#coastal invertebrates

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Slip on the Common Slipper Limpet

The common slipper limpet, also known as the boat shell or the fornicating slipper snail (Crepidula fornicata) is a species of sea snail native to the North American coast of the Atlantic Ocean. In addition, it has been introduced to the eastern coasts of Europe and parts of the Pacific Northwest and Japan. They can reside in a variety of habitats including bays, estuaries, island shores, and rocky intertidal zones; their maximum depth tolerance is 70m (229 ft).

Fornicating slipper snails are noted for their unique mating methods. Adults typically live stacked on top of each other, with up to 12 to 14 individuals in a group. The largest, and oldest adults are at the bottom of the stack, while the younger, smaller adults are at the top. C. fornicata is a sequential hermaphrodite; new adults are all male, and will change into females as they get older or if they become the oldest in a stack of all males.

Breeding can occur between Februrary and October, although the peak season is in May or June. Unlike other marine mollusks, which are broadcast spawners, the common slipper limpet utilizes internal fertilization. The male closest to the female at the bottom extends his penis under her shell and fertilize up to 11000 eggs. These eggs hatch after about 3-4 weeks, and the planktonic larvae are released into the water. These larvae take 4-5 weeks to develop into juveniles, at which point they settle either on bare rock or on top of an established limpet chain. If it settles in isolation, the young adult immediately changes into a female; if it settles on a chain, it remains a male. Adults can live on these chains for up to 6 years.

Adult boat shells are rather small, ranging in length from 20–50 mm (0.7-1.9 in). The shell is distinctly arched, with a flat underside that gives it a slipper-like appearance. The shell can be white, pink, or yellow with red or brown streaks; older adults are often covered in algal growth.

Conservation status: The common slipper limpet has not been evaluated by the IUCN. Although they are commonly harvested for food, populations are considered stable. Outside its native range, this species is considered invasive and harmful to other limpet snails.

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Photos

Dr Keith Hiscock

Sytske Dijksen

[switchkick]

[magicmetalblog]

InsertAnInvert 2024

Coastal week 1: Tropical reef

bubble-tip anemone (entacmaea guadricolor)

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Okay, I know people as a general rule tend to not care about invertebrates as much as cute, fuzzy mammals, but this is a must-read if you care about animal welfare. The short version is that horseshoe crab blood has been used for decades in medicine as a way to test whether something is truly sterile; the blood clots in the presence of bacteria. Since then millions of horseshoe crabs have been captured and drained of blood, even though a synthetic alternative was developed a few years ago.

They go through a pretty brutal experience in the process. They're caught by fishermen who often throw them by their tails into a pile in the open air, and they're then trucked to a bleeding facility where they're strapped down and their blood is removed with needles jabbed directly into their hearts. Over half their blood may be taken, after which they're supposed to be returned to the ocean. However, it's likely many of them never make it back, instead turned into fish bait and sold by the same fishermen who caught them in the first place.

Apart from the fact that this is a horrific thing to put any animal through, the attrition due to fatalities has put a serious dent in horseshoe crab numbers. This is compounded by massive habitat loss, pollution, and the capture of horseshoe crabs as food, particularly as the females of one species are considered a delicacy. And other animals that rely on horseshoe crabs are suffering, too. The American rufa subspecies of the red knot, a medium-sized shorebird, is critically endangered as the horseshoe crab eggs it must have in order to successfully complete migration have become increasingly scarce, and it is likely the bird will become extinct if trends continue.

While there are guidelines for medical horseshoe crab harvest, they're considered optional. The few laws that exist are poorly enforced. Short of a complete ban on horseshoe crab blood in favor of the synthetic alternative, these animals are in very real danger of going extinct after a history spanning over 400 million years on this planet.

Thankfully, this article is not the first to bring forth the issues surrounding horseshoe crab harvest. Here are a few resources for further information and action (US based, though horseshoe crabs are threatened throughout their entire range):

Horseshoe Crab Conservation Network - https://horseshoecrab.org/conservation/

Wetlands Institute - https://wetlandsinstitute.org/conservation/horseshoe-crab-conservation/

Horseshoe Crab Recovery Coalition - https://hscrabrecovery.org/

[mugene-art]

[vestaignis]

Бисса (лат. Eretmochelys imbricata) — один из редких видов морских черепах, которому грозит полное исчезновение. По внешнему виду ее можно перепутать с зеленой черепахой, от которой бисса отличается только меньшими размерами и весом: взрослая особь имеет длину тела от 60 до 90 см при массе около 45-55 кг. Панцирь биссы сверху коричневый с красивым желто-пятнистым рисунком и имеет сердцевидную форму. Ещё одна особенность внешнего вида - заострённый, похожий на клюв кончик морды.

