Student final website projects

Links to Student project websites

Andrew Miller - Nudibranch
http://hopkins.stanford.edu/AndrewMiller/Andrew_Miller_DevBio/Home.html

Monica Erviti - Cnidarians
http://www.stanford.edu/~mzerviti/

Jaqueline Brockhurst - Squid
http://jbrockhu.wix.com/opalescent-squid-bio

Amy Kim - Sea cucumber
http://amykimchee.wix.com/devbiopparvimensis

Chris Lang - crab and shrimp
http://clang4.wix.com/lifeofacrablarva

Katie Kramon
www.stanford.edu/~ckramon 

Isabel Cardenas
http://stanford.edu/~isabelc1/Site/Welcome.html

Cephea cephea pt. 3

The Cephea cephea strobilated after a week of being kept in a warm bath at 28 degrees celsius. They are at all different stages of strobilation.

Deformed Ephyra with 12 lappets instead of 8

deformed ephyra swimming

This last image actin is stained with phalloidin to see the muscles in the ephyra in green, nuclei in blue.

-Monica

Doris odhneri

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Nudibranchia
Family: Dorididae
Genus: Doris
Species: D. odhneri

D. odhneri's common name is Giant White Dorid. It is the largest nudibranch on the California coast getting up to 20 cm. It is hermaphroditic fertilizing its own eggs. It spawned eggs in white ribbons pictured below. The ribbons form spirals that attach to the substrate. Each capsule in the ribbon may have 8 to 12 eggs. The eggs below appear to have two to four embryos each.

Egg Photo Credit to Chris Lowe

Egg Ribbon of Peltodoris nobilis as example of ribbon spiral.

D. odhneri egg ribbon.

Doris odhneri: adults.

-Monica Erviti

Urechis unicinctus Trochophore Larvae

Kingdom Animalia

Phylum Echiura

Class Echiuroidea

Family Urechidae

Genus Urechis

Species unicinctus

After no luck on our class field trip to the mudflats at Moss Landing, Kevin nobly spent his memorial day weekend at Bodega Bay, shoulder deep in mud looking for the little critters that had evaded our shovels a few days before.  Of course, Kevin came back with lots of little critters for us to spawn, and boy!  Were those some unattractive creatures!  Yes, you should go Google image them right now.

After probably the most uncomfortable spawning method we have yet encountered, we had plenty of egg and sperm to fertilize.  Below are images of our trochophore larvae after just two days.  Quite exciting, as these are the first classic looking trochophore larvae we have seen.  The apical tuft, prototroch, and metatroch (2 ciliated bands used for swimming and downstream feeding) are clearly visible.  These guys seem to be too young to have developed their eye spots.

Fertilized 5/28/13

Images Captured 5/30/13

Pictures:

Video:

Look how active these guys are swimming around in circles!

Thank you for a wonderful class!

As this quarter is coming to a close, I sit here, reflecting on this quarter, and find that my life has been infinitely made better by this incredible class!  The resources that I have been privileged to use, my wonderful classmates, our little friends in the sea tables, and most of all, our amazing professor and TA all culminate to truly the best class I have ever taken.  Thank you so much to all of you beautiful people for making this class all that it was!

Below are some miscellaneous pictures I have taken of our class' shenanigans.

Taking care of our babies = 24/7 job!
Just look at the concentration on Monica's face.
Definitely not ready to be a parent any time soon.

Behind the scenes at Monterey Bay Aquarium's Jelly exhibit!  Thank you so much to Wyatt for hooking us up with an awesome variety of  cnidarian and ctenophore species, and for being such a wonderful resource to us all.

Chandler

Gunther - may he/she rest in peace

NUDIBRANCHS ARE THE BOMB!
Aren't their egg cases just the prettiest things?

Mollusc spawning day!  You can clearly see the foot and gills on the underside of this chiton.

Unfortunately, no luck spawning our molluscs!
No matter, we have plenty of other species to look at!

Chris' Angels = Dream Team

Presenting the great, the mighty JUDITH LEVINE!
But actually... she is the BEST.

Thank you to Judith and Andrew for entering these frigid Monterey waters to get us all our species!
We appreciate you both so much!

End of the year gathering at our Chris' house
Thank you so much for opening up your home to all of us!  You have done so much for us and for this class.  This class has truly been the most amazing wonderful adventure for all of us!

Thank you for the time of our lives!
Over and out.

Patiria miniata Skeletons

Very exciting news!  After weeks of changing dishes, filtering water, and feeding, our Patiria miniata bipinnaria are getting close to the brachiolaria larval stage as indicated by rudiment skeletal structures that are beginning to grow around the stomach.

Here are few close up images on the skeletal structures.

Nematostella vectensis pt. 2

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Cnidaria
Class Anthozoa
Order Actinaria
Family Edwardsiidae
Genus Nematostella
Species vectensis

Common name: starlet sea anemone

Here we have our adorable developing Nematostella polyps!  Nematostella are anthozoans within the cnidarian phylum.  However, unlike most cnidarians, they do not have a dual life cycle.  They only possess the polyp life cycle stage, no medusa stage.  These little fellows are native to the East coast of the United States.

Pictures:

These pictures show the really cute and odd movements of the polyps.  It seems they have a contractile circumferential rings of muscle around their body that they use to pump water through their body.  They are also able to stretch themselves until they are long and skinny, or contract themselves into a little ball.  Sometimes they invert their tentacles into their body, and sometimes they have them sticking way out.  Their movements are so dynamic!

In the video and pictures, both the mesentaries and tentacles are clearly visible.

Fertilized 1500 4/16/13
Images captured 5/2/13

Video:

-Amy Kim