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6R Stage 3 wrote information reports about Antarctic creatures. Krill by Michael T Krill are small shrimp-like crustaceans. They are phytonic animals which is a type of animal plankton in the group zooplankton. Krill's scientific name is Euphausiide but Antarctic krill's scientific name is Euphausia Superba. Krill are small transparent animals that are eight to seventy millimetres long. Krill look like smaller versions of prawns and lobsters. Krill are made up of two body parts the head trunk {cephalothoraxes} and a muscular segmented tail {abdomen}. There are five paddle-like swimming legs attached to the abdomen. Krill weigh from 0.19grams to 1.61grams, an average adult weighs 0.57grams. A krill's gills are at the base of its legs. Krill are pink with large black eyes. Krill eat phytoplankton which are single celled plants that float in seas near the surface. Most krill are herbivores and eat phytoplankton but some are carnivores and they also eat planktonic animals {zooplankton}. Krill have thirteen pairs of modified limbs that gather food, manipulate it, grind it and digest it. Krill might also eat algae but we don't know for sure. During the day krill go to the dark depths of the ocean {about 320 feet = 100 metres}. Some krill go as deep as 150m but some go 2,000m deep. At night krill only go 60m deep so that they can feed but sometimes they go into shallow areas during the day. Krill tend to live offshore rather than close to shore. Krill have a substance called anti-freeze in there blood which stops their blood from freezing, this helps them survive in the freezing cold. Krill have no large fat reserve for if they can't get to food people think that krill can eat the algae under the ice packs when they need to. Krill breed at 2 years of age. Females lay 10,000 eggs each summer. The Eggs are laid at the surface but sink to great depths {2,000m} before hatching. The babies have to swim back up to the surface to eat. Just about all animals eat krill but krill's major predators are Baleen whales, sea birds, blue whales, humpback whales and Emperor penguins. Humans also hunt krill and the Norwegians also make paste out of krill. To try to escape from predators krill are excellent at jumping backwards. Krill are said to have magic powers as they can transform themselves from adults to younger creaches. There are 85 known species of krill. Krill can fast for 200 days in a row shrinking as they go. Krill moult 12 times before they are adults. Some people think krill are fish because they can swim very well. There are more than 10,000 krill per cubic metre of water they can stretch for miles and miles containing 1,000's of tones of krill. As part of the same unit of work, students made 3D Antarctica models. Here is a group working on theirs.
As part of their Antarctica 'Rich Task' students made PowerPoint presentations about Global Warming. Click here to watch one of the presentations. During art lessons, students drew a guitar.
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