Sarah Faulwetter
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sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Sarah Faulwetter
@sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
670 followers 240 following 170 posts
Benthic ecologist & polychaete taxonomist at the Uni of Patras, Greece.

Also sci-arting and loving R.

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sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Diving over a #rhodolith bed the other day. Rhodoliths are calcareous red algae that are not attached to anything and just form little balls on the seabed. They are a highly biodiverse habitat and I saw so many species I have never seen before! Spot the cheerleeder #crab!
A very long-legged crab with little flappy red algae growing on its legs for camouflage. It sits on a muddy seafloor with more red algae and is basically not visible.
June 17, 2025 at 8:06 PM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Another day in the office... #greece #scuba #marinebiology #research #bestjobintheworld
View from the deck of a traditional Greek fishing boat, showing the prow above the water with the horizon in the distance The deck of a traditional greek fishing boat, fill of diving gear
June 13, 2025 at 10:32 AM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Lil' seahorse I saw today while snorkling...😍
A photo of a seahorse. It is grey-brownish in colour, over a muddy seafloor with shells and other detritus. Two sea urchins are half visible at either end of the photo. The seahorse has affixed its tail to something on the bottom and is swaying in the water, its snout almost touching the floor.
June 12, 2025 at 1:06 PM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
They were amazing! 😍 a field of sabellid #polychaetes for early #wormwednesday
A group of sabellid polychaetes. The photos shows about 10 individuals. They consist of a tube and a bluish feathery crown speckled with darker spots. A group of sabellid polychaetes. The photos shows about 10 individuals. They consist of a tube and a bluish feathery crown speckled with darker spots. A larger aggregation of sabellid polychaetes. They consist of a tube and a bluish feathery crown speckled with darker spots and cover the seafloor in dense patches.
June 10, 2025 at 1:59 PM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Last week we explored an area with our new ROV and came across this gorgeous field of sabellid #polychaete worms. We don't know the species and generally not much about these aggregations. But they are very beautiful! #wormwednesday
A low angle view of a dense aggregation of sabellid worms. These live in tubes which are whitish and upright and from their top the worm emerges. Only their tentacular crowns are visible - a feathery, flowery light blue crown with a few dark spots. The sabellid field is bright in the foreground, illuminated by the lights of the remotely operated underwater vehicle, and dark blue above. A view of the same sabellid field from.a higher angle - the field of feathery crowns stretches far into the background of the photo until.it becomes one with the dark background.
May 14, 2025 at 7:15 PM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Some beautiful #nudibranchs from the last dives. Amazing shapes and colours! 😍
A photo of the nudibranch Polycera quadrilineata. It sits on a salp, is green-grey with orange stripes, and has four "mouth tentacles". The nudibranch Edmundsella pedata. It is pink with darker purple cerata (filaments arising from the back) which have white tips. The nudibranch Antiopella crisata. Its cerata are ballon-like elongated structures arising from its back. It is beige-transparent but the tips of the cerata are blue-violet. The nudibranch (in the wider sense, sacoglossan) Elysia rubeni. It is green, and shaped like a leaf. It has golden speckles all over, white, larger specks along the margins, and blue dots on its back and head. It is only 5 mm long.
May 4, 2025 at 7:16 PM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Also found today: Felimare picta. I love its colours! #nudibranch #greece #invert
A photo of the nudibranch Felimare picta- it is blue with a white rim of the mantle and yellow speckles all over.
May 3, 2025 at 3:29 PM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Lots of salps during today's dive... And I mean LOTS. #greece #plankton #diving
Chains of Salpa maxima in blue water. The photo shows a close up chain in the left, with their stomachs very red, and many more chains in the background. A soup of Salpa maxima, some chains, some individuals. There are more salps than water visible in the photo.
May 3, 2025 at 3:04 PM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Helloooooooo! You fren?
A photo of a beetle, directly from the front and a little from below. It looks directly into the camera and its antennae are like palm fronds.
May 2, 2025 at 3:40 PM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Last day of #invertefest with three #watercolour worms for #wormWednesday. #naturejournal #sciart
Page in a nature journal showing watercolour paintings of an eunicid polychaete worm (Leodice torquata), a scale worm (Harmothoe areolata) and a phoronid worm (Phoronis australis).
