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Friday, June 29, 2018

Little sphere


Eric's summer students found a few intriguing isopods in the rocky intertidal zone this morning.  This one rolled up into a tight little sphere.  You can see its compound eyes and orange antennules at the top, and the last abdominal appendages — a broad pleotelson and a pair of uropods (made up of 4 curved appendages — 2 exopods and 2 endopods) at the bottom.  We believe this is a species of Gnorisphaeroma in the Sphaeromatidae family.  "Sphaero" means ball or spherea wonderful reference to this shape!

3 comments:

russell said...

that's incredible! a whole little sphere world.

Anonymous said...

As the expression says, "Think locally, act like a globe." -ES

Jackie Sones said...

I agree, on a black background this curled-up little isopod looks like a planet in space!

:) Jackie