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!
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