<span>Invertebrate<span>, </span>any animal that lacks a vertebral column, or backbone, in contrast to the cartilaginous or bony vertebrates. More than 90 percent of all living animal species are invertebrates. Worldwide in distribution, they include animals as diverse as sea stars, sea urchins, earthworms, sponges, jellyfish, lobsters, crabs, insects, spiders, snails, clams, and squid. Invertebrates are especially important as agricultural pests, parasites, or agents for the transmission of parasitic infections to humans and other vertebrates. Invertebrates serve as food for humans and are key elements in food chains that support birds, fish, and many other vertebrate species.Apart from the absence of a vertebral column, invertebrates have little in common. Indeed, they are distributed between more than 35 phyla. In contrast, all vertebrates are contained within a single phylum, the Chordata. (Phylum Chordata also includes the sea squirts and some other invertebrate groups.) Invertebrates are generally soft-bodied animals that lack a rigid internal skeleton for the attachment of muscles but often possess a hard outer skeleton (as in most mollusks, crustaceans, and insects) that serves, as well, for body protection.</span>
The standard plate count (SPC) method involves diluting 1.0m of bacterial culture into a series of water blanks, and then taking a sample from the water blanks to add to empty petri plates which will be filled with melted agar.
The standard plate count is a method used in microbiology, which is used to gain an insight to estimate the density of bacterial population which is present in a bacterial culture broth. This is done by plating a small concentration of the culture in a petri-dish and then counting the colonies which form in the petri-plate. This method is used mostly in the food industry, to find the density of mesophilic bacteria in food. This method is extremely essential to determine the primary source of the bacterial contaminant.
Round Mountain is an epithermal, low-sulphidation, volcanic-hosted, hot-springs deposit located along the margin of a buried caldera. The majority of the mineralisation at Round Mountain is contained within the tuffs, although drilling has encountered some ore in the underlying Palaeozoic basement.
