Sunrise clouds

I've always enjoyed getting up at sunrise — it feels like a very special time of day, when the world is just waking up.  This morning I stepped outside to a beautiful sky — soft pink lighting up the undersides of the clouds on the eastern horizon.  Somehow it seemed like an appropriate color, given the heat of the last few days.  It was 103°F in Cotati yesterday!

 

 

 

 

All photographs taken on 19 June 2017.

 

Tubercles and tube feet

 

Yesterday I took a few close-up photos of a Purple Sea Urchin test (or skeleton).

You can see the rounded and raised tubercles to which the urchin spines are attached:

 

Also noticeable are the podial pores, or the holes from which the tube feet emerge.  

Note that the pores are paired (two are placed side-by-side).  One tube foot emerges from each pair of pores:

 

To provide some context for these anatomical features of the skeleton, here are two images of live urchins (an adult and a juvenile), highlighting the urchin spines and the extensible tube feet:

 

 

Sunrise moon

I looked up around sunrise this morning to see pale pink clouds below a Last Quarter moon:

 

A closer look (click on the image for a larger version):

 

Recently I've been reading a book about tides, so I've been thinking about the moon quite a bit.  How lucky are we to have such a nice moon orbiting the Earth!

Super star

Joe and Sam dropped by to say they had found something interesting in an aquarium at the marine lab.  I was a little surprised to look down and see one of the largest brittle stars I've ever seen!

 

We found a smaller Flat-spined Brittle Star (Ophiopteris papillosa) last year, but the size of this individual was notable.  The central disc alone was ~3 cm (~1 inch) across!

Here's a close-up of the disc:

 

 And a view of the flattened spines at the tip of one arm:

 

 

Amazingly, the largest specimens of this species have central discs up to 4.5 cm across!

Many thanks to Joe and Sam for sharing this impressive brittle star.

 

For a look at the smaller individual we photographed last year, along with a short video clip, see the post from 1 March 2017. 

A little leather

 

We don't encounter juvenile Leather Stars (Dermasterias imbricata) that often, but here's a nice example.  This sea star was only ~4 cm (~1.5 inches) across.  It was photographed in Del Norte County on 26 May 2017.

 

Beauty and intrigue

A few miscellaneous images from our trip to Oregon in late May:

 

A purple encrusting bryozoan, Disporella separata

 

Peanut worm, Themiste pyroides, with coralline algae

 

The nudibranch Aeolidia loui (formerly Aeolidia papillosa) 

The beauty and intrigue of coastal marine invertebrates!

Deep-blade

Here's a fun mystery close-up — an extreme view taken through a microscope.  Can you guess what type of animal this might be?
 

 

I'll zoom out a bit more:

 

And now I'll show the entire animal, so be prepared for the answer below!  

First, a few more hints: This is a crustacean that can be found in the low rocky intertidal zone and subtidal areas, but it's relatively small and can be quite cryptic.  [In the photos above, the small, colorful patches are chromatophores which play a role in camouflage.] 

Hmmm.  On second thought, I've change my mind — here's one more close-up before I give the answer away.  (Although this photo will probably help a lot!)

 

Isn't that a spectacular tail?

Okay, now here's the entire animal:

 

Meet Spirontocaris prionota, commonly known as a Deep-blade Shrimp.  This is the first time we've encountered one on Bodega Head.  I was impressed with the details and colors when viewed under high magnification.

The "deep-blade" portion of the name refers to the distinctive rostrum — the portion of the carapace that projects forward in front of and above the eyes.  It's extremely narrow (like a knife), and impressively serrated above (see first two photos).

To orient you to this shrimp's anatomy, the next image shows the same photo with a few labels:

 

Apparently, not much is known about the biology of this species.  Here's one more image — a head-on view emphasizing how well camouflaged this shrimp would be among the rocks and sand.  And note some of the other intriguing features.  For example, what do they do with those small front appendages tipped with noticeable black spines?  Why do they have clusters of long setae (bristles) on their legs?