Play Bit-o-Critter round 17

A family will do fine today

The solution to Bit-o-Critter round 16

Miriam from DeepSeaNews correctly identified Glaucus atlanticus, a spectacular pelagic nudibranch.  Like a lot of neustonic animals, they are bright blue, which relates to the intense sunlight exposure they get in the top inches of the ocean.  The same blue coloration is seen in calanoid copepods, jellies and other things that live right at the surface. 

This pic of Glaucus from Wikimedia Commons.

The solution to Bit-o-critter round 15

As Akira so succinctly put it - Euthynnus alletteratus.  To the rest of us, that's the little tunny.  In his follow-up, Aki pointed out that the spots below the pectoral fin were the give away - no other tuna has them.

Play Bit-o-critter, round 16

The fish people have had it way too easy lately, so here's one of "the other 95%"

Remember - if you get it right, you have to follow up with some details so the rest of us learn something

Play Bit-o-critter, round 15

The second to last one stumped you all, while Akira got the last one in about 2 seconds.  Lets hope this one is in the middle somewhere.  This has enough detail for a scientific name, but a common name for the species will do.

Play Bit-o-critter, round 14

Easy enough that I need the proper scientific name...

The solution to Bit-o-critter round 13

Twas the torpedo ray, Torpedo panthera

Solution to Bit-o-critter round 12

OK, at long last, here's the solution for Bit-o-Critter round 12, the 6 pack of butterflyfish:

A. Chaetodon plebeius - blue-spot butterfly

B - Chaetodon ornatissimus - ornate butterfly

C - Chaetodon meyeri - Meyer's butterfly

D - Chaetodon lunula - Raccoon butterfly

E - Chaetodon austriacus - Blacktail butterfly

F - Parachaetodon ocellatus - Kite or six-spined butterfly

Now get on over to Round 13 and help Julie figure out what it is...

Play Bit-o-critter, round 13

I need a scientific name.  Anyone?  Bueller? 

Play Bit-o-critter, round 12

This round is a 6-pack for the fish-heads among you.  Between the bits, you ought to be able to get the group.  Then I need species names for all six.

Critter A

Critter B

Critter C

Critter D

Critter E

Critter F

Solutions to bit-o-critter 9, 10 and 11

Hi all,

I got a bit behind while I was in NY, but am back on deck today and will be back to posting a bit more regularly.  Here's the solutions to the recent bit-o-critters.

Round 9 - Six-gilled shark, Hexanchus griseus
A big ol' slug of a shark, most common in the colder waters of the world.   I picked it because it always seemed odd to me that six and seven gilled sharks manage to have one or two more than everyone else.  Five seems kind of a fundamental number for gills.

Round 10 - Bobbit worm, Eunice aphroditois.  This is a large (like, 5 feet long) and scary polychaete or bristle worm.  It mostly hangs out in the pose shown, waiting for some unfortunate fish to swim past the jaws or brush the antennae, then BAM!  The ant lions of the worm world.  Nicknamed after, you guessed it, Lorena Bobbit (remember her? snip! snip!)

Round 11 - Loriciferan.  OK, that was just mean.  A truly obscure group of microscopic invertebrates that live between sand grains on the bottom of the ocean.  A phylum unto themselves, they were only discovered in 1983.  Not much to them except the lorica or house (the clear baggy bit on the right), some somatic and reproductive cells (pink) and the ring of tentacles around the oral cone (on the left).

Hints for bit-o-critter rounds 9, 10 and 11

I guess I got carried away with making bit-o-critter a little harder after everyone so quickly solved the Chrysaora.  Here's some cryptic hints for the three open rounds noone has guessed at yet:

Round 9 - One more than normal
Round 10 - Men are distinctly uncomfortable around this animal
Round 11 - This group not discovered until 1983

I will post the solutions when I get back to Atlanta tomorrow.

Play bit-o-critter, round 11

Lets see who really knows their inverts (no species needed for this one).

Play bit-o-critter, round 10