Waving hello

Christian spotted this beautiful nudibranch in Bodega Harbor last week, and Eric was able to capture some nice video footage, so here you go… 

…meet Dendronotus iris!

Below is a short clip of this juvenile Dendronotus iris in action.  It was only ~1 cm long, so this footage was taken with a microscope.  [If you can’t see the video player in an e-mail, just click on the title of the post to go to the NHBH website.]

The rhinophores (sense organs at the front) are so tall it made me think of antlers!  And you’ll probably be intrigued that the nudibranch is transparent, so you can see the orange-colored branches of the digestive gland extending into the cerata (tall extensions on the nudibranch’s back):

 

With many thanks to Christian and Eric for the great find and fun video!