This work on benthic ctenophore systematics (creation of Benthoplanidae) sets up a few planned works, focused on the systematics and evolution of shallow and deep water groups. www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=...

The arrow worms are back! Chaetognatha are relatively large carnivorous predators of the plankton (although some are omnivorous) that appear around autumn to feast on smaller zooplankton like copepods! I had lots in my sample this week! #marineplankton 🦑

Researchers are studying how winds, currents, and climate change influence the drift of the Portuguese man o' war in an effort to forecast its seasonal movements. @ieo.es @blancobercial.bsky.social bios.asu.edu/currents/pre...

Some of our favorite covers over the course of the past 11 years have been ones that feature images that beautifully and accurately showcase emerging science. We might be a bit biased 🫣, but we couldn't agree more @science.org www.science.org/content/blog... #ctenophores @msarscentre.bsky.social

Spooky season royalty 👑🎃⁠✨️ ⁠ Atolla gigantea is the largest Atolla species found off the West Coast. This deep-sea crown jelly can reach a diameter of up to 15 centimeters (six inches) and is one of the most widely distributed jellyfish. The genus occurs worldwide, from the Arctic to the Antarctic.

The redhead larvacean is a deep-sea climate hero 🌊💙 These tiny animals build mucous houses to filter marine snow sinking from the waters above. When their filters clog, they abandon their homes, which sink to the seafloor packed with nutrients and large amounts of carbon: youtu.be/7swiAc8rZbk?...

Happy Ctenophore day! Its a perfect day to celebrate such a small yet beautifully diverse phyla that comes in a wide array of shapes and colors. #Ctenophoreday

Happy Ctenophore Day! These glowing ocean drifters look like jellyfish but aren’t! They’re comb jellies, shimmering creatures that light up the sea with rows of beating cilia 💙🌈 Which species can you identify? 👀 Most are raised in @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social lab #CtenophoreDay #CombJelly #Ctenophore

Not uncommon, but always beautiful; the ever flappy-flappy #pelagic #SeaButterfly #Pteropod, Corolla spectabilis. This one is feeding, as can be seen by the mucus net that it’s currently reeling in. #corollaspectabilis #plankton #blackwater #blackwaterdiving #gug #chrisgug #gugunderwater #ocean

Our science photo book The Radiant Sea is out Sept 2nd!! 30 years of research, 10 years of "we should", and a year of collating pix and writing. Sönke and I show (mostly for the first time) images of how organisms produce, use, and interact with light in the sea. #bioluminescence #fluorescence 🦑🧪🌊

Had time to finish another Aliens dive’s memory card from May 6&8, 2024. 1) #Phronima with behbehies in a fantastically-colored salp 2/3) #Siphonophore (don’t lick) 4) #Ctenophore 5) #Swordfish 6) #Polychaete worm 7) #Scaleworm 8) Ctenophore 9) #MantisShrimp

Marine biodiversity: Gone with the wind? Our dispatch out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social New research shows that wind and currents act as invisible barriers, reshaping our view of ocean connectivity. 🌊🪼 authors.elsevier.com/a/1lYLj3QW8S... @iramaegele.bsky.social @msarscentre.bsky.social

Deep-sea raspberry ❤️✨️ The raspberry jelly (Aeginura grimaldii) is part of a small group of jellies called the narcomedusae. Species in this group are are known for having a relatively small number of tentacles that are attached higher to the bell compared to other groups of jellies.

Ctenophores possess a unique aboral organ that acts as a multisensory center, controlling complex behaviors. We’ve now created a ctenophore model integrated with our 3D volume EM data. Puts it into perspective. Check out our recent work here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #ctenophores #volumeEM

Adding a little zest to your day with the lemon jelly—Aegina citrea. 🍋 The lemon jelly is different from other jellyfish because it has only four tentacles extending from its bell. Although jellies in the genus Aegina are relatively well known, they can evolve unusual forms or colors in deep water.

My favorite outcome was validating species descriptions from 18th century scientists who illustrated animals on their voyages. Their descriptions were often rejected as implausible – we found that in many cases they were exactly right. Yet another reason why @biodivlibrary.bsky.social is so valuable

We combined sequencing data with thousands of participatory science images via @inaturalist.bsky.social, to connect genomic clusters to distinct morphologies. Credit to awesome undergraduates River Abedon and Diego Ramirez on this part! www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Excited to share our study on sailing siphonophores, AKA bluebottles or man-o'-war! 🌊 we received hundreds of samples from scientists around the world, part of a huge effort to sequence genomes and test for multiple species 🧬 out today in @currentbiology.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... 🦑🧪📌

I am used to photographing #ctenophores in darkfield, but under those conditions it is hard to see the pigment spots on this little (5mm) specimen. Fun to see the patterns that show up when viewed against a white background. 🧪🦑🌊

A rare #Scina #Amphipod, who appears to have caught and is consuming a #ctenophore. #amphipod #scina #hyperidean #crustacean #blackwater #blackwaterdiving #blackwaterphotography #gug #gugunderwater #chrisgug #underwater #scubadiving

And read more about @planktomancer.bsky.social career here: doi.org/10.1242/jeb....

#Salps have a solitary and colonial phase in their lives, and the colonies of different species come in a variety of shapes. A new study led by @planktomancer.bsky.social uses videos of salps to examine the swimming of different colony shapes. Check it out here: doi.org/10.1242/jeb....

Unsolicited listicle: My list of the most criminally underused/underappreciated phylogenetic comparative methods. Note, I am not involved in ANY of these methods; but I see them as things people are often asking of comparative data but have been surprised at how infrequently they have been cited.

