Michael Gago Figure 1. Holothuria Forskali eviscerating its Cuvierian tubules. (Author: Rpillon; Roberto Pillon Date Published: 20 May 2011) Echinodermata in Greek means “Spiny Skin,” but not all of the phylum shares this external defensive system. Holothuroidea, which is the class that includes sea cucumbers, have a soft exterior unlike most other echinoderms. Sea cucumbers do not need to have these external spines because they have a unique type of defense called evisceration. Evisceration is a type of autonomy which involves releasing internal organs from the anus and then regenerating thos ..read more

Mingyue Li Figure 1. An Ophioderma brittle star in EVE112L lab (Photo by M. Li) Brittle stars belong to the phylum Echinodermata, class Ophiuroidea. They all have a small rounded disk with five linear arms distinct from it. Each arm is embedded with well-developed ossicles and lots of tube feet that can not only protect them by burrowing themselves into sand but are also helpful for feeding and sensation (Pechenik 2015). Figure 2. A brittle star with different types of ossicles. (from EVE112L Lab) (Photo by M. Li)Figure 3. Part of brittle star arm with ossicles under dissecting microscope (fro ..read more

Yena Wei When people talk about the Subphylum Crustacea, most of them only know shrimps, lobsters, and true crabs because they’re common seafood. However, these species all belong to one Class Malacostraca of Crustacea. Most people often ignore the other 11 classes and they also play an important role in the ecosystem and provide food resources for our diet. I want to introduce more about brine shrimp (Artemia salina) under Class Branchiopoda in the subphylum Crustacea. Brine shrimp is the general term for genus Artemia, and its name indicates their habitat and morphology. They live in a high ..read more

Rushi Tawade Figure 1. Drawing showing the internal anatomy, and size of the testis(in blue) of an individual Doryteuthis opalescens  Drawing by Rushi Tawade While looking at a dissected male market squid (Doryteuthis opalescens) in lab, one of the things that struck me most was the size of the testis. The single fused testis could clearly be seen as a long white mass occupying almost a third of this animal’s internal cavity (Fig. 1). I had seen large gonads in other mollusks, like bivalves, but those were sessile creatures that needed to produce huge amounts of sperm and eggs to even the ..read more

Xin Zhan I was born in a seaside city. Sea cucumber is a very famous dish in my country. There are many cooking methods – stew, stir-fry, cold, etc. In my impression, sea cucumbers are soft and lovely and have little taste or aggression. After learning more about invertebrates, I found that I still knew too little about sea cucumbers. Sea cucumbers, like all echinoderms, have an endoskeleton. They also have tentacles, tube feet, and mouth, surrounded by tentacles, and anus. Sea cucumbers belong to the Holothuroidea class and are long and worm-like in appearance. As shown in Figure 1, it still ..read more

Emma Deen What is an amphipod? Amphipods are crustaceans that are often mistaken for shrimp. Amphipods range in size from small being ~1-2 mm to the largest ever observed being ~340 mm (Jamieson et al. 2013). The largest amphipod ever observed was not collected in the field and instead was regurgitated by an albatross (Jamieson et al. 2013)! Their bodies are laterally compressed, so they look thin like the sides of their bodies are squished together. Most species are marine with some freshwater species and few terrestrial species. Within the marine habitat the amphipods range from the deep oce ..read more

Sophie Allen Figure 1: An ochre sea star in Dillon Beach, CA (Image credit: Sophie Allen) From references in pop culture, think Patrick Star from Spongebob, to trinkets in beachside giftshops, sea stars (Class Asteroidea) are one of the most easily recognizable marine animals. Along the Pacific coast of the United States, the brightly colored Pisaster ochraceus (ochre sea star) is one of the most common and important species. As a keystone species, ochre sea stars maintain intertidal communities by preying on other invertebrates (Harley et al. 2006; Menge et al. 2016). Ochre sea stars are know ..read more

Allison Cochran The tardigrades have been given some endearing nicknames, water bear and moss piglet being two of them. Could “mini-astronaut” be joining the list? Tardigrada is a phylum within Ecdysozoa, presently sister to the clade containing velvet worms and Arthropoda. The animals themselves are incredibly small, but visible to the naked eye. The details of their features can be revealed under a microscope. They have a thin, chitinous exoskeleton which is occasionally molted. Their body is elongated with four pairs of unjointed lobopods with claws at their ends (Figure 1). They have a pai ..read more

Chloe Abbasi Out of all marine life, barnacles are one of the most overlooked species found in the ocean. Mostly because they are seen as an annoyance, sticking to everything and anything from ships and docks to whales and other sea creatures (Figure 1). However, barnacles’ super strong adhesion is exactly what makes them so unique, even if their sticking to everything can be a nuisance. Figure 1. Barnacles attached to a whale. Credit: Florida Museum of Natural History As seen in Figure 2, barnacles have a part of their life cycle where they choose where to settle down, called the cyprid stage ..read more

Joshua Oide When one looks at the stinger of a scorpion, the first thing that comes to mind is usually not the endless healing possibilities contained in that stinger. However, that is exactly what should come to mind! Indeed, scorpions have been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years, mainly in Asia and Africa (Ortiz et al. 2015). It is only recently that the modern world has started to realize the medicinal value that may be held in scorpion venom, with possibilities ranging from new antibacterials to new cancer treatments. So, why does scorpion venom have so many potential medi ..read more