Ostracod
Gigantocypris is a deep-sea
ostracod, living at around 1000m depth as plankton. Most ostracods are
pretty small around half to 2 mm - barely visible to pepper corn sized.
Gigantocypris, true to their
name are ostracod giants, up to 3 cm in width - ping pong ball-sized.
They are caught from big research ships in plankton nets... In life, where
people live at least, they are orange-red in color. But in their native
deep sea habitat, long wavelength light does not penetrate the ocean
very far, so their orange pigment would not reflect any light...
Perhaps the most amazing feature of Gigantocypris is their eyes. In most animals' eyes, light is bent and focused with lenses. But a select few bend light with mirrors. Gigantocypris is one of the few, bearing a huge pair of parabolic reflectors behind light sensitive patches...
Image reportedly from
Ciencia Polar, via
Evolutionary Novelties,
Let's do Some Zoology, and
Mad as a Marine Biologist.
Is gigantocypris edible? http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2013/08/ostracod.html?m=1
ReplyDelete