Thank Ceiling Cat we have a few new batches of photos. (I’m always amazed that they do come in!) Today’s contribution are tidepool invertebrates from UC Davis math professor and Hero of Intellectual Freedom Abby Thompson. Abby’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge her photos by clicking on them.
Some final tidepool pictures from the summer. Excellent low tides will start up again in November. Thanks as usual to experts on inaturalist for some of the IDs.
The first three pictures illustrate, somewhat graphically, the sex life of mussels (who knew). Something triggers the simultaneous release of sperm (the white stuff, picture 1) and eggs (the orange stuff, picture 2) into the water (picture 3). Water temperature is one of the triggers.
Google AI assures me that this event does *not* usually happen at a low tide, but, you know, here we are. Low tide seems like a not-bad moment to me, since the eggs and sperm can find each other in a small pool, but apparently mostly they are released into open water to meet up as best they can.
Hermissenda opalescens (nudibranch):
Rostanga pulchra (nudibranch):
Superfamily Paguroidea- hermit crab. I’m not sure of the species. Most hermit crabs move into an empty shell; this one seems to be living in an abandoned worm tube. There aren’t too many types that can straighten out enough for a tube like this:
Ophiolis aculeata (tentative ID – daisy brittle star). A small-but-lively creature, about an inch across:
Ancula pacifica (nudibranch):
The next three are through a microscope, starting with the favorite food of Ancula pacifica, the nudibranch above, who was munching on it:
Phylum Entoprocta. Each stalk-plus-cup is a separate animal:
Paradialychone ecaudata. A tiny tube worm, very common, but tricky to get a good picture of:
Phylum Bryozoa. Every “flower” is a separate animal. This kind appears as a small patch of white crust on a piece of seaweed:
The beach at around 5:30 in the morning (in July):
Mussels: The least sexy creatures alive.
Though I’ve heard that they’re aphrodisiacs. (Or is that only oysters?)
Anyway, loooved the pictures! Exploring tide pools is one of the great joys of life.
Maybe not sexy, but nummy in white wine, garlic sauce! There really are only two kinds of sealife; edible and non-edible. 🙂
Thanks to Dr Thompson for the lovely tide pool shots! I love splashing around in those with a home made viewer (just a box with a plexiglass bottom).
Very nice pictures!
Amazing photography, Abby. Thank you so much.
Very cool! I can hear the waves and seagulls. That was funny to find a hermit crab that had moved into a tube worm case.
Very beautiful!
Great photos, especially the tiny colonies. Beautiful.
A couple IDs: The brittlestar is Ophiopholis aculeata (just a typo). The crab is possibly Discorsopagurus schmitti, has a straight not curbed abdomen, adapted to live in worm tubes instead of snail shells.
Thanks Mike for the correction, and, I was hoping that was the the right ID for the hermit crab, but (here are a few more pictures- https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/297652675) I don’t know if they can have white claws? It seemed a bit unusual.
So many wonderful photos, great detail. I like the tube worm case, a bit like being encased in jewelry.
Very nice. Interestingly, Bryozoa have a rich and long fossil record going back at least to the Ordovician. I’ve collected them in Devonian rocks of western New York State. They are very common.
Poor mussels. Their sex lives are no more than “white stuff” and “orange stuff.” 🙂
Thank you, Abby and Jerry, for sharing these lovely photos! These are gorgeous! So much life packed into those tide pools.
Thanks everyone for the kind comments!
+1 to all of these comments!
Great photographs. The nudibranchs are amazing. God must gone on a wild alcohol and LSD binge to put them together.