n annhebygol...
Rydyn ni wedi clywed sut y daeth 'Dippy' i Lundain ym 1905 yn gast plastr o'r esgyrn ffosil gwreiddiol yn Amgueddfa Carnegie, Pittsburgh. A, diolch i balaentolegwyr, gallwn ei ddychmygu'n anifail byw yn pori coedwigoedd Jwrasig, 145-150 miliwn o flynyddoedd yn ôl, yn diogelu ei hun rhag ysglyfaethwyr gyda'i gynffon chwip.
Ond beth am weddill y stori? O ble ddaeth y ffosilau hyn?
Ym 1898, diolch i'r diwydiant dur, Andrew Carnegie oedd un o'r dynion mwyaf cyfoethog yn y byd. Roedd yn brysur yn rhoi ei arian i lyfrgelloedd ac amgueddfeydd. Pan glywodd am y deinosoriaid anferth oedd yn cael eu darganfod yng ngorllewin America, dywedodd rywbeth fel “Dwi eisiau un o rheina!” ac anfonodd dîm o Amgueddfa Carnegie i chwilio am yr “anifail mwyaf anferth yma”.
Felly, ym 1899, yn nyddiau olaf Hen Orllewin America, cafodd sgerbwd Diplodocus ei ddarganfod yn Sheep Creek, Albany County, ar wastadeddau Wyoming. Y dyddiad, fel mae'n digwydd, oedd 4 Gorffennaf, Diwrnod Annibyniaeth America. Ac felly y cafodd y ffosil ei lysenw cyntaf gan dîm Carnegie, 'The Star Spangled Dinosaur'. Ond, ymhen hir a hwyr, cafodd y rhywogaeth newydd hon ei chyhoeddi yn swyddogol fel Diplodocus Carnegii.
Byddai safle'r cloddio wedi edrych yn debyg iawn i'r safle tebyg yma gerllaw yn Bone Cabin Quarry, yn yr un flwyddyn.
Mae'r lluniau yma o ddiwedd y 1800au o rannau eraill o Albany County, Wyoming, yn ein helpu i greu darlun (o Wikimedia Commons).
Enw cyntaf Dippy, 'Unkche ghila'
Ond beth am frodorion y gwastadeddau? Oni fyddai'r brodorion wedi darganfod ffosilau deinosor cyn y gwladychwyr Ewropeaidd? Yn ei llyfr, Fossil Legends of the First Americans, mae Adrienne Mayor yn dangos y gwnaethon nhw. Dychmygodd y brodorion ffurfiau gwreiddiol y ffosilau fel Madfallod Anferth, Adar y Taranau a Bwystfilod Dŵr, ac roedd sawl un o'r casglwyr deinosoriaid enwog yn dewis brodorion yn dywyswyr. Mae'r llyfr yma'n dangos fod y brodorion wedi sylwi ar y prosesau daearegol fel difodiant, llosgfynyddoedd a newid yn lefel y môr a’u bod yn sail i’w credoau am ffosilau.
Y Lakota Sioux oedd brodorion y gwastadeddau lle cafwyd hyd i ffosilau Diplodocus. Ganwyd James LaPointe, pobl Lakota, ym 1893. Dyma hanes a glywodd pan yn fachgen:
“Roedd y Sioux yn galw'r creaduriaid hyn, sy'n cymharu'n fras â deinosoriaid, yn 'Unkche ghila'. Roedd y creaduriaid siâp rhyfedd yn crwydro'r tir mewn grwpiau mawr, ac yna'n diflannu. Mae esgyrn anferth y creaduriaid hyn, sydd bellach wedi diflannu, yn nhiroedd garw de a dwyrain y Bryniau Du. Dyw e ddim yn glir os wnaeth yr unkche ghila ddiflannu, ond mae daeareg y Sioux yn nodi eu bod yn dal i fod o gwmpas pan gododd y Bryniau Du o'r ddaear."
Felly, trwy law Adrienne Mayor, dyma roi'r gair olaf i Wasanaeth Parciau Cenedlaethol yr UDA:
"Mae straeon a chwedlau'r brodorion yn cynnig persbectif unigryw i arwyddocâd ysbrydol traddodiadol ffosilau ac yn gyfle heb ei ail i ddangos y cysylltiad anhepgor rhwng pobl a natur." Jason Kenworthy a Vincent Santucci, A Preliminary Inventory of National Park Service Paleontological Resources in Cultural Resource Contexts.
Our new role as marine curatorial assistants within the invertebrate biodiversity section of Amgueddfa Cymru has so far not disappointed in offering insights into the tremendous diversity of life in our seas. After the first ten weeks of working to curate and conserve a large set of marine monitoring collections donated to the museum by Natural Resources Wales, we’ve already managed to log over 5,000 records of predominately marine invertebrates from around the welsh coast. These records have included starfish, polychaete worms, bryozoans, molluscs and anemones, to name only a few. Monitoring collections are essential for research in understanding the complexity of the natural world and diversity at many levels. To understand evolution, genetics and the morphological variation of species for example, specimens from many years are often needed, something which is not usually possible with live animals. These voucher specimens also hold valuable information about when and where species live and can be used for verification when the identification of a species is in doubt. An important contemporary issue is that specimens held in collections offer a wealth of baseline information which can be used as a comparison against current observations. This is essential when looking at how climatic changes are impacting marine life.
For research to happen, specimens must be properly cared for, with their information being easily accessible. Our role can be predominately split into two parts: office and laboratory work. Work in the office encompasses everything from sorting species vials into classification groups, the logging of each vial from analogue to digital formats into a database, where locality information (e.g. sediment type and depth) and method of collection is inputted, to printing new labels for the vials, each with a unique reference number. In the laboratory, the number of specimens in each vial must be counted to accurately record species abundance, vials are then topped up with ethanol, labelled and rehoused into larger jars according to their classification groups. This method of double tubing vials into larger containers acts as not only an accessible way for a particular species to be found, but also as a preventative to stop specimens drying out. These new specimens will be added to an already impressive collection of marine invertebrates at the museum, with over 750,000 specimens. Hopefully, they will be used for generations to come to compare what we know today about the unknowns of the future.