White Spotted Jellyfish (by winkelmander)
This tiny shell of a single celled plant or diatom, Triceratum, is less than a tenth of a millimetre in diameter. Sculpted from silica, the same material as glass, the overall triangle is divided into an outer border with concentric rows of circle patterns, whilst the center has radiating ovals. The surreal color effects are caused by slight interference of light under the illumination conditions used.
Things in the ocean that you can’t see, but really should be paying attention to:
Diatoms. One of the most commonly found types of phytoplankton, they’re made up of these incredibly complex silica exoskeletons, which give them their distinctive look. They’re an incredibly important group - alone they’re responsible for something like 40% of marine primary production.
While most species out there tend to die at some point, there is a specific breed of jellyfish that has developed a way to live forever. Nicknamed the ‘Immortal Jellyfish,’ Turritopsis dohrnii is capable of escaping death, permanently.
Jellyfish lifespans normally range from a few hours to a couple months, with only one species living up to thirty years. The Immortal Jellyfish, however, can morph back to its infant stage after reproducing, thus recreating its own lifespan. Imagine living a whole life, growing old and gaining loads of memories, only to revert back to a young child after reproducing. The Immortal Jellyfish can continue this process for as long as it is capable of reproducing, forever becoming young again. As far as we understand it, there is nothing else like this located on this planet.
(Okay, this isn’t any type of human engineering, but it is pretty damn cool.)
(via fyeah-seacreatures)
Phytoplancton
Micrographs of representative eukaryotic phytoplankton taxa from the Phanaerozoic period.
a | A scanning electron micrograph of the thecate dinoflagellate Ornithocerus spp., 40 µm in diameter (J. Young, Natural History museum, London).
b | A scanning electron micrograph showing a valve view of the centric diatom Thalassiosira spp., 6 µm in diameter (A. Kahn, Rutgers University, New Jersey).
c | A scanning electron micrograph of the pinnate diatom Fragilaria spp., 5 µm in length (A. Kahn, Rutgers University, New Jersey).
d | A scanning electron micrograph of the coccolithophorid Calcidiscus quadriperforatus, 15 µm in diameter (J. Young, Natural History museum, London).
source : Paul G. Falkowski & Matthew J. Oliver, Mix and match: how climate selects phytoplankton, Nature Reviews Microbiology (2007) 5, 813-819
Jellyfish. They may appear to be delicate as well as beautiful, but they are deadly hunters.
(via fyeah-seacreatures)
Diatom Frustules
Diatoms have a silicified cell wall forms a pillbox-like shell (frustule) composed of overlapping halves that contain intricate and delicate markings useful in testing the resolving power of microscope lenses. The beautiful symmetry and exquisite design of diatom frustules have gained them the title “jewel of the sea.”
“Heaps of sea creatures glow to produce light—often in order to see in the murky depths. But scientists have discovered that many bacteria glow for a very strange reason; they want to get eaten.”“But why the hell is that a good thing for the bacteria? Well, it turns out that, even though the zooplankton are digested, the bacteria safely survive a passage through the fish guts, a finding which is reported in PNAS. Effectively, the bacteria use the concept of being eaten, twice, to hitch a ride and move between different spots in the ocean. “As far as the bacteria are concerned, their access to the fish digestive systems is like reaching ‘paradise’ – a safe place, full of nutrients, and also a means of transport into the wide ocean,” explained Prof. Genin, one of the researchers.”
Read the full article here.
