Knitted Nudibranchs

Sadly I didn't make these....

Anyone who knows me well knows that two of my favorite pastimes are knitting and admiring slugs. So its no wonder that this picture of a knitted nudibranch would catch my eye. For those who don't know, a nudibranch (pronounced noo-deh-brank) is a sea slug. They usually very brightly colored and far more filly than their land loving cousins and sometimes referred to as the "jewels of the sea".

I think I'm gonna knit and army of them.

Update:

I found these not long after posting this. I think I may have to make these as well.

The Ariolimax Columbianus or Northern Bananna Slug is my favorite slug. I like the idea of a plush one.

Tiny Snails with Big Problems

The Partula Snail (partula faba) is a 20mm (0.75in) long,  herbivorous snail endemic to the South Pacific. Known commonly as a type of Polynesian tree snail, they spend most of their lives foraging for  decaying plant matter between the Philippines and Marquesas Islands... or at least they used to. These tiny snails are facing some big problems.

During the in the first half of the 20th century, in an effort to help feel the local populations, African land snails were introduced to the region as an alternative source of food. Nature does not like to stay in locked up and some of these snails escaped and began eating crops. In 1974 predatory snails were released in an effort to control the population of the first problem species anthropologically introduced. While some of their target snails were, in fact controlled, it was the Polynesians Tree snails, such as the Partula, that suffered the greatest losses. Many tree snails are highly engendered and most are now extinct. In fact the only place the Partula species is still alive today is at the Bristol Zoo.

The Bristol Zoo currently houses five species of Polynesian tree snail, four of which are extinct in the wild. Back in April of 2010 staff and scientists in the zoo's Bugworld welcomed a new generation of the Partula Snail, a species only be found at this zoo! Although globally its numbers are under 100, thanks to the efforts of at the Bristol Zoo, the population is making an amazing come back... though at a snails pace.


To see more pictures of the tiny treasures (because small things are generally pretty cute) and read more about the plight of the tree snails visit the website for the Bristol Zoo and Zooborns.com.


Pictures of the Baby Snails!

Link to the Bristol Zoo



Melissa Bruns

Radulove

Notes to Self on Geologic Time : Part 3 - Peleozoic Era

PALEOZOIC 543-248mya

While life first began in the Precambrian Seas the Paleozoic Era saw a rapid proliferation of life both in the seas and on land. While the flora and fauna that evolved and developed over this time period may seem alien, every living thing on the Earth today can trace its origins back to these sometimes savage seas.

Cambrian - 550 - 500 mya

O2 content 63% of modern level.

Oceans warm and shallow

Notable critters: Cambrian explosion – Before the Cambrian life was mostly small and simple. 

• First chordates 
• Eyes develop
• Beginning of armored plating in all types of life - calcification
• 535 mya first trilobites, echinoderms and arthropods
• 545 mya first mollusks
• Possibly first fish (still disputed)

Notable Plants:

• No land plants

Cambrian ended with the third in a series of extinction events.

• Botomian Extinction event – 517 mya
• Dresbachian extinction event – 502 mya
• Cambrian – Ordovician extinction event – 488 mya –
• Wiped out 60% of all genera
• Eliminated brachiopods and conodonts.
• Possibly caused by glaciations and anoxic conditions in oceans.

Ordovician 500 - 450 mya

O2 levels 68% of today

Very high sea levels

Southern continents combined into a super continent called Gondwana.

Notable Critters:

• Trilobites still rule and dominate the mid-Ordovician
• Appearance of first jaws
• Lots of animals growing shells including the mollusks especially bivalves, gastropods, and nautiloid cephalopods
• Increase in filter feeding implies large plankton presence
• First coral reefs
• First jawed fish in Late Ordovician

Notable Plants:

• First land plants. Possibly evolved from marine algae, appeared as mosses

Ended in Mass Extinction 450 mya 

• 2^nd largest extinction event, 46% of all genre died including trilobites, brachiopods and bryozoans
• Some suggest a gamma ray burst destroyed the ozone layer triggering the Ice Age.

