Cephea cephea

Thanks to Wyatt Patry of the Monterey Bay Aquarium we now have Cnidaria including Cephea cephea! These Cephea cephea or Crown jellies are from Japan. The aquarium's page on Crown jellies can be seen here. 

This is a page from my sketchbook of some more info about Cephea cephea.

Below is a video of some polyps. Freya believes that the lighter color one is in the Scyphoistoma stage and the darker color one may be in the Strobila stage closer to strobilating. Notice that the ephyra seen in the next video is also a darker color. Cephea cephea undergo monodisc strobilation so only one ephyra and medusa will result from each polyp as opposed to polydisc strobilation where many ephyra result from one polyp.

This is the only Cephea cephea ephyra we currently have. Hopefully more are to come!

-Monica Erviti

larval ballet

Hemichordate late larva frolicking with asteroid bipinaria

Cubazoan

This movie shows the almost fully formed medusa from the Cubazoan Carybdea rastoni from our trip to the Aquarium,.

more auricularia

awesome hemichordates !!!

These larvae were reared in Texas for a month by Paul Gonzalez and Chris Cameron - we are lucky to be able to see these critters close up. Some of the most beautiful larvae !

Patiria miniata (Bat Stars)

These are "bipinnarian" larvae of the bat star Patiria miniata. They look a lot like the sea cucumber "auricularia" larvae from the last post, but you can tell the difference between starfish and sea cucumber larvae by looking at the ciliated band on the oral hood, which in starfish is separate from the ciliated band that outlines the larval body. These larvae have been eating red algae, which stained their stomachs pink. If you look closely, you may see to thin sacks on the sides of the larval gut. These are the larval "coeloms"--pouches of mesoderm that line the body walls of many complex animals. One of the larval coeloms will ultimately contribute to the water vascular system of the adult starfish.

Here's what the adults look like: