Imaging Brooding Brittle Stars Babies!

Greetings! So, today I am en transit from my month long research trip in Paris back to home base in Washington DC!  So, in the meantime I thought I would share the results of this great new imaging project presented in GigaScience by some colleagues at CapeTown University in South Africa whom I met while I was visiting a few months ago!!  Jannes Landschoff, Anton duPlessis and Charlie Griffiths.

Their study actually surveys THREE species of brooding brittle stars!

What does this mean? In MOST echinoderms,  following fertilization juveniles pretty much settle out on their own and are left to grow/rear out on their own. But in some unusual instances there is actually parental care! 

So, yes, some adult echinoderms rear juveniles! Yes! Baby echinoderms! I've detailed this behavior in starfish in some detail here.   and of course, who can forget the life and death struggle of tiny asterinid starfish hermaphrodites who attack and eat one another in the "womb" of the mother?? (here)

Jannes' study focuses primarily on three brooding species in the South African area, including Amphiura capensis, Amphipholis squamata (both in the Amphiuridae) and one called Ophioderma wahlbergii

Jannes' work was actually surveyed here in GigaScience's own blog  Jannes and co authors use three dimensional visualization tools, including x-ray micro tomography scans to unobtrusively visualize brooding juveniles without destructively sampling the original specimen. Neato!

This gives you an idea of what Amphiura capensis looks like..

Image borrowed from Eastern Cape SCUBA diving! Go check em' out! 

Here's a visualization with CT Scan from Amphiura capensis!

which you can see more of here on this video

Jannes' study images brooding (i.e., the behavior of retaining the juveniles) in cavities called bursae which are located in the regions between the arms within the disk of the animal (in blue)

Here we have some just SPECTACULAR imagery of brooding in Ophioderma wahlbergii!

As it turns out, this will probably be a useful tool for non-destructively studying other brooding brittle stars and other echinoderms!

One South African brooding starfish (different from brittle stars) species which we know almost NOTHING about?? The South African "slime star" Pteraster capensis!  

and there are a MANY species of brooding brittle stars to choose from...

I've recently documented this weird multi-armed Antarctic brittle star, Astrochlamys sol.. which as it turns out BROODS! (from the Icy Inverts Antarctic cruise 2013 by Auburn University)

and this aptly named brooding species...Ophiacantha vivipara (from Rafael Martin-Ledo's neat but shortly lived Antarctic blog!)

Congrats to Jannes & my colleagues at Cape Town University for their new paper and looking forward to hearing more about their interesting future research! 

Lasting Impressions from my Visit to Cape Town, South Africa

So, this is my last 2015 report from Cape Town and its been a GREAT three weeks. I've been working on the collections at the Iziko Museum courtesy of my colleagues at the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON).

 Lots of great specimens to study and good interaction with the marine scientific community in the South African region! An extremely productive trip.

Plus, of course, first hand exposure to ecosystems and their faunas! I still marvel at the resemblance between the kelp forests & fauna here and in California!

But here are some lasting impressions that I take away from South Africa that encapsulate the lessons learned over the last few weeks...

1. One of the BEST collections of echinoderms in Africa is at the Iziko Museum! 
This is always kind of a cheat of course. I just spent 3 weeks identifying a massive collection of sea stars, so OF COURSE, I'm a little biased!

But seriously, the collections here contain historical materials from famous echinoderm workers like Hubert Lyman Clark and Ailsa Clark (unrelated). They've maintained a good record of marine biodiversity throughout the region for decades from intertidal to relatively deep-depths.

The Iziko is undergoing many efforts to share its materials with the scientific community including digitzation initiatives and of course a collections database is ongoing!

This is a great place to start your studies on the Indian Ocean or to survey the unusual temperate water habitats of South Africa!

2. Citizen Science is thriving in South Africa!
Perhaps one of the best things I've discovered about the scientific community in the Cape Town and South African is the presence of a very active diving community which LOVES to share and study the marine habitats they observe!

Groups such as iSpotnature.org, SURG (the Southern Underwater Research Group), and even websites such as Eastern Cape SCUBA diving  show a multitude of pictures. This also includes the many pictures off Flickr and other photobanks.. I'm sure there are probably more...

3. There are MANY wonderful ecological and natural history stories in South Africa but they are poorly studied.
Probably one of the great things I learned about studying the fauna is how many cool things are out there and widely known to the local community but were not actually published! 

For example, this amazing sea star, Pteraster capensis has been reported from throughout the area to brood and generate mucus! But was this an actual observation/report? Or simply an extrapolation from the scientific literature on the North Atlantic/North Pacific species?  No scientific reports on this species are available (other than those that report taxonomy).

But I finally spoke to George Branch and Charlie Griffiths at the University of Cape Town who verified that YES indeed. This has been seen!!  So, it will probably make someone a great paper some day!

