GEOL 11042 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Fauna, Beach Ball
8 Nov 2020
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All organisms are extremely well adapted to the environment in which they live. In many cases, it is possible to examine the morphology (form, shape) of the organism and deduce their lifestyle. As simple examples, it is easy to deduce that fish are adapted for swimming by noting their streamlined form and possession of fins, rather than legs. Similarly, it is easy to conclude that sponges live a sedentary life, attached to the seafloor, because they are rather irregular in shape and show no evidence of anatomy for locomotion, or moving around. It is necessary to know just a few terms to characterize the lifestyles of animals that live in the oceans and in freshwater. We will focus primarily on marine animals, those that live in the sea, because much of the fossil record is represented by marine organisms. Marine animals may either be vagrant (capable of moving around) or sessile (fixed or unable to move about).
