Wednesday, October 10, 2012

May the Force Be With Them: Deep Sea Acorn Worms Named After Yoda




One of the three new species of deep sea acorn worms or Enteropneusts discovered 2,500m or around 1.5 miles below the surface of Atlantic Ocean is named Yoda purpurata.  Yoda purpurata is named by a University of Aberdeen-led team of scientists who found these three new species during a voyage to the mid-Atlantic.  Acorn worms or Enteropneusts are a hemichordate class of invertebrates which do not develop a vertebral column.  Their body is made up of three main parts: an acorn-shaped proboscis, a short fleshy collar that lies behind it, and a long, worm-like trunk.  Now, after studying the specimens, scientists have officially named the three new species identified as belonging to the Torquaratoridae family.
They are perceived as an evolutionary dead end, having been surpassed by their cousins, the fishes which acquired tails became fast swimmers, conquered the oceans and gave rise to reptiles, mammals and birds. Whilst they are not strictly a missing link in our own evolution they give an insight into what the lifestyle of our remote ancestors might have been like.
It is only 10 years since the first species of deep sea torquaratorid acorn worm was found in the Pacific Ocean.  Now we have three new species from the Atlantic it seems different species will be found throughout the deep sea.  There is much interest in these deep sea hemichordates since they are close to the evolutionary link between vertebrates and invertebrates.
This article interest me cause I never thought there are still species we haven’t found with nowadays’ technology.  Their colors are also very beautiful- at present, we only found them in three colors, pink, purple and white.  The color is the only difference between them from present observation.  Let’s look forward to how scientists address the role they play in the deep sea ecosystem.
Purple species
Pink species
White species

8 comments:

  1. My classmate Xiao Huang wrote a great review on the article “May the Force Be With Them: Deep Sea Acorn Worms Named After Yoda.” Xiao really did a great job on this review, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also found not only this article, but also topic interesting. One aspect of the review that I thought Xiao did a great job of was making her review easy to understand. Another thing that Xiao did well was presenting the information. Another thing that I liked about the review was how Xiao told us what she found interesting about the article. The last thing, which I really like about the review, were the images that Xiao included in the review. This gave the reader a clear picture of what the Yoda purpurata looked like. One thing that I thought Xiao could have done better was providing more details from the article. Also I thought that Xiao could have included a quote or two from the actual article. The most interesting thing about this article for me was the fact still today we are discovering new species, and hopefully with all of our technology, we can discover even more.

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  2. My classmate Xiao Huang wrote a very good on the article "May the Force Be With Them: Deep Sea Acorn Worms Named After Yoda." One my favorite things the Xiao did in this article review was include pictures of the three newly discovered species. In addition, I liked how Xiao included a description of what the species looked like. The description and the picture together really helped me understand this article better. Moreover, I liked how the article review told a lot about the species, not counting what it looked like. For example, Xiao included information about how they are closely related to the missing link in the evolution of invertebrates and vertebrates.
    To make this review better, Xiao could have included more detail about how the scientists found these species. For instance, she could have included the process in which the scientists found the species and what technology they used. Moreover, Xiao could have added a quote from the article so the reader could get a feel how the article was written.
    One of the most interesting things about this article was scientists still have more to learn about the world and its inhabitants. It seems hard to believe that with all the technology we have that we are still discovering new things. It just proves how big and vast the Earth is.

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  3. My fellow peer Xiao did a commentary on the article “May the Force Be With Them: Deep Sea Acorn Worms Named After Yoda”. This article was fascinating and found thre facts that amazed me in her commentary. The first is how Yoda purpurata is named by a University of Aberdeen-led team of scientists who found these three new species during a voyage to the mid-Atlantic. The second is the body structure; their body is made up of three main parts: an acorn-shaped proboscis, a short fleshy collar that lies behind it, and a long, worm-like trunk. The third is how they are perceived as an evolutionary dead end, having been surpassed by their cousins, the fishes which acquired tails became fast swimmers, conquered the oceans and gave rise to reptiles, mammals and birds. The thing that could be improved is that she could have introduced the article more, describing the source would be good, and also how the animals were named. The most interesting this I had read in this article was how it had only been 10 years since the first deep sea species like the torquaratorid, was discovered in pacific ocean. Otherwise, I liked how she did her commentary.

