This week we @WURmarine are trialing the use of the Plankton Imager on RV Tridens during the ICES herring larvae survey in the English Channel. Continuous sampling of zooplankton composition at 1000s of images per min. First images look great! #Plankton #MarineLife.
The Norway Lobster Nephrops norvegicus also has planktonic larvae which grow quite big before settling. They are instantly recognisable because of their huge spoiler-like telson! #Plankton #MarineLife
Beautifully written piece in the NYT about the latest paper from @nikohensley.bsky.social#evolution#invertebratewww.nytimes.com/2023/11/28/s...
Tiny crustaceans the size of sand grains sneeze up packets of glowing mucus to impress potential partners.
Check out my website for a video of how they touch the substrate: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwIA...
The final larval stage of a barnacle is called a cyprid. In this stage the larva does not feed but uses specialised appendages to investigate surfaces for po...
When the barnacle larva transforms into its final stage, the cypris larva, it is ready to settle. It swims around sniffing for other barnacles and a nice rock to settle on. Once found it glues itself to the rock and is stuck forever! #Plankton #MarineLife
yooo, new true jelly (scyphozoa) dropped! santjordia pagesi, based on two specimens collected 8 years apart from the sumisu caldera south of japan. genetic analysis places it in the ulmaridae family but it's unique enough to merit its own subfamily. 🧪🦑 mapress.com/zt/article/v...
Barnacles have larvae in the plankton as well! The nauplius larva reveals their crustacean origin - it looks similar to the copepod nauplius larva but can be recognised by the two "horns" and the way it swims rowing its appendages. #Plankton #MarineLife
Phyllosoma larvae are quite rare in the plankton and I only found a few, like this one I found on a Mediterranean holiday. Here imaged using an old school (100+years) microscopic illumination technique called Rheinberg Illumination. #Plankton #MarineLife
Perhaps the weirdest and coolest crustacean larvae are the thin, flat and transparent Phyllosoma larvae of spiny lobsters, slipper lobsters and relatives. They can often be seen riding on- and eating jellyfish! #plankton #MarineLife
