Cephalopodcast

Flickr photo: dead horseshoe crab by Epsilon289
Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Horseshoe crabs are not really crabs at all, being more closely allied to spiders and scorpions. There are only four species in the world, but they have a fossil record dating back more than 400 million years. Their annual spawning along the east coast of the United States serves as a vital food resource for migrating birds.

At work we do a program on invertebrates for the little guys (K-2nd grade). When we hold up a horseshoe crab and ask them what it is, some invariably identify it as a stingray. When we flip the carapace over they are surprised to see the pinchers and legs. So presumably, the ray is a more familiar animal to many children. If you are a teacher interested in rectifying this matter, I encourage you to check out the many lesson plans and resources over at horseshoecrab.org.

InVERSEabrates

April is National Poetry Month and the oceans provide a lot of inspiration for verse. And one outlet for that creativity comes each year with the annual arts competition from Horseshoecrab.org.

[Horesehoecrab.org] invites students from around the world to submit poems, tales and images in appreciation and celebration of the remarkable horseshoe crab. Through the arts, our future environmental stewards have a voice which is heard globally.

The competition is open to all grade levels pre-K – 12. Students may enter through their school or can enter individually. Each year 30-50 student visual/language artworks are selected to appear in our annual anthology, “Horseshoe Crabs & the Arts.” Each of the young artists as well as their teacher receives a copy of this limited edition artist’s book. All selected works are posted on our web site in the “Poems, Tales and Images” category. In addition the works are reproduced for exhibit in our traveling art exhibition, which has been hosted in art and nature centers throughout the United States and Japan. International entrants are encouraged to help us identify art centers in their countries that may also be interested in hosting the exhibition. We welcome invitations for international display of these outstanding student works!

The competition begins each September and the deadline for entry is today. Selected artists are notified in the beginning of June.

• Horseshoecrab.org: Horseshoe Crabs & the Arts Competition
• Horseshoecrab.org: Previous competition winners (poems, art and more)
• Horseshoecrab.org: lovely anatomy of a horseshoecrab poster (34″ x 22″, $18.00 each)
• University of Delaware Sea Grant College Program: Horseshoe crabs
• PBS Nature: Crash: A Tale of Two Species. This is a video program about the horseshoe crab and the red knot. There is also an Educator’s Guide
• Windracer: Horseshoecrab Transformers
• Andrea Koupal: Anthropomorphic Horseshoecrab
• More Ocean Art Contests: Our Ocean and Coastal Ecosystems Art Competition

Hello Arthropodcast

This is a difficult decision, but I’ve been thinking about making some serious changes to the focus of this Web site. As you may have noticed, I have not been especially productive in the output of actual podcasts. I finally realized the problem was with the name. For whatever reason, I settled on cephalopods as a mascot and icon for this site. I thought the name was clever. I thought cephalopods were cool. It was a mistake. As my buddy Lirpa Sloof said, crustaceans are really the coolest creatures in the sea (and by extension, so are all arthropods). So I am officially changing the name of the site to the Arthropodcast. This will have several advantages.

First, the recent Invertebrate Wars have made me realize that neither group of organisms (echinoderms or molluscs) really captures the imagination and hearts of ocean enthusiasts. I think people are much more excited and interested in the arthropods, especially terrestrial ones like insects and spiders. This name change will also make it easier for folks to get the pun in the title (i.e., it’s a podcast about arthropods).

Second, arthropods are more abundant and diverse than both molluscs and echinoderms combined. As I mentioned, they are also masters of both land and sea. Compare this to the other two groups. There are no living examples of terrestrial echinoderms. There is only a rare fossil specimen of an arboreal urchin, but that species died out with the tree ferns. Also, the few examples of terrestrial mollusks are pretty pathetic, consisting of only a hand full of thin-shelled snails. True, there are rumors of an arboreal cephalopod, but most of those sightings can be ascribed to Bigfoot chasers high on mescaline and urchin envy.

So there you have it. My rationale for changing this Web site. It will take me a little while to make all the necessary changes. But I hope you will agree it’s for the better.

*I also briefly considered calling it the Isopodcast, but quickly realize that was in fact too obscure.

UPDATE: This compelling argument from Craig helped me come back to my senses and restore the original mascot and moniker to the Web site. But for historical purposes, here’s a screenshot.