Marine Copepod Exoskeleton

[75RR]

Plan 16x/0.35, DIC, stacked and stitched in Photoshop

Seemed quite complete - thought it would allow some detailed viewing.

[MichaelG.]

That's a great find, and a wonderful image.

MichaelG.

[KurtM]

This means there's a soft shell cyclops, and them's mighty fine eatin'.

Seriously, another fabulous image! You're tearing it up lately - and giving me much inspiration for when I eventually return home to my own WL machine.

[billbillt]

Wow!.. You have managed to capture some incredible exoskeletal detail.. Great work....

BillT

[coominya]

Seemed quite complete - thought it would allow some detailed viewing.

That it does. Do you think it died of old age etc, or was this the result of growth, like when a snake sheds it's skin? If the former it would be good to see a time lapse of the internals being eaten out by smaller organisms. That's not a challenge BTW just a thought, taking it to the next level so to speak.

[KurtM]

I'm sure they molt, thus the weak little joke I made. Maybe it would be well to explain what I meant: when blue crabs molt, they cast off their armor-like shells and emerge with very soft "skin" that eventually hardens into the new shell. When caught freshly molted, the entire crab is then knife-and-fork edible, although generally eaten as finger food, an considered by many a great delicacy that is called "soft shelled crab" on many menus. Usually deep fried on the gulf coast (USA, middle coast, along the Gulf of Mexico), you eat the whole thing and leave only crumbs.

[75RR]

Thanks MichaelG, KurtM, billbillt and coominya.

KurtM is spot on, molt it is. Not sure how many soft shelled copepods one would need to make up a teaspoon though!

http://cfb.unh.edu/cfbkey/html/idpages/ ... amolt.html

[Crater Eddie]

Wow! Makes me hungry.
CE

[vasselle]

Bonjour
Superbe image
Merci pour le partage
Cordialement seb