As you’ll recall, last week Eric’s class found an amazing reproductive
worm swimming in the plankton (see "Turquoise dragon!" on 24 July 2023).
She was protecting a brood of fertilized eggs, but they were very early in development.
Eric kept the worm in the lab, and now about a week later her
embryos have developed into a treasure hoard of crawling 4-eyed larvae
(called trochophores).
We suspect that sometime soon the larvae will break free of the brood sack and swim away!
Here's a short video clip where you can see the larvae. They're quite active! [If you can't see the video player below, click on the title of this post to watch the video on the NHBH website.]
4 comments:
Thank you for this update. What a fascinating video!
Thank you Jackie and Eric. So basic and so beautiful. Melinda
Hi, Alice and Melinda!
Thanks so much! Fun to see the little worms developing. We'll be checking on them again soon to see if they've started swimming. The Turquoise Dragon has been doing a good job!
:) Jackie
This has got to be one of the most visually beautiful and biologically amazing taxa that you and Eric have discovered and descriibed to date - and I have a feeling it may not be over yet:) Maybe we'll even get to see the larval worms themselves at some point. Both videos have been excellent. Thank you and 'Good Eyes' to the student who originally spotted this intriguing creature.
PS - Every person/family should own a dissecting scope.
Vishnu
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