Up close and personal with the angler siphonophore (Erenna sirena). 🎣 This cunning predator dangles luminescent lures that mimic crimson crustaceans and attract unsuspecting fishes. When a curious lanternfish gets too close, the siphonophore’s tentacles deliver a powerful sting and snare a meal.

Meet Eryoneicus, a deep-sea lobster larva. This cutie was spotted at 1,196 meters (3,923 feet) in Monterey Bay. Scientists originally called them Eryoneicus thinking they were a new species, before realizing they were the larval form of deep-sea lobster-like crustaceans in the family Polychelidae.

Our latest collaborative paper, led by NMNH intern Annemarie Wood, reports on a new tool for understanding ctenophore and medusozoan diversity. "Anthozoan eDNA primer set characterizes Ctenophora and Medusozoa ..." Characterizing #MarineLife www.frontiersin.org/journals/mar...

Turning screen time into ocean action 📱🌊 The collective efforts of @fathomverse.bsky.social players around the world are enhancing AI models that researchers rely upon to deepen our understanding of marine ecosystems. Join us today and become part of the mission to discover all life in our ocean!

It’s hard to beat field work in Hawaii with @cadurkin.bsky.social @lenaunderwater.bsky.social and others of the @mbarinews.bsky.social team..! We are using blue-water scuba diving to study #ctenophores, siphonophores, radiolarians, and #bioluminescence. 🦑🌊🧪🤿

These faster swimmers also tend to be more efficient in their cost of transport, as assessed by comparing their swimming vs. resting respiration rates. This research was funded by @MooreFound and @USNavyResearch 3/3

Linear architectures and others able to tuck many propeller zooids under a constrained frontal area present faster swimming speeds than those with a 1:1 ratio in zooids:area /2

Our paper on the developmental ontology of salp colonial architecture made the cover of The Biological Bulletin! @BiolBulletin With my photo of a developing Pegea chain! @SutherlandLab https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/731540

The pre-print for the last paper (under review) from my postdoc at the @SutherlandLab is up! Salp colonies vary in swimming speed and energetic efficiency across species and colonial architectures. Streamlining of propellers in a multi-jet system is key! https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20...

Just published! A developmental ontology of salp colonial architecture that defines their variation to enable comparative studies on colonial salp evolution, form, and function. @SutherlandLab @MooreFound @USNavyResearch https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10.1086/730459

I'm giving a talk on our work from the @SutherlandLab on salp colony locomotion at #OSM2024 See you tomorrow Monday 02/19 at 11:10am in room 225-227 NOLACC (Session PI12A-05 - Ecological Fluid Mechanics) #zooplankton

I'm teaching a course on Animal Form & Function in the Spring for the first time. It's gonna cover biomechanics, divergence, and trade-offs in locomotion, feeding, vision, & defense. I would really appreciate any resources folks may be willing to share with me!

Yellow tails in Iasis #salp colonies off Hawaii are the first recorded instance of zooid-type polymorphism in salps! They likely act as decoys to distract predators while the colony swims away to safety. @SutherlandLab https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/RHKBXDA3RDQ5UDMT2IUP?target=10.1...

Hear ye! A new molecular phylogeny for #salps (Salpida) reconstructs the evolutionary history of their diverse colonial architectures! With @SutherlandLab & @maczooid Funded by @MooreFound https://academic.oup.com/iob/advance-article/doi/10.1093/iob/obad037/7284387

Streamlined colonial architectures among salps evolved multiple times. Locomotory performance in #multijet propulsion is driven by a combination of thrust:torque ratio and frontal drag scaling with the number of propellers. I presented this poster @UO_Research Biology Symposium.

We had a great time at @5Icim #icim5 with the Alabama spiralian gang et al. @myapchiongco @rebecca_efg @chimpi_cobo @RNickellaus

Gutless siboglinids have thicc lecitotrophic larval developments as odd as their adult lifestyle! By @rimskaya at #icim5

Brett @bcg5574 showcases derpy/creepy predatory scale worms with complex eyes that adjust their “pupil” size with day/night cycles! #icim5

Great lessons from @caseywdunn on the value of homoplasy and inclusive thinking in evolutionary biology #icim5

Gerhard Haszprunar’s plenary at #icim5 showcased how the goals of biology as a whole shifted in the past century

Excited to share the first insights into the evolutionary history and biomechanics of #salp colonial architectures from my postdoctoral work at the @SutherlandLab for @5Icim #icim5 in Vienna! Join me in the Functional Morphology session at 3pm in LH-1

I made a #salp identification version of "Both Sides Now" (orig. by Joni Mitchell) illustrating my recent frustrations with the taxonomic identification of these majestic animals during fieldwork #singyourscience #postdoclife #zooplankton #salptok @SutherlandLab (part 1)

Blackwater diving over 2km water off Kona HI to collect, measure, and observe vertically-migrating salps. My research at the @SutherlandLab focuses on colonial architecture, evolutionary history, and locomotion. #multijet #salps #zooplankton Videos by our collaborator @maczooid

We used #DNA #metabarcoding to identify the diets of oceanic #siphonophores, found that small and soft-bodied prey overlooked by traditional methods are prevalent in both shallow and deep-sea species, also tentacle morphology is predictive of diet https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1...

My Cystisoma video went viral again haha I “almost” got credit https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/sy4lj1/a_scientist_from_oregon_found_this_sea_creature/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Our new synthesis paper led by @lizheth_sd summarizes current knowledge on the trophic roles of different #siphonophore species as predators and prey in the #midwater food web! https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/lol2.10235 #siphweb with @beroe @anelachoy & @caseywdunn

I like to describe my job as LARPing as a water-type Pokemon master, catching ‘em all, learning their evolutions, moves, and attacks