Which is why those visiting the California coast for summer vacation might be slightly confused on who dropped the Ramen in the ocean? Why would anyone waste their 10 for $10 special in the briny blue? It’s preposterous.

Well my friends, that’s because only one of these is Ramen noodles. Can you tell which?

Just in case you need a close up…
Yes, only one is Ramen…the other, Sea Hare egg masses. You heard me right.

Now put away your flavor packets and listen up cause we are gonna have “the talk.” When one mommy sea hare loves a daddy sea hare…just kidding they are hermaphrodites so we can throw all of that basically out the window. During their breeding season, sea hares form large aggregations in which they chain together to make the cutest sea hare babies you ever saw. Being hermaphrodites, the adult hares have both lady bits and man bits too and can choose which to use depending on who is where in the love chain.

Once the deed is did, they lay long “Ramen-like” ribbons of about 80 million eggs that attach to the benthos, turn a pinkish-brown, and take about 10-12 days to hatch. Sea Hares live in the plankton for roughly 30 days till they make their way back to the ocean floor and begin to chow down and start the cycle all over again.

So there you have it, no Ramen wasted here. Keep Calm and Noodle on.

The post Only One of These is Ramen Noodles first appeared on Deep Sea News.

For fiddler crab males, size is everything.  Well over 60 different species of fiddler crabs, genus Uca, exist across the globe.  You are probably familiar with the crabs.  The males have one ridiculously large claw.  You might think I’m being unfair to fiddler crabs, but the claw of male fiddler crabs is one of the most exaggerated, sexually-selected structures of animals.  That ginormous claw can exceed 1/3 of total body size in large males.  For perspective, that is the equivalent of a 200-pound human male having a hand that weighs 66 pounds.  The average weight of human male hand is 1.25 pounds.  So yeah I think ridiculously large is an apt description.

So why gargantuan claws?  To attract the ladies of course.   Male fiddler crab wave their claws about, held high above their head to attract females into breeding burrows. Each species as unique claw wave.  Uca longisignalis, the fiddler crabs right aside my window here at the marine lab in southern Louisiana, stands outs because of numerous small jerks, sometimes reaching more than 30, that occur before the raising of the claw.  Uca musica, a fiddler crab from the tropical Pacific, conducts a prominent circular motion with its claw during a display. In my Louisiana fiddler crab, Uca longisignalis, the circular motion is weak at best, clearly needing some practice.

Why are the claws so important to the fiddler crab ladies?  In part males with larger claws are more likely to win contests, much more a ritual than an actual fight.  To the winner goes the spoils.  In this case the spoils are prime burrows in the mud flat, important both as bunkers during hide tides and nurseries.  Wandering pregnant females actually choose males partly on the basis of the respectability of the burrow.   Of course bigger claws are quite frankly just more visible to females. Interestingly, despite the large claw primarily being just for show, the equivalent biological bling, the claws are still functional and quite capable of generating enough Newtons of force to successfully cut the author’s index finger.

In a great 1996 study by Jennions and Blackwell, males of Uca annulipes were removed from their burrows and released back into the colony.  The two researchers then monitored the fighting success between the residents of the burrows and the released intruders.  Intruders with relatively large claws for their body size won more fights.  However, not just claw size that mattered.  Released intruders initiated encounters more frequently with burrow resident males smaller than themselves.   When the intruder was larger than the residents, the intruder was more likely to win.  The bigger the loser or winner in any fight the longer the battle goes.  Another study by Blackwell and Passmore, found females not only are particular for larger claws but larger males as well.  At the beginning of a mating period, females selectively go for the larger males in the population.  Toward the end of the mating period, when females feel the pressure of mating in time to release young to coincide with the following nocturnal spring tide, they become a little less choosy for big males.

The ladies love big claws and big males.

The post My What A Big Claw You Have! All the Better to Love You With. first appeared on Deep Sea News.

