#amphipod

[puddleorganism]

Not sure how many of these I'll be able to do, but I really wanted to draw at least one thing for @montereybayaquarium and @mbari-blog 's Deep Sea December! Ended up doing day 11: Precious (even though it's a bit late lol).

I have always had a deep appreciation for very small organisms, so I chose to portray how precious they feel to me. They're so marvelously intricate, I find them deeply charming and awe-inspiring. So, here's a bunch of little guys! Not size accurate unfortunately.

If anyone's curious as to who all I drew, look here:

(The teeny fellas that aren't labelled are miscellaneous plankton)

[herpsandbirds]

Mariana Trench: Supergiant Amphipod

The Supergiant Amphipod (Alicella gigantea) at 5,000m in the Mariana Trench, Nero Deep - Pacific Ocean.

Later in the video, and annoying Cusk Eel tries to get in on the dead fish supper.

via: Caladan Oceanic

[deepfriedsharkbites]

Thinstripe hermit crab (Clibanarius vittatus), sex unknown

I was trying to get a video of this big guy eating some mullet, but he was a little too shy to let me get close.

This is a saltwater aquarium at the rehab center I work at! While the fish in the tank are not native species, the tank belonged to a donor and stays here in his honor. I use it for educational purposes anyway, I always like to quiz the curious kids that come through to see if they know what species are in the tank!

Peep the amphipod molting on the hermit crab's shell! I didn't notice I captured that until after the fact.

[bedupolker]

The Giant Amphipod Guy

[psittacosaur]

Oh to be a Scud sitting on a frogbit stem holding a little snack

[vgbugs]

Stellar Basin Creatures - Dredge

Blue Crabs apparently mutate into rocky-shelled masses of purple tentacles with little sign of crabness past their general shape. How ghastly!

Spiny Lobsters have it a bit better, keeping their mandibles and eyes (albeit rearranged), with their long antennae replaced by soft, purple feelers. The Imperious Lobster still seems to have a carapace, albeit misshapen.

Each area's crab aberrations seem to follow a theme or... strain? of mutation, with a dominant colour. They can be used to make paint, but I feel like putting Lovecraftian Crustaceans in your paint is probably worse than just using lead.

The Giant Amphipod (albeit about 30x larger than the real one) is a pale crustacean that lives in the hadal zone. Its aberration, the Ruptured Vessel is just the same creature but burst open, leaking orange goop.

Perhaps whatever was inside it could not handle the decompression from getting fished up so quickly. Who knows what it could have turned into if given more time?

[rabbitrah]

Dang, imagine being so good at protecting yourself that you become a talisman of protection for another creature.

[ketrinadrawsalot]

Deep-Sea-cember: You've heard of giant deep-sea isopods, but what about giant deep-sea amphipods?