Elz got the town privileges in 1442. Soon a wall around the town was constructed but knocked down later.
The council consists of 31 members. 19 members are from the Christian Democrats, seven are from the Social Democratic Party, four from the Free Voters' Community and one is from the Green Party. The mayor Horst Kaiser is a Christian Democrat and was elected in 2005 with 84.8% of all votes.
In Elz thaere are more than 600 businesses with much more than 2,000 jobs. The industrial area is at the B8 between Elz and Malmeneich.
Elz is not only at the B8,which goes from the Dutch border to Passau, but also at the Autobahn 3, which connects Würzburg,Frankfurt am Main and Cologne.
In Elz there is a big outdoor swimming pool, two gyms, several sport and tennis fields and two old people's homes.
There are three kindergartens, two primary schools and one "Haupt- und Realschule" (part of the German secondary education).
Cephalopod
The Cephalopoda (Greek meaning "head-foot") is an important mollusc class. They have bilateral symmetry, a head, and arms or tentacles. Teuthology, a branch of malacology, is the study of cephalopods.
The class has two living subclasses. In the Coleoidea, the mollusc shell has become smaller, or is not there at all; this subclass has the octopus, squid, and cuttlefish. The "Nautiloidea" have a shell; "Nautilus" is its only living genus.
There are at least 800 different living species of Cephalopods. Two important extinct taxa are the Ammonites, and the Belemnites (order "Belemnoidea", of class Coleoidea). Cephalopods are found in all the oceans of the world and at all pelagic levels. None of them can live in freshwater (water with no salt in it), but a few species live in brackish (partly salty) water.
There are still discoveries of new species of cephalopods:
There are many more fossil species. It is thought there are around 11,000 extinct taxa.
Cephalopods are the most intelligent invertebrates and have good senses and large brains. The nervous system of cephalopods is the most complex of the invertebrates, and their brain to body mass ratio falls between that of warm and cold blooded vertebrates. The giant nerve fibers of the cephalopod mantle have been a favourite experimental material for many years; their large diameter makes them easier to study.
Most cephalopods have chromatophores – that is, cells with different colours – which they can use in a number of surprising ways. As well as blending with their background, some cephalopods bioluminesce, shining light downwards to hide their shadows from any attackers. The bioluminescence is made by bacterial symbionts; the host cephalopod is able to find the light made by these animals. Bioluminescence may also be used to attract prey, and some species use colourful shows to get mates, amaze predators, or even signal to one another.
Colouration can be changed in milliseconds as they adjust to their environment, and the pigment cells can expand or contract. Rapid colour change is usually more common in near-shore species than those living in the open ocean. Those in open ocean mostly use camouflage to make their body outline less easy to see.
Evidence of original colouration has been found in cephalopod fossils as far back as the Silurian; certain straight-shelled species had lines round their shell, which are thought to have used as camouflage of their body outline. Devonian cephalopods bear more complex colour patterns, whose function may be more complex.
Cephalopods usually move by jet propulsion (squirting water). This uses a lot of energy to travel compared to the tail propulsion used by fish. They use jet propulsion because they do not have fins or flippers. The efficiency of jet propulsion goes down with larger animals. This is probably the reason why many species use their fins or arms for moving if possible.
Oxygenated water is taken into the mantle cavity to the gills. By contracting the mantle's muscles, the water is pushed out through the siphon, made by a fold in the mantle. Motion of the cephalopods is usually backward as water is forced out forwards, but the siphon can be pointed in different directions. Some cephalopods can adjust their body shape to move through the water more easily.
Some octopus species are also able to walk along the sea bed. Squids and cuttlefish can move short distances in any direction by moving a flap of muscle around the mantle.
With the exception of the Nautilidae and the species of octopus of the suborder Cirrina, all known cephalopods have an ink sac, which can be used to push out a cloud of dark ink to confuse predators.
Like most molluscs, cephalopods use haemocyanin, a copper-containing protein, rather than haemoglobin to transport oxygen. As a result, their blood is colourless when deoxygenated and turns blue when placed in air.
With a few exceptions, Coleoideans live short lives with fast growth. Most of the energy from their food is used for growing. The penis in most male Coleoidea is a long and muscular end of the vas deferens (tube for sperms) used to transfer spermatophores (sperm packages) to a modified arm called a hectocotylus. That in turn is used to transport the spermatophores to the female. In species where the hectocotylus is missing, the penis is long and able to extend beyond the mantle cavity and transfers the spermatophores directly to the female. The females lay many small eggs in one batch, and die afterwards. The Nautiloidea, on the other hand make a few large eggs in each batch, and live for a long time.
The class developed during the late Cambrian and were the most common and varied marine life forms during the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic eras. "Tommotia", an early cephalopod, had squid-like tentacles but also a snail-like foot it used to move across the sea floor. Early cephalopods were at the top of the food chain.
The old (cohort Belemnoidea) and modern (cohort Neocoleoidea) coleoids, as well as the ammonoids, all diverged (evolved away from) from the external shelled nautiloids during the middle Paleozoic Era, between 450 and 300 million years ago. Most ancient varieties had protective shells. These shells at first were conical but later developed into the curved shapes seen in modern nautilus species. Shells inside the body still exist in many living cephalopod groups, such as cuttlefish. The most famous group with external shells, the ammonites, became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period.
Cuttlefish
Cuttlefish are marine Cephalopod molluscs. They belong to the same class as squid, octopodes and the nautilus.
Cuttlefish have an internal shell (called a cuttlebone), large eyes, and eight arms and two tentacles furnished with finely toothed suckers, with which they grab their prey.
Cuttlefish eat small molluscs, crabs, shrimp, fish and other cuttlefish. Various sharks and fish prey on them. They live about 1 to 2 years.
Cuttlefish have an internal cuttlebone, made of calcium carbonate. It is porous, full of small holes, The buoyancy of the cuttlebone can change, allowing the cuttlefish to go lower or higher by changing the amount of gas and liquid in its chambers. The cuttlebone of each species has a distinct shape, size, and pattern of ridges or texture. Cuttlebones are used by jewellers and silversmiths as moulds for casting small objects. They are probably better known today as the material given to pet birds as a source of calcium. The cuttlebone is only found in cuttlefish, and is one of the features that makes them different from squid and other molluscs.