The Chambered Nautilus, Nautilus pompilius, was originally described by Linnaeus in 1758. However its anatomy was not known until Richard Owen’s dissection of a specimen captured by sailors in the New Hebrides, published in 1832. Owen wrote a 125 page tome, Memoir on the Pearly Nautilus, Nautilus pompilius, Linn., on every aspect of the Nautilus. Owen was a prolific British naturalist best known for coining the word Dinosauria.

Achille Valenciennes was a French zoologist who lived from 1794–1865 and studied under the famous Georges Cuvier. Valencienne published on the Nautilus in 1841.

Last, is the a Dutch zoologist Jan van der Hoeven who published extensively on Nautilus in the 1850’s.

One of these organs is a distinctive projection that sits below the buccal mass (mouth and pharynx). Because the shape and structure of the organ differs between males and females the organ is probably linked to reproduction. In females, the organ is divided into two ridged and grooved structures and called the organ of Valenciennes. In males, the organ is a undivided flap termed the organ of van der Hoeven. It is thought that both organs may be glandular.  However, Jon Arnold in his chapter “Reproduction and Embryology of Nautilus” notes the presence of spermatophores, sperm packets, coiled on the female’s organ of Valenciennes.   This suggest the organ is analogous to the seminal receptacle, a sperm holding organ in female squids.

The last organ composed of varying layers, is also found in females below the buccal mass—the Organ of Owen. Interestingly, however, I  find there is often little mention or discussion of the organ. Owen’s organ is found in Wiley’s well-known work in 1902. In 1975 Saunders and Spinosa mention the cryptic organ. More recently in 2010, Shozo Hay Asaka and colleagues also mention it briefly “whereas in females, the buccal mass is centrally located, along with accessory organs [labial lobe and Owen’s organ].”

Valencienne and Owen actually had a science beef over whether cephalopods should be compared by their suckers or tentacles.

French researcher Achille Valenciennes had proposed that naturalists should compare cephalopods by using their suckers instead of their tentacles.  Owen disagreed. He responded that the cephalic tentacles of a Pearly Nautilus were numerous and comparatively small, indicating its lower place on the scale. Because development mean a reduction in number and an increase in size and ‘perfection’, Own pointed out that Valencieene’s proposal was not ‘comfortable with the general law of development,’ for it would reverse normal expectations.  After all the lowly-organized Nautilus had two large and highly concentrated suckers on each tentacle, while more highly-organized cephalopods hat two hundred smaller or simpler suckers.  Owen was confident enough to publicly reject Valencienne’s proposal by trotting out the common believe that higher development manet more coalesced parts, even though it was contradicted by the specific case of cephalopods suckers.

Given Owen’s rather pompous remarks, many of them wrong, perhaps it’s fitting that Valencienne’s organ is the one that received the most attention.

The post The Odd Nautilus Organs Named After People first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Ok, well a “penis” in male nematodes is actually a hard copulatory spine called a genital spicule–males physically pry open the female’s vulva–but you get the idea. What better way to open a blog post about the story of size?

Marine nematodes are the most badass of all nematodes, because they hold the records for both the largest AND smallest species out of the entire Phylum.

The worms I study on a daily basis hold the Guinness World Record for “smallest nematodes” (yes, there is apparently a Guinness World Record for everything these days). Here’s the pathetic description:

The world’s smallest nematodes or round worms have no common names and live in marine sediments. They are only 80 µm long, which means that it would take 20-30 of these minuscule worms lying end to end to equal the thickness of a single average coin.

Well Guinness, my marine nematodes don’t need your “common names” because they are too awesome for that. Hrumph. On the other side of the size spectrum, the award for largest nematode goes to Placentonema gigantissima, a parasitic species in the reproductive organs of whales that grows up to approximately 30 feet (8 meters) . Although based on my investigations, measurements of this giant nematode might fit under Dr M’s definition of “dubious record”, since the only scientific reference I could find was an inaccessible 1951 journal article from the USSR Academy of Sciences. On top of that I found one grainy picture:

In addition to overall size, some nematodes just have weird body proportions. The deep-sea genus Manganonema lives in sediments and is easy to spot under the microscope because of its really, really tiny head (the pointy end is the tail):

The bodies of some marine nematodes look like short little sausages (although rather hairy and spiky, which might ruin your appetite for sausages). Don’t let the electron microscope images fool you – both Desmoscolex sp. and Greeffiella sp. measure in around 80 micrometers (0.08mm or 3 thousands of an inch – on par with the Guinness World Record for smallest nematode):

Then there’s the really odd genus Draconema, which gives me nightmares because it looks like a hairy bloodsucking sperm. This worm uses the hairs all on its body for locomotion.

