Breaking news! I have successfully adapted the camera to my microscope! Yaaay! Still need a bit more distance for parfocality with the eye pieces, so I‘m ordering a helicoid extension tube.

This week’s UV copepods! I swear these colours are getting wilder every week. #marineplankton 🦑

Went to a marine exhibition at the Bundeskunsthalle today. Great exhibition all the way through. But I was particularly stunned by the crocheted coral reef. I think this is one of the most beautiful and impressive works of art I‘ve seen. It‘s a collaboration by a few hundred (>1000?) artists.

Hello cutie squish squash Spionidae larva! A gorgeous little polychaete (bristle worm) larva from last week’s sample. #marineplankton 🦑

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Micro-fried-chickenleg! #copepod #microscopy #pondlife #crustacean

oh interesting! A polychaete Phyllodoce mucosa surrounding this green ball! is that where the species epithet comes from ? A mucus ball? eggs? interesting! #wormwednesday www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Just a photo from yesterday‘s walk that‘s horribly overexposed, but that I like a lot. Spring is here! :D #cherryblossom #spring

Joining in with the reference vs. art thing 🌿

Three copepods under UV from my sample last week. A female Pseudodiaptomus marinus, a female Pseudocalanus sp., and a Harpacticoida (I don’t know genus). #marineplankton 🦑

I‘m gonna have a great day tomorrow! :D

Another copepod for you! <3 I just think they‘re very neat. This one‘s Eucyclops sp. #pondlife #microscopy #crustacean #copepod

Another Onychophore post! :) This time the whole animal from the side. I’m surprised by how well the colours got preserved. Apparently it has been collected a couple decades back and stored in ethanol ever since #onychophore #photography #macrophotography

A helluva chonk of a bristle worm! This is the larva of a polychaete from the genus Scolelepis and it was hard to miss! #marineplankton 🦑

Haven’t posted a polychaete in a while… :) This one’s Arenicolides branchialis. I love this very deep and dark iridescent green colour it has. In person it looked almost black. #polychaete #worm #WormWednesday

I hope, the people whom I’ve told “I’m doing 3D reconstruction of animals with a microCT scanner to visualise their anatomy and morphology” never find out that most of that is just me colouring in pictures like in a colouring book.

First proper microscopy session with the new scope! Experimenting with the light to get a DIC-like effect. This is what I got so far. I’m quite happy, but it only really works on the 20x objective! ^^ Images show stuff growing on a copepod. #microscopy

✨Kelp embryos looking extra photogenic under the confocal today 🌱🔬 Young Egregia menziesii embryos developing from the megagametophyte 📸 Image by Siobhan Braybrook #FluorescentFriday

Yet again the same worm. Regular photo this time. I just finished turning the background black. :) The little “paws” are very cute, but the mouth is terrifying. #photography #macro #worm #onychophora

Same Onychophore (velvet worm) as yesterday, but from the outside. It looks so alien! :D #biology #worm #3D

I love visual science! Made these today. What you can see are two cross-sections of an Onychophore from different angles.

They are here, finally. Let’s gooooo!

My first ever UV microscopy image! This is a Halacaridae mite, but I think it might just be an exoskeleton. It glowed gloriously under the UV light source! #marineplankton 🦑

Tergivelum cinnabarium is species of deep sea acorn worm which is noted for being a big fan of Junjo Ito's Uzumaki #Invertebrate 🧪 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

FedEx still hasn’t managed to deliver my package because apparently my address doesn’t exist. (Spoiler: It does which I happen to know because I live there) They have now called me to confirm the address *again* and said, it will be delivered on Monday. Wish me luck that they find it this time 😑

Oops. I almost said something positive about FedEx last week, when they managed to get my package from Japan to near my city in only 3 days. (But then they tried to deliver it to somewhere in the wrong city and it has been stuck in that city since and the delivery date ._.)

