Moray Eels in Focus: teacher key

Moray Eels, grade 12 edition, written for 12th grade and up. What a moray eel is, how its body works, how it grows and what long field studies and lab work have shown about how it eats and hunts.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What did Mehta's team find at Catalina Island's Blue Cavern marine protected area?
   • Fewer eels inside than outside
   • More, larger and older eels inside than outside (answer)
   • No eels at all
2. What did the researchers call the Red Sea joint hunting?
   • A nest
   • A migration
   • A by-product mutualism (answer)
3. What may thicker stomach walls help hard-shell-eating morays do?
   • Protect them from shards of shell (answer)
   • Swim faster
   • Make suction
4. How did the modelled zebra moray bite compare with the measured one?
   • The models matched it exactly
   • The models estimated lower values than the measured 159.2 newtons (answer)
   • The models were higher
5. What does durophagy mean as used for zebra morays?
   • A way of swimming
   • A kind of larva
   • A diet mainly of hard-shelled prey (answer)

Words

• durophagy: shell-eating
• suction: pulling force
• mutualism: helping each other
• anguilliform: eel-like swimming
• larva: young form