G'day ya'll. Last month I spent two weeks on Heron Island collecting marine invertebrates. The main purpose of the trip was to collect entoprocts for a comparative genomics project with Bernie and Sandie Degnan but I was also opportunistic and collected or at least photographed a number of other interesting animals a well. Most of the animals I collected were found on algae or in sand samples examined under the stereomicroscope and thus were quite tiny. Here's some photos in no particular order. I have many other photos, especially of different species of flatworms and acoels that I didn't get very good photos of that I am still trying to identify. If you can help satiate my curiosity and ID some of these critters, please drop me a line at k.kocot at uq dot edu do au. I'm also happy to share specimens of most of these if anyone's interested (although I don't have specimens of all species). I'd be happy to share the rest of the photos as well.
 |
| Loxosomella sp. (Entoprocta, Loxosomatidae). We were calling this Loxosomella cf. vivipara but based on COI barcode sequences, it is more closely related to Loxosomella stomatophora. Found on Amphiroa sp. |
 |
| Loxosomella sp. (Entoprocta, Loxosomatidae). We were calling this
Loxosomella cf. vivipara but based on COI barcode sequences, it is more
closely related to Loxosomella stomatophora. Found on Amphiroa sp. |
 |
| Loxosomella sp. (Entoprocta, Loxosomatidae). We were calling this
Loxosomella cf. vivipara but based on COI barcode sequences, it is more
closely related to Loxosomella stomatophora. Found on Amphiroa sp. |
 |
| Loxosomella sp. (Entoprocta, Loxosomatidae). We were calling this
Loxosomella cf. vivipara but based on COI barcode sequences, it is more
closely related to Loxosomella stomatophora. Found on Amphiroa sp. | |
 |
| Loxosomatidae sp. Found on Amphiroa sp. |
 |
| Barentsia sp. (Entoprocta, Barentsiidae) |
 |
| Barentsia sp. (Entoprocta, Barentsiidae) |
 |
| Loxosomatidae sp. "warty" |
 |
| Loxosomatidae sp. "warty" This species appears to have defensive structures that 'fire' like cnidarian nematocysts. There are Antarctic species of entoprocts with similar structures. Unfortunately this was the only specimen of this species that I found. |
 |
| Loxosomatidae sp. "yellow" |
 |
| Loxosomatidae sp. "yellow" |
 |
| Loxosomatidae sp. "Harry's Amphiroa" |
 |
| Loxosomatidae sp. "Harry's Amphiroa" |
 |
| Loxosomatidae sp. "dirty" |
 |
| Rhabdopleura sp. (Hemichordata, Pterobranchia) |
 |
| Juvenile Cryptoplax larvaeformis (Mollusca, Polyplacophora; anterior end) |
|
|
 |
| Newly settled Heteronemertea sp. juvenile (complete with caudal cirrus) |
 |
| Bryozoan larva (I think) |
 |
| Bryozoan larva (I think) |
 |
| Bryozoan larva (I think; same specimen as previous pic) |
 |
| Acoela sp. |
 |
| Acoela sp. |
 |
| Acoela sp. |
 |
| Acoela sp. |
 |
| Tetrastemma sp. (Nemertea) |
 |
| Tetrastemma sp. (Nemertea) |
 |
| I saw a lot of these but I'm not sure what they are. Proseriate flatworm? (Platyhelminthes) |
 |
| Kalyptorhyncha sp.? (Platyhelminthes) |
 |
| Rhabditophora sp. (Platyhelminthes) |
 |
| Shizorhynchidae sp.? (Platyhelminthes) |
 |
| Sclerite-bearing flatworm! (Platyhelminthes) |
 |
| Sclerite-bearing flatworm! (Platyhelminthes) |
 |
| Platyhelminthes? |
 |
| Polygordius sp. (anterior end; Annelida) |
 |
| Polygordius sp. (posterior end; Annelida) |
 |
| Sabellidae sp. (Annelida) |
 |
| Mystery annelid. Anterior end. |
 |
| Mystery annelid. Posterior end. |
 |
| Cirratulidae sp.? (Annelida) |
 |
| Cirratulidae sp.? (Annelida) |
 |
| Dorvellaidae sp. (Annelida) |
 |
| Another mystery annelid. |
 |
| Spadella sp. (anterior end; Chaetognthata) |
