What does the nervous system of a sea urchin look like? Can we study intact organ systems in calcified animals? I’m excited to share this preprint (with Laurent Formery and LoweLab) on whole-body tissue clearing in fragile invertebrates, where we tackle those questions.

First steps in the protist world! I was so lucky to be invited on MBARI R/V Rachel Carson by Natalia Llopis and Colleen Durkin to look at fascinating deep sea plankton!!
(and also to discover how sick I can be on a boat 😅)

Look at this gorgeous phaeodarian colony ⬇️

So happy to be back to beautiful Shimoda for a short visit and get to see everybody!!! 🇯🇵
Shunsuke Yaguchi

Happy holidays to all with this #christmas -themed brittle star HCR !! 😀 🎄🎄⭐️

( #NoToRedGreenFigures )

Thanks FASEB!! 🥳
This particular sea urchin was caught driffting on a small fragment of kelp by a plankton tow that nat clarke did during our marine developmental biology class in 2022!

I never thought this could be happening 🤩⭐️
Thanks Patiria for looking so nice!

Ever wondered why starfish have such an unusual shape?

Thurston Lacalli discusses the evolution of the echinoderm body plan, and why you could think of a starfish as a disembodied head walking about the sea floor go.nature.com/3tVYDKz

How would a starfish wear trousers? ⭐️👖 Science has an answer

When comparing development across species, we need to take into account what is the output of embryogenesis - larval or adult body plans.
Check our new Annual Reviews with LoweLab on this topic ⬇️😊
doi.org/10.1146/annure…

⬇️Nervous system in the sea star Patiria miniata. This large specimen (~1cm) was cleared using a marine invertebrate friendly protocol designed by nat clarke

Very happy that this picture got awarded by Evident Life Science #IOTY2022 🥳⭐️

4-armed brittle star🤔⭐️
I have seen many sea stars and sea urchins with 4 rays, but this is my first brittle star. #Echinoderm nerds, are these common in the wild?

⬇️ Amphipholis squamata prenatal juvenile, skeleton (orange) and muscle (cyan) stainings

#SeaUrchins do one of the most spectacular metamorphosis of all animals. It only takes them about 1h (x150 speed here) to completely change their body plan.
Also if they could help each other remove these remnant larval rods stabbing their back that would be great😅
LoweLab