Второе название биссы — настоящая каретта — означает, что именно эта черепаха дает самые ценные, "настоящие" роговые пластинки, из которых изготавливают различные сувениры: гребни, шкатулки и прочие мелочи. Очень жаль, что любовь человечества ко всяким безделушкам привела вид к такому плачевному состоянию. Впрочем, мясо биссы тоже ценится в некоторых странах. Разумеется, нелегально, так как настоящая карета уже давно внесена в Международную Красную Книгу и находится под охраной различных организаций. При этом гурманов вовсе не пугает тот факт, что деликатес может оказаться ядовитым из-за пищи, которую сама черепаха ела накануне.

Встретить ее можно в Атлантическом и Тихом океанах: ареал настоящей каретты простирается от умеренных вод северного полушария до умеренных вод южного. Вот только гнездится бисса исключительно в тропических широтах. Населяет преимущественно скалистое мелководье, коралловые рифы, лагуны и заливы с мангровыми берегами. Мелкие прибрежные воды, заливы и устья рек с илистым или песчаным дном — обычные места обитания биссы. Она держится чаще в тех местах, где подводной растительности мало. Настоящие каретты всеядны, но отдают предпочтение животной пище- их рацион составляют бентосные беспозвоночные, медузы, анемоны и морские губки, причем только определенных видов, а некоторые из них и вовсе ядовиты для других существ.

Еще один интересный факт этот вид черепах способен светиться в темноте.

The hawksbill turtle (Latin Eretmochelys imbricata) is one of the rare species of sea turtles that is threatened with complete extinction. In appearance, it can be confused with the green turtle, from which the hawksbill differs only in its smaller size and weight: an adult has a body length of 60 to 90 cm with a weight of about 45-55 kg. The hawksbill shell is brown on top with a beautiful yellow-spotted pattern and has a heart-shaped shape. Another feature of its appearance is the pointed, beak-like tip of the muzzle.

The second name of the hawksbill turtle is the real caretta, which means that this particular turtle produces the most valuable, "real" horn plates, from which various souvenirs are made: combs, boxes and other little things. It is a pity that humanity's love for all sorts of trinkets has led the species to such a deplorable state. However, hawksbill meat is also valued in some countries. Of course, illegally, since the real carriage turtle has long been included in the International Red Book and is protected by various organizations. At the same time, gourmets are not at all afraid of the fact that the delicacy may be poisonous due to the food that the turtle itself ate the day before.

You can meet it in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans: the range of the real carriage turtle extends from the temperate waters of the northern hemisphere to the temperate waters of the southern. But the hawksbill nests exclusively in tropical latitudes. It inhabits mainly rocky shallow waters, coral reefs, lagoons and bays with mangrove shores. Shallow coastal waters, bays and river mouths with a muddy or sandy bottom are the usual habitats of the hawksbill. It is more often found in places where there is little underwater vegetation. True carettas are omnivorous, but prefer animal food - their diet consists of benthic invertebrates, jellyfish, anemones and sea sponges, but only of certain species, and some of them are completely poisonous to other creatures.

Another interesting fact is that this species of turtles can glow in the dark.

Источник:://more.fandom.com/ru/wiki/Бисса,/ornella.club/15248-morskaja-cherepaha-bissa.html,/zoo-ekzo.ru/node/6163, //www. zoopicture.ru/bissa/,animals.pibig.info/6018-cherepaha-karetta.html, /ru.pinterest.com/pin/68737846851/.

[bethanythebogwitch]

I am a survivor of Florida, having gone to college there for 4.5 years. There's a lot (a LOT) to not like about Florida, but the wildlife is not one of those things. So for this Wet Beast Wednesday, I'm gonna talk about the most famous Florida resident, the manatee. And why stop there? I'll discuss all the sirenians in one go.

(image: three manatees facing the camera. They are rotund, resembling a potato in shape. Their heads are smaller and end in squarish snouts. They have two flippers at the front of the head. The tail is flat, wide, and round. They are grey all over)

The sirenians are a taxonomic order of marine mammals consisting of 4 living members: three species of manatee and the dugong. They are the only herbivorous order of marine mammals, a trait that has given the the nickname "sea cows". The name Sirenia comes from the sirens of greek myth. In the original story, the sirens were bird with the heads and breasts of women, but later stories turned them into mermaids and that's the version that's stuck. There are unconfirmed stories that European sailors (the most common story uses Christopher Columbus) mistook manatees for mermaids, which is why they're named after sirens.

