MuseumMarine Blog
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Creature Feature – Stephenson’s Mantis Shrimp
0 Aquatic Zoology blog | Updated 3 days ago
Stephenson’s Mantis Shrimp, Harpiosquilla stephensoni Manning, 1969
Last week this 20 cm long monster was brought into the Museum by a curious member of the public who had managed to collect it while fishing in the Gulf of Carpentaria. With lightning-quick reflexes, frighteningly long, sharp spines and incredible vision this is an animal not to be handled with bare hands!
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Creature Feature – Toxic Crabs
0 Aquatic Zoology blog | Updated 1 month ago
Crustaceans such as crabs, lobsters and prawns are a major component of peoples’ diets around the world with eleven million tonnes caught or cultured annually. Despite a considerable diversity of crustacean species in Australia, only a handful of species are harvested as part of commercial or recreational fisheries. In Western Australia there are only about a half-dozen crab species that are commonly seen in seafood restaurants or fish markets, with the blue swimmer and mud crabs being the most common.
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Creature Feature: Pandarus rhincodonicus
0 Aquatic Zoology blog | Updated 2 months ago
Even the biggest animals have fleas, and the mighty whale shark is no exception. Pandarus rhincodonicus, is a small crustacean, barely reaching one centimetre in length, belonging to a group of crustaceans known as copepods which are normally known to be free-living and a dominant group within planktonic communities. However, many species are bottom dwellers or parasites of other marine animals, particularly fish. Pandarus rhincodonicus was first discovered in WA and was only named and formally described in 2000.
Creature Feature: Neopetrolisthes maculatus
0 Aquatic Zoology blog | Updated 3 months ago
On the tropical reefs of Western Australia the stunning Neopetrolisthes maculatus is always found living on or around large sea anemones. Like the clown fish, these spotty little crabs are protected from potentail predators by the stinging tentacles of the sea anemone. Only a single pair of crabs can be found on each host as the crabs will defend their territory from rivals. Despite their impressive claws these are not used for capturing food, but are probably used fend off potential home invaders.
Creature Feature: Holy Crab! The crucifix crab Charybdis feriatus (Linneaus, 1758)
0 MuseumMarine blog | Updated 5 months ago
This large and colourful species of swimming crab is wide ranging in the tropical Indo-West Pacific from East Africa the Persian Gulf through to Indonesia and Japan, and throughout most of Australia. The crucifix crab lives in shallow sandy or rocky areas. In parts of its range, such as India, the crucifix crab forms a substantial commercial and recreational fishery but in Australia this species is quite rare and isn’t caught in large numbers by Australian crabbers.
Creature Feature: Paracerceis sculpta (Holmes, 1904)
0 MuseumMarine blog | Updated 8 months ago
The Rocky Horror Isopod Show:
The bizarre sexual antics of an alien marine slaterCreature Feature - Haunted Beaches: The fleet-footed Ghost Crabs
0 MuseumMarine blog | Updated 11 months ago
If you’ve ever walked along the many miles of beach in Western Australia, you may have seen large burrows high up on the shore, near the high tide line and beyond into the dunes. During the day you would be unlikely to find the animal responsible for these, unless you carried out some serious excavating yourself. At dusk, however, you may see the culprits emerge.
Dangerous Sea Animals
0 MuseumMarine blog | Updated 11 months ago
Check out our curator Corey Whisson talk on ABC radio about Dangerous Sea Animals:
http://blogs.abc.net.au/wa/2011/06/spines-stings-and-shocks.html?site=pe...
Creature Feature: The Banded Boxer Shrimp
0 MuseumMarine blog | Updated 1 years ago
And in the red corner: The Banded Boxer Shrimp Stenopus hispidus (Olivier, 1811)
Creature Feature: Coral Crabs
0 MuseumMarine blog | Updated 1 years ago
The Armoured Defenders Squad: Coral Crabs
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Creature Feature: Tadpole Shrimp
0 MuseumMarine blog | Updated 1 years ago
Just add water: Tadpole shrimp Triops australiensis (Spencer & Hall, 1895)
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Creature Feature: Zebra Mantis Shrimp
0 MuseumMarine blog | Updated 1 years ago
All seeing, all knowing: the Zebra Mantis Shrimp Lysiosquillina maculata (Fabricius, 1793)
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Creature Feature: Peacock Mantis Shrimp
0 MuseumMarine blog | Updated 1 years ago
Fight Club: the Peacock Mantis Shrimp Odontodactylus scyllarus (Linneaus, 1758)
Mantis Shrimp belong to a group of crustaceans, called stomatopods, only distantly related to shrimps and prawns you would normally see on your dinner plate. They get their common name from the enlarged second limb, referred to as the claw, which is very reminiscent of the front legs of the praying mantis. Much like the praying mantis in your back garden, mantis shrimp also use these limbs for capturing prey, with which they launch lightning fast attacks.
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Creature Feature: Giant Marine Slater
0 MuseumMarine blog | Updated 1 years ago
Western Australia’s Giant Marine Slater, Bathynomus pelor Bruce, 1986
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Creature Feature: long-eyed swimmer crab
0 MuseumMarine blog | Updated 2 years ago
Podophthalmus vigil (Fabricius, 1798), the long-eyed swimmer crab.
There are approximately 100 species of swimming or paddle crabs in Australian waters, the most familiar being the tasty blue swimmer and mud crabs. The remarkable long-eyed swimmer crab is easily identified by its enormously long eye stalks – a feature not seen in any other species of Australian swimming crab. The long-eyed swimmer crab is found in shallow sandy or muddy areas in tropical regions of the Indo-Pacific, having been found from the Red Sea, South Africa to Japan and Hawaii.
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Creature Feature - The Striated Hermit Crab
0 MuseumMarine blog | Updated 2 years ago
The Striated Hermit Crab, Dardanus arrosor (Herbst, 1796); or Lonesome No More!
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Creature Feature: The Japanese Shame-Faced Crab
0 MuseumMarine blog | Updated 2 years ago
The Japanese Shame-Faced Crab, Calappa japonica Ortmann, 1892.
The Japanese shame-faced crab was originally discovered in Tokyo Bay, Japan but has since been found as far away as Africa and can be found in depths up to ~250 m. This spectacular red and yellow crab was first reported in Western Australia only as recently as 1989 when crayfishers, off Rottnest Island, caught an unfortunate specimen in a craypot. The specimen in the photos was collected this year, near Ningaloo reef in 230 m.
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Darwin’s Opera House Barnacle - species of the month
0 MuseumMarine blog | Updated 2 years ago
Calantica darwini Jones & Hosie, 2009
Described and named only last year, these tiny stalked barnacles are only known from the deep water off the coast of north Western Australia and are easily overlooked due to their small size (<1 cm in height!) and their habit of attaching to the branches of deep sea corals. With a bit of imagination, a cluster of these tiny barnacles resembles the Sydney Opera House, hence their common name.