The difference is that this stuff is really true!
Aliens | Cloning | Stay away from the water! | Breaking up is hard to do
Flashers | They know their stuff | Renegades | Multiple Births | Fashion Report | Stomach Aches
TOP RATED TV SHOW LINKS OPHIUROID LARVAE TO EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE!
The pluteus larvae, found in ophiuroids and echinoids, is really bizarre. In fact, a pluteus was shown on an episode of the "X-Files" as some sort of extraterrestrial. They do seem like they are from another planet, but you don't actually need to go very far to find them! Plutei are commonly found in samples from plankton tows. The metamorphosis from larvae to adult is so extraordinary however, that it is rare to match up the larvae with its adult form. Plutei were commonly given their own "species" names, under the genus "ophiopluteus."
Click the image to see a brilliant series of images of an Ophiopluteus!
As human scientists struggle to develop basic techniques, brittlestars continue with business as they have for millions of years....only now have we recognized it!
PLUTEI PERFECT CLONING THEMSELVES!
Dr. Balser at Illinois Wesleyan University recently published an exciting article about cloning in the pluteus (Biol. Bull. 194:187-193 April, 1998). Remarkably, the pluteus of some ophiuroids develops, undergoes metamorphosis, and eventually the juvenile brittle star settles to the substrate. The remaining parts of the larvae are then released, swim back up into the water column and then regenerate, ultimately forming a secondary pluteus which also undergoes metamorphosis and settles forming another juvenile brittle star. The cycle then starts over again! Some researchers thought this was a possibility in the early part of the century, but the idea was considered impossible!
Here is a link to an image of a late pluteus, showing the juvenile brittle star still attached!
VORACIOUS DEEP-SEA OPHIUROIDS DON'T BOTHER WITH AN APPETIZER OR EVEN A CHEF! THEY GO STRAIGHT FOR THE MAIN COURSE
Some deep-sea species, especially in the genus Ophiura, exist in very high density aggregations. Such high density aggregations are not unusual- they are quite common in shallow water where filter feeding ophiuroids may be found at densities of several thousand per square meter. Many of these deep-water ophiuroids are not filter feeding however! Video taken by Dr. Stancyk and others from research submersibles show these ophiuroids using arm loop capture to catch fish and other large animals (like squid) (In: Echinoderms: San Francisco, Mooi & Telford (eds), Balkema, Rotterdam, 1998 p. 425-429 ). A number of brittle stars "smell" the catch (probably through chemoreception) and join in the frenzy of eating the prey, ALIVE!
Ophiuroids have used their ability to autonomize in many ways. Some ophiuroids reproduce asexually. They just break into pieces (usually two) and each half grows into a new, complete, ophiuroid! Autonomy is a great way to escape being eaten by a predator. Usually just an arm is sacrificed to the predator while the brittlestar escapes. Some ophiuroids can not only autonomize their arms, but in fact can loose the top of the central disk (which looks like a shower cap on top of the arms)! They are then able to regenerate not only the disk, but everything that was inside, including the stomach and gonads!
The brittle star Amphipholis squamata may help deter predators in an interesting way: when a crab grabs part of the ophiuroid's arm, it breaks off, but keeps wiggling and flashes light (bioluminescence- like in fireflies). The brittle star then gets away while the crab grapples with this unusual meal! (Go to link under "related stories" to see a cool photo and information about this research!)
Ophiuroid insider Yannick Dewael 'breaks' this news to The Ophiuroidea: In the brittle star Amphiura filiformis, the light from the bioluminescence is emitted in blue!!
(quite literally....)
Notice that in these photo, and in the one provided by Samuel Dupont , that the bioluminescent regions on the animal are the arms. The central region is dark. The arms are replaceable, but damage to the disk of the animal can be more serious. So, attention (of predators) is drawn to the arms.
Samuel DuPont has created an online presentation for a recent conference he attended. If you want to know more about some specifics of the luminescence in Amphipholis squamata, check it out!
Ophiuroids may not have a brain, but studies show you still can't hold them back!
Ophiuroids are well known for their ability to quickly right themselves, or turn themselves over, when they are accidentally turned onto their backs. But are they adept at getting out of other problems, and do they learn from them? Libbie Hyman ( 1955, The Invertebrates: Volume IV, Echinoderms) reviewed much of this research. Preyer (1886, 1887) was perhaps the most recognized researcher in this field. If a piece of rubber tubing was placed over part of the arm of a brittle star, the animal would thrash the arm around, rub it against the substrate, and even hold the arm down with the remaining arms and try to pull free from the tubing. Ultimately, the brittle star would break off its arm. Glaser (1907) also noted that the animals did not "learn" that certain methods were always ineffective, but they did not continue with ineffective methods and would try numerous different means of ridding itself of the tubing. Diebschlag (1928) tried to teach a species of Ophiothrix to turn back from a particular boundary (e.g., between smooth and rough substrate) after punishing the animal with sea star pedicellariae (little biting jaws). He reported some success, but it did not appear that the ophiuroids retained what they "learned" for very long.
