#remipedes

[mabelcreature]

animals with a lot of legs

[patheticmosasaur1]

today's invertebrate......speleonectes tanumekes

in this here image you can see all the parts of speleonectes tanumekes, and as you can tell (if you have great observational skills) she only has 4 body parts. anything else not labelled is utter nonsense that's made up and not real

glorpiness rating: REMMINGTON

photograph by J. van der Ham (CC BY 2.5)

[schizochroal]

These are some of my favorite, less well known, non-malacostracan crustaceans!

Mystacocarids

They are usually placed in a group with Ostracods, that is basal to all other extant crustaceans, meaning crabs, barnacles, and bees are all more closely related to each other than they are too Mystacocarids. They live in between grains of sand on beaches in many parts of the world. They get up to 1 millimeter long. I like how they kinda look like feather dusters, or like stretched out lice with too many legs.

Cephalocarids or Horseshoe shrimp

These guys were only discovered in the 1950s century and since then have been grouped with the remipedes, although recently they typically are instead placed in their own group! They are benthic organisms that live in all kinds of sediment from the shore to the deep sea, and typically eat detritus. They are hermaphroditic, have no eyes , and get up to 4 mm long! I think they look a lot like some primitive, Cambrian era arthropods, and despite being small and probably not likely to fossilize, their fossil record extends back to Ordovician, so the appellation of them being "Cambrian survivors" may very well be accurate.

Notostracans or Tadpole Shrimp

Consisting of the genera Triops and Lepidurus, this group of animals is most closely related to water fleas and clam shrimp , and more distantly to fairy shrimp (such as the famous sea monkey brine shrimp). Like brine shrimp, Triops are a common pet. Both genera are known to have populations in temporary pools of water, and have long lasting eggs that can survive desiccation and years without water before hatching again when the water returns. They also can live in shallow lakes, certain wetlands, and other more permanent ponds, and depending on species live in fresh, brackish or even salt lakes, but don't live in marine environments. They are omnivores and will basically eat anything, including smaller members of their own species. For a relatively small group of crustaceans, they have a wide variety of reproductive strategies, with some populations having sexually reproducing males and females, some having exclusively self fertilizing females, others being primarily hermaphroditic, and still others being different mixes of these. This variation is present even in different populations of the same species. They can get up to about 7 cm long , making them much larger than the previously mentioned crustaceans, but not big enough! They are so cute I wish they were big enough I could give them hugs. I think they should be the size of cats .

Remipedes

Remipedes are really special, the first living remipedes were only discovered in the late 1970s, and weren't properly described until 1981, meaning our knowledge of living remipedes is only as old as goth music. To be honest their lifestyle is pretty goth too, they exclusively live in caves and aquifers, typically in subtropical , coastal regions. As befitting creatures of the dark, they have no eyes or pigmentation, and instead have an advanced sense of smell. While they are also capable of filter feeding, they have venomous fangs that they use to predate on smaller organisms, and indeed are the only venomous crustaceans (outside of insects). Unlike the predatory adults, remipede larva don't seem to eat at all, and it's speculated that they may instead derive nutrition from symbiotic bacteria. Remipedes have 32 segments, and being hermaphroditic, have female and male openings on different segments of their bodies (7 and 14, respectively) . Despite their seemingly primitive bodies and strange lifestyle, remipedes have actually been discovered to be the group of crustaceans that are closest to the Hexapods, including the insects! They get up 4 cm long but I wish they were as long as eels.

I also kinda wanted to write about clam shrimp here but their phylogeny is a bit of a mess right now and I'm not even sure what qualifies as a clam shrimp anymore. They basically look like little clam shells with a crustacean swimming around in them.

[spacefinch]

Do you love the color of the remipede

(You guys are lucky that I don’t know how to stretch images vertically)

[spacefinch]

A little late to the whole 'send asks about marine life' post so you can ignore this if you want, but tell me about the deep sea life, the fishies and general life in the midnight zone. it's just very interesting to me how very little is known about it since it's so deep and dark there. Thank you :]]

Sure! There are TONS of interesting deep sea creatures!

Technically, the midnight zone goes from 1,000 to 4,000 meters below the surface, but the abyssal and hadal zones are sometimes lumped in with the midnight zone. All are home to weird looking creatures.

Anglerfish— one of the best known deep sea creatures. They use their glowing lures to catch smaller fish and other animals to eat. Female anglerfish are much bigger than the males.

Bomber worms! They are tiny creatures that look more like centipedes than worms! Each bomber worm has eight sacs of bioluminescent fluid on its body. When threatened, it releases one of these “bombs” to distract the predator.

Giant siphonophores! These are my favorite deep sea creatures! They’re a type of hydrozoan, or an organism made of lots of smaller creatures called zooids. These zooids can’t survive without one another.

Remipedes. Unlike the bomber worms, these critters actually ARE related to centipedes. (Since they’re both arthropods.) Their name comes from the Latin word for “oar-footed,” after the way they use their many legs to paddle through the water.

Tripod fish! They have long spines on their two pectoral fins and one tail fin that let them “walk” along the seabed. This allows them to save energy while they wait for food to come to them.

Gulper eels, also called pelican eels. They have huge jaws, and they will eat anything that fits in those jaws!

Here’s a picture of a bomber worm!

[spacefinch]

Just watched the "Remipedes" episode of Octonauts. Really fun episode.

Favorite part:

The rest of the crew: Oh no! Shellington is lost! We have to find him!

Meanwhile...

Shellington: *literally just vibing with the remipedes in the cave*

I don't know why, but this is so funny.

Also: bonus fun facts about remipedes!

They are tiny! Only about an inch long!

They are the only known venomous crustaceans. They have special fangs that inject venom and digestive enzymes into their prey. In addition, they are also scavengers and filter feeders.

They are in the class Remipedia, from the Latin remipedes, meaning "oar-footed," after the way they use their many legs to swim.

There are 30 known species of remipedes!

They are blind, but have excellent senses of smell. They don't need to see anyway, since they live in total darkness.

The adults eat, but the larvae are non-feeding. Scientists suspect the larvae might get nutrients from bacteria, but they're not sure.

Remipedes have complex brains-- almost the same level of complexity as insects! (As opposed to the more primitive-looking inverterbrates that remipedes look like.)

That's all for now! We still don't know much about these critters, but here's a picture!

This gives me an idea.....

[elysiumplus]

just discovered remipedes guys, new peak animal unlocked

[aaronstjames]

Venomous crustacean from Mayan underwater caves provides new drug candidates

Venomous crustacean from Mayan underwater caves provides new drug candidates

Many animals use venoms for self-defense or hunting. The components of such venom, known as toxins, interfere with various physiological pro

Suddenly my desire to swim in Mexican cenotes is gone.