What a little cutie chubby sea spider bubby. This is a protonymphon (a larval stage) of a sea spider. I love those little grabby claws!
🦑🔬 #marineplankton

It’s time to update the UK plankton snapshot map! #marineplankton 🦑🔬 #scicomm

Hey, sparkle pants! This amphipod really lit up under polarised light.

#marineplankton 🦑🔬

In the longstanding controversy between ∆SST- and hydroclimate-based reconstructions, we come down on the side of hydroclimate. We used reconstructions of Indonesian thermocline based on Mg/Ca of planktonic foraminifera, in the context of high-res model simulations.

#marineplankton #foraminifera

Hello little rotifer! I think this is a rotifer from the genus Proales, from my latest marine plankton sample.

#marineplankton 🦑🔬

This is what a baby sea squirt looks like! An ascidian larva - looks like a tadpole! Sometimes they are, indeed, referred to as ‘tadpole larvae’. Polarised light.
#marineplankton 🦑🔬

The only ghost I ever want to see (and believe in)! A Müller’s larva of a Polycladida flatworm. 👻

#marineplankton 🦑🔬

Just wow! Yesterday, I used my new polarised light knowledge to photograph some copepods from my latest marine plankton sample. The results are so sparkly! And this is with just cheap polarising film, no expensive filters required 😮😍!

#marineplankton 🦑🔬

An exquisite dancing cercaria larva of a parasitic Trematode (flatworm) from yesterday’s plankton sample.

#marineplankton 🦑

Good afternoon. Sample day! #marineplankton 🦑

This ascidian (sea squirt) larva looks glorious dyed with lugol’s iodine solution.

#marineplankton 🦑

These little fellas don’t usually appear in plankton samples, so it was a real treat to be in its company - an adult Rissoa parva snail.

#marineplankton 🦑

I feel like the Plankton Snapshot needs a theme tune! Welcome to this week’s plankton update. Please consider contributing if you sample plankton in the uk!

#marineplankton #scicomm 🦑

Here’s a beautiful scale worm larva from my latest marine plankton sample for #internationalmicroorganismday !

#marineplankton 🦑

A weeny hydroid medusa from this week’s plankton sample.

#marineplankton 🦑

Morning! Sample day. May try for a swim later. #marineplankton 🦑

Can anyone help me with marine tardigrade ID? I have the guide but I can’t pinpoint it! #marineplankton 🦑

Sea squirt larvae! These are both ascidian larvae, but look a little different to each other. The top one is a solitary sea squirt, and the bottom is a colonial species. You can tell because the trunk (the ‘head’-looking bit) of the colonial larva looks a little more complex.

#marineplankton 🦑

Another nemertean pilidium larva! Just my second ever! So lovely.

#marineplankton 🦑

Can you see the little interloper hiding in this young sea squirt? I can’t quite tell if this lil’ guy is inside the tunicate, and whether it’s there on purpose or by accident. But, I think it’s a nauplius of the mysterious Facetotecta - no one knows what the adults look like! #marineplankton 🦑