SINCE THEY CAN'T GET THEIR OWN DRIVERS LICENSE, THESE BRITTLESTARS HAVE BEEN “HITCHING” RIDES WITH FLOATERS AND OTHER WANDERING CREATURES...
HITCH-HIKING OPHIOCNEMIS MARMORATA: JELLYFISH AND ECHINODERMOLOGISTS ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THIS RENEGADE OPHIURAN
TAKE A CLOSE LOOK AT THESE PHOTOS PUBLISHED BY DR. MARSH FROM THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. THESE PHOTOS ARE FOUND IN THE PAPER PUBLISHED IN THE "PROCEEDINGS OF THE NINTH INTERNATIONAL ECHINODERM CONFERENCE, SAN FRANCISCO, P393-396 (PHOTOS BY MR. CLAYTON BRYCE). (Click for abstract of article
Dr. Marsh and others have observed this brittle star, Ophiocnemis marmorata, "hitch hiking" on jellyfish! It seems the ophiuroids settle on the jellyfish instead of on the substrate and cling to the oral arms. Not much more is known about the behavior of this ophiuroid, including how it eats. Maybe it just wanted to get out and see the.....water column?
SOME OPHIUROID SPECIES FACED WITH MULTIPLE, MULTIPLE OFFSPRING!
Some ophiuroids brood their young inside the disk. There can be a lot of juveniles, and they may grow to a fairly large size before emerging. They must do quite a contorsion act to make it out
Here are some brooding ophiuroids, Ophionotus, with the top of the disk removed. Inside are lots of juveniles (you can see all of the arms)! This photo is from the book, "Starfishes and Their Relations" by A.M. Clark, 1962
FASHION REPORT: THE HIPPEST 'STARS DON'T LIMIT THEMSELVES TO ONE COLOR SCHEME, AND THE WORD IS "DARK IS OUT IN EVENING WEAR"
In a related story, 1980's music fans note that the Top10 (Terrestrial chart) Hit "I WEAR MY SUNGLASSES AT NIGHT" is not getting a lot of airtime on the reef.
Some ophiuroids can change colors during the day or night. It is believed that this occurs to shield photosensitive nerves under parts of the skeleton during the day and uncover them at night. Ophiuroids do not have eyes, so these special nerves may be very important sensory structures. (Hendler, G. 1984. Brittlestar color-change and phototaxis (Echinodermata:Ophiuroidea: Ophiocomidae). Marine Ecology (Publicazioni della Stazione Zoologica di Napoli I) 5:379-401 and Hendler, G and M. Byrne. 1987. Fine structure of the dorsal arm plate of Ophiocoma wendtii: Evidence for photoreceptor system (Echinodermata, Ophiuroidea). Zoomorphology (Berlin) 107:261-272).
Examine the following pictures, contributed by correspondents Dr. Larry Boles and Debi Coughlin, and make up your own mind.
Below: injured brittlestar with alien; above right: Alien removed showing stomach of brittlestar; Below middle: alien cephalothorax; below right (taken by Debi Coughlin): Infected brittlestar? .
Though this may seem to be a horrific injury, the brittlestar survived the injury and closed the wound to its disk. What really happened? Aliens, or a big meal?
Some brittlestars will eat a variety of food, whether they catch it, or scavenge it. In this case, the brittlestar probably came a cross a dead stomatopod crustacean (mantis shrimp) and ate it. The problem with a large meal is that the brittlestar may not be able to fit the whole thing in its stomach, and there is nowhere for the meal to go except into the stomach. The disk of brittlestars are very elastic, and can stretch quite a lot to accommodate a large meal. But if the food is sharp (or there is just too much of it), like this crustacean, then it can puncture the disk surface and push out.
This sort of distended disk is a common observation in some types of brittlestars, and a number of salt water aquarium hobbyists have seen it after the brittlestar consumes a large meal (see image at right, Ophiarachna incrassata which consumed a cleaner shrimp). I suspect that otherwise unexplained large holes in the disk of brittlestars may in fact be due to this phenomenon. Thankfully, most brittlestars appear to be able to recover from this injury rapidly.
Go to the source, and also read an explanation from Dr. Gordon Hendler.
'IMPOSSIBLE' PRACTICE SUSPECTED YEARS AGO BUT NOW CONFIRMED
“Outbreak” of Serious Stomach Ailments in Brittlestars due to Alien Invasion!!!
(Not for weak stomachs!)
News Flash!
