Kirby 🦈

05.11 - The Red Star Jelly

|Commission designs, not for use|

2012-07-15

🐟 MY SHOP 🐟

Jacobien de Rooij (Dutch, 1947) - Rockpool (Foam) (2019)

An ocean sunfish. Filmed in the Pacific Ocean. From Blue Planet - Open Ocean (2001).

flat little sea slugs

Just a vague concept of a crab, materialised from the reef. Camposcia retusa is perhaps the most well known decorator crab species due to its popularity in aquarium trades. They're easy to recognize despite often being covered in all sorts of sessile organisms. When compared to other decorator crabs their unique proportion of long walking legs in relation to the rest of their body stands out as it's the characteristic body plan of the family Inachidae, while most other decorator crabs are members of families such as Epialtidae or Majidae. The name decorator crab is, unsurprisingly considering so many species are all referred to as such, not a conclusive name in phylogenetic terms. It can be referring to any species of crab that evolved to carry/house/attach sessile organisms or even detritus on their body. The majority of these species are under the Majoidea superfamily, the spider crabs, including our lovely Camposcia retusa. It's a highly diverse group of crabs and most decorator carbs are in this superfamily. Many of these independently evolved the behaviour and morphology to house organisms on their body surface, making the name decorator crab also a paraphyletic one. As a side note the name spider crab would be a much more descriptive name for Majoidea decorator crabs as it helps place their relation and grouping with other crabs.

garden eels

A group of coelacanth hide in a crevice. Filmed in Indonesia. From Deep Ocean: Kingdom of the Coelacanth (2025).

Thank you so much! Sorry this took so long, I actually wanted to make shark stuff forever but couldnt get around to it

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