(image: a manatee facing the camera. Its face is visible, revealing two nostrils on a broad, flat shout covered in whiskers. It's eyes are located above the snout and are small and black. It is grey, but has patches of greenish algae growing on it)

Sirenians all have a pretty similar body plan. They are fusiform (bulky in the middle and narrower at the ends) and very bulky animals not built for speed. They don't ned to be fast (though are capable of short bursts of speed) because unlike other marine mammals, they are herbivorous. The vast majority of a sirenian's diet consists of sea grass and most of the rest is other aquatic plants. All species have been known to supplement their diet with invertebrates, mostly during times of poor food availability. When feeding, they move their snouts through the sediment, letting sensory bristles detect plants. They then use their flexible and muscular lips to pull up the sea grass, roots and all. While an individual can eat up to 15% of their body weight a day, they are known to seek out seagrass patches with higher nitrogen content instead of eating everything they can get. This reliance on seagrass limits the range of sirenians to shallow coastal areas, rivers, and estuaries in warm climates. Hearing and touch (with the bristles that cover their bodies) are their main senses. Their eyes are weak, making them almost blind. Sirenians are large, with the largest ever known, Stellar's sea cow, growing up to 10 meters (33 ft) and 11 tons. Mature sirenians are large enough to have no natural predators. Like all marine mammals not named sea otters, sirenians have a thick layer of blubber to keep them warm. Their bones are extremely dense and likely act as ballast to counteract the buoyancy of the blubber. In the marine mammal breath-holding competition, sirenians do pretty bad. They can hold their breath for about 15 minutes at max.

(image: a dugong. It is similar in appearance to a manatee, but skinnier. Its tail is a fluke with two points. Its head is larger and the snout and mouth point downwards)

Sirenian reproduction is somewhat poorly-understood. They only have a single calf at a time (with a gestation period of about a year) and mothers will raise them for one to two years. Calves mature quickly, reaching sexual maturity in around 2-5 years in manatees and 8 years in dugongs, though most females do not give birth until between 6 and 15 years. Their nipples are located behind the flippers, making a nursing calf appear to be sucking its mother's armpit. Sirenians are solitary animals who typically only congregate in groups when females are in estrus. Males are believed to compete for the right to mate and may engage in lekking. Lekking is when a male will claim a territory and mate with females in this territory while chasing opposing males out. Sirenians live long lives, with the oldest known individual being a female dugong that lived to 73. Despite how long they live, each female will only get pregnant a few times in her life.

(image: a manatee mother with calf. The calf looks like a smaller version of the mother and is suckling, making it appear to be biting the mother's armpit)

As with all marine mammals, sirenians are descended from land mammals. The study of sirenian evolution has led to a surprising conclusion: the closest relatives of sirenians are elephants. It sounds weird, but there is substantial DNA evidence supporting this conclusion. In addition, the tusks of a dugong (see below) and flexible and prehensile lips of sirenians are based on the same structures as the tusks and trunks of elephants. It gets better, the next closest relative of both groups are the hyraxes, who look more like rodents than anything that should be related to an elephant or a manatee. All three are part of a clade called paenungulata, which is part of a clade called afrotheria. The other main group within afrotheria is afroinsectiphilia, which consists of aardvarks and various shrews. The afrotherian family reunions must be wild.

(image: a scientific diagram showing a cladogram of afrotheria and the groups within it. source)

The dugong (Dugong dugon) is the last surviving member of its family, which also included the now extinct giant Stellar's sea cow. The easiest way to tell a dugong apart from a manatee is its tail, which is shaped like a dolphin's fluke instead of the round tails of manatees. Internally, there are also multiple differences, many of them relating to the skull. The skull has a very distinct shape, with the upper jaw bending down at a sharp angle. The tip of the upper jaw has two short tusks emerging from it. These tusks are found in moth males and females, but develop differently. In males, they emerge when the calf reaches sexual maturity, while those of females only emerge later in life and sometimes not at all. It is believed that these tusks are used by males to fight over females, as males are often found with scars matching the shape of the tusks. Dugong teeth as simpler than those of manatees, being simple pegs. While manatee teeth will be replaced continuously through life, dugongs only get one set and have to make it count. Dugongs reach an average length of 3 m (10 ft) and 420 kg (930 lbs). Dugongs have the largest range of any sirenian, stretching from east Africa to the Solomon islands east of Australia. This range is fragmented rather than continuous and dugongs are separated into multiple isolated populations. The largest population is believed to exist in northern Australia.

