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

Pucker and Bloat #2, Outvertebrates. © Jason Robertshaw

Well, with any luck, I’ll be able to bring you a regular toon each Tuesday. At least, as long as the ideas keep surfacing. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

This one goes out to Kevin Z. and his unremitting quest against the use of paraphyletic nomenclature. Of course, what folks refer to when they say jellyfish are really cnidarians and starfish are echinoderms. There is really nothing fishy about them. A more proper term would be sea jellies and sea stars.

Next week: Evisceration!

Pucker and Bloat #1A, PG version. Click here for profanity. © Jason Robertshaw

When we last left Pucker, we were missing the other star on the marquee of my nascent Web comic. But given the recent kerfuffle over on the Science Blogs over the merits of molluscs versus echinoderms, it seemed natural to settle on a sea cucumber as the best choice to play the sparring role. So there you have it folks, it’s decided: Pucker is an octopus and Bloat will be a sea cucumber.

But what’s the real separation in this spineless schism? What pulls these two poles apart? Why can’t we all swim along? As it turns out, the differences are primordial and profound.

In the very beginning, all animal embryos look very much the same, whether they are snails or sea stars. But once they get around a hundred cells thick, the hollow blob starts to split, forming a hole at one end. This opening, called a blastopore, is important and will ultimately form part of the digestive system of the animal. In a group called the protostomes, this opening forms the mouth. Molluscs and many other invertebrates start life out this way, mouth first. However, in a group called the deuterostomes, this first opening forms the anus. Sea stars, sea cucumbers and sea urchins do it this way, as well as vertebrates, including humans. We start life out butt first.

So it should now be obvious which end these two spatting sides are speaking out of. And my first comic is a tribute to these fundamental differences. It’s a little rough and rude (there are two versions, PG and PG-13). But now that I have these two characters to play with, I need something more for them to say. So if you have a bio joke or aquatic anecdote that lends itself to illustration, let me know. I need ideas. Feed me.

Team Sticky, for the Echinoderms

• The Intersection: Science, Policy, and Sea Cucumbers: Sheril On Your Radio
• The Intersection: Every Species Needs a Hero
• Bushwell’s Chimpanzee Refuge: Holothuria-matic
• The Other 95%: Sea Cucumbers Insire Brain Implant
• The Intersection: Just When You Thought Sea Cucumbers Couldn’t Get Any Cooler…
• Zooillogix: Sea Cucumbers Have Mutant Healing Factor
• Blog Around the Clock: Sea Cucumber - the Ultimate Phallic Symbol!
• Blog Around the Clock: The Invertebrate Wars!

Team Mucky, for the Molluscs

• Deep Sea News: On Clearing Up The Matter That Mollusks Are Better Than Echinoderms
• Deep Sea News: Another Blow to Sea Cucumbers and a New Challenger to the Ring
• Deep Sea News: On How Molluscs are Cooler Than Echinoderms (or anything else) Pt. 2
• Deep Sea News: On How Mollusks are Cooler Than Echinoderms (or anything else) Pt. 3: The Radula
• UPDATE: A Snail’s Eye View: Molluscs vs echinoderms

QUEST is a savvy multimedia (TV, radio, web) series by KQED that explores the science, environment and nature of Northern California. On April 1st they start their second TV season with a feature on Humboldt squid and an interview with humble squid expert Professor Bill Gilly (Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station).

If you can’t tune into Channel 9 in the San Francisco area, then head over to iTunes to pick up the podcast.

Also, if you have a story idea germane to their series, they’d like to hear about it. Personally, I think it’d be neat if they did something on the recent (and rare) wolverine sighting in north California. Or better yet, it’d be neat if they did an animal face-off between a wolverine and a Diablo Rojo. Talk about compelling television! But I guess that’s the fare of a different kind of network.

Also, a quibble: they include the scientific name of the Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas) on the sneak peek Web site. They get the capitalization correct, which is exceptional, but not the italicization. Why is this matter of styling binomial classification always handled so poorly by journalist and editors?

• Sneak Peek of QUEST’s New Season – Fierce Humboldt Squid

UPDATE: Something mysterious is stirring in the waters of Half-Moon Bay. It’s a “web-exclusive premiere” and additional photos of the new KQED program.

The Circus of the Spineless is a blog carnival celebrating the diversity of invertebrates. This month’s festivities are hosted over at the Other 95% blog. I submitted my What The Shell #2 for your consideration.

As mentioned on Cephalopodcast #6, anyone who needs a last minute costume for Halloween can try this Instructable from Tool Using Animal. You can probably assemble it in less than 30 minutes out of commonly available office supplies. Plus an option for glow-in-the-dark action!

• Super quick last minute Squid costume

Another more involved invertebrate Instructable is the Halloween LED Jellyfish Costume.

