Mr. GereminaMarine Biology

Marine BiodiversityResearch Project

Background: Although only about one million of the species living on Earth have been studied and categorized, some biologists believe there may actually be upwards of 50 million different species living on Earth, most of which are yet to be discovered, perhaps living in the ocean’s depths, or deep within the rainforest or unexplored caves. Evolutionary biologists believe that the number of species currently residing on Earth, may actually only represent about 10 percent of the organisms that have lived on Earth since the beginning of life, meaning that Earth may have been home to as many as 500 million species over the last 3 billion years. They also believe that life as we know it, most probably began in the ocean, most of which is still unexplored/undiscovered. In fact, it is said that humans know more about the surface of the moon, than we know about our oceans and the ecosystems that exist within them. Although, some of the organisms within these ecosystems are more independent than others, almost all species are interdependent in one way or another, resulting in a variety of symbiotic relationships amongst different organisms.

Objective: To complete this research project, you will each research a marineorganism(s) habitat and its place within its ecosystem, its evolutionary history, its life cycle, and body systems’ organization. You will also research any symbiotic relationship that may exist, involving your organism and/or any interdependence involving your organism.

What you will each produce for grading: Each of you will produce a research paper based on your findings, including the answers to the list of provided questions, in essay form. Each research paper must include a cover page, an introductory paragraph, body paragraphs, a concluding paragraph, and a references page including all sources of information. The paper must be typed with 12pt. font, 1”margins on top, bottom, and sides, in Times New Roman, 1.5x spaced. This is a science research paper; therefore there is no minimum number of pages because you will be graded on the paper’s quality not quantity. However, in order to receive an A, your paper should include the answers to all of the provided questions plus additional information that you feel is pertinent to a quality, completed paper. I would expect that this will require at least 3-4 pages of content, 1.5x spaced, not counting the cover page and references.

***Note: Plagiarism will NOT be tolerated. Nothing in your research paper should be copied and pasted from any source. If it is necessary to quote something from a source, you must use proper citations and include a works cited page, in addition to a reference page. If any part of your research paper is found to be plagiarized, you will receive a zero for the entire project and receive an academic referral to be placed in your student file! In order to help you build a reference or works cited page you may use the reference page builder in Word 2007 or one of the following websites:

What you will produce for grading as a team or individually: You (and your partner) will produce a presentation of your organism(s) and the symbiotic relationship they share. In order to do this, you will prepare a brief summary of your research papers and something visually appealing to show the class which may include a poster board, diorama, or PowerPoint presentation. You will be graded on this presentation as a team so you will work together and produce one presentation for grading, unless you are working alone in which case you will be graded individually. You (and your partner) will deliver the presentation to theclass so it should be about 8-10 minutes in length. Be sure to explain orally and show visually (if possible) the symbiotic relationship between the two organisms as well as any other diagrams you wish to use to enhance your report, i.e. food web diagrams, life cycle diagrams, etc..

***Note: You may use pictures from any sources you wish to prepare your presentation, but be sure to include their sources in the reference page of each of your research papers. Also, if you intend on producing a PowerPoint presentation, you must let me know in advance so I can have the technical equipment ready for you, as well as email me a copy of the presentation in advance.

Guiding Questions that should be answered within your research paper:

In order to guide your research, you should find the answers to the following questions regarding your organism as the primary focus, and its symbiotic relationship with your partner’s organism.

  1. What is the common name and scientific name (genus, species) of your organism?
  2. Where on earth is the natural habitat of your organism?
  3. Describe the ocean environment in which your organism’s habitat can be found?
  4. Describe the ecosystem in which your organism lives including the abiotic factors found within that ecosystem and other communities of organisms that share the ecosystem.
  5. Is your organism a producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, decomposer….explain which they are and what that means about how they obtain energy.
  6. Explain how your organism survives in its habitat (how it meets the challenges of life in the ocean) including how it obtains food, what it does for shelter, how it reproduces, and any other characteristics of the organism.
  7. Describe a food web involving your organism. Be sure to include your organism’s prey and predator(s) of your organism.
  8. Describe the symbiotic relationship and/or interdependence between your organism and your teammate’s organism or any other organism(s).
  9. What organism(s) were the evolutionary ancestors of your organism? What evidence leads scientists to believe this?
  10. Which other living organism(s) are most closely related to your organism, from an evolutionary standpoint? Why do evolutionary scientists think so?
  11. Describe any evolutionary adaptations that have led to the current morphology and/or behavioral characteristics of your organism and explain their benefit(s) to the organism.
  12. Describe the life cycle of your organism from birth to death. Be sure to include all stages of development and the average life span.
  13. Explain how your organism reproduces including how it chooses a mate (if it reproduces sexually), any mating behavior(s), live birth or egg layer, asexual reproduction, gestation period, average number of offspring , how often it reproduces, etc.
  14. Describe the anatomy(body plan) of your organism including external characteristics and internal organs.
  15. Describe any special/interesting characteristics about your organism.

Due Dates:

The completed research paper is due ______.

It must be submitted in class on the due date. You will lose 10 points (one whole letter grade) for each day it is not submitted.

The presentations will occur in class from______.

Your team will be assigned a specific date at which time you will make your presentation and hand in any presentation materials for grading. If your team decides to do a PowerPoint presentation, one of you must email the .ppt or .pptx file to by your assigned presentation date and you must bring the file with you on a flash drive. If your team is not prepared to perform your presentation by the assigned date, your team will receive a zero for the presentation part of your total grade.

