Little Monsters of the Ocean: Metamorphosis under the Waves

Little Monsters of the Ocean: Metamorphosis under the Waves — page 5
CHAPTER 1 Monster Madness What Is Metamorphosis Who is that spiky-headed alien Is he going to stab you with that spike Or whip you with his thorny tail No need to worry about this tyke He’s called a zoea and he’s so tiny you’d need a microscope to see him And he’s not even in control of his own body He just wiggles around in the water spinning in somersaults Why does a zoea look like a monster Maybe that spike scares off hungry critters He needs every bit of defense he can get It’s him against the world And it’s a rough life being little Even though a zoea is always searching for a meal he has a 50 percent chance of starving to death One reason He can hardly swim Zoeae are part of the plankton organisms that drift around in the ocean without control of where they go All they can do is suck water in and hope they slurp up something good 6