I have not gone out to the beach as much as I had hoped when I first started What the Shell. But not too far from the horse conch, we found this little fellow.

Stone Crab (Menippe sp.)

The one pictured below is probably a juvenile M. mercenaria, the Florida Stone Crab. That’s based on the range; I haven’t found anything definitive yet.

2 September 2007
New Pass, Sarasota, Florida, U.S.A.
Found crawling on a dead quahog shell.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Brachyura
Superfamily: Xanthoidea
Family: Menippidae
Stone Crab (Menippe sp.)

Gortoning Myself

I am probably Gortoning myself with this one, but stone crab season begins today in Florida.

Only legal-sized claws (2 ¾ inches) are harvested in the stone crab fishery; crabs are returned to the water alive to generate new claws. Approximately 13 percent of commercially harvested claws are regenerated. The fishing season is open October 15 through May 15 each year, but the harvest of egg-bearing female crabs is prohibited at all times.

Most of the sources on stone crabs note that this is a “sustainable fishery,” owing to the notion that the crabs will regrow their claws. The rate of regrowth varies, taking anywhere from one to three molts before the new claw approaches the same size as the one removed. The molting rate depends on the initial size, sex and environmental conditions of the animal, among other things.

Duress of the Dungeness*

You can file this under duh, but Mark recently noted some new research that indicates crabs with claws removed have increased stress levels which could affect survival rate. As picked up by ScienceDaily:

Professor Bob Elwood, from the School of Biological Sciences studied crabs’ reaction to declawing. Crabs felt increased stress and had a lower survival rate after the removal of one claw.

Professor Elwood said: “We found a strong stress response within ten minutes of taking off one claw and this stress remained after 24 hours. The stress response was greater if the crab was declawed rather than being induced to cast off a claw. So, the stress is not due specifically to claw loss but to the manner of the claw loss.

I don’t imagine most folks will pay much mind to this news. But personally, I’ve cut back tremendously on the amount of meat I consume, mostly for ethical and environmental reasons. And this research doesn’t incline me make an exception for crustaceans, no matter how deliciously sustainable they may be.

Sources

• Blogfish: Removing claws is harmful to crabs
• ScienceDaily: Declawing Crabs May Lead To Their Death, which is a rehash of the original press release from Queen’s University, Belfast.
• NOAA FishWatch fact sheet: Gulf and Florida Stone Crabs (Menippe adina and Menippe mercenaria)
• The 2006 Stock Assessment Update for the Stone Crab, Menippe spp., Fishery in Florida
• A Proposed Evolutionary History of Stone Crabs
• Observations of the Stone Crab Commercial Fishery. From the 2006 season, with a couple of nice vignettes by Florida Wildlife Commission field crew members.
• Creative Loafing, Sarasota: ‘Tis the Season, Sandy claws are coming to town. Brian works in an jab at vegetarians in both the print and podcast versions.

*Forgive me the poetic license, I know they are different species. This also concludes my Blog Action Day report.

Saw one of these embiggened octopus plushies today. FAO Schwartz sells them. At ~183 cm across, it’s probably a little too big (and spendy) for Cephalopodcast HQ.

Our octopi [sic] are available in two sizes. The Giant Octopus lives up to his name, reaching almost 63″ from head to tip of tenctacle and he makes a very comfortable pillow. If that’s too big to handle, we also offer a smaller version, constructed of the same richly-detailed plush.

They also have other large, fluffy sea creatures, including sea turtles, hammerhead sharks, walruses, jellyfish, stingrays and clownfish.

Many visitors to this cephaloblog are probably already aware of the plight of the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. However, there is another, rarer species said to lurk in the farm country of the northeast. And the first photographic evidence of the elusive seven-legged Vermount tree octopus has recently been released. It is an enormous beast which obviously has binocular vision and a hardened siphon. Be aware folks. Be very aware!

- -

All kidding aside, this concludes my posts for the first annual International Cephalopod Awareness Day. Thanks again to everyone who participated. If you are interested in planning events for next year, head on over to TONMO and join the conversation. And remember, next year it will be 08-October-08!

Celebrate Cephalopod Awareness Day, October 8, 2007

AKA: World Octopus Day, Squid Appreciation Day

We begin our celebration of the First International Cephalopod Awareness Day with a look back. I found this little carbuncle on the Internet Archive, and it proves you can mix the great taste of peanuts butter and octopus. It’s a 1950s show called You Asked For It, and it features a moment in the life of Ben Frick, octopus trapper, Washingtonian and “delightful fella.” Skip the knife thrower and fast forward to minute 07:00 to see all the action.

EDIT: Sorry folks. Internet Archive embedded player isn’t playing nice with Wordpress. Click the image above to open the movie in a new window.