4. A HUGE diversity of sea stars exists in the region! (and now there is a reference collection!)

As a follow up to the point #3 above, is the simple fact that there is a HUGE diversity of sea stars and other invertebrates on the shores of South Africa. You not only have those animals in the temperate water zones on the west and south coats BUT also the amazing Indian Ocean tropical species on the EAST coast!! Plus the deep-sea!!

I've seen this species for example, identified as "Halityle regularis" in some field guides, but its a different color and is much flatter. Possibly a new record? Or merely a color morph of Halityle? We need to see more than a picture to be sure. I've alluded to possible undiscovered species in past posts...  UPDATE: It IS Halityle regularis-but a different color morph!

BUT thanks to my work at Iziko identifying about 600-700 specimens we know have a bunch of baseline referneces for the fauna of South Africa!  But we will almost always have more pictures than specimens..

5. The staff at the Iziko is AWESOME.

I wanted to thank my hosts at the Museum who helped me with sorting specimens and managing data and other logistics. This includes Candice, Liz, Kanye and of course the curator, Wayne Florence

P.S. The FOOD in Cape Town is AMAZING!

I could NOT have predicted that OSTRICH tastes like very tender beef! Wonderful Grilled or "spicy Mongolian style"!!

Also.. South Africans love cider and meat pies. EVERYWHERE!

THANK YOU CAPE TOWN! I hope to be back!! 

What Have I been doing in South Africa??

Greetings to everyone from Cape Town where I've been for the last two weeks! One more left to go!

Sorry if I've been a bit quiet and off Twitter. What have I been up to? What have I been learning?

1. Identifying Starfish!

image by @MarineBio_SAM

So, it turns out that the South African Iziko Museum's invertebrate zoology collection is probably the largest one of all the collections of its kind in Africa. It includes a huge number of specimens from multiple places throughout the region. So, all major groups have been building up on their shelves.

BUT sometimes, groups need the attention that a specialized scientist, such as myself can offer: in this case the taxonomic skills to identify the many shallow and deep-water species which occur in the very diverse and wonderful waters of South Africa and nearby locales in TWO different habitats: a cold-temperate water setting on the west and south coast AND a tropical water setting on the east coast. Its unusal.

The last starfish/echinoderm expert to visit Cape Town was in the mid 1970s. Specimen collection has been proceeding at a semi-regularr ate for this entire time. And so, there's a LOT of them.

These represent valuable specimens with applications to everything from ecology to natural resource management.

I've identified HUNDREDS of specimens.. some rare. some new. More on this to follow.

2. Learning about South African Starfish!
So, along with what I've been learning from specimens, I've also been in contact with an extensive network of South Africa's marine biologists, citizen scientists, and other ocean-themed folks who are likely to know about echinoderms in the region.

I've been able to experience everything from pictures of living animals to general tips about local species. And yeah.. stuff that will hopefully find its way into a published paper...

3. Observing that temperate water South African marine habitats look astonishingly like those from central California!!

Thanks to some time at the Two Oceans aquarium and talking to colleagues, I have been reminded how stunningly similar (identical) the kelp forests of temperate South Africa can be!

Most folks think of Africa as a tropical locale but I can tell you (especially since I'm here during their winter) that Cape Town gives Monterey, California a run for its money for kelp, urchins, rain and food!

A kelp forest (Macrocystis) off Cape Town

versus a kelp forest (Macrocystis) in Monterey, California

These urchins are Parechinus angulosus (Parechinidae)

these are the  purple  and red California urchins Strongylocentrotus purpuratus and Mesocentrotus franciscanus (Strongylocentrotidae) 

In the case of the sea urchins, they're ENTIRELY different species in different families but they do appear to show some ecological similarities...

4. Giving workshops & presentations on Starfish & more! 
OUTREACH! By now, its probably clear that I am not one to shy away from sharing what I know about echinoderms with everyone.  Part of the plan for my visit to Cape Town was to share what I knew with students and colleagues.

So, far I've given a workshop on the classification and taxonomy of starfish as well as a talk on deep-sea biodiversity at the Two Ocean Aquarium!  One more talk at the University of Cape Town next week!


Have been LOVING talking to local citizen scientists, students and the MANY interested natural history enthusiasts in the area!

5. Encountering familiar names & history far from home....
So, even though I'm on another continent, there are a lot familiar names and a lot of shared history with my other friends and colleagues who have worked in South Africa-especially at the Iziko Museum!

These two specimens for example show collected specimens and work by several of my colleagues. Gary Williams is curator of cnidarians at the California Academy of Sciences. Terry Gosliner, is the curator of mollusks/nudibrancs at the same institution. Angel Valdes is another colleague who works on nudibranchs...

Its interesting how much of what I encounter here is part of this greater shared legacy in Invertebrate Zoology.