(image: a dugong feeding on seagrass, seen from the front. It's snout is being dragged through the sediment, leaving a cloud of dirt behind it. Small yellow fish surround it)

The west Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus) does not live in west India. It lives in North America. I dunno who named it, but you had one job. The species is divided into two subspecies: the Florida manatee (T. m. latriostris) found in the Gulf of Mexico and east coast of the United States, and the Antillean manatee (T. m. manatus) found in the Caribbean and down south to Brazil. The Antillean subspecies is much more poorly known compared to the Florida subspecies. The Florida manatee may be the most well-studied of all manatees due to the extensive conservation efforts regarding them since the 1970s. Like other manatees, the WI manatee has a round, paddle-like tail and fingernails on its flippers. Their diaphragms are divided into two hemidiaphragms, each of which contracts one lung. They have the northernmost territory of all manatees, which comes with some consequences. They are susceptible to stress and even death when exposed to water under 20 degrees C (68 F). They travel south during winter, usually to southern Florida, but conservationists still have to rehabilitate manatees harmed by cool water every year.

(image: tourists in transparent kayaks observing a west Indian manatee swim below them)

The Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis) is the only sirenian that lives entirely in freshwater, residing in the Amazon river basin. They move seasonally inhabiting flooded areas during the wet season and lakes during the dry season. They fast during the dry season, subsisting off of their fat stores. There are believed to be multiple relatively isolated populations of Amazonian manatee, but studying them is difficult due to them preferring to live in areas away from humans. The Amazonian manatee is the smallest sirenian, reaching between 160 and 230 cm (5 ft 4 in to 7 ft 7 in) and 120 to 270 kg (265 to 595 lbs). Scientist Marc van Roosmalen has proposed the existence of a related species, the dwarf manatee, that lives only in one tributary of Aripuanã river, which is in the habitat range of the Amazonian manatee. Their existence is debated, but most manatee scientists think that they are misidentified juvenile Amazonian manatees.

(image: an Amazonian manatee with calf, seen from ahead and below. they have the same body plan as the above images, but are a darker grey with a white patch on the stomach)

The African manatee (Trichechus senegalensis) is the only species found in the old world, in west Africa from Senegal to Angola. They occupy the largest range of habitats of all sirenians, from tropical islands to flooded forests, to offshore sand flats, to lakes and rivers. They will swim up river during the wet season and back down during dry season. Some isolated populations live exclusively in rivers, never venturing out to sea. They are the most omnivorous of the sirenians, seeking out invertebrates to eat and stealing fish from nets. Many cultural groups in their range consider the African manatee sacred, some saying they used to be people and that killing one requires paying a penance. Mami Wata, a water spirit revered in throughout west, central, and south Africa, has been identified with manatees by some folklorists.

(image: an African manatee seen from the side in an aquarium. It looks almost identical to the west Indian manatee)

All sirenians are classified as vulnerable by the IUCN, except for the Antillean manatee, which is endangered. As they have few to no predators as adults, the primary threats for all sirenians come from humans. Boat strikes and getting tangled in nets kills and injures many individuals, possibly more than die of natural causes. This is not helped by them lacking fear responses to predators, meaning they don't flee from humans and boats. All species were historically hunted for their meat, blubber, and bones, reducing their populations. While all species are now legally protected, poaching and legal hunting by indigenous groups still occurs. They are also threatened by habitat loss as coastal development, pollution, and climate change reduces the range of seagrass. Damming has also reduced their ability to travel up rivers, cutting off valuable feeding ground. Learning about freshwater ecology will make you despise dams. In the United States, the west Indian manatee has become an icon of conservation, especially in Florida, where they have extensive legal protections. Controversially, the US government reduced their legal protections in 2017, much to the ire of many conservation groups. The manatee is the state marine mammal of Florida, presumably narrowly beating out dolphins and meth heads wandering around the everglades.

(image: two juvenile manatees who were abandoned by their mothers. They are being bottle fed by employees of the Cincinnati zoo. Ideally, they will be able to be released into the wild once weaned)

[cadere-art]

What does agriculture and typical plants and animals used in food look like in different regions and cultures?

For the sake of brevity, my answer will only cover this part (but don't worry, I'm working on the plants (and invertebrates) as well) :

VERTEBRATE LIVESTOCK OF UANLIKRI

Thanks to a wide range of environments and intercontinental trade, Uanlikri boasts a wide variety of vertebrate livestock, some domesticated locally, others brought along by settlers from the other continental masses. Most livestock on Uanlikri are ceratopsians (some more highly derived than others).

