Was blessed by the cephalogods yesterday. I got to hang out with this beautiful #octopus for a while as it pootled around Clovelly, checking crevices and poking any fish that got too close.

Happy #PolychaeteDay #Tomopteris TL10cm, Depth -15m open sea (bottom depth Approx. 1,000m) of the Kume Is. Okinawa Japan #Deepsea #planktonic

This TINY little creature is a sessid moth. They are remarkable little creatures and are capable of hovering stationary while feeding from surfaces. Their wing beats are so fast. These photos were taken with a shutter speed at 1/6400 of a second!

This is the tiny, delicate, planktonic larva of a sea urchin. At metamorphosis the tissues reorganise into a young adult form that will sinks to the sea floor where it will live the rest of its life. ZEISS Microscopy

NOOOO WAY beautiful flatworm dancing ontop of a frogfish!! 😭🧡

Zootaxa updates FIRST! NEW BROODING SPECIES! Paralophaster ferax! ferax means "fertile" or "fruitful" For a specimen coll. in 1963 THIS was a CRAZY discovery! It and others were from 3138-3239 m! Scotia Sea! Juveniles inhabiting its coelom (as far as I could tell)

Starfish bearing young (brooding) is a CRAZY thing. Most species live around the Peninsular region. But there's like 5? 6? DIFFERENT lineages/groups that ALL brood in DIFFERENT WAYS. Young around mouth. Internal brooding. Brooding among arm spine baskets!

Two young elephant seals that wanted to have a practice fight... but also wanted to have a nap. 🦭💤 #MacquarieIsland #ElephantSeal #SubAntarctic #Wildlife #Cute #Sleepy #Seal #FunnyAnimal #WildlifePhotography

This is cyphonautes - a wandering planktonic larva of bryozoans. Helgoland, North Sea 🌊. It often reminds me a flying hat.

Twitter no longer loads comments or threads, I can only see single tweets 🙄 Does anyone else have this problem? It’s getting impossible to use #twitterfail #broken

I think I found my Halloween costume this year 🐮🍑

The funny (but annoying) way samples get trapped in other samples 😂🔬 Two tiny snail shells with a mite and a springtail caught inside 🐌 #microscope #microscopy #fieldsamples #snail #shell #springtai #collembola #mite #acari

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If you like penguins and cushion plants on windswept beaches, you can vote for my photos in the EcolSocAus competition 🙂 There are also many beautiful images of Australian landscapes, wildlife, and hard-working ecologists!

Another gorgeous Red Cage (aka Coeur de Sorcière, Sorceror's Heart/Witch’s Heart) fungi out this morning. This one smelled very strong 😂🍄 #fungi #mycology #mushrooms #MushroomMonday