And then there are the Epsilonematidae nematodes who can’t even:

But my favorite nematodes of all are the big predatory ones. I think this picture from the Nikon Small World competition eloquently sums up the story of size in nematodes–in their world, between grains of sand, some nematodes are lumbering giants and others are diminutive prey. But to us humans, nematodes are all tiny microscopic creatures, and too often ignored when we measure the ocean.

References:

Kiontke, K. C., Felix, M.-A., Ailion, M., Rockman, M. V., Braendle, C., Pénigault, J.-B., & Fitch, D. H. A. (2011). A phylogeny and molecular barcodes for Caenorhabditis, with numerous new species from rotting fruits. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 11, 339. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-11-339

Zeppilli, Daniela, Ann Vanreusel, and Roberto Danovaro. (2011) Cosmopolitanism and biogeography of the genus Manganonema (Nematoda: Monhysterida) in the Deep Sea. Animals 1: 291-305.

The post The weird sizes and exotic shapes of nematode worms first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Aided by new technologies and teams of overworked graduate students and unpaid interns, and prodded by the dismal decline of these huge rays at the expense of alleged ‘traditional medicine’, marine researchers are rapidly making big discoveries into previously unknown areas of manta ray life history. Like many things in nature that seem counter-intuitive, the largest animals in the sea eat the smallest, and mantas, the largest of all rays, are filter-feeders that strain tiny marine organisms with a sieve-like set of spiky rakes in their gills. But they need to sieve a lot of sea water to get enough teensy bits of food energy to grow to their massive size (up to 20 feet across), and to gain enough fuel to make long-distance and even trans-oceanic migrations. But one sure-fire way to get the high-energy protein shake a growing manta needs is to slurp up the end-product of a reef-fish sex party.

Studying mantas at coral reefs in the South Pacific and Indian Oceans, teams of researchers found direct correlations between spawning events of surgeon fishes, tangs, and butterfly fishes, and the seemingly sudden appearance of mantas, emerging out of the depths like bat-shaped Roombas  to vacuum up future generations of reef fishes. As the spawning parties get together and mill about the reef edge, a half-dozen or more ripe and randy fish will suddenly make a dash toward the surface and simultaneously release their eggs and milt (fish semen). Fertilization takes place in the open water and the eggs, and later the larvae, float offshore, and with any luck & favorable currents the young fish will later return to join their parents on the reef, or populate other reefs miles away. But just as the fish squirt their faint milky gamete clouds, the mantas zoom in to inhale the eggs and sperm. Their gills can only strain the eggs, and the microscopic sperm cells pass through their gills. This coital caviar packs a major nutritional boost for the rays.

Observations of this Caligulan feeding activity has been seen and documented before, but emerging research suggests that mantas specifically focus on spawning fish, and don’t just take an opportunistic grab at any piscine orgy they happen to stumble upon. Spawning events on reefs are often related to tidal or lunar cycles, so Mantas may be able to predict when and where these spawning groups will occur, and likely plan their movements to exploit the breeding cycles of these fishes. Outside of the breeding season and during the evening when reef fishes are sacked out from a busy day of spawning, mantas have much less of a triple-X diet. Moving offshore and into deeper water, mantas feed on deep-sea plankton, diving over 1400 feet (430 meters) and filtering out the tiny mesopelagic organisms in the Deep Scattering Layer that rise from the depths as night falls.

The post Mantas to Reef Fishes: I Drink Your Miltshake first appeared on Deep Sea News.

