Weekly Invertebrates 🕷️
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Weekly Invertebrates 🕷️
@invertoftheweek.bsky.social
🕸️ Weekly positivity account for anything without a spine!
February 16, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Image credits:
Craig Biegler (www.inaturalist.org/observations...), CC-BY-NC
Jesse Rorabaugh (www.inaturalist.org/observations...), CC0
February 16, 2025 at 8:19 PM
In 2001, a study comparing the genome of D. melanogaster and the human genome estimated that they share around 60% of their genes. Furthermore, about 75% of human disease genes have a match in this fly's genome, allowing it to be used as a model for human diseases such as Parkinson's and diabetes.
February 16, 2025 at 8:19 PM
One of the most studied organisms in biological research, this fly is a very popular model organism due to several factors, such as inexpensive care, short reproduction time, and a well-understood lifecycle. It's so popular, in fact, that it was the first ever animal to be launched into space.
February 16, 2025 at 8:19 PM
January 26, 2025 at 6:51 PM
H. dujardinii are usually found at depths of 0-50m (although greater depths, such as 80m or even as far as 300m, have been found), attached to stones, boulders, algae, empty shells of lamellibranchs, carapaces of crabs, at the base of gorgonians, and also on the ascidian Styela rustica.
January 26, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Named for its gelatinous texture, this sponge contains no crystals or spicules (the hard, structural components that make up the skeletons of most sponges), making it aspiculous. Instead, it contains a network of fibrils that help to maintain its shape.
January 26, 2025 at 6:51 PM
January 19, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Image credits to Robert P. Higgins from his book 'The Atlantic Barrier Reef Ecosystem at Carrie Bow Cay, Belize, II: Kinorhyncha', at www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41893415 (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).
no.18=2 (1983) - The Atlantic Barrier Reef ecosystem at Carrie Bow Cay, Belize - Biodiversity Heritage Library
The Biodiversity Heritage Library works collaboratively to make biodiversity literature openly available to the world as part of a global biodiversity community.
www.biodiversitylibrary.org
January 19, 2025 at 7:26 PM
The discovery of P. praedictus led to Pycnophyes quadridentatus (of which one female was found) and P. flagellatus (of which one male was found) into one taxon, Paracentrophyes quadridentatus. This left only Pycnophyes echinoderoides as an aberrant species within Pycnophyes.
January 19, 2025 at 7:26 PM
First discovered in 1983 by Robert P. Higgins, this species is notable in that various male juveniles were found to have penile spines, which were not normally seen until the final moult of the six juvenile stages. These juveniles were found to have longer lateral terminal spines than adult males.
January 19, 2025 at 7:26 PM