Send in your photos, please!
Today mathematician Abby Thompson from UC Davis graces us with tidepool pictures from California. Her captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge her photos by clicking on them.
A few more photos from November tidepools in Northern California:
Subfamily Syllinae (family Syllidae)I like the red eyes on the worms in this family:
Heptacarpus sitchensis (Red-banded transparent shrimp):
Oligocottus snyderi (fluffy sculpin) This is one of the tidepool fish that gets transfixed by a flashlight:
A close-up of the fluffy sculpin’s eye:
There are two species of worms in this photo. One I’ve posted before is the feathery one, from the family Sabellidae. The other is possibly some species of ribbon worm. I like the photo because it looks kind-of balletic:
Aeolidia loui (nudibranch) Those two small black dots may be eye spots, I’m not sure. There are two much fainter spots further forward and farther apart which are also contenders. They have primitive eyes, not usually very visible, which are believed only to distinguish light and dark:
Fissurellidea bimaculata (Two-spotted keyhole limpet) The “keyhole” is the hole in the top of the animal. There’s a small shell surrounding the hole. The shell is always much smaller than the body in this species, but in this one the shell is entirely covered by the mantle:
Ophiothrix spiculata (Western spiny brittle star):
Genus Littorina (periwinkle) There are several species of periwinkles in the high intertidal zone. I’m not sure which this is, but he posed nicely:
Sunset over the Point Reyes peninsula:
The first picture was taken through a microscope on an iphone and the last was also with an iphone. For the rest I used an Olympus TG-7, in microscope mode, with a lot of extra lights. I got some help with IDs from inaturalist.
Incredible (in the good way)!
I’m not sure I ever saw a real green fish before..
Is it me or is that rare, like IIRC blue butterflies?
Lovely.
Beautiful! The green Sculpin is amazing. At least five phyla are represented in those pics!
Green sculpins in our N Calif tidepools! Count me another amazed reader!
Aha, a keyhole limpet! I hadn’t thought about them in years. A protein from their circulatory system has biomedical applications, among other things as a carrier for generating anti-peptide antibodies. AI summary:
Keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) is a large, copper-containing protein from the giant keyhole limpet mollusk ((Megathura\ crenulata)), used in biomedical applications. Its high immunogenicity makes it an effective carrier protein for stimulating immune responses, particularly for creating antibodies against small molecules (haptens) that are not naturally immunogenic. KLH also has clinical uses, such as a vaccine adjuvant or in the immunotherapy of bladder carcinoma
How amazing that they’re used for something!
Cool stuff! I so miss looking thru tide pools. Brittle stars were a fav, along with nudibranchs.
Thank you for sharing these.
Thanks all- and the green really is that bright, those fish almost glow.