It’s just not fair.  There I was, a freshly produced sand tiger shark embryo, developing nicely and making my way down the ovarian ducts to one horn of the uterus.  I had blastulated like a boss, totally owned gastrulation and even did a half decent impersonation of ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny.  Things were looking good.  Head: one, at opposite end to tail – check.  Fins, paired appropriately on the bottom, tandem along the top – check.  Gills – check.  Teeth – check.  Aww yeah, now we’re cooking.  Those menhaden aren’t going to know what hit ’em. Yessiree bob, I am one bad motor scooter.  I’m cruising along, feeling fine, make a quick right turn into the uterus and then BAM!  Totally nailed by another sand tiger embryo! Right. In. The. Face.  I’m like “Where’d YOU come from” and he was like “You didn’t think your dad was the ONLY one nailing yo Mama did you? Oh wait, she’s my Mama too. Well never mind, you get the point. This here uterus is MINE”  And I was like “Yeah man, but don’t taste me bro!” and he was like “Can’t talk…eating”.  And then things went kinda dark. What’s up with that?

Disappointed

Dear Disappointed,

Awwww, fall prey to a little intra-uterine predation did we?   Dear me, how sad.  Want me to put an Elmo band-aid on your dismembered corpse?  Welcome to the big leagues kid, sucks to be you.   News flash – life ain’t fair and you are not a winner just for showing up.  In fact, a lot of the time you don’t even GET to show up.  Did you think this would be like Glee, that they would allow you all to reach the peak of your pubescent glory before everybody holds hands and sings a bunch of songs that they are way to young to possibly remember?  Er, no. Sorry bub.  Sometimes the war is over before it even begins.  Nature red in tooth and claw doesn’t start at birth, it starts BEFORE birth and you, my friend, just got schooled.  Why did this happen you ask?  Well, you see your Mum…hmmmm, how do I say this?  She get’s around.  Crazy for claspers, capisce?  Your Dad?  Nothing special, one of many.  That means your fallopian flat mates are your half siblings at best, which in turn means most of them, from a selective perspective, have a vested interest in seeing you dead.  But wait, there’s more – they also get to cannibalistically derive sustenance by eating your puny (but ever so soft and tasty) little body.  No, the sand tiger uterus is not like Glee, it’s more like The Highlander (or for you Gleeker-types: The Hunger Games): it’s not uter-US,  it’s uter-ME, and there can be, only ONE!  Only one pup – presumably the fittest – and only one dad.  If it helps, try to think of your pathetic existence as having served a useful purpose, as an important cog in the great process of natural selection.  That’s total BS, but maybe you’ll quit  bugging me with your blubbery sob story.

Abby

Inspiration – Dr. Craig, my wife and:

Demian D. Chapman, Sabine P. Wintner, Debra L. Abercrombie, Jimiane Ashe, Andrea M. Bernard, Mahmood S. Shivji and Kevin A. Feldheim. (2013)  The behavioural and genetic mating system of the sand tiger shark, Carcharias taurus, an intrauterine cannibal.  Biology Letters. 9(3): 20130003  doi:10.1098/rsbl.2013.0003

PS – After I wrote this, I found this, which prompted me to append this:

The post It’s not uterUS, it’s uterME first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Skylar Bayer is a grad student who studies “the biology, reproduction, and ecology of the sea scallop, Placopectin magellanicus, and the effects of population density on scallop fertilization success” at the Darling Marine Center, University of Maine. She’s also a blogging comrade over at Strictlyfishwrap (@strctlyfishwrap on Twitter).

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

The post The Enemy Within – Dr. Skylar Bayer on the Colbert Report first appeared on Deep Sea News.

]]> https://deepseanews.com/2012/02/interview-new-anthology-tentacle-porn-reaches-for-marine-conservation/ https://deepseanews.com/2012/02/interview-new-anthology-tentacle-porn-reaches-for-marine-conservation/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:37:01 +0000 https://www.deepseanews.com/?p=16598 Warning: This post is rated PG-13 and is safe for work, but contains links to NSFW adult-only content. Click at your own risk. Most marine…

The post Interview: New anthology of tentacle porn reaches for marine conservation first appeared on Deep Sea News.

