Drafts

The phylum Chordata contains a number of groups including, Vertebrata, Cyclostomata, Gnathostomata and so forth. There are five unifying characteristics that all chordates have at some point in their lifecycle, whether it be the embryonic, larval or adult stages. It is important to note that these do not have to be present at the same time during the organisms lifecycle. The first of these characterstics is the presence of a notochord. This is a rod that runs the length of of the body and provides a flexible yet ridged support structure. A second characteristic all Chordates have is a dorsal hallow nerve cord. This is a hallow nerve chord which runs the length of the body and, as the name suggests, sits dorsal to the notochord. Chordates also posses an iodine fixing gland. In many groups this organ is an endostyle, but it is similar to the thyroid. The last two characteristics chordates have is a post-anal tail and pharyngeal gill slits.

One example of a chordate is the Tunicate. As an adult, this blob shaped organism adheres to surfaces and filter feeds. At this stage of its life it is entirely sessile and the only chordate it possesses is its endostyle, which itself is necessary for filter feeding. However, the larval stage of the Tunicate is a small and motile organism. In this stage of life, all the traditional characteristics of a chordate are present. This demonstrates how important it is not to examine only one stage of life when organizing them into their classifications and exploring evolutionary history. Many traits are present when in development, and lost during adulthood.

Native Americans were given two contradicting stereotypes in the United States: bloodthirsty savages who attacked the white settlers or helpless victims who had their land and resources striped away from them. Although both stereotypes are opposite to each other, they possess the same stereotypical image of native attire and appearance. Native Americans are thought be be wearing feather, braids, beads and holding spears. Due to the fact that modern Indians do not wear that apparel in this era, society has a preconceived idea that they are no longer present in America. This idea is not true due to the large amount of Native American populations and land that still exists. Native Americans blend in with contemporary society.

The spider looks like a cellar spider you find around your house. At first it seemed like it was dead because it wasn't moving. However when i proceded to open the small plastic container where the spider was, the spider started to move. Maybe it was because i was letting some air in the container or the spider wanted to be free. I noticed the spider's eight legs are covered with many hairs.These particular arthropod had more than two eyes, i tried to count it but it was so small that i needed a microscope to do so. I was very intrigued wether i was observing a female or male spider because i wanted to know if that influenced it's behavior. I percieved that the spider was hanging upside down, i could only assume that it had maybe made it's own web. I never noticed a spider before and it was really interesting to observe a spider in class.

The spider is small, about three quarters of an inch and is suspended in the middle of the cup on its web.  You cannot see the web though so it looks as if it is floating.  It is awhite and black spider with a small body seperated into two parts.  The body kind of looks like an exclamation mark in microsoft word, the top being long and thi leaving into a circular part.  The 8 legs are coming off of this ciruclar part and are about 4 times the length of the body.  Each leg has two large bends and one slight bend.  the legs all come off the circular part going up at amost a 90 degree angle. At the first bend in the spiders legs, there is a band of black witha a stripe of whitegoing across it in the middle of the joint.

 As for behavior, the spider doesn't like to be on the cup itself, he likes to be on the web atlwast partially.  Shaking and tapping of the cup itself casued the spider to move.  It was trying to get out whenever the cup was moved.  If i covered the spot where the spider was then it would move to an open part of the cup and poke at the cup.

In this first class meeting I looked at a common basement spider that was in a clear plastic cup with a lid on it. The spider was light brown and fairly large compared to the other spiders that my classmates were looking at. This spider had 7 legs, which was unususal as most spiders have 8 legs. It looked as if one leg was ripped off prior to the spider being placed into the cup. The hind legs of the spider were significantly longer than the front legs. Each leg had 3 joints, and at each joint was a specific marking pattern that went black-white-black. The legs of this spider got progressivley thinner as they got further away from the body. I observed small hairs covering the legs and body of the spider. The most prominent marking on this spider was a black sesame seed shaped marking on the top of the head. I also noticed that the spider had 3 or 4 black eyes, and a mouth that resembled that of a crab. The spiders behavior was constant, varying between frantically moving around trying to escape, and not moving at all. I observed some thin white film that had stuck to the sides of the cup, which I predict was the spiders discharge in an attempt to spin a web. I asked myself why would the spider try to spin a web in such a confined space? The spider was symmertical if it were to be cut down the middle, with the exception of the missing leg on the left side. The thorax of the spider was where all of the leg protrusions came from, and the abdomen was signignificantly longer and the shape of a pea pod.

In class today, each student received their own spider in a plastic container to observe and write about. At first glance, the spider did not move much, so I observed its appearance.  My spider was a tan color with a variety of markings on its body. The first segment of the spider was tan and had eight legs coming out of it. The spider’s legs were tan with markings on its joints. At each joint, there were two black markings with a white marking in between. While the second segment of the spider was also tan, it had some darker, brown markings as well. Additionally, the spider had a black dot the very end of the second segment. Compared to the first segment, the second segment was much longer and wider.

