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| Nematode Phylum: Nematoda. Representative for: Nematoda. The photos for this LEGO® nematode are grayscale because nematodes are microscopic, and all photography at that scale is in black and white. |
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| Lego trick, fearful facials: I used a small rocket nozzle for the mouth because it embodies the nematodes' creepy mouth. Some nematodes have hoods like this Lego one, but this one's for keeping the worm upright and distinguishing up from down. |
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| Clam Class: Bivalves (clams), Clade: Aculifera (mollusks with spicules and repeated structures along their antero-posterior axis), Phylum: Mollusca (mollusks). Representative for: Mollusca. |
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| Lego trick, the A-shaped wedge'll get you an A+: these A-shaped wedges are really useful Lego pieces. While it'll take a while to list and describe all the uses I know, I can describe the one in front of us. The space in between the two ledges is a good place to put the clam's foot, while a small bump you can see on the bottom of the top one keeps the foot in place. |
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| Koi Genus and species: Cyprinus rubrofuscus (Koi), Family: Cyprinidae (minnow family), Order: Cypriniformes, Class: Actinoptergii (bony fish), Subphylum: Vertebrata (vertebrates), Phylum: Chordata. Representative for: Chordata. |
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| Lego trick, lattice lock: while these lattice pieces are good for adding to decor, they have other, hidden uses. The actual lattice part can hold studs, and I used them here to be the fin on the Koi's tail. |
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| Sea Mouse Genus: Aphrodita (sea mice), Subclass: Errantia, Phylum: Annelida (segmented worms). Representative for: Annelida. |
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| Lego trick, fake fuzzy: I used a bunch of special pieces to give the illusion of fuzziness, though I wouldn't call it an illusion. Besides that, there's not much to say. |
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| Planarian Genus: Planaria (planarian planarian planarians), Family: Planariidae (planarian planarians), Order: Tricladida (planarians), Phylum: Platyhelminthes (flatworms). Representative for: Platyhelminthes. |
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| Lego trick, mouthy making: you see that bended piece that's sticking up from the upside-down flatworm? That's its mouth (you learned something new today!) Now lemme tell ya 'bout planarians in space. Astronauts have been bringing planarians in space to see how they react, and some weird stuff happened. Because planarians are highly regenerative organisms--cutting one in half gets you two flatworms--antigravity causes weird stuff. Heads where there should be tails was a common sight on these missions. The extraterrestrial forces caused malfunctions in the regeneration process, leading to a two-headed misprinted penny of an animal. |
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| Hydrozoan Class: Hydrozoa, Phylum: Cnidaria. Representative for: Cnidaria. |
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| Lego trick, easy as A-Piece-C!: Using bricks with studs on their sides can get you pretty good results. If you look at the bricks in the middle, you can see that there is space for the bell, tentacles (not in photo), and the 2/2 brick. |
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| Sponge Phylum: Porifera (sponges). Representative for: Porifera. |
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| Lego trick, rough rocks: It's always fun grabbing random gray pieces and putting them together to make rocks. I used this gray bottom piece from when my dad was a kid for the rock's foundation, and filled in the rest with studs and stuff, with a tan plate (not shown here) for the sand. |
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| Sea cucumber Class: Holothuroidea (sea cucumbers), phylum: Echinodermata. Representative for: Echinodermata. |
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| Lego trick, poopy poles: so, uh, yup! This sea cucumber is pooping. The reason I did this is because I had excess space on my axle and didn't want to add another tube brick (though I'm realizing now that I'm missing a tan piece on the front end). Anyway, none of my other organisms are pooping, and sea cucumber poop is really good for the ecosystem. |
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