]]>

Warning: This post is rated PG-13 and is safe for work, but contains links to NSFW adult-only content. Click at your own risk.

Most marine scientists remain blissfully unaware of the existence of tentacle-themed pornography, which originated from Japan. The paths of people who work with real life tentacle-creatures and the paths of people who envision sex with imaginary tentacle-creatures do not often cross.  So when I saw io9’s post on an upcoming tentacle porn anthology aimed at raising money for marine conservation, I had to know more. The anthology, titled Coming Together, Arm in Arm in Arm, is part of the larger Coming Together erotica series, which raises money for charity with the tagline “Doing Good While Being Bad.” Tentacle anthology editor Nobilis Reed and Coming Together series editor Alessia Brio graciously agreed to chat with me about the relationship between eroticized tentacles, marine biology, and saving the ocean.

Miriam Goldstein (MG): Most people not dialed into the hentai world are pretty shocked that tentacles, cold and slimy things they are, can be eroticized. Could you explain (in a PG-13 way) what is sexy about tentacles if you’re a person and not a squid?

Nobilis Reed: This isn’t my first anthology…I edited Tentacle Dreams for Republica Press last year. And what counts as erotic can be different from one person to another. But what I have seen that’s quite common, is the sense of helplessness in the face of something too alien to communicate with. I think you’ll agree that we’ll likely have “conversations” (whatever that means) with dolphins before we do with octopuses. No negotiation, no seduction…just raw lust.

MG: I think many people would describe dolphins like that, horny bastards that they are!

Nobilis Reed: I have heard stories!

MG: Most of the hentai I have seen involves just tentacles and Japanese schoolgirls – can tentacle porn be more than that?

Nobilis Reed: Oh, certainly. In fact, I really want to see stories that transcend that stereotype. I wrote “Monster Whisperer” as a parody of a certain TV series involving pets…where tentacle monsters of various breeds are kept, domesticated.

MG: That actually leads into my next questions – are there ever creatures on the other end of those tentacles? Or is it just about the tentacles?

Alessia Brio: The same question could be asked about romance heroes.

MG: HAH! Many of the same adjectives too, I’m sure.

Nobilis Reed: Absolutely [there are creatures involved]. And not just sea creatures, either – space aliens, creatures from Lovecraftian alternate dimensions, and more. I’d love to see some stories where the “person” with the tentacles is the point-of-view character.

MG: How much of your inspiration do you draw from ocean animals? Do you ever do research for your stories?

Nobilis Reed: Actually, I did a good deal of research. I set up the schedule so that I could release the book during giant octopus mating season.

Alessia Brio: I thought that was brilliant!

MG: So is your work influenced at all by the specific mechanics of real-life cephalopod mating, such as hectocotyli (specialized sex tentacles) and spermatophores?

Nobilis Reed: Well…yes, in an ancillary way. But I used the Nautilus, at least, as the basic animal. I thought their tentacles were a bit more interesting. And in that particular case, it wasn’t looking for a mate, per se. More like a host… to say more would give away the plot of that story, and probably go past PG-13.

MG: How were nautilus tentacles interesting to you, if that won’t give too much away?

Nobilis Reed: Well, octopus and squid tentacles are not entirely symmetrical. They have suckers on one side, of course, and smooth skin on the other. They grip by means of the suckers more than anything else. Nautilus tentacles don’t have suckers. They grip by wrapping around. They’re shorter, and have ridges near the end that function something like fingerprints do on fingers.

MG: Ah, I see. Since we’re on the subject of tentacle morphology, one thing that has always alarmed me about tentacle sex is that squid tentacles are TERRIFYING, with spikes on the suckers and everything. Do people tend to make tentacles more friendly in these stories, or do they incorporate these scarier elements too?

Nobilis Reed: Well, there’s two things going on here. First of all, terror is part of the appeal, especially for women who are fans of the genre. At least, in my experience. But yes, generally speaking, people aren’t getting ripped to shreds. The creature doesn’t want to eat you… at least, not the way a real squid eats a fish. Can I link you to a picture?

