Glory be—a few regulars have sent in some lovely wildlife photos, so I can post some critters today. These intertidal critters come from UC Davis math professor Abby Thompson, who does great marine photography on the California coast. Abby’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge her photos by clicking on them.
These are probably the last of the summer tidepool photos. The (spectacular!) final nudibranch is one that I’ve only found once up here before- it’s usually a slightly more southerly species. If the El Niño comes through as predicted, we should see more this coming year.
The first four animals are chitons, the roly-poly’s of the ocean. They have a common structure- 8 shell plates, surrounded by a mantle. The structure of the mantle and the sculpturing on the shell plates, (sometimes) allows identification to species. The Mopalia (this seems to be a made-up word) chitons have some kind of hairs or feathery things on the mantle. The type/quantity/form of the hairs can be distinctive. The first three creatures are in this genus.
Mopalia lionata: close-up of the feathers on the mantle:
Mopalia spectabilis (tentative ID):
Mopalia spectabilis: close-up of the stripes/hairs on the mantle:
Genus Mopalia – I can’t tell the genus, but liked the photo:
The Lepidozona chitons have small overlapping scales on the mantle and beautiful sculpturing of the shell plates:
Lepidozona cooperi- close-up of the mantle:
Lepidozona cooperi- close-up of the sculpturing:
Diodora aspera (Rough keyhole limpet):
Genus Paranamertes (ribbon worm): There’s a specific local species called a “purple ribbon worm”, and one might think this one would qualify, but it turns out (thanks inaturalist experts!) that identifying to species is tricky in this genus:
Finishing up with some nudibranchs. . .
Corambe steinbergae – chomping on its favorite bryozoan prey, on which it is virtually invisible:
Diaphoreolis lagunae – Laguna Beach aeolid:
And the gorgeous:
Certat0d0ris rosacea: Hopkin’s Rose. Wouldn’t you love to know the sequence of adaptations that led to this?:
Stripes on the beach, early in the morning. It looked as though someone had ruled paths for the water to flow down the beach:
Sunset over Tomales Point:
Chitins are so cool! We have one here in the Pacific Northwest that can be the size—and almost the shape—of a football: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumboot_chiton.
I did some experiments on Diodora aspera as a small part of my doctoral dissertation. The work was nothing to write home about, but it helped me get my first job.
Nice pictures! I’ve always been fascinated by life in the intertidal.
To me, it is no surprise that a mathematician like Dr. Thompson has such an affinity for the natural patterns seen in her beautiful photographs.
Great pics, thank you.
What a thrill it would be/is to live (or even visit) the seashore. The few times I have – magical.
D.A.
NYC
These pictures make me very happy
Hopkins rose is stunning. I love that shade of pink.
And the beach pics are beautiful. How I wish I was there right now.
Hopkin’s Rose is lovely, but I like the Laguna Beach aeolid even better!
Holy cannoli! What spectacular photos. Thank you!