Caviþ

Pronounced chavith. Caviþ are a highly derived species of ceratopsians originating from the Basin region. The wild species still exist, roaming the southern Basin plains in great hordes.

For the most part, caviþ are kept as beasts of burden and for their meat and leather. In most locales, they are unpopular compared to O'ohu, which are more powerful, meatier, more docile, and have more offspring at once. Nevetheless, keeping caviþ has its avantages: caviþ are smaller, hardy, tolerant of crowding, and produce rough but warm pelts.

In general, caviþ are too small to be ridden by adult antioles, but not for the Apinaat and Abimaat, two peoples of pigmies who make their living on caviþback across the southern Basin plains and on the Matar Peninsula. For the Apinaat and Abimaat, caviþ, wild and domestic, are their whole livelihood. Their use of caviþ as mounts gives them an incomparable edge in warfare and has earned them a fearsome reputation.

Wek

Wek are one of the few non-ceratopsian livestock originating from Uanlikri. They were first domesticated in coastal areas of the Pwetitwì range from large gull-like birds, and spread from there to most northern coastal areas of Uanlikri. Wek are meaty and adaptable birds kept for their eggs, plumage, and guano. They require access to open water to thrive, but accept saltwater and freshwater alike. They are primarily kept in coastal areas, as well as along the Koramme river and Basin Great Lakes, where the slow-moving waters suit them fine.

Kabi

Kabi, a guinea pig sized ceratopsian, are the most widely kept livestock on Uanlikri. The kabi in the picture was enlarged for ease of viewing: the vast majority of kabi breeds are much smaller, though giant breeds do exist. Kabi are a multi-purpose livestock: they are bred for their meat, abundant eggs, soft patterned pelts, and companionship. Kabi are extremely adaptable and very tolerant of crowding. Their ease of keeping in urban environments has made them ubiquitous through all the cities of the continent.

There are hundreds of kabi breeds and landraces on the continent. Kabi have a tendency to establish themselves as feral pests as well as livestock, where natural selection by the environment encourages the development of landraces best adapted to the local climate. They also make excellent pets due to their highly social nature, and many lines of kabi are bred purely for good temperament and pleasing (though sometimes extreme) appearance. Kabi are also ubiquitous overseas: it is unclear where they were first domesticated, but most theories point towards dwarf and standard kabi originating from one domestication event on Uanlikri, and red-leg kabi originating from another domestication event overseas, possibly of a different but related species: this would explain some of the difficulties in breeding dwarf and standard kabi to red-leg kabi.

Tsut

Tsut were one of the livestock species brought along by the Senq Ha Empire, conquerors and settlers of the Western Peninsula. These diminutive therizinosaurids were selected through millenia for an extremely downy, frizzy coat which can be sheared and spun like wool. Of all Senq Ha livestock, tsut were the ones to find the fastest and most widespread adoption, only limited by their destructive browsing habits and preference for hilly terrains and cool weathers. Tsut down revolutionized the world of textiles in Uanlikri, where spun-down fibres were previously very rare and very expensive, requiring capture and shearing of wild animals with very little suitable fibre.

Tsut are primarily raised for their fiber but also provide meat and more importantly crop-milk. Consumption of crop-milk is slow to catch in communities not descended from the Senq Ha, but the Senq Ha's people use crop milk abundantly, using it fresh or processed in dozens of different ways.

Llekme

Llekme were domesticated in the Northern peninsulas of Uanlikri from a species related to the caviþ. They share many of the caviþ issues and advantages, being hardy but temperamental. However, contrarily to the caviþ, they are an extremely popular livestock among both sedentary and nomadic populations Uanlikri's north. There, they are used as beasts of burdens and pulling animals of limited power as well as for their meat. For the desert nomads of the Atashir, llekme provide essential help in carrying their tents and tools; in cities, they are often used as pulling animals, working alone or in teams to pull small carts and coaches.

Hêtâ

Hêtâ are family of highly derived ceratopsians, including a dozen species and subspecies on the mainland and a few endemic island species. They are, in truth, not yet a domestic species. All species of hêtâ are game animals highly appreciated for their ornemental feathers and delicious meat, and there have been several attempts to domesticate various species of mainland hêtâ, none of which have been successful. Mainland hêtâ have extremely nervous dispositions, are prone to dying from stress, and mostly fail to reproduce in captivity: they rarely breed, and when they do, they most often do not provide parental care, leading to the death of the chicks.