Silurian 443 – 416 mya

O2 Levels 70% of today

Surface temp 3C higher than today

Sea Level 180m higher than today

Super continent Gondwana still present

Notable Critters

• First bony fish, Osteichthyes such as Acanthodians
• Massive arthropods such as Eurypterids
• Food web implies presence of detritovies which have yet to be discovered

 Notable Plants

• First macrofossiles (fossils of ecosystems) such as terrestrial moss forests
• First vascular plants

Devonian 416-359 mya

Named after Devon, England

O2 75% of modern level

Surface temp 6C higher than today

Sea level 180-120m above today

Super continent of Gondwana still dominant

Notable Critters: Age of Fish

• 397mya Amphibian beginnings - Lobed-finned fish developed legs and became the first tetrapods
• 400mya Ammonite Mollusks appear
• 416 mya First fossils of insects on land
• Jaw-less armored fish in decline 
• Dunkleosteus – Strongest bite force the world has ever known
  



Dukelosteous

• Various arthropods also took to land

• Cladoselache - Primitive chondrichthyes (such as sharks) diversity and dominate
• Trilobite still prevalent
• Large reefs built by calcareous algae, coral-like stromatoporoids and tabulate and rugose corals

 Notable Plants

• First seed-bearing plants forming forests
• Rooting plants created the first stable soils which began to harbor anthropoids such as mites. Insects and seed bearing plants co-evolved and defined plants of the late Devonian. Pollen and pollinators co-evolved.
• Primitive rooted plants
• Primitive leaves
• Primitive trees
• Prototaxites – greatest land organism, fruiting fungus
• Archaeoperis – ferns began forming primitive trees

Late Divonian Extinction – 364 mya

• All fossil agnathan fish disappeared
• Primarily effected the marine community especially shallow warm water creatures such as the reef builders
• Brachiopods, trilobits, ammonites, condonts, acritarchs and jawless fish severly affected
• Reasons still unknown – theories include asteroid impact and climate change from CO2 sequestered from the plant life on land. 

Carboniferous

O2 163% of todays levels

Surface Temp same as today

Sea levels fluctuated from +120m to 0 to +80m above current sea levels

Notable critters

Sethacenthus - Early shark.

• Marine invertibrates
• foraminifera, corals, bryozoa, brachiopods, ammonoids, hederelloids, microconchids and echinoderms
• Sponges flourished
• Reef building and solitary corals flourished.
• Nautaloid cephalods numerous - straight shells more common than coiled shells -ammonites common
• Gastropods - primarily snails common
• Freshwater fish established
• Sharks very diverse - filling niches left by declining placoderm populations
• Sharks take many odd shapes
• Sethacanthus
• Large, air breating insects diversified and gigantified thanks to high O2 levels - size limited by oxygen able to be absorbed dermally.
•  Meganeura
• Amphibians also giant - up to 2 meters long! Populations began to decline as the rainforests collapsed.
• Reptiles out competed amphibians as the land dried out due to harder less permeable shells on their eggs and their impermeable scales.
• First Synapsids - led to mammals
• First Sauropods - led to birds and dinosaurs

Notable Plants

• Main plants - Horsetails, ferns, vines, club mosses
• Large tree like ferns
• First appearance of bark bearing trees and the evolution of lignins. These trees had up to 10:1 bark to wood ratio as opposed to modern trees which have around 1:4.
• North America mostly swamp land: bacteria and fingus had not yet evolved to digest the newly evolved lignin in the tree bark. It has been hypothesized that the coal laid down in this time is from these trees, which rather than being decomposed and recirculated, as they would be now, sequestered the carbon in the ground. This reduced the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and created global cooling. 

Ended in Mass Extinction (Noticing a pattern yet?) : Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse - 300mya

• As trees died but were not decomposed by bacteria, large amounts of carbon were sequestered in the ground. Decreasing CO2 levels caused a global cooling which triggered an ice age. Sea levels dropped, the land dried off, rainforests died out.
• Pretty much the opposite of what is happening right now to us.

Permian Period 299-251 mya

O2 levels 115% of today

Surface Temp 2C above today

Sea Levels 60 above today to -20m of today.

Pangea Rules - massive desert with little shoreline

Notable Critters

• Trilobites finally go extinct - had a good run
• On land tetrapods begin to rule - first large herbivores and carnivores on land. 
• Early Permian - pelycosaurs - early synapsids
•  Dimetrodon – with two types of teeth, unique to mammals – predarorty
• Middle Permian - therapsids – mammal like reptiles
• Dinocephalia – large carnavores
• Late Permian – more advanced therapids



Gorgonopsian

• Gorgonopsian
• Dicynodonts

Notable Flora

·       Many of the main plants from the carboniferous dies during the CRC making way for different varieties of plants.

·       Flora of the swamp gave way to more confiers and seed bearing plants, such as ferns, which could survive the intense heat and droughts in the centers of Pangea.

·       Ginkos and cycads appeared.

Ended in Extinction: Permian-Triassic Extinction –

·       90-95% of all marine species became extinct

·       70% of all land organisms

·       Only known mass extinction of insects

·       Sudden 5C rise in world temperatures

·       Theories include:

o   Basalt eruptions in Siberia

o   Release of submarine methane causing extreme global warming

o   Release of submarine hydrogen sulfide creating anoxic marine environments which suffocated the life there before creating an toxic atmosphere and destroying the ozone layer.