Look closely at the surface of the sea cucumber… There’s a strange little creature hiding there! This scale worm changes its coloring to match its sea cucumber host. You’d never notice it unless it moves. Such amazing camouflage! ✨️

Interesting times ahead! Just bought this microscope today and carried it (with the help of 4 different trains) halfway across Germany. My back hurts, I am exhausted, but it was very worth it! #microscope #biology

Dragon Flower Mantis (Toxodera integrifolia) #AppreciateADragonDay

Another sponge from the university collection. This one is really weird! (If anyone knows has tips for ID, let me know! It wasn't labeled) #MarineLife #Nature

Check out these beautiful macro photographs of Slime Moulds by Barry Webb at www.barrywebbimages.co.uk/Images/Macro... Additional links - Fungi: www.barrywebbimages.co.uk/Images/Macro... Instagram: www.instagram.com/barrywebbima... Slime mould info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slime_mo #Nature

I tried that soap bubble freezing thing. Catastrophic failure. ☹️

Felt a little festive at the microscope this morning for #FluorescenceFriday 🎄 Here’s the nervous system of a juvenile sea star ⭐️ Green = acetylated tubulin, red = nuclei Happy holidays!

Happy new year! :D I have no pictures of fireworks, but I have this one of a siliceous sponge skeleton from the university collection. #MarineLife #Photography

A juvenile jack sheltering in a crystal jelly. They are part of the daily diel migration which brings plankton and associated critters up from the depths to the surface at night. Pic from Balayan Bay, Anilao #Fishmas #MarineLife 🌿🐟

For the 17th day of #Crustmas, I have another water flea. This one was found in a tropical greenhouse. It's Macrothrix sp., but the exact species is probably not determinable without DNA analysis(?) Look at the snoot! :D #pondlife #microscopy

A copepod for #Crustmas day 15 🦀 This one's a Calanoid copepod from Spain which I sadly do not know how to ID further ( Help much appreciated! :D ) The enlarged antenna segments are interesting as well. I have no idea what they are for and why they're only on one antenna. #marinelife #copepod

It's the fourteenth day of #Crustmas and I bring you another amphipod. I really like its slight blue and red colouration. :D It is probably Apohyale perieri, but I'm not quite sure. #MarineLife #Crustacean #Amphipod

Omg it’s so precious! #crustmas

🦐☘,, #invertebrates

#Crustmas Day 13 🦀 I‘ve posted this species recently (about a month ago), but this one has a different colouration and not such an enlarged claw. This is Pisidia longicornis, the Long-clawed Porcelain Crab. #marinelife #crab

#Crustmas Day 12 Green Shromp! It’s the Chamaeleon Prawn (Hippolyte varians) and very variable in colouration as the name suggests. I don’t know what influences colour, but all I found at that region were green. #MarineLife #Shrimp

Slipper Lobster Metamorphosis Crustaceans display some of the most spectacular metamorphoses from free-swimming meroplankton to reef-dwelling adults. Slipper lobsters (below) are closely related to rock lobsters but have a flattened body and short, wide antennae. #Crustmas

Also for #Crustmas: Fluffy crab! (not actually a true crab) Porcellana platycheles, the Hairy Porcellain Crab. #MarineLife

For the 10th day of #Crustmas 🦐, I found this Scapholebris (cf. mucronata) Daphniid that is infested with Chlorella(?) green algae. I believe, they are parasitic, judging by the Daphniid‘s reduced mobility & the strange twitching motion of the antennae. #microscopy #pondlife #parasites #crustacean

Procreate tracks the number of individual marks I make, and I’m currently on 66,816!

#Crustmas Day 9 This is one of the prettiest copepods I‘ve found. It‘s called Hersiliodes latericius and was found in coastal waters in Spain #MarineLife #Copepods #Crustacean

Omg #Crustmas

A pair of Coleman Shrimp (Periclimenes colemani) in between the spines of a variable fire urchin. #MarineLife #Invertebrates #Crustmas 🌿