Boltenia villosa “Hairy Sea Squirt” Ascidiacea
Fox Island, WA
June 23, 2013
Robert Niese
Hairy Sea Squirts are relatively common in the low intertidal here in the Northwest. On the rare occasion when the tide is exceptionally low and they are left exposed to the air, these tunicates will hold water inside their tunics to regulate their body temperature and oxygen consumption. With a gentle squeeze it becomes quite apparent why these odd critters are known as “sea squirts.”
Pachycheles rudis “Thick-clawed Porcelain Crab” Decapoda
Fox Island, WA
June 23, 2013
Robert Niese
Porcelain crabs are not actually “true crabs” and are a remarkable example of convergent evolution in the Decopod order. In fact, crab-like forms have evolved so many times within the crustacean clade that evolutionary biologists have given this type of convergent evolution its own name: carcinization. Porcelain crabs are more closely related to hermit crabs and squat lobsters than they are to a typical Cancer crab.
Northwest Naturalist 