April 30, 2025 at 6:38 PM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
NOAA has fallen.
Screenshot of one and a half posts by NOAA. The upper one reads "These minerals are currently sitting atop the sea floor, waiting to be scooped up and processed. Through #NOAA’s mapping tech and licensing abilities, we are helping industry leaders find, collect and bring back these minerals to benefit the #USA & domestic manufacturing.". The lower one reads "‘The next gold rush’: President Trump unlocks access to critical deep seabed minerals. Historic executive order will boost economic growth, support national security."
April 26, 2025 at 3:44 PM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Marine bugs also want to party during #invertefest! #sciart #watercolour #naturejournal
A spread in a nature journal featuring small watercolour sketches of Mediterranean marine inverebrates under stones: a Donax bivalve, two polychaete worms (Glyceridae and Aphroditidae), a majid crab with algae on its carapace, a snakelock anemone, a chiton, a serpulid tube worm, an octopus, a strawberry anemone, a flatworm and an abalone.
April 26, 2025 at 10:15 AM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
For #invertefest I give you this #naturejournal entry from two years ago. Because one can never have enough bugs. #watercolour #sciart
A page in a nature journal. The spread shows nine circles with insects and spiders painted in watercolour, five on the left and four on the right page. The right page also has a circle with place, date and temperature information. The bugs are all on flowers, and they are Calocoris nemoris (in various colour morphs), Synema globosum, Polistes sp., Oedemera femorata, Closterotomus norvegicus, Thomisus onustus and Eulasia pareyssei.
April 25, 2025 at 10:29 AM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Happy Easter-egg-deposition! (early #invertefest contribution)
A green shield bug on a rough white wall, laying a string of eggs.
April 20, 2025 at 8:15 PM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
I know it is not #invertefest yet but this #invertebutt cannot wait...
A honey bee amongst thyme flowers, photographed from behind, showing a prominent abdomen.
April 20, 2025 at 8:12 PM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Some maldanid chaetae for #wormWednesday #polychaetes #microscope
A row of chaetae - hooks or "bristles" of worm in the family Maldanidae, which belong to the polychaetes. The photo was taken under the microscope. The bristles look like a bird head with a beak and a crest, and have a "beard" - some hairs that arise from under the "beak". The "head" ends in a long curved handle. Three chaetae - hooks or "bristles" of worm in the family Maldanidae, which belong to the polychaetes. The photo was taken under the microscope. The bristles look like a bird head with a beak and a crest, and have a "beard" - some hairs that arise from under the "beak". The "head" ends in a long curved handle.
April 9, 2025 at 11:25 AM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Glycera #polychaete worm for #wormwednesday. (Also, this was pretty much exactly the monster that attacked our DnD party the other day that we tried to find our way out of that dark cavern... #dungeonsanddragons )
Anterior end of a polychaete worm of the family Glyceridae. Its huge pharynx is everted and at its end there are four strong black jaws that you definitely do not want to get bitten by. Because pain, but also because toxins.
April 2, 2025 at 6:03 PM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Came across this old #microCT scan of a #syllid #polychaete worm on my hard disk. Please enjoy. #wormWednesday
The picture shows a rendered 3D image of a syllid polychaete worm. This worm has been scanned with a micro-CT scanner and the resulting images can be assembled to form a 3D image (and this is a screenshot of one of these 3D images). The worm has been coloured golden-yellow and is semi-transparent. On the left, the head appendages show clearly, they are articulated.Along the body, the more dense bristles (chaetae) show in a less transparent colour. The proventriculum (essentially the "stomach" shows in a dense yellow colour in a barrel-shape towards the right side of the image within the worm. Individual muscle fibers of the proventriculum are visible. The image is cut off after the proventriculum, i.e. only the anterior part of the worm is shown.
March 19, 2025 at 1:48 PM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Harvest. #watercolour #spring #naturejournal #sciart
A watercolour painting of a bunch of fresh harvested radishes. There are five radishes with colours ranging from white to red to dark purple. They still have leaves. The photo also features a tiny water colour palette with 12 colours.
