brittle star larva

Images made through a microscope. All subject types.

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Wim van Egmond
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brittle star larva

Post by Wim van Egmond »

This is the larva of a brittle star. The body is supported by thin silicious rods. These show bright colours under the polarised ligth of DIC.

Wim

Image

Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

Gee Wim...looks like a new stealth fighter or something. Never have seen one of these before. I am assuming that a "brittle star" is a marine organism? Wonderful image and quite interesting too. :D

bernhardinho
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Post by bernhardinho »

Yes Ken,

my good friend Mr. google just told me it's some kind of sea star. Gosh, you learn a lot here!!

Wonderful image, by the way!!

Bernhard

beetleman
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Post by beetleman »

An excellent shot Wim. A question...when you take your samples from the ocean, how long do the creatures survive? Does it behave like a freshwater culture, where things live and then the culture evolves over time with different creatures showing up at different times?
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crocoite
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Post by crocoite »

Excellent shot Wim.

You know, when it comes to insects, we are not surprised at the very different morphology between the larval and adult stages, but I personally rarely think of other critters in the same way. From memory, brittle stars can have many arms (not the standard 5 that most starfish have), but you can't pick any on this little one!

Wim van Egmond
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Post by Wim van Egmond »

Thanks!

Yes, the larvae of echinoderms are amazingly different from the adults. Britle star and sea urchin larvae have these ods. Sea stars don't have them.

Unfortunately the marine organisms last only a couple of days. I keep the samples in the fridge. They need a lot of oxygen so a flat dish is best. And than work very fast! But perhaps it should be possible to keep them longer if you have a cooled aquarium with an air pump.

Wim

Wim van Egmond
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Joined: Tue Aug 15, 2006 9:28 am
Location: Berkel en Rodenrijs, the Netherlands
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Post by Wim van Egmond »

I'll post some other echinoderm larvae to show the difference.

Below is a juvenile brittle star. It already has the adult shape. The transformation is a strange process.

Wim

Image

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