Look Closer
o o
Sea creatures
A Dorling Kindersley Book
LONDON, NEW YORK, MUNICH,
MELBOURNE, and DELHI
Text by Sue Malyan
Editor Caroline Bingham
Senior art editor Janet Allis
Publishing manager Susan Leonard
Managing art editor Clare Shedden
Jacket design Simon Oon
Picture researcher Sarah Mills
Production Luca Bazzoli
DTP Designer Almudena Daz
First published in Great Britain in 2005 by
Dorling Kindersley Limited
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
A Penguin Company
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Copyright 2005 Dorling Kindersley Limited, London
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN 1-4053-1168-1
Colour reproduction by Colourscan, Singapore
Printed and bound in China by Hung Hing
Discover more at
[Link]
Contents
6 Mobile home
8 An inky trail
10 Feeling my way
12 Crusty crab
Look out for us. We will
show you the size of every
animal in this book.
14 Look! No head!
16 Snappy shells
18 Look! No arms!
20 Sea stars
22 Open wide!
23 Index and
Glossary
6
o bil e hom e
M This hermit
crabs body
reaches up to
This hermit crab drags 10 cm (4 in)
in length. As it
its home wherever it grows, it finds
larger shells
goes. It finds a shell to to move into.
live in, then hides inside
with just its head and
front legs poking out.
This shell once belonged
to a whelk. It was just the
right size, so I moved in.
7
I can see all around Mmm, a dead
because my eyes fish - just what d you know
are on stalks. Di
I fancy for my
...
... If a hermit
h breakfast. crab is scared, it
hides in its shell.
nc c
It uses its biggest
mu mun
pincer to nip
h
an attacker.
8
A n i n k y t rai l This
common
octopus is
1 m (3 ft)
Whoosh! An octopus long.
has been startled, so it
has squirted a cloud of
black ink into the water.
s
h
Now it shoots off to
hide in its home
swish
swo o
under a pile
of rocks.
I suck in water, then
squirt it out of this funnel
to push me along.
I use my arms to
walk and to catch
crabs and shellfish
for my dinner.
This is my eye. My pupil is y ou kno 9
id w
slit-shaped, not round D
...
... An octopus
like yours. can change colour.
If it is frightened it
turns white, and
if it is angry it
turns blue.
I grip my prey
with these rows
of suckers.
10
e e l i n g m y w ay
F
This strawberry shrimp lives
on a coral reef, hiding among
the corals or in a burrow in
the sand. Its long feelers,
or antennae, help it
to find food.
n ip
n ip
I use my claws for
picking up food and
digging in the sand.
If I lose a claw, I can
This shrimp
is 5 cm (2 in)
grow another one.
long. It is also
called a blood
or fire shrimp.
11
I have two pairs of
antennae to help
me find food.
My skeleton grows you know
d
on the outside of my Di
...
body, like a shell. ... Fish visit this
shrimp to be
cleaned up. The
shrimp eats the tiny
creatures that live
on their scales.
12
r u s t y cr ab
C An adult
pie-crust crab
measures about
Scuttling around a rock 15 cm (6 in)
across its shell.
pool, a pie-crust crab is Thats about the
size of your hand.
looking for food. It gets its
name from the top part
The colours of my shell
of its shell, which looks help me to hide among
like the pastry on a pie. the pebbles.
ch
ru n
c
h
nc
cru
h
unc
cr
I have two huge
pincers for
grabbing my food.
y ou kno 13
I eat shrimps and mussels. id w
D
...
My mouth is sharp to help me ... During
her life, the
bite through their shells. female crab lays at
least three million
eggs. Only a few
survive to be
adults.
14
o o k ! N o h e a d!
L The worlds
largest sea
This strange-looking animal cucumber is
about 2 m (6 ft) long.
is a sea cucumber. It has no Most are smaller. This
one is about 12 cm
head or eyes, just a mouth (5 in) long.
and a flexible body. in y.
d s p
a n
I use the sticky tentacles
gh
around my mouth to
catch my food.
u
o
is t
My skin
I feel around for tiny
plants and animals.
