Wednesday, August 25, 2010

500 Words for poster

Species -
Sixtipiid is a six legged arthropod. Arthropods are essentially an invertebrate animal, (an animal with no back bone). It has an external skeleton “exoskeleton” and its legs are similar to that of crab in which they are jointed appendages. The vision of a sixtipiid is gained by a combination of compound eyes which are a vivid black colour it works by two of its eyes being only able to detect the direction from which light is coming and the other four are able to swivel around in order to track its prey and look for danger. They also have two large pincers to ward off prey and a large stinger with razor blade sharp thorns sticking out of it to ward of carnivores and other sixtipiid. They are scattered throughout desert landscapes as food is scarce and so live for a long time.

Sixtipiid are able to walk vertically up walls and across ceilings as they have specially evolved claws which protrude from their foot pads in order to stick to cave walls. The sixtipiid also has a lighter colour of exoskeleton on its back which it uses to better absorb the sun light that keeps its cold blooded body nice and warm in order to stay active. The extra heat gained gives it the energy it needs in order to tunnel into rock.

Habitat -
The habitat of a sixtipiid is in arid, sun smeltering conditions, most commonly desserts. They like to find home in large rock formations in deserts usually found around “butte’s” which are large sandstone formations that are harder than the surrounding landscape, over time they been left protruding out of the desert due to wind and sand erosion. The red colour usually associated with this landscape is caused by iron oxide in the rock and ground that has been exposed due to weathering.

Once a sixtipiid finds a large enough “butte” it claims it as its own and then slowly and gradually over time uses its pincers to tunnel into the rock formation and make a large cave home within the rock due to its claws on its foot pads, a sixtipiid is able to make large openings and walk across the ceiling of the cave. The complexity of the tunnels can be vast and usually has an entrance to the top of the “butte” in order for the sixtipiid to gain access and soak up the heat of the desert as a sixtipiid is cold blooded. As the sun goes down the desert begins to turn cold, the rock formation retains the heat of the sun from the day and keeps sixtipiid at a nice constant temperature.

Diet –
The diet of a sixtipiid is that of a carnivore/scavenger that uses its two large pincers to break bones and shred away pieces of meat. A sixtipiid has an advanced system of smelling and can find animals that have passed out from exhaustion in the heat of the desert from several kilometres away and is able to find them and feed.

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