Questions tagged [invertebrates]
A paraphyletic classification for animals lacking a vertebral column.
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Could a "bomber spider" exist?
Via the behavior in spiders known as ballooning, spiders can already fly. The next step may be to gain the ability to attack enemies while still airborne. Could a spider use a projectile, such as ...
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Largest crinoid species
On the wikipedia page of crinoids (sea lilies and feather stars), one can find the following statement in the paragraph "Morphology":
[...] and fossil species are known with 20 m (66 ft) ...
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What type of shell is this?(Answered)
This is Calcareus tube worm and Was found and Located on Culebra Island, Puerto Rico
Picture 1: A up close image of the shell
Picture 2: a view of the top part of the shell showing the shells coloring....
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What are these semi transparent pill-shaped things in the Mediterranean Sea?
I was swimming with gopro in Sardinia, Le Bombarde beach in early November and today was reviewing footage - I noticed that water is full of semitransparent whitish "pills", see pictures ...
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Identify blue/translucent jelly-like animal on beach
A few weeks back a beach in California had lots of this animal (if it is an animal?). Can anyone identify what it is?
They had a distinct blue bottom and a see-through top.
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What determines the color of the air sac of a Portuguese man o' war?
I know that the Portuguese man o' war is a colonial organism composed of many "zooids", one of which is the pneumatophore, which essentially serves as a flotation device for the whole colony....
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Origin of holes at 800 m depth in the Mediterranean
From 8 to 12 small 2-3 cm holes in the bottom mud are forming rounds with a diameter of 20-40 cm. No tentacles or other body parts have been observed. Mediterranean sea, 600-1000 m.
What are they?
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What do Wild Silverfish Eat?
Silverfish are famous for eating wallpaper paste.
The paste is made of starch mixed with water. Wikipedia says silverfish love starch
They consume matter that contains polysaccharides, such as ...
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Which varieties of Aurelia aurita do not have a polyp phase?
According to this "In some Aurelia aurita, the polyp stage does not exist.", but they don't cite anything. Is there a resource detailing life cycles of various jellyfish or do I have to find ...
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How can a small bug dart around in a slug's slime?
Last year I saw a large slug in the garden, and when I looked closer there was a small creature moving around rapidly, and I mean really fast (hence my use of the word "dart" in the question ...
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Identification of odd jellyfish-like creature in the Mediterranean
My parents encountered this unknown creature on a beach in Karpathos, Greece.
None of the locals have seen it before, it may be a species that has moved further north due to ocean warming.
Any ideas ...
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Do lobsters demonstrate any problem solving capability?
I was watching this video where a man takes a grocery store lobster and raises it in a salt tank, the lobster exhibits curious behavior that looks like intent. In the comments there was a claim that ...
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Please, help identify this sea worm
It was found in Malta, in a puddle by the sea.
It left a lot of tiny hair on the shoes (which we removed thoroughly without touching them).
I didn’t have any coins with me so I put keys for scale.
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By what mechanism do cephalopods regrow limbs?
As far as I can tell, there are two types of limb regeneration: epimorphosis and morphallaxis. Epimorphosis is used by animals such as amphibians and various phyla of worms, while morphallaxis is used ...
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What is this worm like animal found on a well water filter?
This was found in the water filter on a private water well that feeds a house in southeast Colorado, USA. The well has hard water, and is shallow (25’). There are several of these creatures all over ...
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Difference between haemocoel and coelom
I am looking for an embryological perspective on the following question.
I know about coelom derivation, but I want to know how haemocoel is derived and how it is fundamentally different from coelom.
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Flatworms sexual reproduction; one must be the mother and the other the father?
I watched this.
I wonder if both of these flatworms ever end up pregnant.
Earthworms are simultaneous hermaphrodites, meaning worms have both male and female reproductive organs, just like flatworms. ...
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Strange planarian/leech like creatures found with California blackworms
I've been trying to ID these things myself but to no avail. They came with a shipment of California blackworms from Florida. I've heard so many ID's and apparently it's not uncommon to get these ...
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Identify arthropod with many legs in Mumbai
Can someone please identify this ~5 cm long arthropod? I've been finding one of these every 2-3 days inside my apartment ever since rainy season started here in Mumbai (June).
The bulb portion is its ...
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Are earthworms edible?
Just that. It seemed weird for me not to find anything on Google. But I still think that they might be edible.
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What species is this marine invertebrate sighted 2m below the surface near Halifax, NS?
This image was taken at ~2m depth, with a small ROV in Halifax, NS in May. We're in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean and as far as I know, don't have gooseneck barnacles.
Considering that it may be a ...
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strange creature
We live on the Gulf Coast in Corpus Christi, Texas. There was a big thunderstorm that dumped several inches of rain at our home. We live about a quarter of a mile from the bay.
My daughter found it ...
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Why do Centipedes always have an odd number of pairs of legs?
Furthermore, centipedes are within the Myriapoda, a subphylum of arthropods which also contains millipedes. Do millipedes also have an odd number pair of legs?
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What is this long, thin and segmented insect I found in my house in India?
Found this inside my house, along the wall, there were few going somewhere few distance from each other.
I suspect it is a centipede but didn't found similar images on Google. What is this?