In class on 09/07/18, 2:30 pm a cellar spider was brought into the room the spider had been placed inside a small sealed container compared to other cellar spiders in the classroom my individual spider was big. The cellar spider had been observed to be between two to three centimeters in lengnth and possibly one milimeter in width. The spider's body had distinct pattern two black dots above the head and eyes, one black dot on the tip of it's back abdomen, and a greyish yellow tint to it's overall coloration. Eight legs were found on the spider's body four on each side of the spider's abdomen and each leg had a specific black tint in where the legs were jointed. The spider remained relativey calm throught the investigation, though it did not respond to interaction as slightly shaking the cup did not produce movement from the spider.

There was a large spider in the plastic container given to me. While initially moving wildly, this quickly ceased. The spider itself has eight legs. It is light brown in color. However, the abdomen is darker in color and the largest part of the spiders body, other than its eight legs.

The spider seems too large for the small plastic container, given its long legs. Upon tapping the container, the spider began to move rapidly again, in what seemed to be a failed attempt to properly orientate itself into a proper position. (ie: to not be upsidedown). Occasionally the spider goes through spurts of rapid movement as it tried to properly orientate itself, followed by times of rest, where the spider will barely move.

The legs of the spider have two or more joints, two on the legs themselves where they bend. There are likely joints where the legs attach to the body proper as well. There is a darkened area at the first leg joints (not the possible joint that exists where the legs meet the body but the first joint on the leg itself, after 1cm or so). There may also be a somewhat darkened area, followed by a lighter or even transluent area at the second leg joint, although this is hard to see with the naked eye. There may be a joint between the thorax and abdomen of the spider, or at the very least this section has the capability of bending.

The legs of the spider are likely less than one milimeter in thickness but 2-3cm in length when fully extended. The body, from head to abdomen looks to be about 1cm in legnth and a few milimeters in thickness.Where the base of the leg touches the plastic container bends, suggesting the leg itself isnt entirely rigid. Though injury is possible.

The legs are too long to be kept in the container. While the front legs appear to be fine, they are smaller in size, the large back legs bundle and contort back on the spider. The legs themselves appear to have two joints where they are able to bend. This allows for three separate areas for the leg, an ascending, transverse, and a descending area. Of course, they could also straighten and you would be none the wiser at where this bending would occur save for the color designation. At each bend there are color bands of white and black that do not match the rest of the spider's coloration. While some legs have black, white, black bands, others consist of two bands of color or are solely white. The longest legs, which support the spider furthest from the head, are connected closest to the front of the spider.

The body of the spider has two clearly discernable segments. The smaller and most anterior of the two is where the eight legs connect. The larger segment shares the black coloration as the bands on the legs in two lines that meet at the end of the segment. The reverse side shows small red dots on the largest side closest to the point that the two segments join.

With the right light and angle, it is possible to observe the hairs on the spider's ;egs. At times the hairs make the legs themselves appear ti be segmented, but upon closer inspection of the larger rear legs it can be noted that this illusion comes from the fineness of the hairs. They are both thin and short, but stand on end.

The spider is relatively stationary when it is undisturbed. Whether this is a behavior due to its size and the confines of the container are unclear. It has been seen in more energetic states of movement where it is capable of both speed and dexterity. Again though, leg placement is hindered and the spider is not able to place/move as it desires (as far as one can tell of a spider's desires based on leg placement).

When holding the container upside down to view underneath the spider, it is possible to see two small protuberances from the head. these are most likely the pincers/fangs/grasping mechanism for the spider. Their movements and functionality remian unobserved.

Returnign to the structure of the legs, it seems that the third jointed segment, furthest from the body, ends in a thinner, curved part of the leg. It is this bowing in the leg that the spider stands upon.

The instructor came around to give each of us an object that he said was harmless, so already I was alarmed. He then came around and passed out jello shot cups with spiders inside of them. Luckily, I got a small one that was not yet on the move. The girl to my right requested a larger one, that dude was freaky. So sat inside of my jello cup was a little spider that was a golden brown color throughout the majority of it's body and he had 8 legs, I'm not actually sure if it was male or female though. However, he had 8 long spindly legs that each contained two joints, creating three segments. At each bend in the leg was a little white spot that was sandwiched by two black dots on either side. The remainder of the leg was the same golden brown color that matched the rest of the spider. The body of the spider was about the size of a grain of  rice, and all the legs emerged from the smaller segment of the body, leaving a larger portion of the body that looked almost like a tail. On this portion of the spider was a darker brown, almost black spot on the top of the spider, the underneath matched the rest of the spider. The two front legs were the longest and seemed to be used mostly for the spider to get a sense of his whereabouts. He seems to have individual control of each leg and moves them all independently, almost as if each leg has it's own specific job/purpose, which it might. I don't know much about spiders really so I'm unsure of their functions. He moved a lot throughout the cup but often just stayed still, overall not a very active spider.