Apparently, octopus wrestling used to be pretty popular in the States around this time, as evidenced by this 1949 article in Modern Mechanix: Octopus Wrestling Is My Hobby. And this one from a 1965 edition of Time, Adventure & the American Individualist:

Merely to minnow about underwater is no longer enough, and such sports as octopus wrestling are coming increasingly into vogue, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, where the critters grow up to 90 Ibs. and can be exceedingly tough customers. Although there are several accepted techniques for octopus wrestling, the really sporty way requires that the human diver go without artificial breathing apparatus.

It would seem that the Japanese continue this tradition, albeit with less lively opponents and the disadvantage of being on land.

• Read more about International Cephalopod Awareness Day, including posts by other bloggers
• “You Asked For It” (ca late 1950s)
• Previously: Vintage Ocean and Science Fair Footage

The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, WA, will host the traveling Smithsonian exhibit In Search of Giant Squid from September 22-December 31, 2007. The have a FREE Teacher Workshop & Open House on Thursday, September 27, 2007.

This 2-hour workshop for teachers will introduce useful resources from the Burke Museum and the upcoming Smithsonian traveling exhibit, In Search of Giant Squid. Learn how to use this exhibit to reinforce your marine science curriculum, including the scientific process, ocean research, and deep-sea ecology. The workshop will feature a presentation by a museum curator, a guided tour of the exhibit, an introduction to the exhibit curriculum created by the Smithsonian, a small-group activity, and a review of available teacher resources.

The workshop and curriculum is ideally suited for teachers of grades 5 through 8, but can be adapted for younger and older grade levels.

• Workshop Flyer [PDF]
• More Burke Squid Events

cephalopod070912.mp3 [8.5MB 00:36:38]

 

 cephalopod070912: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (344)

It’s good to be back behind the mic again. This episode has an interview with Dr. Clyde Roper, world-renowned teuthologist. We get into a brief discussion about the recent efforts to capture a living giant squid. Also the ethics of seeking these mysterious beasts and the practical considerations of trying to keep one alive in captivity.

My thanks go out to him and Debi Ingrao for their time and interest in the show. Hope you enjoy it too.

Show Notes:

01:50 Cephalopodcast Events Calendar
02:30 Now Reading plugin by Rob Miller.
03:00 The Unnatural History of the Sea
03:30 Reef by Scubazoo
03:55 Microbial Week @ Deep Sea News
05:40 Deep-sea vents ‘no climate haven’
07:50 Carl Safina, Baked Alaska. See also, Whale ’success story’ questioned
10:05 2007-2008 is the International Polar Year
10:25 NSTA Webinars: The Role of Polar Regions in Earth’s Changing Climate System
11:10 Bowhead Whales May Be the World’s Oldest Mammals and 19th Century bomb found in whale
14:15 NOAA Biofact Loan Program
15:50 Marine Mammals Ashore Stranding Field Guide, Special Pricing Through October 2007
16:41 Science Daily, Migrating Squid Drove Evolution Of Sonar In Whales And Dolphins, Researchers Argue and Whales evolved biosonar to chase squid into the deep. Compare How sperm whales use echolocation to catch prey.
18:30 Interview with Dr. Clyde Roper
29:50 Super quick last minute Squid costume
30:18 Reef Fest needs your help

–

Thanks for listening. If you have ideas for future programs or feedback, please send me a message at cephalopodcast [at] gmail [dot] com, or call the Cephalo-Hotline at 1-941-256-0097. Also be sure to check out the cephal.icio.us links to see what’s coming down the ol’ Esox sp.¹ for future shows.

–

A MARINE BIOLOGIST [4:14]

Band: The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets
Rock

.

The Pacific Science Center has a variation on a popular numbers game.

Do you Sudoku? Well, here’s a twist we think you’ll love. We call it PacSci-Doku…Instead of filling in the blanks with numbers, use letters. Hidden in one of the columns or rows is the answer to a science question. The question in this edition is:

What ancient sea reptile lived during the age of the dinosaurs in what is now Europe?

To find the answer, complete this PacSci-Doku using the following nine letters:

A O U S D L R P C

This might be a fun supplement for educators following along when National Geographic premieres its new giant screen film Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure on October 5th.

Stunning photo-realistic computer-generated animated transports audiences back to the Late Cretaceous, when a great inland sea divided North America in two. The film follows a curious and adventurous dolichorhynchops – familiarly known as a ‘dolly’ – as she travels through the most dangerous oceans in history. Along the way, she encounters long-necked plesiosaurs, giant turtles, enormous fish, fierce sharks, and the most dangerous sea monster of all, the mosasaur.