This said, there is an ongoing project on the Ojame archipelago to restore and domesticate the near-extinct Ojame hêtâ. The Ojame hêtâ is endemic to the archipelago. Due to the absence of large predators on the archipelago, it has evolved to be larger and much less fearful than mainland hêtâ, but was driven to near extinction by hunting and the introduction of larger, bolder breeds of oujabe [dog analogue] from the mainland and of continental hêtâ imported for use as wild game.

The failure of mainland domestication attempts and a joint desire to preserve and profit from the Ojame hêtâ has led to a unique, unusually coordinated project to domesticate and reestablish the Ojame hêtâ. In a rare show of goodwill and collaboration, this project is shared by both Wetki and Ranaite communities on the archipelago. The Ojame hêtâ is thought to be a promising source of meat and ornemental feathers as its population levels rise and stabilized. Successful captive reproduction has been achieved, and semi-domesticated captive population are being reintroduced to Êrar, the archipelago's largest island where the hêtâ had been completely eradicated.

Wagwacguk

The wagwacguk (wag-wash-guk) is a wild animal living as familial herds in the tundras south of the Kantishian, with a domestic subspecies of marginal range in the lands of the Daghwa-Igdø and the Kantishian High Plateau. It is a large, extremely hardy animal with a warm, plush coat and thick leather. For the Daghwa-Igdø, wagwacguk are their main livelihood. One month per year, they feast on the fresh meat of wagwacguk calves, culling their herds as the first dayfrosts touch their lands; the later kills are preserved by smoking and freezing. The rest of the year, wagwacguk blood provides them with most of the protein in their diet. Wagwacguk pelts, leather, guts, horn and hooves are the materials involved in most of their material culture.

Though domestic wagwacguk are most closely associated with the Daghwa-Igdø, they are also kept by the Oubixwø-øi of the Kantishian high plateau as part of the Oubixwø-oi's diverse survival strategies.

O'ohu

O'ohu are domestic hadrosaurs named, in most regions where they are kept, after their loud and haunting cry. They are the largest and second-most widespread livestock on Uanlikri. Where they are kept, they are invaluable for their work as beasts of burden: plowing fields, pulling carts, carrying charges of all kinds. They are essential to the work of peasants and armies alike, and they are surprisingly fast. Historically, they have often been used in active combat, pulling war chariots. They cannot be ridden: their back ridge is too fragile to bear the weight of a rider and their alternatively bipedal and quadrupedal gait makes balancing a saddle impossible. They are also used for meat, blood, leather, and other byproducts. Their finely scaled and patterned leather is considered especially attractive, and their hollow horns are often made into music instruments. In many cultures, O'ohu grastroliths are considered to have medicinal properties as the ultimate digestive aid, and are often sold at a considerable markup by gastrolith merchants.

[luxudus]

A Home away from Home

My end of an art trade with @grox-empire is finally complete RAAAAGHHHHH. It took me 4 months to work on this while getting distracted by other projects that you'll see in the near future hehehe.

The scene showcases Celeste and Altair's making planetfall on a T3 world. A temperate moon with an atmosphere so dense the sky is a light twilight gradient regardless of the sun's position. This world is still early in it's evolution as no macro predators have evolved yet and the largest animals are no bigger than a cow.

Here she is approached by an Inquisitive native. Who's species are generalist omnivores who forage the fan-blade "grass" with 2 sets of oral tendrils and come together to hunt smaller animals and watch for predators. Hunters that look nothing like the starbound visitors who bring them more comfort than caution.

Surrounding the 3 are several other species of this moon. To the right are a pair of coastal carnivores probing the sand for invertebrates with rudimentary electroreceptors. And scare off rivals and smaller pack hunters with the bright side of their electroreceptor flaps. A pair of flying "fish" closer related to the invertebrates of this world to any terrestrial natives. And large herbivore that rips plants out of the ground with spiraling tentacles and weaponized a skin cancer to transform their front mandibles into grooved horns to fight for mates.

Celeste is overwhelmed by the scenery and the local's curiosity. But not in a bad way. What she loves, life an nature isn't just here, but cranked to 11. She feels love on all sides, by the Aliens' curiosity, the moon's warmth, and Altair's support. For once, she actually feels like she can belong. She finally feels at home away from home

Everyone go check out Alistair's page and their end of the art trade!!!! and make sure to give em a follow :)

[alphynix]

Spectember/Spectober 2023 #08: Various Filter-Feeders

Admantus asked for a "freshwater baleen whale":

Rostrorutellum admantusi is descended from small cetotheres that became isolated in a large inland body of water (similar to the modern Caspian Sea), eventually becoming landlocked and gradually reducing in salinity towards fully freshwater.