MG: Sure. [typed with some trepidation]

Nobilis Reed:

MG: Awwww!

Nobilis Reed: This is a webcomic artist named Humon…one of her series is about a couple, where the heroine is a feminine tentacle monster. So yeah, some folks acknowledge that suckers leave marks.

MG: How did you decide to link tentacle porn with marine conservation?

Nobilis Reed: Well, Tentacle Dreams has been a pretty good seller for me. I wanted to do one for Coming Together, and it seemed the most appropriate. After all, we don’t have a Martian Legal Defense Fund or Friends of Otherworldly Horrors.

MG: I would totally donate to Friends of Otherwordly Horrors. Won’t somebody think of the shoggoths?

Nobilis Reed: I was thinking of starting “International Amorous Invertebrates Association.” The acronym IAIA seemed perfect. But running a charity is a lot of work, and I’d rather write.

MG: [could not type for a moment, laughing too hard at IAIA. If you have no idea why, go here.]

MG: How did you get involved, Alessia?

Alessia Brio: I’ve been publishing Coming Together anthologies since 2005, each for a different cause. Last year, Nobilis pitched a collection & I gave it the green light. He did such a good job, I didn’t hesitate to say yes to the tentacle collection. Most of Coming Together anthologies have been erotica leaning toward erotic romance, but Nobilis brings the sci into the fi. I like that.

Nobilis Reed: Alessia and I met at a science fiction convention.

Alessia Brio: Coming Together is all over the map, really It started as strictly erotica — all types including sci/fi. I prefer to have a theme that isn’t related to sexual pairings. For example, I won’t do a strictly male-male collection, because humans are sexually diverse and I want our work to reflect that “erotic cocktail.”

MG: To bring it back around to the tentacles, how did you select Oceana as your charity of choice?

Nobilis Reed: I went to a website called Charity Navigator, which rates charities by transparency, accountability and finances. Oceana scored very high, and I went to the website and looked it over. Since my readers are global, I wanted a charity that was global in scope.

MG: Where can people buy the book?

Alessia Brio: The book will be available in ebook via all major outlets & in print via Amazon.com.

MG: Thank you so much for your time, and for saving the oceans in a most unusual way!

The post Interview: New anthology of tentacle porn reaches for marine conservation first appeared on Deep Sea News.

]]> https://deepseanews.com/2012/02/interview-new-anthology-tentacle-porn-reaches-for-marine-conservation/feed/ 5 https://deepseanews.com/2012/01/tgif-flatworm-fu-er-mating/ https://deepseanews.com/2012/01/tgif-flatworm-fu-er-mating/#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:00:14 +0000 https://www.deepseanews.com/?p=16362 “There actually sticking their penises in each othr quite randomly.” Invertebrate reproduction or one crazy night in Vegas?? You decide! Hat tip to @echinoblog.

The post TGIF – Flatworm Fu… er… Mating. first appeared on Deep Sea News.

]]> “There actually sticking their penises in each othr quite randomly.”

Invertebrate reproduction or one crazy night in Vegas?? You decide!

Hat tip to @echinoblog.

The post TGIF – Flatworm Fu… er… Mating. first appeared on Deep Sea News.

]]> https://deepseanews.com/2012/01/tgif-flatworm-fu-er-mating/feed/ 3 https://deepseanews.com/2011/12/a-little-sunday-sabbath-sexytime-portunid-crab-mating/ Sun, 18 Dec 2011 13:36:46 +0000 https://www.deepseanews.com/?p=16113 Hat tip DSN YouTube archivist Chris M. I love the ominously dramatic music as they bury themselves in the mud while getting it on.

The post A Little Sunday Sabbath Sexytime: Portunid Crab Mating first appeared on Deep Sea News.

]]>

Hat tip DSN YouTube archivist Chris M. I love the ominously dramatic music as they bury themselves in the mud while getting it on.

The post A Little Sunday Sabbath Sexytime: Portunid Crab Mating first appeared on Deep Sea News.

]]>