Check out what we have been up to on our latest expedition!

Stoked to share the publication of another of my PhD chapters! This time we investigated the temporal dynamics of gall crab populations, representing the first data set of its kind for any coral-associated invert. (1) 🦀 🧪🪸 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Read the story behind our new study published yesterday in Nature, unfiltered straight from the scientists: 🌊 theconversation.com/unprecedente...

Super excited that my PhD research made it on the national news of my chosen home for the past four years! @royalsocietypublishing.org 🦀🧪🪸🌍 arab.news/bvtne

What would a PhD be without a side quest? 🦀🪸 Super excited our study is out in Frontiers in Marine Science! We tested if gall crabs affect coral algal symbionts using Imaging PAM fluorometry. Turns out—these tiny tenants don’t stress out the algae. 🔗 doi.org/10.3389/fmar... (1)

Proud PhD Moment 🦀 My third PhD chapter is finally released to the world, and the cherry on the cake: My photo made the cover of the current #ProcB issue @royalsocietypublishing.org 🪸 check it out here: doi.org/10.1098/rspb... #CoralReefs #Biodiversity #Fluorescence #Symbiosis #Decapods

Dissertation writing break well spent although Red Sea February water temps are 🥶 #coralsky

I started surveying the shallow reef flats in front of KAUST for my PhD in 2020. I was impressed that corals could live in such extreme conditions - the water hits 38ºC in the summer! However, heatwaves in '23 and '24 were too much even for these corals. Today's survey had nearly 100% mortality 😞 🌊🦑

Shoving the #crustmas cookies in my mouth like this porcelain crab

I wrote about a delightful study about the secret dynamics of a coral, some seahorses, and oodles of tiny worms defector.com/a-small-and-...

Thank you #ECRS2024, had a great week with fellow coral enthusiasts in Napoli! Presented one of my PhD chapters and got awarded for best oral communication. Congrats also to all my KAUST collegues for their achievements! 🦀💙🧪

Just published: 🦀 Quick Guide to Coral Crabs! w @OsenbergLab in @CurrentBiology Take a crabtastic voyage into the fascinating world of Trapezia. Learn about their unique biology, habitat, and vital role in coral ecosystems. #MarineBiology www.cell.com/current-biol...

Happy New Year to all of you! Celebrating with this festive looking nudibranch #MarineLife. Hope you are all excited for a new year filled with invert content (and maybe some fish) 🦑🪼🦀

Waited a while to share the (literally) most exciting part of my PhD project… Behold the fantastic fluorescence of coral-dwelling gall crabs! Very Christmas-themed if you ask me 🎄Currently busy investigating the evolution and origin of this phenomenon in cryptochirids 🦀🧪✨🦑

Sharing this cute little Christmas ornament for some holiday vibes in your feed 🎄🐠 #MarineLife

I'm back from the really good Indo-Pacific Fish Conference, and will now restart everyone's timeline cleanse with beautiful fish. Starting with one of my all-time favorites, a baby Emperor Angelfish (Pomacanthus imperator). The species is widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific.

🦋fish of todays fun dive. Have a great weekend everybody! 🦑🐠

Don‘t they look like little galaxies? Loved this colourful aggregation of tiny sap-sucking slugs (not nudibranchs) 🐌 #MarineLife

Time for another symbiotic decapod living on a bigger invertebrate 🦐 Enjoy this bumble bee shrimp sitting on its sea cucumber host 🦀💙🦑

Thrilled to see my pet animals on a screen this big! Had a great time talking about my research at ICMERS-3 this morning 🦀🧪🦑

ICMERS just started here at KAUST! Tomorrow, I‘ll be giving a talk about parts of my PhD work revealing that the gall crab communities in the Red Sea are much more dynamic than we expected. 🦀🧪🦑

A new shrimp species just dropped right from our backyard here in the Red Sea 🧪🦐🦑 Great work by Arthur Anker and Aymere Assayie. Don't miss the etymology section with some special tribute to this critter's Arabic roots! mapress.com/zt/article/v...