Sadly, it doesn’t appear to be playing anywhere close to me. However, it’s not only a movie, it’s also a multimedia marketing blitzvideogame for the Wii, Nintendo DS, and Playstation 2.

I have to think that combining these games with the standards-based lesson plans would make for a pretty interesting classroom assignment.

• PacSci-Doku - “Ancient Sea Reptile”
• Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure Trailer
• Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure Teacher Guides for grades 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
• See also, Nat Geo’s previous productions: When Monsters Ruled the Deep
• See also, BBC: Sea Monsters adventure game and Sea monster facts
• Puzzle hint: A O U S D L R P C: Bizarre ‘Walrus-Turtles’ of the Triassic

Last Sunday was International Rock-Flipping Day. I made another 60 second video highlighting some of our discoveries. It’s a little choppier production, since I only had the Powershot A95 (movie setting). Once again, edited with iMovie and scored in Garageband.

Click To Play

Blip.tv | YouTube

• Official IRFD declaration
• Flickr: International Rock-Flipping Day photo pool
• Previously: International Rock-Flipping Day is September 2

I am starting another new feature here on the Cephaloblog, one that I hope will become a regular edition. I am calling it, What the Shell is That?

My inspiration comes from the weekly blog arcs of folks like PZ Myers (Friday Cephalopod), Peter and Craig (Friday Deep-Sea Picture), Rick MacPherson (Monday Moray) and Martin Brummell (Friday Fish), to name just a few.

The focus of What the Shell will be on things I find at the beach. Living on the southwest coast of Florida, that means mostly molluscs, especially bivalve (clam) and gastropod (snail) shells. But it could also be skate eggs, algae or nurdles. Anything in the intertidal is fair game, and not just dead things on the beach either.

Note, I am not a professional malacologist or a competent conchologist. Just a curious beachcomber looking to get outside more to search the surf and share with you. I am not interested in collecting live shells, just taking pictures and leaving only footprints/bubbles. I hope to post one entry each weekend, the day depending on when I can hit the beach.

Florida Horse Conch (Triplofusus gigantea)

The official state shell of Florida is neither a horse (obviously) nor a true conch (not so obviously) nor is it limited to just Florida. True conchs are in the family Strombidae, but horse conchs, along with the tulip shells, are in the spindle shell family Fasciolariidae. Up until recently this particular animal was known as Pleuroploca gigantea. I am still not certain what prompted the change in taxonomy.

I suspect it is called a horse conch because it is the largest snail in North America. These animals grow up to two feet long and are voracious predators of other marine snails.

The individual pictured above was a juvenile, approximately 3 inches long (7.5 cm) found half-way in the water on a piece of drift wood.

Some questions I am still seeking the answers to:

• Why is the horse conch orange? How does it get this distinctive color.
• As an adult, why does it have such a flakey periostracum?
• Why is the horse conch so large?
• Why the change from Pleuroploca to Triplofusus?

References

• Rehder, Harald and James Carmichael. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Seashells. New York: Knopf, 1981. pp. 575.
• Ruppert, Edward and Richard Fox. Seashore Animals of the Southeast. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1988. 116.
• Williams, Winston. Florida’s Fabulous Seashells. City: World Publications (Tampa, FL), 1988. pp. 54-55
• Witherington, E., Blair and Dawn Witherington. Florida’s Living Beaches. City: Pineapple Press (FL), 2007. pp. 73.

Additional Links

• More photos: What The Shell
• Whitney Laboratory of Marine Bioscience: Horse Conch (Pleuroploca gigantea)
• Spindle Shells, Scallops, an excerpt from Florida’s Seashells by Blair & Dawn Witherington (pdf)

UPDATE: bobsonguam now informs me that Pleuroploca papillosa is being considered.

[via bioephemera]

ATTENTION!

Sunday is the first annual International Rock-Flipping Day.

The point is simply to have fun, and hopefully learn something at the same time. We don’t want to over-determine what that something should be: those of a more scientific frame of mind might focus on i.d.s or ecological interactions, while those of an artistic or poetic bent could go in a different direction entirely. Pictures alone would suffice, of course. But whatever you do, please be sure to replace all rocks that you flip as soon as possible, so as not to disrupt the natives’ lives unduly.

Here at Cephalopodcast HQ we are making plans to visit our favorite rock flipping site. You can share your results via Flickr or email your efforts to the organizers below.

• Official IRFD proclamation by Dave Bonta
• More IRFD details from Bev Wigney
• IRFD Flickr pool
• JM reminds us that this weekend is also the Wisconsin State Cow Chip Throw. Maybe there is a bonus for flipping a chip instead of a rock.

UPDATE: I made a couple of optional and complimentary web badges to accompany any IRFD events. Available in various sizes and with or without a grass border.