When your hitchhiker is almost as big as you are… This Epicaridea isopod is parasitising this Acartia copepod. #marineplankton 🦑

This little crustacean is a Cumacea (order) aka a comma shrimp! These live mostly on the sea floor, but can be found occasionally in the plankton. #marineplankton 🦑

Did iOS Tahoe completely screw up the google drive desktop app for anyone else? I can’t sync, quit or disconnect! Trying to uninstall GD but can’t until I can do the above! #applemac

Good morning from the north Norfolk coast!

Yesterday I showed you a Gastropod larva. Today it’s the turn of another kind of mollusc, a bivalve larva! Bivalves have 2 halves, called valves, that open like a book. Gastropods, if they have an external shell, have a one-piece. #marineplankton 🦑

The cutest!!! Sea snail larvae are just adorabubbles 🥹 #marineplankton 🦑

Good morning! Plankton sampling day! Here’s 30 seconds of Cromer surf.

Ascidian sea squirts, before they settle on the sea floor, have a brief larval plankton stage that look like tadpoles! This is one of the biggest I’ve come across - I’m wondering if it might be from the genus Didemnum. #marineplankton 🦑

When will folks understand that this -> 👻 <- is not a ghost emoji. This is a Műller’s larvae emoji! Silly people 🙄. 👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻 Műller’s larvae are a developmental stage of some flatworms (Platyhelminthes) from the order Polycladida. #marineplankton 🦑

I have no idea what this is - probably something to do with a cnidarian - but I adore it! #marineplankton 🦑

25 c in the height of summer makes me cross. 25 c in mid-September makes me apoplectic. So I’m back in a summer frock (sack), yet somehow I’m still wearing socks and slippers. 🤔

A couple of marine mites (Halacaridae) from my latest plankton sample. #marineplankton 🦑

Barnacles are cool for lots of reasons, and this is definitely one of them! They have 2 larval stages, the nauplius, followed by the one shown here, the cyprid. This non-feeding fella is showing off its swimming legs and one end of its body, and its antennules at the other. 1/2 #marineplankton 🦑

Hubs couldn’t remember the name for feet. So he called them ‘flesh shoes’.

I’ve had some lovely colourful copepods in my samples recently. #marineplankton 🦑

Lots of nematodes in this week’s sample! There was a fair bit of loose seaweed in there, so that may be why? 🤔 #marineplankton 🦑

‘Tis always a pleasure to see bryozoan coronate larvae in my samples! #marineplankton 🦑

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Shrimp heart! 😯 #marineplankton 🦑

Tell me it’s autumn without telling me it’s autumn #catsonsky

A polychaete worm trochophore dancing in the dark. Bristle worms have several developmental stages, and this is one of them. #marineplankton 🦑

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐

Ruin a song by adding the word ‘literally’ to the title. 2 literally become 1

Harpacticoids in love! Well, copepod love anyway. I believe the male is behind, guarding the female, waiting for her to moult so he can mate with her. This behaviour is seen in many different kinds of marine crustaceans. #marineplankton 🦑

Copepod Temora longicornis in low contrast. I love photographing these little crustaceans this way, as their pigments look like a watercolour! 🦑 #marineplankton

Can anyone help with ID? #marineplankton

I’m on a roll. Neighbour: …and they’re my favourite potatoes! Me: I love potatoes, but they give me terrible wind… 🤦

Jesus Christ. No filter Betty strikes again! Civil servant: …and if you could just verify your address… Me: You have very nice finger nails. 🤦

Morning! I hope you all have a lovely day x

A couple of hydroid medusae chilling and sharing a Petri dish. Medusae are the sexual stage of some cnidarians. Some are small and some are huge! These are definitely the former. #marineplankton 🦑

Las Colinas in ‘Acapulco’ is basically my dream aesthetic

Another bonkers busy sample! Sooooo many copepods - mainly Acartia clausi. #marineplankton 🦑

How pretty is this Cnidarian polyp! Like a little burst of gorgeous. #marineplankton 🦑

Hurrah! Only walking around like a /slightly/ drunk toddler now and capable of doing some tasks like laundry and more importantly, looking under the microscope!! BPPV can do one!

I’ve started a marine plankton tank at home - I’m just experimenting with it at the moment, trying to figure out the best way to do it. This amoeba seems happy enough! Timelapse. #marineplankton 🦑

Lab partner. #catsonsky

If you’re feeling a bit blue this Monday, here’s a reminder that Hey Dougie exists and that ‘Ah woof’ is an appropriate response to any question.

A mystery worm! A platyhelminths perhaps? If anyone can help, please let me know! This is from one of my marine samples this summer. #marineplankton 🦑

I’m bored with being dizzy now. Can someone make a permanent cure for BPPV please, and motion sickness whilst you’re at it. Ta. I’ll wait.

I’ve had so many unusual (for me) copepods in my samples this year! Here’s one - Centropages typicus, and as bonus this one has a parasitic hitchhiker! On its side is a Epicaridea isopod, sucking on the copepod juice before it leaves to find its next host (a larger crustacean). #marineplankton 🦑

Apparently we’re at the nosebleed stage of post sinus surgery recovery 😬

Yay! I’m privileged to be amongst these brilliant people in the shortlist! I feel very honoured to be repping #marineplankton

A beautiful female cyclopoida copepod with her eggs from the family Corycaeidae, using 3 different lighting techniques. Notice the big eyes on the head. #marineplankton 🦑

Super Chonks and Long Boi! 2 of the best dancers in my polychaete larvae line-up this week. #marineplankton 🦑

My friend Liza is awesome!

Goddamit. The surgery triggered my BPPV (vertigo). If it wasn’t for that I’d be alright (other than trying to avoid catching a cold). So I’m tottering about, holding on to my hubs and generally being useless!

A little timelapse of an early ascidiacea sea squirt found in my latest sample. #marineplankton

Surgery day! Sinus widening endoscopic to be precise. Things like this don’t make me anxious at all. Weird! #notevensarcasm

A tintinnina ciliate appears to be stuck on some detritus. But it gives us a chance to have a lovely look at it! #marineplankton 🦑

This marine diatom species is pretty much absent from my samples for the rest of the year, so when it appears in the autumn I’m always so pleased to to see it! This is Guinardia striata (with its brother Guinardia delicatula beside it). #marineplankton 🦑