Highly dwarfed in size, just 2-3m long (~6'6"-9'10"), they're slow swimmers with broad duck-like snouts that are used to scoop up mouthfuls of sediment and strain out their invertebrate prey in a similar feeding style to gray whales.

Due to the murkiness of the water, and the lack of large predators in their environment, they have poor eyesight and instead use sensory bristles and electroreceptors around their snouts to navigate and detect prey.

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And an anonymous submission requested a "whale-like filter-feeding marine crocodile":

Sestrosuchus aigialus is a 6m long (~20') crocodilian closely related to the modern American crocodile, living in warm shallow coastal waters.

It's adapted for an almost fully aquatic lifestyle convergently similar to the ancient thalattosuchians, swimming with undulations of its long tail and steering with flipper-like limbs. But unlike other crocs it's specialized for filter-feeding, with numerous delicate needle-like teeth in its jaws that interlock to sieve out small fish and planktonic invertebrates from the water.

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A couple more suggestions also asked for "fully aquatic pinnipeds" and "future crabeater seal evolution":

Euphausiolethrus volucer is a fully aquatic descendant of the crabeater seal. About 5m long (~16'4"), it occupies the ecological niche of a small baleen whale in the krill-abundant Antarctic waters that lack most actual baleen whales.

Its jaws contain numerous finely-lobed teeth that are used to strain krill from the water, and it utilizes all four of its wing-like flippers to swim in an "underwater flight" motion similar to that of plesiosaurs.

Highly social, it tends to congregate in pods that cooperate to herd swarms of krill for easier feeding.

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Another Day, Another Pacific Sand Dollar

The eccentric sand dollar, aka the sea-cake, biscuit-urchin, western sand dollar, or Pacific sand dollar (Dendraster excentricus), are found in the intertidal zone and near-shore sandy bottoms from Alaska, US to Baja California, Mexico.They are the only sand dollars endemic to the Pacific Northwest, though they share the rest of their range with other species. Live individuals are seen either partially buried upright or lying flat on the ocean floor, depending on the strength of the current. To prevent themselves from being swept away, juveniles will also ingest sand to weigh themselves down. Although they are not social, they can form large colonies with as many as 6 sand dollars in a square m (1 sq yd).

Pacific sand dollars are named for their resemblance to silver dollars, especially the bleached exoskeletons that commonly wash up on beaches. Most adults average about 8 cm (3 in) across, though individuals as big as 10 cm (4 in) have been found. The body is a flat disc coated in small, purple tube-like feet and sensory organelles called cilia. The feet are used both for moving across the ocean floor and for pulling oxygen from the water. The mouth and anus-- a single opening-- are located on the sand dollar’s underside. Inside the mouth are five teeth and jaw plates known as doves; together they form a structure known as Aristotle’s lantern, which is unique to echinoderms like sand dollars and sea stars.

D. excentricus is a suspension feeder, using its feet and cilia to pull food from the water or direct it along special groves on the body’s underside. Their main prey are microscopic larvae, copepods, diatoms, algae, plankton, and detritus. The sea-cake is predated upon by a number of sea stars and fish, as well as crabs and sea gulls. To avoid being eaten, adults bury themselves in the sand and larvae will duplicate themselves via a process known as budding and fission, which creates smaller individuals that can distract potential predators.

Although western sand dollars have seperate sexes, they are broadcast spawners. In late spring or early summer, males and females congregate and release gametes into the water where they become fertilized. Larvae, also known as prisms, hatch just a day later. This larvae floats freely through the water, growing arms and metamorphosing into a echinopluteus larva. Once they reach 8 arms, the larva begins to develop an exoskeleton or echinus, and resembles a small adult. The final stage of growth is triggered by chemical cues released by other adults; after this, individuals become sexually mature and settle on the ocean with other sand dollars. In the wild, adults can live up to 13 years.

Conservation status: Although the IUCN has not evaluated the Pacific sand dollar, they are regularly threatened by ocean acidification, warming, and bottom trawling.

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Photos

Chan Siuman

Brian Starzomski

Alison J. Gong

[arthistoryanimalia]

For #WorldJellyfishDay 🪼:

Compass Jellyfish (Chrysaora hysoscella), native to coastal temperate NE Atlantic Ocean.