Fish in pyjama! #MarineLife 🦑💙

Taking a short (mental) break of gall crabs after an intense field session. Hope you are enjoying these shrimps hanging out on their whip coral home as much as I do #MarineLife🦐🦀🦑

Busy in the field with my favourite little critters at the moment. Just finished post-bleaching monitoring of my permanent transects to study the temporal variability of gall crab communities and how they are affected by stressors like marine heatwaves. Stay tuned for more field updates 🦀🧪🦑💙

Throwback to diving pretty, turbid reefs with big tables in the Kisite Mpunguti Marine National Park in south Kenya. Stayed there while researching if coral guardian crabs (Trapezia) can deter the corallivorous Crown of Thorns Starfish for my Master thesis🧪🦑

Now that's a great find for #invertober 🦀🪱🧪 Goto and colleagues had a closer look at echiuran worm cavities and found inverts of three different phyla, including new amphipod and bivalve species! Symbiosis never fails to impress. academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

#MacroMonday! This little frog fish hardly has the size of your pinky tip 🐸 #MarineLife 🌊🐠

Check out this new article about the evolution of symbiosis in Thoracotremata! Nice work by Sancia van der Meij's group at the University of Groningen featuring my beloved coral-dwelling gall crabs (Cryptochiridae) 🧪🦀 peerj.com/articles/162...

Sunset runs in Saudi… hot but rewarding! 🔥 Where are your favourite running tracks? 🏃🏼‍♀️

Two of my colleagues are rocking a big team effort of many collaborators onboard the R/V Meteor here in the Red Sea at the moment. The first leg just finished, stay tuned for updates about the rest of the cruise soon 🧪🪸🦑

Time for some 🦀 content again, although this porcelain crab is theoretically not a „true crab“. If you look closely you can only count four pair of legs. The fifth pair is reduced in size and hidden inside its gill chamber, a common characteristic of anomurans 🧪🌊🪸

This is a Christmas tree worm (Spirobranchus giganteus) on a bleached Porites coral, a beautiful yet tragic picture. As coral symbiont it is entirely dependent on the survival of its host. Right now we are facing a major bleaching event in the Red Sea and many coral symbionts are under threat 🧪🦑🌊

Cats have attained evolutionary perfection. Anjali Goswami explains how weird and awesome cats are from an evolutionary standpoint--and the meaning of evolutionary success--in this @sciam.bsky.social interview. (Ft my perfect cat, Kyle.) www.scientificamerican.com/article/cats...

Extraterrestrial 👽 Can you guess what these critters are hiding on? 🐠🦐🌊 #MarineLife

My Habibis (= lab friends) made it here! Stay tuned if you want to learn more about the incredible biodiversity of shallow, mesophotic and deep reefs of the Red Sea! 🪸🧪🦑🌎

Blessed to have these creatures right at my doorstep 🪸🐠🦑

Classic case of “instagram vs reality”… One good shot means at least 15 butterfly fish butts too🐠🦑

PhD POV this morning: shrimp appeared on desk. 🦐🦀🧪

Feeling like a more artsy picture today. This nudibranch was posing and showing off his “naked gills”. #Nudibranch

crustacean nation, pincers up! 🦀

Today’s catch of the day! Not a crab but beautiful regardles: The orchid dottyback (common names are funny) or Pseudochromis fridmani, a Red Sea endemic. We definitely have some of the prettiest fish around here 🐠🐟🐡

Behold the majestic peacock mantis shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus)! This one was particularly curious. Photographing them does make me a bit nervous from time to time as they are known for their forceful punch that can be as fast as 50 mph 💥🦐🦀

Another fierce member of the genus Trapezia 🦀. This poor T. rufopunctata was missing one of its chelipeds. I photographed this one in Shimoni, Kenya.

Finally a True Facts on reef-building corals by the amazing Ze Frank 🪸💙

Check out this fierce coral guardian crab (Trapezia lutea) defending its coral host against a hungry Crown of Thorns Starfish. For me these mutualistic relationships are one of the most fascinating phenomena on coral reefs, yet we know so little about them 🦀

Occurring from the Gulf of California to Peru, the King Angelfish (Holacanthus passer) is another quintessential Latin American fish. All color phases are beautiful, but I find the babies particularly nice, like this one I photographed in Costa Rica. #HispanicHeritageMonth

Let's populate this new place with research. I'll start with my most recent article, describing the first-ever records of gall crabs in the coral genus Porites. Well, that's what we thought at first... Turns out their original hosts (Pavona) were overgrown as a result of interspecific competition 🤯

Flying onto bluesky like this graceful nudi in the current. Took this picture in the beautiful Kisite Mpunguti Marine Park in Kenya.