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January 22, 2003
Especially for Kathy the Carmelite
Especially for Kathy the Carmelite
Yep--here they are, some of the great jewels of the ocean:
Appendicularian
image from @sea.org
You can find out more about these amazing animals here
One of my personal favorites of recent date, a new phylum called Loricifera. There is a delicate, unearthly beauty about these that is impossible to describe. They are part of the interstitial fauna--an entire group of animals that live their entire lives in the spaces between sand-grains. The critter below is approximately 0.25 mm when fully grown--but it is not a protist! It is a full-fledged member of the Animalia!
Pliciloricus enigmatus
Image courtesy of NASA/Smithsonian
For more information and additional pictures of these lovely creature, check this site. Or google "loricifera."
I'm still looking for the echinoderm, as I have forgotten its designation. I thought it was Cyclosdiscus, but I realized that I am probably confusing it with the utterly alien, utterly creepy Laernodiscus porcelaini perhaps now known as or related to Sacculina carcini.
Posted by Steven Riddle at January 22, 2003 7:44 AM