#mysids

[humanscandrivestick]

Advent Calendar day 2 2007-2024

[flatwaterwithalittlefizz]

Some crustacean fun facts!

Mysids (order Mysida) and amphipods (Amphipoda) have marsupiums! Quite fitting that mysids are also known as opossum shrimp!

Isopods (Isopoda) do also have marsupiums! Here’s a giant isopod and its babies inside of the brood pouch! These pouches are formed by plates called oostegites which extend from the basal parts of their thoracic appendages! All these orders in which the females have brood pouches are grouped under the superorder Peracardia! In most peracardians development is direct, the eggs which are brooded hatch directly into a post-larval, pre-juvenile stage called a manca which, while being similar to the adult lacks the last pair of legs (however amphipods are an exception to this rule, their eggs hatch directly into a juvenile stage).

Also, wanted to include this super cool order here, the Tanaidacea! They are lesser known, mostly benthic peracardians (most species know are marine, however some are freshwater)! They are known as tanaids and are quite cool, with one species (that I know of) , Hexapleomera urashima, living on loggerhead turtles(Carreta carreta)!

Idk the exact species these are, but I wanted to include a photo of a female with eggs in her pouch!

Silly little guys!