Fouling Community

I have brought you organisms scrapped from the dock in Ventura Harbor. Some of the organisms are sessile, others live in the shelter created by the sessile encrusters. You will be creating a field guide of animals found in this community. Check out a copy of the key Common Invertebrates of Southern California from me to help with your identifications. Verify your identifications with me before committing them to paper. Use one page of your field guide per species. Each page must include the following:

A sketch of the animal

The common name

The best available scientific name , Genus, if possible.

All of the major higher taxa it belongs to

At least one observation about the animal

Create a book by cutting 8 ½” x 14” paper in half lengthwise then folding it in half to make two 41/4” x 7” pages. Nest these to make a 10 page book with covers. It will resemble your little blue field guides in shape.

Try to identify, observe, and sketch ten different animals. You will be evaluated on a combination of quality and quantity so don’t panic if you don’t find 10 if you are doing a really good job with the ones you find and not wasting time. Also don’t hesitate to look at animals that other students have found. Some of the coolest discoveries will only be found once. It’s perfectly ok for you to observe and draw the animal into your book. I suggest you verify the identification yourself unless I have announced it to the class.