None of Your Neurones Know Who You Are...

Relaxed doggo

Fishies

X-ray microtomography 3D model of a bioeroded limestone pebble given to me by a friend who wanted to know what the holes were. Not technically art but I think it looks cool.

I identified 4 distinct types of borings (ichnotaxa) in this 3-cm pebble:

Entobia cf. cretacea (white): typical sponge borings, composed of interconnected chambers and exploratory threads; by far the dominant ichnotaxon in the sample (97% of bioeroded volume).

Caulostrepsis taeniola (blue): U-shaped borings made by polychaete worms (e.g. spionids).

Unnamed Caulostrepsis ichnospecies (cyan): long and tightly U-shaped borings, possibly also made by polychaete worms.

Trypanites solitarius (green): simple unbranched borings that can be produced by many different organisms (polychaetes, bryozoans, phoronids).

(A-B) Full sample. (A) External view. (B) Virtual mould of the borings. (C-G) Virtual moulds of individual borings. (C-E) Caulostrepsis taeniola (note the variability in size). (F) Caulostrepsis unnamed ichnospecies. (G) Trypanites solitarius.

Experiments with limestone bricks show that bioerosion comparable in nature and extent to the one showcased here can develop after 3-4 years (Färber et al. 2016), providing a rough estimate of the time elapsed between this rock fragment first being exposed and it washing onto the shore where my friend picked it up.

References:

This archival image, snapped circa 1899, depicts paleoartist Charles Knight working on a scale model of the dinosaur Stegosaurus. In life, this species could measure 28 ft (8.5 m) long and weigh about 6,000 lbs (2,720 kg). But when this animal was discovered, paleontologists were surprised to find that its skull—and brain—were disproportionately small. In fact, some scientists thought this massive herbivore must have had a "second brain" near its hips that controlled the back half of its body. Turns out, Stegosaurus did manage with just one relatively small brain.

Twisty Cristae

New, publicly available platform for analysing the 3D nanostructure of mitochondrial membranes – the convolutions called cristae – in unprecedented detail and in the context of the cell

Read the published research paper here

Video from work by Shogo Suga and Koki Nakamura, and colleagues

Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in PLOS Biology, August 2023