Another unexpected finding was this specimen, apparently identified by Smithsonian echinoderm worker and friend, Cynthia Ahearn who passed away many years ago. She often identified specimens for colleagues. This one was from 2002, in her distinctive writing and on a Smithsonian identification tag...












More Next Week!

More on Using Flickr to crowdsource new biodiversity! How many South African Starfish can we find?

Can we discover what and where species live by using holiday pictures and dive photos??
I recently saw that a recent newsbit here featured the range extensions of some "rare" or more precisely seldom encountered species including Astropecten regalis, Meyenaster gelatinosus, and the big orange spiny one called Paulia horrida

Truth be told, all 3 of these species are found in that tropical east Pacific area..and so, finding them in Peru (a poorly studied area) is really not much of a surprise..

BUT, I thought..wouldn't it be interesting if I did something just like this..but just using Flickr!! Using the accumulated pictures from people all around the world? Divers! Vacationers! Photographers! Aquarium goers!

Can we crowdsource biodiversity using the Internet??

Let's find out.

Some dynamics...

1. I do not own any of these images. These have all been "crowdsourced" from Flickr and are available here via the embed code for each picture. They have NOT been uploaded.

2. Animals are sometimes difficult to identify from pictures.

3. Why South Africa? South Africa is unusual in that it occurs right at the confluence between the tropical south Indian Ocean, the south Pacific, and the subAntarctic..so there's an interesting temperate water mix of animals that you really don't find anywhere else in the world. Its very distinctive.

map from Wikipedia!

Plus, its a suitably exotic fauna (at least to those of us not in South Africa!) that its interesting to readers.

Thanks to generous photographer Bernard Picton I was able to show off some rarely seen South African species awhile back. Click here to see!

New Records or maybe even new species?

Neoferdina or Paraferdina? (Goniasteridae) from Aliwal Shaol, KZN, South Africa

Further examination of a specimen would be necessary..but this is an intriguing possible new record..

photo by Geoff Spiby on Flickr

Here's an Anthenea or some oreasterid that I haven't been able to ID to species.. Again, the literature has no record of an animal of this kind from South Africa per se.. But this is at the northern range.

Note also the little parasitic white snail living on the top!

Photo by Genna S on Flickr

Here are some of the more frequently encountered species...
Family Asterinidae-Patiriella dyscrita (H.L. Clark, 1923)

A temperate, shallow water "cushion star".

The above two images by by Chris Liberty, on Flickr

Family Asterinidae-Callopatiria granifera Gray, 1847 from South Africa

Not much known about it-but occurs in more temperate waters.

Above two photos by Derek Keats on Flickr

Underside..

by Coda on Flickr

Family Echinasteridae-Henricia ornata (Perrier, 1869)

Not much known about it-but occurs in more temperate waters.

Family Oreasteridae-Culcita schmideliana (Retzius, 1805) from Rynie, Kwazulu Natal

This is closely related to the widespread cushion star Culcita novaeguineae which occurs in the Pacific. Culcita schmideliana occurs primarily in the Indian Ocean in shallow, tropical reef habitats.

This species is differentiated by the large distinct tubercles..

photo by cathm2 on Flickr

Family Oreasteridae- Pentaceraster mammilatus (Audoin, 1826)

A widely distributed starfish in Oreasteridae. Tropical, shallow-water species. Closely related to Protoreaster nodosus which is found in the tropical central Pacific.

Full biology is poorly understood but possibly a microalgal film feeder..

both images by jovdam on Flickr

A rather curiously colored Choriaster granulatus

Image by Mark Kenny

Ferdina sadhensis Marsh & Campbell, 1991 Umkomaas, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa

This species was only recorded from South Africa in 1996 and was originally described from Oman from only 5 specimens!

photo by BBM Explorer on Flickr

photo by Derek Keats on Flickr

photo by jovdam on Flickr

Family Goniasteridae-Fromia elegans H.L. Clark 1921

Widely distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific. A tropical shallow water species.

photo by Henry & Tersia, on Flickr

photo by genna S on Flickr

Family Asteriidae Marthasterias glacialis (Linnaeus, 1758)

A widespread temperate water species. It occurs from the North Atlantic on the European coast down to South Africa. Feeds on bivalves and other mollusks.

Image by Jinnie Lips

photo by jtresfon, on Flickr

photo by aimless shears on Flickr

photo by Mark Jutton on Flickr

So, that's 10 species here..plus Calliaster baccatus from my earlier Echinoblog. But here's a new pic from Haerlem Wreck

Photo by Photopixie2

There was a time when folks would have to be a world expert scientist or diver to see South African species of ANY thing.

Amazingly, (if you know what to look for) today you can find nearly a dozen species of starfish just by browsing through a photostream!!

Here's a cool looking Basket star for good measure!

By Photopixie2