Onychophora

By Wyatt and Silus

• It belongs to the domain Eukaryote. • The kingdom Animalia.• Believed to be the missing like

between worms and arthropods. • Usually halve grey, brown, blue and

rarely red skin pigments.

• Has a arthropod like hemocyanin. • The hemocyanin takes protein from

oxygen.• Basically the respiratory system is

made of thousands of tiny oddly distributed pits that allows it to breath.

Habitat

• Velvet worms usually live in eastern Australia and New Zeeland.

• They usually live in topical and sub tropical forest areas.

Special abilities

• The shoot out a sticky saliva that traps their victims in a paste that is kind of like super glue so that they can bite off a part of the body and feed.

• They feed by sucking out the undigested juices.

• The slime is also used to trap predators for an escape.

Body features

• They halve a vertical bilateral symmetry that runs from their head to their anus.

• They halve hundreds of tiny claws that allow them to latch on to their prey.

• They also halve thousands of tiny teeth that allow them to bit off a part of their victims to suck out the proteins.

Body features prt. 2

• The claws are used to hook on and stabilize its self when climbing or walking

• The claws are like are feet • It has a velvet textured skin (thus its

name)• It antennas are used for sound like

other animals with antennas

Digestive system

• The digestive track starts right behind the head.• The intestines begin in the throat where our wind

pipes are.• The throat’s sole purpose is to absorb partially

liquefied foods • They halve saliva pallets that lubricate the food to

allow it to pass easily threw its 1 intestine • The intestine consists only of a single layer of

epithelial tissue • Witch means that it doesn’t halve a outer layer

of skin around the intestine (unlike humans)

Interaction

• Interaction with a velvet worm is very unlikely to come in contact with unless you live in Australia or are visiting Australia

Phylogeny (history)

• Has been date bake to the Cambrian period

• They have been believed to halve evolved form the same ancestor as arthropods

• The ancestor had characteristics or each one

Bibliography • http://www.bumblebee.org/invertebrates/ONYCHOPHORA.htm

• http://www.pnas.org/content/99/16/10545.full

• http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/624996/velvet-worm

• http://www.austmus.gov.au/factSheets/velvet_worms.htm

• http://animals.jrank.org/pages/1723/Velvet-Worms-Onychophora-BEHAVIOR-REPRODUCTION.html

• http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Velvet_worm