The Unstartled Steppes of Dream
I am Ashley.
This is my personal blog. If you want just marine biology, go here.
I love the world; I really don't like people.
I balance all this animosity towards the human race with being an almost always kind and gentle being to all creatures.
I'm highly introverted and nature is my primary escape from humanity.
Creepy-crawly-slimy things are my favorites. Dinosaurs are fantastic.
Future marine biologist; presently an amateur entomologist, ichthyologist, artist, biologist, and writer.
Literature, video game, and music connoisseur.
I'm so full of passion for the world that it hurts.
I think a lot, I laugh a lot, I love a lot.
Almost none of the photos are mine and only some of the drawings are mine.
Listen in.
Pteropods are tiny marine mollusks separated into two groups, the sea butterflies (clade Thecosomata) and the sea angels (clade Gymnosomata). Sea butterflies develop shells, but sea angels do not. These tiny gastropods are such a major dietary staple of larger marine species, they are affectionately deemed the potato chips of the sea.
Photo courtesy of NOAA
Marbled reef eel (Anarchias seychellensis)
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I made a few crawly friends today. This guy was a beetle of some sort, but I was too distracted by the larger organisms around me to get a better picture of him. He was a pretty little thing, though.
Common terrestrial pill bug (Armadillidium vulgare)
Contrary to popular belief, pill bugs are not bugs. They are not classified into the class Insecta, and aren’t even in the same subphylum. Pill bugs are crustaceans, specifically isopods, which are more closely related to lobsters and crabs than they are to insects.
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#spider
#arachnid
#arthropod
#cute
#adorable
#cute spider
#aquatic spider
#aquatic
#animals
#nature
#life
The California giant sea cucumber (Parastichopus californicus) is commonly found along the Pacific Coast of North America. It grows up to 50 cm in length and the tube feet along its dorsal side are reduced to papillae and warts.
It has recently been discovered that this species of sea cucumber feeds using its anus. Thanks to this new knowledge, it has been proposed that numerous species of sea cucumber feed using their butts. Scientists have coined the term “bipolar feeding” to describe this behavior.
This makes me so happy.
Probably the cutest thing you’ll watch all day.
Although the individual pictured is only a fingerling, milkfish (Chanos chanos) can grow to be 6 ft in length. They are large, fast-moving filter feeders that tolerate a wide range of salinities, but generally prefer freshwater. They are catadromous, meaning they swim out to sea to spawn, but spend the majority of their lives upstream in fresh or brackish water.
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This insect is a European water measurer (Hydrometra stagnorum), also known as a marsh-treader. They belong to the family Hydrometridae, which consists of all water measurers. These species live on the surface film of water—like pond skaters—but they move in a creeping, stealthy way that allows them to sneak up on their prey. Water measurers are predators at all stages of their lives, using their sharp mouth-parts to spear and suck the life juices out of their prey, which they prefer to be already dead or dying. They use vibrations along the surface of the water to locate their prey, such as the springtail (class Collembola) that the water measurer shown has caught.
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