The Echinoblog

Photo by Karen Osborn So, Every July 1st is the, now posthumous, birthday of NMNH curator Kristian Fauchald, who was one of the most prolific taxonomists publishing on polychaete worms of th...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2018/07/polychaeteday-2018-edition-swimming.html

So, apparently back in 2012, the original producer of this video shot this lone sea star out on a South Carolina beach as it was struggling to get back to the ocean, likely due to a mass stra...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-starfish-walking-back-to-sea-faq.html

So for the last 3 years, I've been lucky. There have been multiple opportunities for me to do field work but more importantly to visit museum all around the world in order to study the anim...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2018/03/taxonomy-day-2018-museum-trends-from.html

GREETINGS! and Happy New Year! Yes.  Sorry. Its been awhile since I've blogged.. Lots of travelling and research are a good thing...but time for essential outreach can sometimes be fleeting! ...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2018/01/unusual-surface-texture-in-luidia.html

So, a bit of bookkeeping- yes. I've been writing the blog less regularly. This has been largely a good problem to have: lots of other projects have been keeping me busy.. So, I'm mainly just wr...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2017/09/pacific-northwest-sea-stars-names.html

I'm BACK! After a month at sea with 2.5 weeks worth of dives I've safely returned to "home base" in Washington DC! I was out in the central Pacific with NOAA's R/V Okeanos Explorer on their L...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2017/08/okeanos-explorer-communities-deep-sea.html

Some EXCITING news! I have signed on to join NOAA's research vessel Okeanos Explorer as the Biology co-Lead for their July Expedition Broad casting from (approximately) July 13 to August 1!  h...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/big-news-echinoblog-will-be-on-okeanos.html

GREETINGS! Last week, a new paper I've literally been working on since I finished my PhD has FINALLY been completed! Its easily my largest monograph at the moment and includes a whopping 14 new...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2017/05/five-highlights-from-my-new-paper-about.html

Baker Island Back in 2008 I wrote a post about a great looking starfish that I wanted to know more about, a weird looking deep-sea star called Tremaster mirabilis!   Its a striking looki...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2017/05/tremaster-mirabilis-five-things-i-have.html

This Saturday we were witness to one of the most AMAZING echinoderm related ecology/natural history moments that I've seen in awhile! Namely watching this brittle star CAPTURE AND EAT SWI...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2017/05/brittle-stars-of-death-pt-2-okeanos.html

Many of you know that I occasionally "call in" when the NOAA deep-sea research platform Okeanos Explorer goes out to see on its missions. (remember the next leg BEGINS APRIL 27  http://oceanex...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2017/04/okeanos-follow-up-giant-sea-spiders.html

Over the last 10 days or so since Okeanos Explorer has resumed its ROV-telepresence based exploration of the Phoenix Islands and adjacent areas in the tropical Pacific they've seen some REMARKA...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2017/03/okeanos-tropical-pacific-highlights.html

So, here is a nice highlight of various wonderful invertebrates observed by NOAA's deep-sea research vessel, the Okeanos Explorer which for all of 2016 and 2017 will be studying the massive m...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2017/03/highlights-from-recent-noaa-okeanos.html

Ophiuroids on Jelly in Mozambique. Photo by Andrea Marshall, Daily Mail, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/~/article-3990782/index.html#i-570251ad33a88841 And a HAPPY NEW 2017 to everyone! Yes. Ob...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2017/02/brittle-stars-that-steal-food-from.html

Photo by Matt Kiefer via Wikipedia:  Greetings! Yes. I have been posting less frequently. Busy with various projects and winter season stuff! Today's post is a kind of response to a fair...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/starfish-guide-for-philippines-how-many.html

A hearty BONJOUR from Paris! Where Echinoblog returns to blog from a research trip at the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle!  Yes.. Echinoblog has returned to its yearly soujourn to t...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/trenches-death-stars-vs-sea-stars-thank.html

image by Alexander Semenov Happy SEA SLUG DAY! This educational event began last year (2015) in honor of Dr. Terry Gosliner, nudibranch researcher extraordinaire at the California Academy o...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2016/10/seaslugday2016-nudibranchs-eat-all.html

This week I announce A NEW PAPER in the latest issue of the journal ZOOTAXA describing a new genus and THREE new species of deep-sea starfishes! Vol. 4175 (2): 101-141  You may recall b...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2016/10/new-species-of-sea-stars-from-north.html

image by the indubitable Arthur Anker This week. Something a little different. I was doing a short presentation for some colleagues about using social media next week and I began accumulatin...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2016/09/a-guide-to-invertebrate-zoology-on.html

via the NOAA photo library http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/expl6751.htm Today we look at one of the most bizarre deep-sea echinoderms (if not deep-sea ANIMALS) that I know of! the sea...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2016/09/unravelling-secret-diversity-of.html

GREETINGS! And my apologies for the long silence over the last few weeks: a little bit of time to recharge the batteries and a little bit of frantic insanity as the fall began! So, this week I ...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2016/09/taxonomy-lurking-behind-all-big.html

Greetings! This week, I thought I would share some GREAT closeups of the textures and plates on some sea stars from one of my favorite places in the world-AUSTRALIA!  If you would like to...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/gorgeous-closeups-of-australian.html

From 2001. Hymenaster pentagonalis from the Hawaiian Islands region. Image by H. Reiswig Probably one of my FAVORITE deep-sea starfish, other than BRISINGIDS has to be these enigmatic an...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/hymenaster-deep-sea-slime-stars-from.html

Today as I was scrolling through the many years of posts I realized that I have NEVER written about the Crown of Thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci!  If you don't live in the Indo-Pacific y...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-crown-of-thorns-starfish-in-macro.html

A happy July week to all of you! So, as we enter into the lull of the summer I present to you some choice Echinoblog image and video picks from various image streams that show off one the inter...

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2016/07/astropyga-radial-fiery-star-butt-urchin.html