Organism(s):

The organism I will research for this project is ______

The scientific name is ______

My teammates’ organism for this project is ______

The scientific name is ______

Do you have questions or need help?

If you need any help or have any questions you can come to extra-help, find me in my office, or email me from school or home at and I will reply as soon as possible. Also remember the school librarian or public library librarians are more than happy to help you locate materials for your research.

Biodiversity/Symbiosis Research Project

Name:______

CATEGORY / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1 / 0 / Studentachievedpoints
Organization/Writing skills / Information is very organized with well-constructed paragraphs and no spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors. / Information is organized with well-constructed paragraphs and almost no spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors. / Information is organized, but paragraphs are not well-constructed and/or multiple spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors. / The information appears to be disorganized and there are manyspelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors. / Research paper is missing components including an introduction, any necessary body paragraphs, or conclusion.
Amount of Information / All topics are addressed and all questions answered with at least 3 sentences about each. / All topics are addressed and all questions answered with at least 2 sentences about each. / All topics are addressed, and most questions answered with 1 or 2 sentences about each. / One or more topics were not addressed. / Most/many required topics were not covered within the research paper.
Quality of Information / Information clearly relates to the main topic. It includes 3 or more supporting details and/or examples. / Information clearly relates to the main topic. It provides 1-2 supporting details and/or examples. / Information clearly relates to the main topic. No details and/or examples are given. / Information has little or nothing to do with the main topic. / No relevant information within the research paper.
Quality of Presentation / Oral presentation has been well prepared for, is enthusiastic, and clearly illustrates all important information to the audience. / Oral presentation has been well prepared for, is enthusiastic, and mostly illustrates important information to the audience. / Oral presentation has been somewhat prepared for and/or only partially illustrates important information to the audience. / Oral presentation has not been well prepared for and/or does not adequately illustrate important information to the audience. / Lack of oral presentation.
Diagrams & Illustrations / Diagrams and illustrations are neat, accurate and greatly add to the audience's understanding of the topic. / Diagrams and illustrations are accurate and mostly add to the audience's understanding of the topic. / Diagrams and illustrations are accurate but only sometimes add to the audience's understanding of the topic. / Diagrams and illustrations are not accurate OR do not add to the audience's understanding of the topic. / Lack of diagrams or illustrations relating to the topic.
Sources / An adequate number of sources
(information and graphics) are accurately documented accurately in the desired format. / An adequate number of sources (information and graphics) are documented, but are not in the desired format. / Some sources have been provided
(information and graphics) and are documented accurately in the desired format. / Some sources have been provided (information and graphics) but are not documented accurately in the desired format. / Completely missing list of sources OR provided list contains only 1-2 sources not documented accurately in the desired format.
Total points achieved /
Final Score /

Conversion Chart: to calculate Total points achieved to the Final Score out of 100 points.

Total Points Final Score Letter Equivalent

24 points = 100 = A+

22 – 23 points = 92/96 = A

20 – 21 points = 83/88 = B

17 – 19 points = 71/75/79 = C

16 points = 67 = D

15 points = 63 = F

12 – 14 points = 50/54/58 = F

10 – 11 points = 42/46 = F

8 – 9 points = 33/38 = F

5 – 7 points = 21/25/29 = F

3 – 4 points = 13/17 = F

1 – 2 points = 4/8 = F

0 points = 0 = F

List of possible organisms to choose from:

  1. Clownfish (Amphiprion percula) and Sea Anemone (Heteractis crispa)
  2. Sharks (Carcharodon carcharias)and Remora (Echeneis naucrates)
  3. Corals, hermatypic and Zooxanthella (Symbiodinium spp.)
  4. Anglerfish (Melanocetus johnsonii)and bioluminescent bacteria(Photobacterium phosphoreum)
  5. Moray eel (Gymnothorax ocellatus)and cleaner shrimp(Lysmata amboinensis)
  6. Siboglinid tube worm (Riftia pachyptila) and chemosynthetic bacteria (Campylobacterales bacteria, Cytophaga/Flavobacteria, and Eubacterium) Archaea Bacteria
  7. Blue Whale (Balaenopteramusculus) and barnacle (Coronulidae)
  8. Coney (Cephalopholis fulva) and isopod (Anilocra)
  9. Sea squirt and photosynthetic bacteria (Prochloron)
  10. Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes and Vibrio fischeri
  11. Boxer crab, Lybia tesselata and anemones
  12. Goby (Gobiidae) and Burrowing Shrimp
  13. Sponges (Porifera) and algae
  14. Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus)and Giant Squid (Architeuthis)
  15. Portuguese Man o War Jellyfish (Physalia physalis) and Man o War Fish (Nomeus gronovii)
  16. Hagfish(Myxinidae)and Lampreys (Petromyzontidae)
  17. Sunfish (Mola mola) and Cleaner Wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus)
  18. Lobster (Homarus americanus)
  19. Stonefish (Synanceia verrucosa)
  20. Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri)
  21. Flounder / Fluke (Pseudopleuronectes americanus)
  22. Blue-claw crab (Callinectes sapidus)
  23. Orca (Orcinus orca)
  24. Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)
  25. Blue Mussels (Mytilus edulis)
  26. Scallop (Pectinidae)
  27. Japanese pufferfish aka fugu (Takifugu niphobles)
  28. Giant Clam (Tridacna gigas)
  29. Shipworm (Toredo)
  30. Banded coral shrimp (Stenopus hispidus)
  31. Blue ringed octopus (Hapalochlaena lunulata)

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