The Marine Discovery Centre keeps a large range of live marine animals in three main exhibition types; touch tanks, a viewing pool and various aquaria. Details about the biology and ecology of the animal we typically hold at the MDC are detailed in the links below. Note that the species listed are not always present at the Centre.
The animals at the MDC are divided into the following phyla:
Arthropods are invertebrate animals having an exoskeleton (external skeleton) made of α-chitin and/or calcium carbonate, a segmented body, and jointed appendages (arthropod means “jointed limb”). Arthropods include the insects, spiders and scor…
Actinopterygii (pronounced ac-tin-op-ter-idge-ee-eye) are the group of animals most people would call a fish. Specifically these are ray-finned fishes because they possess “fin rays”, their fins being webs of skin supported by bony or horny spine…
Chondrichthyes are jawed fish with skeletons made of cartilage rather than bone. The class is divided into two subclasses: Elasmobranchii (sharks, rays and skates) and Holocephali (chimaeras which includes ghost sharks also known as elephant fish)…
Cnidarians are a diverse group of aquatic animals of over 9,000 species such as hydras, sea fans, jellyfishes, sea anemones, and corals. Cnidarians all have some type of specialized stinging cell organelle. Widespread in marine habitats and less …
Echinodermata contains about 7000 living species, all exclusively marine with no fresh water or land based (terrestrial) species. Adult echinoderms possess pentaradial symmetry (five-sided) a calcite skeleton and a water vascular system consistin…
The phylum Mollusca includes snails, slugs, clams, mussels, octopuses and squid. Most molluscs have a well-developed, muscular foot. This structure is used in a multitude of ways, for example: locomotion, clinging to surfaces, burrowing, ancho…
Animal classification
Life on Earth is classified into groups at different levels. The lowest level is the species, for example the “Stridulating hermit crab” is species strigimanus. This species is a member of a larger group of hermit crabs that come under the genus group Strigopagurus, thus its full scientific name is Strigopagurus strigimanus. There are other species in that genus too such as Strigopagurus bilineatus. The genus Strigopagurus is grouped with other genera under the family Diogenidae. This family is grouped with other families under the order Decapoda, and so on up the levels.
For example,
Kingdom ANIMALIA
Phylum ARTHROPODA
Class MALACOSTRACA
Order DECAPODA
Family DIOGENIDAE
Genus Strigopagurus
Species Strigopagurus strigimanus
You can collect Tasmanian marine species to stock and maintain a home aquarium provided that your fishing complies with any requirement for a licence, size limits, area restrictions, closed seasons, protected species or prohibited gears. The no…
