Here's Halgerda tessellata, displaying the cosmopolitan insouciance that has made it the envy of boulevardiers from Manitoba to Kwajalein.
I may be able to write some actual posts in the next few days. I'm tantalizingly close to being done with my nightmare project, and must wait for a couple of files to arrive before I can continue, so it's entirely possible that I'll get back to a slightly more normal posting schedule over the weekend. What's far more exciting is the thought that I'll soon get back to reading my accustomed daily blogs. I've missed them!
Thanks for bearing with me in the meantime. I appreciate the kind e-mails I've gotten!
Friday, June 17, 2005
Friday Nudibranch Blogging
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17 comments:
Makes me want to do some invertebrate bloggin of my own. What do you think I should blog? How about chitons?
It's a brownie nudibranch. Sprinkled with powdered sugar and piped with coffee icing. And garnished with, ummm, feathers?
Damn, now I need some chocolate.
Ahianne
I've seen cookies decorated in a similiar fashion in the bakery. What the flavors are depends on if the decorations are for children or adults.
Marilyn
Yay! Nudibranchs rock!
Go nudi, that's what I always say. It's best to swim nudi with the nudies.
Go nudi, that's what I always say. It's best to swim nudi with the nudies.
glad to hear from you phila.
Looks like a decorated cookie.
I was googling for something else, and came across this:
NZ Nudis
(if that doesn't work, cut and paste:
http://www.thenewzealandsite.com/photogalleries/Nature/Underwaternudibranchs)
I'd never heard of nudibranches before you, and now they're everywhere!
Hrm, NZ nudis .. i wonder what other thing you were googling for?? :)
i love these creatures. i hope there are lots more species so we can stay entertained for .. a few more months at least!
Phila, do you keep any of these as pets? er, okay, scientists don't have pets, they have research animals ... so do you keep any as research animals?
Hedwig,
Nudibranchs don't do so well in captivity (mainly because the things they eat don't do well in captivity, IIRC).
I'm glad, too, because I think people would be scooping 'em up by the truckload if they were viable pets. But as far as I know, very few aquaria in the world contain nudibranchs.
I think another thing that protects them is how tiny they are. At, say, 22mm, there's not going to be a lot to see in an aquarium!
Positively stunning. A bit of beauty to wake me up. Thanks!
Phila .. do these creatures have blood or haemolymph flowing through their veins? Come to think of it, do they have veins at all? Ya know, I could google all this stuff, but I'd prefer to ask you because, well, they're your research animals and everyone loves talking about their pets! Er, ahem, I meant to write "research animals".
By the way, do you have a phylogeny that shows their evolutionary relationships to other creatures? I'd sure love to see that!
Incidentally, I think that an aquarium equipped with a magnifying glass would be a fine investment, if only you can figure out how to keep the wee beasties alive!
GrrlScientist
Hedwig,
Contrary to what you think, I'm no expert on nudibranchs! I studied them for a time in college, but that was...uh...some time ago.
I'll try and tell you what I remember. Nudibranchs do have open
circulatory systems, I know that much.
As far as their relatives...well, they're basically snails, of
course...without shells and with detorsion. (Actually, they still develop a shell in their larval stage.) Perhaps all the poisonous and stinging things their shelled ancestors ate cost 'em their shells while making them unpalatable, colorful, and symmetrical. In any case, some of them are able to store eaten but unfired nematocysts from anemones, and use them as a defense against being eaten, which is what I think is most fascinating about them (besides their appearance, of course).
My marine biology teacher's opinion (this is circa 1983) was that
ophistobranch taxonomy was all wrong. He had some odd opinions about nudibranch phylogeny which I've forgotten, unfortunately. I don't think they turned out to be correct, in any case.
Apart from some exciting details about their sex lives, that's about as much as I know!
Did you hear about my flycatcher tragedy?
Sorry about the weird formatting...my Mac wouldn't let me log in to Blogger, so I had to e-mail the comment to my other computer...
Another Blogger "improvement," I guess!
For some reason, I recall a recent flycatcher tragedy .. but seem to have forgotten the details (does this mean I am getting senile?) .. so refresh my memory .. I have read many bird tragedies recently and sometimes they all blend together into a huge torrid tangle of sadness.
GrrlScientist
Always the Friday non-human blogging I check out - each Nudi a true thing of beauty.
Hi,
my partner and I are glass artists- if you are interested check out Nudibranch Art Glass and go to Chris's gallery- he is orking on an amazing piece with about 20 nudies modeled on actual species
Laurie
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