I now have three batches plus some singletons, and so we’ll have semi-regular photos for a while, at least. Today’s batch of tidal invertebrate photos, and one video, comes from math professor Abby Thompson at UC Davis. Abby’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them. The video is also hers.
April tidepools, and a mystery den.
Starting with a video of a Ctenophore, Pleurobrachia bachei (Pacific sea gooseberry, a ‘comb jelly’). All appearances to the contrary, this is in a different phylum (Ctenophora) from the “jellyfish” of my earlier post, which are in the phylum Cnidaria. The flashing lights are the cilia in the “combs” that run down the sides, used for locomotion. This one wasn’t moving very much, but I was surprised it was moving at all. I picked it up off the sand quite a way above the water line, and dumped it into a shallow pool to take a photo. It seemed to be recovering pretty well from what I thought was death. It’s about the size of a walnut.
Sea urchin “test”, or internal skeleton. Probably Strongylocentrotus purpuratus:
Ophiopholis aculeata (daisy brittle star):
Bispira pacifica (feather duster worm):
Close up of ‘feathers’ of pacifica:
Genus Eupentacta (sea cucumber):
Phoronis ijimai (tentative- the white things). This is a species of horseshoe worm, which lives in tubes. I haven’t seen this species before, and it was in an awkward spot, so it was hard to get a good photo. The photo below that is from a few years ago of a worm from the same family, so you can see their general shape better:
Phoronopsis harmeri (from July 2021) (same family):
Anthopleura artemisia (moonglow anemone):
And a few nudibranchs:
Triopha maculata (nudibranch):
Tenellia laguna (nudibranch):
Acanthodoris rhodoceras (nudibranch):
Rostanga pulchra (nudibranch):
Lastly the mystery den. Our entire front yard seems to have been tunneled under, with at least three major entrances- this pair of holes is just one of them. The holes are large, about 10 inches across. We’re dreaming of badgers, would be very happy with foxes, and really hoping it’s not skunks (I love skunks, but not in the front yard). A wildlife cam is the next purchase:
Camera: Olympus TG-7. Thanks as usual to some experts on inaturalist.
In graduate school I took a Biology of Invertebrates Course and, at Friday Harbor Labs, I audited a different one—this one in the field—by the late professor Paul Illg. They were eye-opening! It’s hard to even imagine such creatures existing.
Thank you for the wonderful photographs of such exotica, right under our noses.
Awesome photos, as always.
I predict groundhog(s). Those holes give me deja vu. It just seems to happen over and over again. 🙂
Thank you for such gorgeous photos of sea life. Very wonderful shapes and colors that are unimaginable.
That Pacific gooseberry is really exciting to watch.
Thank you so much for the tidal pool photos; as usual, the subjects are astonishing to someone who has almost no experience with tidal pool creatures.
The holes remind me of the groundhog holes that I used to find on the small hill in my backyard. I hope they belong to someone else since groundhogs are very destructive to “desirable” vegetation–that is, they don’t bother with weeds or invasives, but eat the plants I really want to grow down to the ground so they don’t recover.
Such a great set! It is a welcome break for me, and I appreciate it.
Meanwhile down in the rock pools… thanks for the colourful distraction.
Beautiful sea creature photos! Abby: What camera do you use? Thanks.
It’s a point-and-shoot- Olympus TG-7. Many people who take pictures in the intertidal use it, because it’s waterproof, almost drop-proof, and has this amazing microscope feature. It can get a little frustrating (the focus is hard to get right), but I think a better set up would run into several thousands.
Thanks everyone- I’ll give you an update if we figure out the den question. The only reason I think it’s not groundhogs is because we already have them all over, and these holes are much larger. But maybe it’s giant ones….