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  4. My fellow classmate Xiao Huang chose to review the article, “May the Force Be With Them: Deep Sea Acorn Worms Named After Yoda.” This article was written about three new species of deep-sea acorn worms discovered recently. One of my favorite aspects of this review was how Xiao included photographs of each new species in her analysis. I also enjoyed how Xiao described and explained the different species very specifically and in detail. The review also contained many facts and a lot of information about the species, including where they were discovered and what the body’s structure was made up of. Xiao really did a wonderful job creating and basically painting a picture of each newly discovered species. To improve this review Xiao could have maybe included a quote to deepen the analysis or this particular article. Xiao could have also explained what a deep-sea acorn worm actually was, all I kept on thinking of was an acorn with a worm body and some fins. The thing I found most interesting about this article was the fact that it had been 10 whole years since a new deep-sea species was discovered and these 3 new ones, which were obviously just flying under the radar, were just recently found. Overall Xiao did a fabulous job teaching us all about these wonderful new species, and in fine detail.

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  5. I read Xiao Huang’s article review on “May the Force Be With Them: Deep Sea Acorn Worms Named After Yoda”. Xiao did a fantastic job giving strong examples from the article. For instance, the point that scientists were able discover these animals 1.5 miles below the surface of Atlantic Ocean is amazing. Also, I liked how Xiao included words from the article and her choice of words and description made her article very easy to understand.
    I believe that Xiao’s review could have been improved if she incorporated a little more about what the animal is like and how it lives in its deep-sea environment. I really enjoyed the pictures included in the article review because it helped me with the visualization of the animal.
    One aspect that impressed me in this article was how the scientists were able to find these animals so deep down in the ocean. This article was very interesting to me because I love to study the ocean and the animals inside it. I was intrigued because I have never heard of this article and it led me to want to learn more about it. Overall, I think Xiao did a fantastic job on this review and it really opened my eyes to see how technology has affected our world and enabled us to learn more about life that we are finding in places that we could have never imagined.

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  6. Xiao Huang wrote a very interesting review on the article, “May the Force Be With Them: Deep Sea Acorn Worms Named After Yoda.” Xiao did a great job and I found the topic thoroughly interesting. Specially, Xiao did three things practically well in the review. One thing she did well state her examples clearly, they were easy to understand and they got her point across. Another thing she did was giving a lot of background about these new types of sea worms. For example, she included information on how these worms are looked at like they are an evolutionary dead end due to them being surpassed by their cousins, the fishes. Also, I found the pictures that she presented with her review to be a great add on to her write up. With the pictures she showed it helped me better understand the way the worms look and really admire how amazing the worms truly are.
    Even though Xiao wrote a fantastic article review there are a couple of areas that she could make improvements on. One thing she could have done was talk about how the scientist stumbled upon these three new species of worms. Doing this would help the readers understand what part of the Atlantic these worms are native to and the type of tools the scientist used to make the discovery. As well Xiao could have added one or two quotes to give more of a background on the article she read.
    The one thing in this review that blew me away was the fact that we have still not discovered all living things on earth. When learning of this it made really wonder about what else have we still not discovered and what it wait for us to find.

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  7. In my classmate Xiao’s article a well presented part was the first paragraph which gave a nice overview. Another well presented section was the nice synopsis she gave in the next two paragraphs. The final well done part is her interest and basically giving her opinion in last paragraph. One suggestion I have was maybe paraphrasing a little better and some grammar not major. Also a quote would have fit nicely from the article. The one aspect that impressed me the most was the visuals which were pictures; those interested me the most as well as giving the name Yoda to a deep sea creature. I think Xiao did a great job for only knowing limited English and created a good review for any reader.

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  8. My Classmate Xiao Reviewed the article, “May the force be with them: deep sea acorn worms named after Yoda.” Xiao in this article follows the MLA format very well. She starts with what the article is about, gives more of an explanation of the worms, talks about the relevance of the subject, and then gives her opinion on it. I also felt she thoroughly explained the topic well, I understood the structure of the worms and how they worked. I also find that her article has a strong voice to it, she lets the reader know how interested she is in the subject.
    I felt as good as the review was there were a few things that would make the article review better. First at one point Xiao mentions that 10 years ago we discovered the first sea worm in the Pacific ocean, but it Wasn’t thoroughly explained after that, I felt some information on those previous discoveries could give me some context. Also there were a few grammatical mistakes and the end felt a little rushed but I think overall the article was great.
    I was very impressed by this article and it reminds me a lot of mine, how scientists even with all this technology could still be finding new species every day. I also liked how they have three different colors and no one knows the difference between them or if they have any differences.



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