Lisa’s Mantis Shrimp (Lysiosquillina lisa)
(Image: Christian Sardet and Sharif Mirshak/Olympus BioScapes 2012)
This is the claw of a Phronima- a tiny but violent predator that stalks the oceans.
Just a few centimetres long, Phronima are crustaceans that feed on jelly-like organisms like salps. They rip their victims to pieces and use the remains to build barrels that they then live inside and raise their young.
Their sinister appearance and rapacious hunting has led to comparisons with the alien queenfrom James Cameron’s Aliens.This photo, taken by Christian Sardet and Sharif Mirshak of thePlankton Chronicles Project, won fourth place in the Olympus Bioscapes International Digital Imaging Competition.
Barnacles feeding
(via ichthyologist)
A crab with outstretched arms about 8 inches across, which are only observed living on soft coral. Image captured August 5, 2010 by the Little Hercules ROV at 704 meters depth on a new seamount mapped by Baruna Jaya IV during the INDEX SATAL 2010 Expedition.
Image courtesy of NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, INDEX-SATAL 2010.
A squat lobster and sea spider live on the fringe of a barrel sponge. Image captured August 5, 2010 by the Little Hercules ROV at 700 meters depth on a new seamount mapped by Baruna Jaya IV during the INDEX SATAL 2010 Expedition.
Image courtesy of NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, INDEX-SATAL 2010
This beautiful image displays a four-way assocation between creatures:
The hermit crab is associated with the soft coral (with its polyps retracted). The hermit crab is also associated with an episymbiontic anemone - the snail shell provides a home to both animals. Image captured by the Little Hercules ROV at 422 meters depth on ‘Site K’, explored July 11, 2010 during the INDEX SATAL 2010 Expedition.
Image courtesy of NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, INDEX-SATAL 2010.
An Emperor Shrimp (Periclimenes imperator) on its host nudibranch (Mexichromis multituberculata), Seraya, Bali
Lisa’s Mantis Shrimp (Lysiosquillina lisa)
How to move house like a boss hermit crab
I have never had an arthropod make me giggle so much! Also, having never seen the process before, I’m fascinated by the unexpected grace of the hermit crab.
Hermit Crabs [superfamily Paguroidea] aren’t “true” crabs [infraorder Brachyura]. They lack a complete exoskeleton, their abdomen is squidgy [hence the need for a shell], and are more closely related to squat lobsters and porcelain crabs.
The beast in the photo is Rocky, a 40-inch lobster that was caught in Maine. He was released back into the wild yesterday.
He weighed a ridiculous 27 pounds (12.2kg) at the time of his capture.
That’s roughly the size of a 3-year-old child.
yowza
What a lump of Lobster! Hope he’s scuttling happily around.