·       Land locked areas took as long as 30million years to recover

Nifty Cnidarians and the Secret Sex-lives of Jellyfish

Near the Life on the Edge touch pools at the Seattle Aquarium sits a giant acrylic ring with moon jellies gracefully flowing around inside. The exhibit is officially named "The Ring of Life" but is more commonly referred to as "The Jelly Donut" by many of the volunteers. On the backside of the exhibit (facing the Wet Table for people in the know) is a very understated diagram of the life cycle of jellies.

While the diagram itself isn't very exciting, snippets of information relayed actually are very interesting for anyone willing top stop and pay attention. That, however, is a very rare occurrence. All volunteers are trained how to interpret this diagram, however the only time I have been able to bring up the jellyfish life cycle in conversation, was in the chemistry lab where I work. You, my lovely readers, get to be my second audience.

As the picture above displays, there are five main steps in the life cycle of jellyfish. In those five stages they reproduce both sexually AND asexually. As amazing as this sounds it isn't unique in the animal kingdom, and is fairly common among Cnidarians, the family that includes Jellies, Sea Anemones and Corals. These steps for Jellies are: 1) Larva or Egg 2) Polyp 3) Polyp with buds 4) Ephyra larve and 5) Adult or Medusa.

1) Egg/planula

Most Jellyfish are either male or female. When it comes time to breed they will each release their sperm or eggs respectively into the water (broadcast spawn) and hope that the egg and sperm meet and that their young are fertilized. In the moon jellies however the eggs are held in the pits of the feeding arms of the female who will take up the sperm and fertilize the eggs inside her bell. These eggs will develop into planula, a larva form covered in cilia. When large enough, these planula will leave the mother and sink into the benthos to being it's next stage of life.

2) Polyp

As the planula sink to the ocean floor they settle as a film on smooth faces such as rocks, other plankton or even fish there they develop into polyps. While at first they are just a hard round ball with only a mouth and a moderate ability to sting, they eventually develop upward facing tentacles with a mouth at the center and end up looking very much like their cousins the anemones.

3) Polyp with tufts

After a period of growth, the polyp eventually develops tufts or segments and becomes a polyp with tufts. As it continues to develop these tuffts and slowly separate in a process called budding. In some species it now begins to resemble a flower with each tuft playing the part of the petal. (Please pardon the continuing metaphor.) As the metaphorical jelly/flower matures, the petals will begin to separate from the base and fall off. Here is the amazing part that seems to come straight out of a fairytale: Each metaphoricle petal will becomes a genetically identical ephyrea and eventually A WHOLE NEW JELLY!! This is the asexual step of their reproduction. 

4) Ephyrea


As the bud off these Ephyrea are the first stage in adulthood. Usually flat and radially symmetrical (like all Cnidarians and Echinoderms) they swim away from their clone/siblings to feed on plankton and eventually pulse their way towards the apex of thier lives.


5) Medusa

The Medusa is the stage of life most people think of when they imagine jellyfish. From the ephyrea stage they develop a defined bell with long feeding tentacles full of stinging cells called nematocysts trailing out below. The specific adult form changes from species to species, but it is in this form that they spend the remainder of their life pulsing around the ocean, eating what ever comes in their path. If food is plentiful enough, they will spawn daily until their inevitable last pulse.Thus completes the life cycle of the awesome jellyfish.


Jellies size, shape and life spans vary wildly around the ocean. Some smaller species live only a few days while many larger species can live a few months. Although simple, these amazing kings of plankton (for adult jellies are technically plankton) have, in my opinion, some of the most amazing and almost magical life cycles in our oceans.

Even the creatures from the benthos have pelagic dreams

Just a picture a friend sent me a while back. I wish I could find a print. 

Snail Zombies

My housemates and I conciser ourselves fairly prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse. We have canned food, weapons and an emergency escape plans. None of this would be helpful however... if we were snails. Yes it seems for snails mind controlled doom will come not in the form of virus ridden victims with their minds on cannibalistic carnage but rather in the form of a parasitic flatworm (Leucochloridium paradoxum) that only wants some loving.

Paradoxically, the life-cycle of the Leucochloridium paradoxum involves being eaten by two separate hosts: first the Amber snail (Succinea putris), then the Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata).

While still a larva the flatworm finds its way into the gut of the snail where it will develop and make its way into the eye stocks of their host snail. As the tentacles fill they will swell and turn a host of bright colors, mimicking the colors of grubs. While their faces fill with their squishy invaders, their eyes (rather than their brains, which they don't have) loose their ability to detect light.

