Echinoderm anatomy made easy

The things that randomly cross my mind when I'm should be busy with work...

This one made me happy in invertebrate zoology class back in my 3 seas days.

 

The water vascular system song

The madreporite's connected to the... stone canal

The stone canal's connected to the... ring canal

The ring canal's connected to the...radial canal

The radial canal's connected to the... ampullae

The ampullae are connected to the... tube feet

And that's the way a starfish works!
Yay!

Mr. Pentaceraster and Mr. Nidorellia would like to inform everyone that the label 'starfish' is a gross misnomer and wrongly represents their true affiliations. They would like you to know that they have nothing to do with those smelly, stuck-up, vertebrae-possessing fish, and are in fact part of the phylogenetically oppressed 97% of animal life. Mr. Eucidaris, who is lurking about in the background, would like to inform Mr. Pentaceraster and Mr. Nidorellia that they are "a pair of spine-less weenies, and should go stick their complaints up their cardiac stomachs."

Unfolding the Earth

I'm currently taking an introductory class on working with spatial data using ArcGIS. We've been discussing the use of different coordinate systems and their components this week, including the various projections used in projection coordinate systems.

This is a video of some of the many ways you can unfold the Earth into a flat map...

Summer in Nahant: a first alphabet

This came out of a random conversation with Kylla - the kind of conversation you have when you are both still! in the lab on a Sunday evening - about intertidal Latin name ABCs. I have modified the idea somewhat.

On having five fingers

Today I watched a juvenile marine iguana sitting on a rock, and thought about the simple beauty of a pentadactyl limb.