A tiny, colorless ball floats near the surface of the sea. It is one of several million eggs laid in the water by a common starfish. Within three or four days, a soft-bodied creature hatches from...
Echinoderms
An animal shaped like a star. An animal that looks like a pincushion. An animal that resembles a cookie. An animal that looks like a flower. And an animal that looks like a vegetable. All these...
Stone skeletons
When you were born, your skeleton was already inside you. However, there are creatures in the sea that are born without skeletons---so they make their own. But their skeletons are on the outside! ...
The “flower” animals
An animal that looks like a bag full of flowers and turns somersaults when it wants to go somewhere sounds like something out of a fairy tale. But there really is such a creature. It's called a sea...
An animal made of water
A strange shape moved slowly through the dark-blue water of a tropical sea. It looked like a see-through umbrella. But instead of a handle, it had ragged, lacy strips and strings hanging down from...
Coelenterates
The sea is the home of a large group of animals that really aren't much more than a stomach with tentacles. These animals are called coelenterates (sih tuh rayts). The name comes from two Greek...
Jewels from the sea
People have always looked upon sea shells as beautiful, precious objects. As long as thirty thousand years ago, sea shells were used as jewelry. Necklaces made of sea shells have been found in the...
Collecting sea shells
> Many people enjoy collecting sea shells as a hobby. But collecting sea > shells is more than a hobby. It's actually part of a science---the > science of conchology (kahng uh jee). So, if you >...
Sea slugs
If you have ever played in a garden or meadow, you've probably seen slugs. A slug is a snail without a shell. It's a little brownish-yellow lump that crawls very slowly. Usually it has two \"feelers"...
The “two-shelled” ones
The creature lay inside its boxlike shell, with the lid open. From under the lid, a fringe of short, thin tentacles stuck out all around. Among the tentacles gleamed many tiny, round, beautiful blue...