Reflections on Virtual trip to Chek Jawa

During the English lessons, our teacher gave us an assignment which was going on a virtual tour of Chek Jawa. I did not even know where exactly is Chek Jawa. After doing some researches on the Google website, Chek Jawa was actually located in Pulau Ubin, Singapore.

This was what fascinated me. This is actually the sea stars. This is the one which is knobby with purple branching sponge. Sea stars exhibit a superficially radial symmetry. They typically have five "arms" which radiate from a central disk. 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.

I always thought that some of the rare species found in Chek Jawa can be seen in Singapore. After finding where is Chek Jawa, the rare species of animals and plants are actually found there. If I have the opportunity to go on the tour in Chek Jawa (located in Pulau Ubin), I will definitely go and have some pictures taken with the sea stars.Information are taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_starPictures are taken from: http://chekjawa.nus.edu.sg/ria/text/223.htmhttp://chekjawa.nus.edu.sg/ria/text/194.htm