Ostracoda sp.
ARTHROPODA
Ostracoda
Ostracods, with their weird clam-like morphology and too many legs, are surprising in so many aspects!
🌎🏞️ They are abundantly present in nearly all known aquatic habitats on earth, from the oceanic abyss to temporary inland water bodies or even semi-terrestrial habitats such as soils with leaf litter! Maybe it is because of their carapace with two valves enclosing the soft body, that protects the organism against the potential dangers of the aquatic milieu 🤔…
⏰🪨 For all of these reasons, ostracods are also the most common arthropods in the fossil record. Study of ostracods fossils are often used in paleoenvironment and paleoclimatic studies, who would have guessed?!
✨ 🌌 Heard of bioluminescence? Check out Vargula hilgendorfii, the Japanese ostracod, also known as “sea-firefly” that lights up underwater with its glow.
💔🫀 As we talked about the crustacean circulatory system recently, it turns out that some ostracod species don’t even have a heart ! In the subclass Podocopa, the gas exchanges simply occur through the surface.
📚🔬 Ever came across “sp.” or “spp.” in scientific literature? It stands for “species” or “multiple species” respectively (from the Latin species pluralis), indicating that while researchers might know the group, they’re not quite certain about the exact species. Here, I have honestly no idea about the species or even the group, and I couldn’t find much informations in the literature…
Sources
- Wikipedia page – very complete and well-documented
- Doris
- WoRMS
- https://www.ucl.ac.uk/GeolSci/micropal/ostracod.html