Terrestrial gastropods are a claustrophilic lot. Since light and open spaces generally lead to desiccation, predation and certain death, they prefer to live in dimly lit areas where they can still see enough to hunt and find food but are safe from the sun. With their ability to detect light hindered they become attracted to brighter light than is normally safe. Come dawn the snails climb away from the safety of the moist shade and towards the canopy where they are likely to be preyed upon by birds such as the Zebra Finch. Which is exactly what the flatworms are counting on.

When the snails and their invaders are eaten by the birds, the flatworms take up residency in their intestines, where they will spend the rest of their lives. While, in the gut of the birds, the flatworms will morph into their adult form. As adults they will reproduce and lay eggs, which will be excreted through the birds droppings. Snails, such as the Amber snails, will in turn eat these dropping, completing the life cycle of the flatworms.

These snail zombies don't ingest brains, spread infection through biting, reanimate after death and don't fit in to many zombie mythologies. It seems brain slugs to me. Still, by no means would I want to be invaded by a creature that wants to take over my eyes and lead me into peril all in the name of getting their rocks off. As cute they are, this is one more reason I'm glad I'm not a snail.

For more information on the perils zombi-fied critters check out this article from http://www.mentalfloss.com
Invasion of the Zombie Animals

Melissa Bruns
Radulove

Return of the Western Pond Turtle

The mighty Western Pond Turtle once ranged from Baja California all the way into British Columbia and Puget Sound. However due to habitat destruction, pollution and predation by introduced species such as bull frogs and red-eared sliders (the turtles you are most likely to see in pet stores and park ponds), the western pond turtle has been nearly wiped off the map. At the turn of the last century there were only around 150 individuals left in the wild.

There is hope however! The Oregon Zoo has been raising these rare turtles and releasing them into the wild in the hopes of strengthening the numbers of wild populations. While at the zoo the young are exposed to lots of light and skip their normal hibernation periods. These conditions allow the turtles to reach the same size as a wild 3 year old turtle in just 11 months. By releasing them at this size they are hoping to increase the chances of their survival. The latest group was set free in the Columbia River Basin in July 2010. Lets cross our fingers that they make it!

For the full story check out the Oregon Zoo website or Click Here for the article on ZooBorns.

Melissa Bruns
Radulove

Notes to Self on Geologic Time : Part 2 - Precambiran Seas and Early Earth

PRECAMBRIAN 4.5 bya - 550 mya

4.5 billion years ago - The earth was born

Around this time the earth was beginning to from the a dense cloud of rock and dust floating around the sun called an accretion disc.  Eventually this hot mass formed into a system consisting of the planets, planetoids and belts that we are all familiar with today. This era is also known as the Hadean era but I'm not going to go too much into this since this for now.
 
The Precambrian had two primary eras: the Archaean and Protozoic.

Archaean 3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago

• Earth really begins to solidify and continental plates begin to form. 
• Sun around 1/3 dimmer than today.
• Reducing atmosphere of Methane, ammonia and other gasses. Little bit toxic to us aerobes. 
• First fossils showing life called Stromatolites. These can still be seen today in Australia! This began the oxygenating of the atmosphere. 
• First prokaryotes - lacking nucleolus.

Proterozoic Era - 2.5 billion to 543 million years ago

• First Stable continents
• First Ice Ages
• Oxygen levels continued to rise thanks to the photosynthesis of the stromatolites. Around 2.3 bya iron and sulfur had oxidized to the point that significant O2 was able to accrue in the atmosphere. 
• First eukaryotes and multicellular life. 
• Cnidarians develop
• End of the Protozoic we see the beginning of animals and skeletal structures.

Notes to Self on Geologic Time : Part 1 - Intro

Long long ago before I began studying biology/chemistry, when I was still just and art student who thought science was kinda cool, there were three main stages in the development of life. They all came from the ground and go as follows:

0) nothing
1) primordial goo
2) dinosaurs
3) mammals (us)

I wasn't raised in a cave or some hard line religious type. It just wasn't relevant to my world of Weezer and coloring my shoes (and hair) with pink sharpie. Eventually I grew up, put art on the back burner for a while and took my first bio class. This introduced me to the concept of geologic time and development of the flora and fauna inhabiting all 4 dimensions of the last 650 million years on the planet we call home.

I will be going off to the University of Glasgow in the fall and need to brush up on the all these ages of time. The next series of blogs will go over the last 4.5 billion years one period at a time with a focus on the development of the flora and fauna of each.

Enjoy!

KQED Humboldt Squid

Through lecturing every Sunday at the Seattle Aquarium about the Giant Pacific Octopus, I am pretty familiar with the predatory nature of many of our large cephalopods. This segment by KQED really sends home the message that these are amazing and well adapted animals. While this story does paint the giant squid as a sea monster, the squid is a color changing mass of muscle and suckers that demands our respect.