And damnit, before someone else points it out, urchins only appear radially symmetric on the outside, but actually have the same symmetry as the sea stars they are related to. #fuckingnonechinodermbiologists
I keep looking at these two beautiful pictures showing echinoderms in their environment. I thought that they are “anémonas” but I never saw them blue. The anemonas I know are red. But what is most interesting is the blueshis color that the rocks take mimicking anemonas footprints. I was wondering whether the rock blue staining is part of the mineral composition of those rocks and anemonas have developed blue color as an adaptation to that environment or is something transient associated with anemonas’s excretory activity to confuse predators and/or some way of marking their territories. It is anyway a beautiful post very suggestive.
My natural vision is not precisely a high resolution one, even with glasses. So, it might be that my interpretation of the pictures is a little imaginary.
DrugMonkey 
December 13, 2011 at 5:17 am
That’s it, we’re fucked.
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December 13, 2011 at 6:17 am
So this is how the zombie apocalypse begins?
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December 13, 2011 at 7:57 am
They’re a type of urchin, dude. #fuckingmammalbiologists
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December 13, 2011 at 8:11 am
Are they not crown-of-thorns starfish?
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December 13, 2011 at 8:45 am
No, those have five legs and distinct “thorns”. These are radially symmetric with spines.
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December 13, 2011 at 9:20 am
And damnit, before someone else points it out, urchins only appear radially symmetric on the outside, but actually have the same symmetry as the sea stars they are related to. #fuckingnonechinodermbiologists
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December 13, 2011 at 9:23 am
Wiki tells me it’s a Shingle Urchin.
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December 13, 2011 at 9:36 am
Lookee now, PLS gets on twitter and now he’s hashtagging all over the place.
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December 13, 2011 at 11:11 am
The first one looks familiar
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December 14, 2011 at 4:04 am
I keep looking at these two beautiful pictures showing echinoderms in their environment. I thought that they are “anémonas” but I never saw them blue. The anemonas I know are red. But what is most interesting is the blueshis color that the rocks take mimicking anemonas footprints. I was wondering whether the rock blue staining is part of the mineral composition of those rocks and anemonas have developed blue color as an adaptation to that environment or is something transient associated with anemonas’s excretory activity to confuse predators and/or some way of marking their territories. It is anyway a beautiful post very suggestive.
My natural vision is not precisely a high resolution one, even with glasses. So, it might be that my interpretation of the pictures is a little imaginary.
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December 14, 2011 at 12:58 pm
Shingle Urchin it is. K Zelnio pointed me to http://t.co/X42hyJzB
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December 14, 2011 at 1:06 pm
Thanks. Obviously my glasses are old.
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