The Writer’s Blog of Matthieu Penn

Franco Banfi

A swiss diver, captured these pictures of one of the six anacondas he saw on his 10 day trip to Mato Grosso in Brazil. This one was about 26-feet long.

The marine eels and other members of the superorder  Elopomorpha have a leptocephalus larval stage, which are flat and transparent. This group is quite diverse, containing 801 species in 24 orders, 24 families and 156 genera (super diverse). 

Leptocephali have compressed bodies that contain jelly-like substances on the inside, with a thin layer of muscle with visible myomeres on the outside, a simple tube as a gut, dorsal and anal fins, but they lack pelvic fins. They also don’t have any red blood cells (most likely is respiration by passive diffusion), which they only begin produce when the change into the juvenile glass eel stage. Appears to feed on marine snow, tiny free-floating particles in the ocean.

This large size leptocephalus must be a species of Muraenidae (moray eels), and probably the larva of a long thin ribbon eel, which is metamorphosing, and is entering shallow water to finish metamorphosis into a young eel, in Bali, Indonesia.

Hatching Shorttail fanskate (Sympterygia brevicaudata) The capsule from where it left is an egg case or egg capsule, colloquially known as a mermaid’s purse or devil’s purse, is a casing that surrounds the fertilized eggs of some sharks, skates, and chimaeras. Has small openings (respiratory slits) where it enters and leaves the water, so the embryo can breathe…

Swimming crabs are characterized by the flattening of the fifth pair of legs into broad paddles, which are used for swimming. This ability, together with their strong, sharp claws, allows many species to be fast and aggressive predators.

randallascot:

dogjpeg:

Two Vampire Crab Species Found, Are Already Popular Pets

Spooky-eyed crustaceans sold as aquarium pets are two previously unknown species from Indonesia, a new study says.

by James Owen

Vampire crabs, so named because of their glowing yellow eyes, have become popular as pets, but the origin of some of these spooky-looking crustaceans has been cloaked in mystery… Until now.

Now researchers have traced the freshwater crabs back to their wild source in Southeast Asia—and report that the two most sought-after species are new to science.

The newly described species, Geosesarma dennerle and Geosesarma hagen, were found in separate river valleys on the Indonesian island of Java (map).

“These crabs are kind of special because they’ve been around in the pet trade for ten years, but no one knew where they come from,” said study co-author and professional aquarist Christian Lukhaup of Waiblingen, Germany…

(read more: National Geographic - Weird and Wild)

Peacock mantis shrimp with eggs on Flickr.

Ebony - Mexican Black Kingsnake  (Lampropeltis getula nigrita)

I haven’t…

Some (box jellies) have eyes too

The curl-crested araçari is a species of toucan endemic to the Amazon River Basin notable for the modified, curled feathers on its crown.

Spider Geckos, Agamura persica, from Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan

Dancing in the dark