Endosymbiosis - Creature Powers!

Today we're exploring some really neat Creature Powers!

If you just want the craft - skip to the end. 

Wild Kratts Show

We love watching the Wild Kratts show on PBS. Wild Kratts is a nature adventure show that is a hybrid between live action and cartoon. In this show you follow the Kratts brothers and their amazing team (including two tech-saavy women, Aviva and Koki) as they rescue creatures from villains using creature power suits. They switch up their creature powers by switching out disks for each animal. Aviva designs and programs the creature power disks for the Kratts Brothers to use in each episode. Here is a picture of Aviva and Koki preparing a new creature power disk for the brothers.

The Wild Kratts are a great team of scientists and engineers who work together to solve difficult problems. 

Do you know some special BIG WORDS to describe teamwork in nature? Let's learn some!

Symbiosis and Endosymbiosis

Symbiosis is when two organisms live together, and both of them are better for it.

Sym-bi-o-sis

There are two parts to a symbiotic relationship. Host and symbiont. Usually the host is a big organism. The symbiont is usually a smaller organism.

Did you know that that there are some symbiotic relationships that are so successful that the smaller organism lives entirely inside of the bigger one? There's a special word for that kind of symbiosis. Say this big word with me: en-do-sym-bi-o-sis

Endo = inside

Symbiosis = living together in a way that benefits both.

That's how chloroplasts started! A plant absorbed a tiny organism that could make its own energy from the sun. And now they always live inside. Neither can survive without the other.

It's also how mitochondria started. Mitochondria are now organelles within all multicellular life, and it's the powerhouse of the cell. They make processing oxygen possible. Multicellular life might not even have been possible without endosymbiosis! Now that's some fancy teamwork.  So far scientists have found only one multicellular life form without mitochondria on Earth. It's a parasitic jellyfish that lives inside some fish, and depends on the fish for all their energy.

Parasites

Wait, there was another big word in there! Parasite. It has three syllables: Pa-ra-site.  Parasites live inside other organisms, but they steal energy and nutrients from their host. On a spectrum of relationships between organisms, parasites are the furthest you can get from endosymbionts. Parasites cannot live alone, but they hurt their host!

Creature Teamwork Examples 

Did you know that plastids and mitochondria aren't the only examples of endosymbiosis? There are so many other wonderful examples in our world! Let's explore a few together!

CORAL

Do you like coral? It is fun to snorkel around coral reefs. You can find them in many tropical climates around the world. Did you know that corals are animals that are able to harvest light like plants, thanks to their endosymbiotic algae? Their endosymbionts are called symbiodinium. Here's a really fun visual that describes coral anatomy.

This image is from Squidtoons. Their graphics are excellently engaging. They even sell books and posters with their images! Here is a link to their website. https://squidtoons.com/about/

DEEP OCEAN LIFE

Did you know that there are communities of autotrophic (they make their own energy) organisms that live in the deep ocean, far away from any light? They are able to survive thanks to microbial endosymbionts or symbionts that can convert chemicals into energy. The name for this process is chemosynthesis. These animals live in extreme environments, so we call them extremophiles. That big word is broken down into four syllables: Ex-treme-o-phile. The word means "love of extremes". Let's explore a couple of these organisms, specifically tube worms and yeti crabs.

The deep ocean is cold, very dark, and very different than life in the coral reefs. When scientists want to study life in the deep ocean, they work as part of a team with engineers, like the team we see in the show Wild Kratts, to build equipment that lets them take videos of the deep.

Here is an illustration of the deep sea hydrothermal vent environment by scientific illustrator Jo Ogier.  Can you find tubeworms and yeti crabs?

Here is a link to Jo's website: https://joogier.co.nz/ 

What do you think this deep environment looks like? Can you show me with your crayons and pencils?

Tube worms that live in the deep sea beside warm hydrothermal vents are able to harvest energy from hydrogen sulfide because of their microbial endosymbionts.

Yeti Crabs also enjoy the benefits of symbiosis. They have bacteria that help them harvest energy.

Here's a great illustration of the anatomy of a Yeti Crab from Squidtoons. This graphic explains the role of its symbiont.

Life Out There?

Because we have encountered such incredibly diverse life on Earth including these chemoautotrophic symbiotic extremophile organisms, astrobiologists speculate about what kinds of life might exist elsewhere. When NASA's Cassini probe imaged vents on Saturn's moon Enceladus, it caused a big stir. 

Here is a view of Saturn's moon Enceladus, from NASA.

Here is a diagram explaining the oceans of Enceladus, from NASA. If scientists want to get a closer view of possible life on Enceladus, they will also need teamwork. Scientists and engineers will work together to build spacecraft to get a closer look.

What life is waiting for us to explore deep in the oceans of Enceladus?

Craft and Activity

Materials:

- Paper, cardstock, or cardboard

- Scissors

- Crayons, Markers, Paints, or Colorful Pencils

So... How about a Wild Kratts themed craft? After you discuss extremophiles with your child, you could cut out your own creature power disks out of paper or cardboard and decorate them yourself! As you do it you can talk about the different amazing "creature powers" of the yeti crab and other extremophiles. Powers like harvesting food with the help of bacteria that live in the hairs on their adorably fuzzy arms.

Here's a picture of our child's Yeti Crab Creature Power Disk (2018).

We revisited this lesson in 2023!

Here are some pictures from today's work and play.

Here's our 7 year old's lion creature power disk!

And our 3 year old's disk. Maybe it's a lion, too.

Here is a rabbit creature power disk that our 9 year old made.

Here's another creature power disk, but I am not sure which it is. What creature do you think this might be? Maybe it's a tube worm!

Our 7 year old made our 3 year old a creature power suit! She can insert any disk into it and pretend she has creature powers! She cut out straps and glued them to hold two pieces of paper together so one paper is over her tummy and one is over her back. They colored the suit together and glued a holder into place for the creature power disks. The suit dried overnight and she could play with it in the morning!

We made a video of her playing with her creature power suit. Here's a link: https://youtu.be/1j14xdZq_Dc

What powers do your creatures have?

Let's each take our creature power disks and create our own imaginative adventures!

Astrobiology Connection

What creatures do you think we will find on other planets and moons in our solar system? What creature powers might they have?

What can you create together today? Share!

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