15
My mouth is hidden
ky in the middle of
my tentacles.
s ti c
These tiny tubes are my
feet. I use them to push
myself along slowly.
d you know
Di ... A sea
...
cucumber
breathes through
its bottom! It uses
the same hole to
breathe and get
rid of waste.
pric
kly
16
n a p p y she lls
S
Lying on the seabed, a group
of queen scallops are waiting for
their next meal to float past. They
trap tiny plants in the waving
hairs around their shells.
p!
sna
I swim along by opening and
shutting my shell, a bit like
you clapping your hands.
d you know
Di
...
... You can tell
a scallops age by
s na
counting the ridges
on its shell. The
more ridges, the
older it is.
p!
17
These queen scallops
reach 9 cm
(3 12 in).
Ive got rows of eyes,
but I cant see well.
I only sense light and
things that move.
ut
, s h
pen
t, o
s hu
o pen,
18
L o o k ! N o arms!
These seahorses live on a
coral reef. They can change
colour to match the corals,
which helps them to hide.
I hang on
tight with
my tail.
k
suc
slurp
Seahorses
are small. I can suck up
These ones will
grow to just
whole shrimp in
12 cm (5 in) my mouth, which is
in length.
shaped like a straw.
19
I move around by
d you know
beating the fin on my Di
...
back, and I steer with ... Seahorses
eat all day long.
two fins on my head. A young one can
hoover up as many
as 3,500 shrimp
Im a grape coral. in one day!
Dont touch me, or
Ill sting you with my
poisonous tentacles.
20
e a s t a r s
S This scarlet
serpent
Did you know that if a brittle stars
arms reach
15 cm (6 in).
starfish or a brittle star
loses an arm, they just
grow another? m I too spiny to eat!
e
gl
wr w ri g
igg
le
Im called a brittle star.
I move around by wriggling
my arms from side to side. I trap shrimp and other
food in the spines
along my arms.
21
d you know
I have an eye Di
...
on the end of ... Starfish eat
each arm. mussels and
scallops. They pull
their victims shells
apart with their
strong arms.
22
p e n wide !
O At 15 cm (6 in),
this clam is
quite small, but
This beautifully coloured shell giant clams can
grow to be 1 m
belongs to a giant blue clam. (3 ft) across.
It can open and shut its shell,
t !
ir
but it cant move
about. u
sq
23
I open my shell to feed,
and shut it tight if
Index
algae 23 pie-crust crab 12-13
I am frightened. antennae 11 pincers 7, 12
y ou kno brittle star 19 scallops 16-17
id w clam 22 sea cucumber 14-15
D
... Sometimes a... coral 19 sea horses 18-19
blue clam makes a crab shell 6, 7, 12, 16, 22
pearl. It can grow pie-crust 12-13 shrimp 10-11
to be as big as a
golf ball!
hermit 6-7 siphon 23
fin 19 starfish 21
hermit crab 6-7 suckers 9
I suck in water ink 8 tentacles 14, 15, 19
and flush out octopus 8-9
waste through
two big tubes Glossary
called siphons.
Algae are simple plants. Poison a liquid or other
Seaweeds are types of algae. substance that kills or harms
Antennae feelers that a an animal if the animal
creature uses to sense where touches or eats it.
it is or to find food. Suckers cup-shaped pads
Coral is made up of tiny that stick to surfaces, helping
a creature to grip.
My green animals called polyps. Millions
of polyps join together to form Siphon a tube that a sea
patches are a coral reef. creature uses to suck in or
send out seawater.
Fin a flattened limb used by
tiny plants fish to move or change Tentacles a long arm used
direction. for touching, feeding, and
called algae. Pearl a hard, round substance. smelling.
I eat them! A pearl forms inside some
molluscs around a grain
of sand.
