Georgia Arnold

Mrs. Cook-Science

October 22nd, 2015

Atlantic Silverside

The Atlantic silverside, or Menidia menidia, is a small, slender fish. It is grey, with a silver stripe on each side. The Silverside is is named after its looks. It is in the eukaryote domain, animalia kingdom, arthropod phylum, actinopterygii class, artherinformes order, artherinapsidae family, menidia genus, and Menidia species. The silverside is an ectothermic heterotroph, which means it is cold blooded and relies on other organisms for energy. It eats plankton and smaller fish, while sharks, bigger fish, and shore birds hunt the atlantic silverside. A structural and functional adaptation of the Atlantic Silverside is that since it is small, the silverside can swim faster that a lot of fish. A behavioral adaptation of the silverside is that they almost always travel in schools. They are most commonly found in near sandy shores in brackish water anywhere from South Carolina to Rhode Island. The silverside has bilateral symmetry which means it is symmetrical only if it is divided down the middle, or its center point.