A lovely diatom, Petrodictyon gemma. #marineplankton 🦑 #diatoms

My first ever Dinophysis sp. dinoflagellate! I believe this is Dinophysis acuta. #marineplankton #dinoflagellate 🦑

Tonight’s movie is a classic, The Fugitive. Whenever I think of The Fugitive, I think of a photoshoot I did with the lovely fellas of The Xcerts (look closely at the photo to see why). Back in the days when I did arty stuff with cameras.

Many worms go through a planktonic larval stage, and in this case, the spaghetti worm is quite similar in form to its post-metamorphosis adult The last 8 seconds shows an adult. Larval footage: Okinawa. Adult: Florida #spaghettiworm #blackwaterdiving #kumejima #okinawa #blackwater

Jellyfish baby! This stage is called an ephyra, and this is what jellyfish look like after they’ve popped off their polyp (strobilation)! I’m pretty sure this is a moon jelly (Aurelia aurita) and I’d love to have someone confirm (or deny) this. #marineplankton 🦑

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

Who else is watching the #artemis launch?

This Synchaeta sp. rotifer honoured me with staying still long enough so I could film it close up! #marineplankton 🦑

Screw it. I’m getting in my pyjamas.

My sample this weekend was full of debris and sediment, so I wanted to see what it looked like under UV! Absolutely gorgeous and quite a difference to the muddy gunk under white light. All the little red dots? Diatoms! Mainly Trieres mobiliensis/regia. #marineplankton 🦑

A Harpacticoida copepod from my latest plankton sample. #marineplankton 🦑

Thanks for all the interest in the special #veliger I posted a few days ago. Because of all the curiosity, here’s a few more of the interesting veligers from 2 weeks ago off Bali’s NE coast. Veliger is the term for an early life stage of #marine #snail - before it settles onto the seafloor.

I had some cracking organisms in my sample yesterday. Can’t wait to share! #marineplankton

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

Whatever the copepods in last week’s sample were eating, I want some! Instant club wear! Photographed using UV light. #marineplankton 🦑

Son currently info dumping about Ancient Greece and Rome. There are worse topics!

Today’s task - try identifying ascidian larvae beyond ‘ascidian larvae’ #marineplankton 🦑

Season 7 of the x-files is hella weird.

Lots and lots of Trieres mobiliensis/regia in my plankton sample last week. I love it when they form chains. #marineplankton 🦑

We are Hiring! - Marine Survey Technician (CPR Survey) We are looking to recruit a Marine Survey Technician who will play a central role in ensuring our CPR fleet and associated equipment remain safe, functional, and ready for deployment.

I was just holding up a packaged defrosted turkey to look at the cooking instructions, and raw turkey juice dripped IN MY EYE!

Last week I saw my first ascidian (sea squirt) egg of the year. This week I observed my first larva of the year! I’m looking forward to seeing many more as the water warms up. #marineplankton 🦑

Just one lonely bivalve larva in my sample last week. #marineplankton 🦑

All my Acartia have been sorted, measured and added to the Norfolk Plankton Image Library. If you’re interested in this dataset let me know! 2023 - current, Norfolk Coast (various locations), A. clausi, A. bifilosa, A. discaudata. Images of over 350 specimens. All with metadata #marineplankton 🦑

The largest and most beautiful #veliger I’ve ever seen! Shot last week off Bali, far offshore, on scuba, at night, out over the deep abyss.

This is super cool!! This is a kind of ciliate called a suctoria (this one happens to be Acineta sp.) and it’s sucking up the contents of this egg! You can see it consuming the mush on the left hand side of the ‘martini glass’ (timelapse) #marineplankton 🦑

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#plankton sample teaming with nauplius larvae, copepods and cladocera. On the bottom of the jar #cyanobacteria #freshwater #citizenscience

Rave worm! What a gorgeous display this polychaete worm’s setae is giving under UV light! #marineplankton 🦑

I didn’t know that Easter has its very own crack!?

VERY SATISFYING! Just over a year’s worth of preserved weekly plankton samples from Cromer pier. #marineplankton 🦑🧪

Gee gads! For the first time in 4 years I left a bit of equipment at the sample site! Luckily, the people of Cromer are chill and it was still there when I got back.

Sample day! #marineplankton 🦑

The one and only Spionidae polychaete worm from last week’s sample. A lovely chonky and wiggly one too! #marineplankton 🦑

But I always have time for a dreaming kitty. #catsofbluesky

In the midst of verifying my Acartia clausi images… #marineplankton 🦑

Marine taxonomy is an essential skill for us to understand changes in marine ecosystems. By accurately identifying plankton we can measure biodiversity, and create a time series to inform policy and ecosystem management.  #TaxonomistAppreciationDay

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 🦑

The position of the eye spots on this Turbellarian flatworm gives it a ‘slightly disgruntled’ appearance 😠 #marineplankton 🦑

A few lovely Halosphaera in my plankton sample last week. #marineplankton 🦑

A bivalve larva from my latest plankton sample. #marineplankton 🦑

Spent the last few days measuring the diameter of all the Actinoptychus spp. I’ve photographed over the last 4 years, and counted all their sectors. It’s been quite a task! #marineplankton #protistsonsky 🦑

This is such a cute little goober! I believe this is the larva of a polychaete worm from the genus Scoloplos. Let me know if you think I’m wrong! #marineplankton 🦑

First ascidian sea squirt egg of the year! If you think it’s something different, let me know! #marineplankton 🦑

It was so lovely to meet artist @carolinehack.bsky.social this week! Her work is incredible, and of course I’m especially fond of her plankton textiles!

Excitable little polychaete worm larva! #marineplankton 🦑

This is footage from 2022 (how is that 4 years ago?!). I found these little babies in an egg capsule attached to some red seaweed from the local intertidal. I’m really not sure what they are. Gastropods perhaps? What do you think? 🦑

Planktoniers, I need your ears! I’d love some input on diatoms Actinoptychus vulgaris vs Actinoptychus splendens, as I’m finding very literature online. More deets in thread ⬇️ 1/3 #marineplankton

According to my dream last night, my demise will be at the hands (fins?) of a shark named Michael….or a banana named Santa. 🤔

A little throwback to the one and only time I’ve seen an Actinula larva from the hydroid family Tubulariidae. #marineplankton 🦑