1. Plate XXVII from Philip Henry Gosse's (English, 1810-1888) A Naturalist's Rambles on the Devonshire Coast, 1853

2. glass model from the Cornell Collection of Blaschka Invertebrate Models, c. 1882

[animalshowdown]

Phylum Round 1

Nemertea: Ribbon Worms. These simple organisms are mostly seafloor-dwelling, but some may live in freshwater or even on land. Most are predators of small invertebrates, but some are herbivorous or symbiotic with a host. Instead of crawling, Nemerteans secrete a thick mucus and use thousands of tiny hair-like cilia to glide across the slimy surface. Their most distinctive feature is their internal proboscis, which can be everted inside-out of their bodies and used to capture prey.

Ctenophora: Comb Jellies. The largest animal phylum to swim using hair-like cilia. Their cilia are arranged in rows, called combs or ctenes, down the length of their body. The cilia move in a wave-like pattern that generates colorful reflecting light shows. Almost all Ctenophores are predators of small plankton as they drift in the ocean. They inhabit a variety of marine habitats from the coastal intertidal to the open ocean.

[magicmetalblog]

InsertAnInvert2024

Shells week 4: Swimmer

Fragile file shell (limaria fragilis)

[artechoceneexplorer]

Hello! Sorry for the inactivity, posting the same drawings on 5 different platforms with different limitations is quite exhausting, so I'll be posting my Spectember drawings in batches until I finish it :>

So without further ado, here's the second week of Spectember:

Day 8: Ambush Predator

Featuring the Titan Låtmimik (Venatoramus longus), a giant carnivorous katydid from the northern forests of Antarctica, which can imitate the calls of certain bird species to attract them closer to their lethal grasp

Day 9: Producer

Featuring the Ggulu Orchid (Caelorchis divinitus), an orchid common in the Muraanad forests of the Somalian subcontinent, where it grows from the fungi growing chambers of the termite nests, taking advantage of the fungi until it bursts out of the nest, finally able to photosynthesize and flower.

Day 10: Filter Feeder

Featuring the Wandering Dumingo (Pinnatocetus celer), a seafaring member of the dumingos, a family of filter feeding mallard descendants, which embark on incredibly long migrations across oceans, from pole to pole, in the search of summer plankton booms.

Day 11: Semi-aquatic

Featuring the Beringian Selkie (Sennapithecoides polaris), an aquatic rodent from the Arctic region, which spends most of its life diving and digging around the coastal mudflats in search of invertebrates to feed on, including clams and crustaceans.

Day 12: Megafaunal

Featuring the Transoceanic Navalodile (Galleonosuchus imperator), the largest of a group of seagoing crocodiles, which patrols the equatorial waters of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, constantly searching for fish, rarely encountering others of its kind.

Day 13: Grazer

Featuring the Rugose-browed Pricklyhog (Hoplohippus rugosus), a large porcupine descendant that lives in the African grasslands, protected from predators by its thick skin, and large keratinous plaques and spines that cover it.

And day 14, some fanart of one of the OG spec books, After Man. One of my favourite creatures from its incredible roster, the Night Stalker!

[serpentface]

A cook of a Sh'Czekl merchant family at work in an outdoor kitchen, preparing a holiday dinner.

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Sh'Czekl are the people of the coastal Czekl region, culturally related to other Czekl but having ancestry further west down the inner seas. Most of the population is clustered in a modest trading hub where the Longhorn River meets the sea, seeing the comings and goings of traders from all ends of the inner seaways. 

The region has few mining operations, and natively-made metal implements are typically rare and costly. The most common (and cost effective) option for big pots, pans, and grates such as these are mostly acquired in trade, and often made by and for humans.

The Sh'Czekl diet consists mostly of farmed arthropods, invertebrates foraged from shorelines and tidal pools, and hunted shorebirds. Fish play little to no role in the diet. It is forbidden for Sh'Czekl to eat anything that lives permanently in the sea, as all sea-life belongs to the god Si (who is known to send storms and tidal waves when insulted). 

Their location along major sea trade routes also grants significant access to spices non-native to the region (such as cumin, imported primarily from southern Wardin) alongside regional flavoring (such as firebug, a key export from the region- a strong flavored stinkbug dried and crushed as seasoning).

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What this guy's cooking: A stew of caviar ant eggs/larvae and nuts in a shellfish broth with pepper and firebug, grub and locust kebabs, daggerclams rolled in cumin and fried in lard, and an inner sea tiviit spiced with pepper, firebug and honey and grilled over hot coals.