The Ghost Shrimp

By Bora Zivkovic | July 31, 2012 |

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Image of the Week #53, July 30th, 2012:

From: Hitchhiking jellyfish, gonad-loving parasites and the skeleton shrimp by Becky Crew at Running Ponies.

Source: Alexander Semenov

The alien creatures in movies like Prometheus still pale next to the dreamlike unpredictability of actual ocean-biodiversity. Caprella septentrionalis, seen here in a photo from the amazing biologist and photographer Alexander Semenov, looks impossible, menacing and whimsical all at once. Running Ponies blog author Becky Crew features more about this ghost shrimp in her post, Hitchhiking jellyfish, gonad-loving parasites and the skeleton shrimp, including a link to a video of C. septentrionalis walking.

” …sometimes the subjects seemed to have been taken from the nightmarish dreams of science, and hark back to prehistoric times; monstrous flora bloomed on the rocks; everywhere…,” Huysmans, describing art by Symbolist Odilon Redon.

About the Author: Bora Zivkovic is the Blog Editor at Scientific American, chronobiologist, biology teacher, organizer of ScienceOnline conferences and editor of Open Laboratory anthologies of best science writing on the Web. Follow on Twitter @boraz.

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The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

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