Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Archaeogastropoda
Family: Haliotidae
Genus: Haliotis
Species: kamtschatkana
The northern abalone, also known as the pinto abalone, has a mottled pale yellow to dark brown epipodium, with a pebbly appearing surface and lacy edge. The outside of the shell appears corrugated, and the spiral is fairly high compared to other abalones. The average full-grown size is about 10-13 cm. Northern abalones are strict vegetarians, as are all other abalones. The most common feeding technique is grazing for coraline algae. Northern abalones are slow moving, slow growing animals. Temperatures influence metabolic rates. Grazing and reproduction occupy most of the life of an abalone. Reproduction for the northern abalone is through external fertilization, they do not mate. They spawn normally between April and June. The most densely populated areas of Northern Abalone have rocky substrates, moderate exposure, and moderate algal presence. Kelp forests are home to large numbers of Northern Abalone, but on average, animals living in these habitats are smaller.
The Northern or Pinto Abalone is part of the animal kingdom. It is multi-cellular, eukaryotic and heterotrphic. Abalones belong to the phylum Mollusca, a group that includes clams, scallops, sea slugs, octopuses and squids. Mollusks have a soft body surrounded by a mantle, an anterior head, and a large, muscular foot. The abalone joins other snails, whelks, and sea slugs in the class Gastropoda. Members of this class have one shell, as opposed to clams with two, or the shell may be lacking altogether, as in the sea slugs. The spiral structure, so common in snail shells, is flattened in the abalone and may be obscured by fouling and shell boring organisms. It also belongs under the order Archaeogastropoda, the most primitive order of the class Gastropoda. Abalones are members of the family Haliotidae and the genus Haliotis that means sea ear, referring to the flattened shape of the shell. The species kamtschatkana refers to the kind of abalone, which would be the Northern or Pinto abalone. Most invertebrate phyla originated between 500-540 million years ago, during the Cambrian period in the Paleozoic era.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Family: Delphinidae
Genus: Lagenorhynchus
Species: obscurus
The dusky dolphin is a medium sized dolphin. It ranges from 1.8 meters to 2 meters in length. It has virtually no beak, as the head slopes evenly down from the blowhole to the tip of the snout. The tip of the dorsal fin is rather blunt and not markedly hooked. It has a bluish-black tail and back. The underside of the body is white and whitish-gray color extends over the sides. There are 24-36 pairs of small, pointed teeth about 3mm in diameter in each jaw. The upper jaw usually has 2 less teeth than the lower. Dusky dolphins usually prey on anchovies, squids and schooling shrimps. Dusky dolphins usually mate during spring. Adult males compete against each other for mating access to female dolphins. Dusky dolphins are extremely fond of playing and leaping and they often leap in schools. They are usually attracted to boats and they are also fast swimmers, reaching speeds of up to 20 knots
Like all animals, the dusky dolphin is multicellular and is a heterotrophic eukaryote. It belongs to the phylum Chordata. All chordates possess a structure called a notochord, at least during some part of their development. The notochord is a rod that extends most of the length of the body when it is fully developed. Other characteristics shared by chordates are bilateral symmetry, segmented body, including segmented muscles, a dorsal, hollow nerve cord and complete digestive system. The dolphin belongs to the class Mammalia. All animals in this class share three characteristics not found in other animals. They have 3 middle ear bones, hair and the production of milk by modified sweat glands called mammary glands. Like whales and porpoises, dolphins belong to the order Cetacea. Some similarities between all cetaceans are: they have a fusiform, or streamlined body shape; basically hairless body (some young have hair on their snouts); paddle shaped front limbs; a laterally flattened tail bearing horizontal flukes at the tip; external nares (blowhole) on top of the head; thick subcutaneous blubber layer filled with fat and oil; 3-chambered stomach; and an airway reinforced with cartilage down to the alveoli. Most of these characteristics are adaptations to reduce drag for fast swimming in an aquatic environment. Small to medium-sized cetaceans comprise the family Delphinidae, ranging from about 1.5 m in length and 50 kg in weight to almost 10 meters in length and 7000 kg. A distinctive feature of many delphinids is the shape of the head. The forehead appears to bulge over the beak-like rostrum due to the presence of a lens-shaped fatty deposit called a "melon". The genus name Lagenorhynchus refers to all dolphins. It comes from the root word lagen meaning flask and rynchos which means a beak or a snout. The species name obscurus describes what kind of dolphin it is, obscurus means dark in latin which describes the dusky dolphin’s color.
Although mammals originated during the Triassic period, it wasn’t until the Oligocene epoch during the Tertiary period that most of the modern mammalian orders originated.