Location:...
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Unknown mite species in plant pots
Does anybody know what kind of mite this is?
It is living in my pepper plants' pots.
My region is south of Germany. (Baden-Württemberg)
I will try to take another picture including some size ...
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What kind of hot pink eggs are these? [duplicate]
I saw a dozen or more clusters of what I think are insect eggs attached to a few vertical sticks protruding from a small pond, and a few more to stalks of grass nearby. Location is in Hsinchu County, ...
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Effect of myelination on inteligence in cephalopods
Cephalopods are known for their unique intelligence compared to other invertebrates.
The number of neurons of cephalopods is of the order $5*10^8$, similar to dogs. Humans have about $10^{11}$ ...
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Can anyone please identify this?
We saw this leech like worm in Kerala, India. Can anyone identify it for us? I saw it today, 10th September. It's about 6 to 7 centimeters long. It was very still, didn't move while we went close and ...
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Can prawns and lobsters live out of water for more than six hours? [closed]
I live in Telangana which is a state of India.I like eating Non-vegetarian food.People of our state eat pond fish more comparing to other aquafood.In many places near me,I've seen people cutting alive ...
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Database for Macroinvertebrate Taxonomy
I compiled different data sets of invertebrate occurrences across some countries and now I want to ensure that all the taxonomic information is homogenized and correct. To this end, I am looking for a ...
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What is this African bug?
This is an arthropod I found in an apparently abandoned mongoose burrow in the Maasai Mara game reserve, Kenya:
That was the best photo I could get of it. From what I could tell, it had six legs and ...
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What are these little bugs?
I recently found at least 50 of these little bugs roaming around my window sills indoors in my bedroom right behind the head of my bed. I can’t seem to find what they are. I’d love tips on what they ...
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Why do leeches lose septae due to parasitism?
So I found this piece of information in my textbook without a proper explanation, and I can't seem to find the relation between the two.
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Species identification. Is this a leech?
The pictured creature, shown at the bottom of a glass, was attached to a friend’s child after he was swimming in the Ottawa River today. It stretches out to roughly an inch in length but in this “...
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Bug Identification: Tiny Bugs in Fairport NY
We have been finding a ton of these tiny bugs (pin head size or smaller) outside on our patios, outdoor tables, on the grill, etc.
What are they and how do we get rid of them?
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Want to know about a creature which bite me
I am Sachin from MP India. Few minutes back I have gotten bite by a creature. What is its name? Is it harmful if I got bitten by it? Feeling little pain there.
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Help with jellyfish species identification
Our research group (Evolutionary Genetics Group, University of Zurich) has received a letter from a special needs child who has kindly asked us to identify three jellyfish species.
Unfortunately, the ...
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Carbon Dioxide, sea water, diatoms, and oxygen
I recently viewed a documentary called “Flying River Observed in Tallest Structure in South America, National Geographic” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjpPsZTwsaM). In this film, as an aside, it ...
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What is the largest species of polychaete?
My Google searches seemed to avail no results. My question is: What is the largest living species in the class Polychaeta?
That's about it. I understand that there will be few accessible weights for ...
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What is this agglomeration of pink cells I found attached to a stone?
Photo taken in a garden in Singapore. The organism is attached to a stone, close to water. Many of these were there.
Size approx 3cm.
The shell of this eggs is very soft. When touched, a pink ...
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What is the reason behind the subphylum name "Urochordata" for tunicates?
There are two major invertebrate subphyla of the chordates (phylum Chordata):
Cephalochordata (the lancelets)
Urochordata, aka Tunicata (the tunicates)
My understanding is that the cephalochordates ...
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What are these tiny creatures swimming around my aquarium?
I was checking out my aquarium today, and decided to scoop out a water sample and take a look at it more closely. What I discovered were numerous, very, very tiny white worms (?) swimming around in ...
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Identification of a small flat bug
So for the last few days I have been noticing these small bugs in my bathroom -- they don't appear frequently, and I see them once or twice a month.
The characteristics and behavior I observed are as ...
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Help in identifying marine specimen?
I came across this specimen which I assume belongs toeither the phylum porifera or to the coelenterata.
Can someone please help me identify it?
The specimen was found in Ayodhya, India.
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What are these bladder snail parasites?
I collected some bladder snails several months ago. While checking them out one day, I noticed that they were now infested with worm-like ectoparasites.
Appearance and behavior
Here's a picture of a ...
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research on brain-eating amoeba
Are there any alternative treatments for brain-eating amoeba?
I've spent about 6 hours trying to find information about this and haven't had any success.
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What is this underwater creature?
West Bali, about 10 meters deep. Body is roughly 10 cm across.
Does not move.
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How do insects recognize their host plants?
Many insects, like butterflies have specific host plants on which they feed or lay eggs. While researching about some butterflies, I found that they lay their eggs on certain specific plants and their ...
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What kind of sieve does one use to extract meiofauna?
Suppose I have a core of sediment, and I want to extract the meiofauna from it, in order to study these organisms. According to the sources I could find, this involves using a very fine (e.g. 45 μm) ...
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How did craniates evolve?
Looking at most chordate phylogenetic trees, it seems that we usually have something like this:
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