The iridescent beauty of a sea gooseberry ctenophore, seen at our dock fouling session today. Some plankton is big enough to see without a microscope! #marineplankton 🦑

An exciting day ahead! Spending my last day as a 51 year old dock fouling with friends. That’s IF my PDA son can manage to get out of bed. 🤞

This little polychaete larva is having a good wiggle! #marineplankton 🦑 sound on for funky tunes

A lovely look at the antennules of a Cirripedia cyprid larva (barnacle). They use the antennules almost like legs, walking across the substrate and exploring (chemically) for a place to settle. They also secrete the ‘cement’ that they use to attach themselves to their chosen spot! #marineplankton 🦑

An autistic person, one with adhd, another autistic with adhd and dyspraxia, and a flat pack bookshelf. What could possibly go wrong??

Sometimes I get seaweed in my plankton samples, and often they are very beautiful, like this cock’s comb (Plocamium sp.). #marineplankton 🦑

A lovely chain of Lauderia annulata diatoms. #marineplankton 🦑

There is an ACTUAL bird on my bird feeder!

Sample day! #marineplankton 🦑

This little bivalve larva is having a rummage about, using its foot to pull itself along. #marineplankton 🦑

Lovely business cards for hubby’s business @big-pixel.com Not enough businesses use uncoated cards. A plastic covered one always turns me off.

I don’t find many amphipods in my plankton samples - most are benthic (live on the sea floor), but I’ve had 2 in the last 2 weeks! I’ve not ID’d them yet (so please feel free to save me time and ID them for me if you know!). #marineplankton 🦑

The eye of the teeny tiny ciliate storm. A rare look down the opening of a tintinnina lorica. #marineplankton 🦑

Zooming with my plankton chums!

I have no idea what this microscopic marine worm is, but I want to know so bad!! If you have any ideas, please let me know. #marineplankton 🦑

TIL about brackish water jellyfish like this Bay Nettle in the Chesapeake Bay. Cute little things. www.vims.edu/bayinfo/jell...

Only the second radiolarian I’ve seen in my life, and this one is a chonks! #marineplankton #protistsonsky 🦑

Does everyone become incapable of eating a ‘proper’ dinner in the evening as they become older? Acid reflux every. Damn. Time.

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 🦑

A rare find for me, a female Pseudodiaptomus marinus copepod. Big and beautiful! #marineplankton 🦑

A colourful copepod nauplius from yesterday’s plankton sample. #marineplankton 🦑

It’s #worldjellyfishday ! Medusae, that are often considered jellyfish, can be hydroids, or they can be true jellyfish (Scyphozoa). Only true jellyfish have the life stage you can see in this video, the ephyra. #marineplankton 🦑

The arrow worms are here @rodneyforster.bsky.social !

Centric Diatoms in Action! New MBA research shows that when nitrogen and phosphorus are scarce, these microscopic phytoplankton prioritise nitrogen uptake, “switching off” phosphorus sensing-yet bounce back quickly when nutrients return. 🌱✨ 🔗 Read more: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Good afternoon. A late plankton sample today. #marineplankton 🦑

i got one too! lol

This spermy-looking tadpole dude is the larva of a sea squirt, and it’s rare for me to find one so active! Enjoy! P.S. on my other platforms I coupled this with ‘Every Sperm is Sacred’ by Monty Python. Here, you’ll have to sing it yourselves! #marineplankton 🦑

Does anyone else get Audrey II vibes from this ctenophore larva?! #marineplankton 🦑

This Spionidae worm has Saturday night disco fever! What a gorgeous wiggle! #marineplankton 🦑

The gorgeous trunk of an appendicularian. This little package hold all the bits this tunicate needs, like the mouth and anus amongst other things. The bit that looks like a brain is the animals ripe gonads! #marineplankton 🦑

Today, I’m attempting to make a dress out of a duvet with no pattern and zero experience. I’ll let you know how it goes…

Bryozoan coronate larva…or man in the moon? #marineplankton 🦑

Odontella in Blue 6/2021 13 X 20 inches [33 X 50.8 cm] Colored Pencil on Paper #sciart #gawoski #plankton

I was going to watch a uni tutorial, but I’m beat, so crappy TV wins.

I maintain that 2.30pm is not too early to get into pyjamas. Honestly, I wonder why even bother getting dressed!

This Acartia copepod appears to wearing a parasitic isopod (Epicaridea) as a hat! Now, this fella is preserved, so I’m unsure as to whether on not this isopod attached itself to the copepod on the head originally, but I’d say it’s pretty likely. #marineplankton 🦑

However, I still have one more module to go - and it’s a tough one. Genetics and cell biology 😱

So chuffed to have got a distinction on my undergrad thesis! And yes, my chosen topic area was plankton, obviously!

This little spongy-looking barrel is a planula larva of a cnidarian (perhaps a sea anemone). I’ve caught these guys filling their guts with the most ambitious meals - I need to put together a reel to show you all! #marineplankton 🦑

The last time I saw this diatom species in plankton samples from Cromer Pier was back in the autumn of 2022, so I’ve been very delighted to see several over the last few weeks. Neocalyptrella robusta. This one is asexually reproducing. #marineplankton 🦑

I can only assume that this is the detached tentacle of a ctenophore. Any other ideas are welcome! Even though it’s detached, it’s still moving about, as this timelapse shows. #marineplankton 🦑

A Spionidae bristle worm larva in a defensive pose, with its setae extended. #marineplankton 🦑

This little bivalve larva is taking a stroll with its foot… #marineplankton 🦑

Snail babies spinning in their egg (timelapse)! Probably periwinkles. #marineplankton 🦑

Sample day! #marineplankton 🦑

A cutie of a microscopic marine flatworm (Turbellaria). #marineplankton 🦑

Just 2 little fellas hanging out. Ascidian sea squirt larvae. #marineplankton 🦑

I need to do a ‘proper’ educational post on these guys because they’re awesome! This is an Appendicularian, a tunicate and lives full-time in the plankton. They create a mucus house several times a day that allows them to filter nanoplankton to eat! #marineplankton 🦑

This marine ciliate has a little trap door! I /think/ this is Thuricola? Watch how it retracts into its lorica when disturbed, closing the valve behind it. When it comes out again, it pushes the little door open! #marineplankton 🦑