March 14, 2025 at 3:45 PM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Found a red palm weevil in the garden today. These are invasive and cause palm trees to die. But since at least here on the mainland of Greece palm trees are not native either I am not too concerned... #invertsVsPlants
Image of a red palm weevil. The background is light grey, the beetle is about 3cm long, brick red with darker legs and some darker spots on the thorax. Its antennae end in orange tips.
March 12, 2025 at 8:18 PM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Ooooh I got a species named after me! 😊 Thanks, Marcos and colleagues! (Citation in alt text)

Behold Perinereis faulwetterae:
A photograph of a polychaete worm, Perinereis faulwetterae. It was described by Marcos A. L. Teixeira and colleagues in the publication "Teixeira Marcos A. L., Langeneck Joachim, Grosse Maël, Vieira Pedro E., Hernández José Carlos, Sampieri Bruno R., Kasapidis Panagiotis, Bakken Torkild, Carvalho Susana, Ravara Ascensão, Nygren Arne, Costa Filipe O. (2025) A sea of worms: the striking cases of the European Perinereis cultrifera and P. rullieri (Annelida: Nereididae) species complexes, with description of 13 new species. Invertebrate Systematics 39, IS24059. https://doi.org/10.1071/IS24059" The photo features the anterior end of the worm, its posterior is cut of at the left part of the photo. It is shown from the dorsal side. It has parapods (as nereidids do), is yellowish with a light pigmentation pattern on the dorsum and prostomium, and its pharynx is slightly everted.
February 24, 2025 at 7:36 AM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Joint meeting with the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research in Athens today, to analyse a huge dataset on environmental monitoring of aquaculture in Greece and to discuss environmental policy. We have sampled >900 stations over the last five years and now it is time to bring all these data together!
February 11, 2025 at 11:16 AM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Polychaetes do well in the weirdo department. Behold Ramisyllis, living in the labyrinth of sponge channels and consequently having adopted a branching body form. Or Exogone, who grows its babies from its feet. Because why not.
Ramisyllis, a polychaete worm that has a branching body form (and thus multiple butts). Watercolour illustration by me. Illustration of an Exogone species a tiny (usually <0.5cm) polychaete worm. It reproduces by attaching its eggs to the side if its body, two per segment, and then the young develop from there and stay attached to the parent. No larval stage, just mini worms growing from mummy's feet. Illustration from an 19th century paper/book by Ørstedt. See https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Syllidae_Externe-Gestation.jpg
February 4, 2025 at 7:26 PM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
Apparently it is also #worldwetlandday today. Here is a recent paper of ours studying a Greek coastal lagoon/ wetland which has been altered by the invasive tube worm Ficopomatus enigmaticus which builds huge reefs. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
A macro photo of the calcareous tubes of the polychaete Ficopomatus enigmaticus. From one of the tubes the tentacular crown of the worm emerges which looks like feathers and is used for filtering food particles from the water. A view over the waters of a coastal lagoon in Greece. In the foreground an atoll-like structure which is a ring-shaped reef of the invasive polychaete worm Ficopomatus enigmaticus. The atoll is about 5m in diameter and the whole lagoon is littered with these reefs.
February 2, 2025 at 7:37 PM
sarahfaulwetter.bsky.social
It is #BivalveDay, so here are a few shells I have drawn over the years. #sciart #watercolour #naturejournal
A watercolour illustration of a mytilid (family that mussels belong to) bivalve shell. The inner part of one of the two valves is shown which is shiny purple. A few "hairs" fringe the outside of the shell. A watercolour illustration of a bivalve shell belonging to the pectinid family. It is creme/brown speckled. A watercolour illustration of a variety of colourful bivalve shells on the sand. I had found these in Dublin and was amazed by their sizes and colours. A watercolour illustration of Pholas dactylus, showing the inside which features a long outgrowth at the apex towards the inner part, this is part of the hinge. A very weird bivalve, not only morphologically, that can bore into hard substrates and is said to be bioluminescent (its mantle). I found these in great numbers boring into hard clay in Greece, at ca 3m depth.
February 2, 2025 at 2:42 PM