Favoritos de ttsquid

An empty valve of the Antarctic bivalve Limatula hodgsoni (E. A. Smith, 1907) was studied in January 2011 but only photographed in 2013. The shell was collected by Antarctic researcher Terry Palmer sometime in December 2010 (exact date not recorded), in the vicinity of McMurdo Station.

The shell is thin and fragile. It measures about 35 mm long. It was found empty at the bottom of the ocean (depth not provided, but within scuba diving range), while diving under sea ice. Terry said the bivalve is common locally and broken shells litter the bottom.

See more about the taxonomy of this species at the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) at:
http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=197227

Tasmanipatus barretti - giant velvet-worm, NE Tasmania, April 2013. Velvet-worms are among the oldest of land-animals, having been around for half a billion years. Today they're mostly found in the southern continents. Tasmania hosts dozens, perhaps hundreds, of species, most of which remain to be formally described. The giant velvet-worm is Tasmania's largest, reaching a 'whopping' 5 cm. It is confined to a small part of the northeast corner of the state, and is considered threatened because long-term supplies of its favoured habitat, rotting logs, are vulnerable to fires, firewood-collecting and forestry activities. Its protected status means that it cannot knowingly be disturbed without a permit. Although they can be most reliably found in the 'mudguts' rot in the middle of old logs, at night, and in damp weather, they will also venture out into leaf-litter. Their favourite food is termites, ensared in glue projected from cannons on the velvet-worm's head. This species gives birth to live young.

There are other Tasmanian velvet-worms featured on my Flickr site too. Search the site for 'Onychophora'.

More about the strange lives of velvet-worms here: www.wired.com/2014/08/absurd-creature-of-the-week-velvet-...