Today we had a practical on the phylum Arthropoda, which contains lobsters, crabs, copepods, shrimp, etc. Unfortunately I was a bit of an idiot and forgot to take the memory card out of my laptop, so I was only able to take a few photos, but I did some biological drawings to make up for it!
My favourite specimen was the horseshoe crab. It's an animal I am sort of familiar with, but I never knew exactly how big they could get- the specimen shown in the photo was roughly 15cm wide! My favourite drawing, though, has to be the lobster, simply because I think it went quite well.
The horseshoe crab with 15cm ruler next to it for size
My biological drawing of a smaller specimen
A look down the microscope at sea spiders, each one was no bigger than 1cm in diameter
The resemblance isn't clear in this photo, but Phronima, pictured above, was the model for the famous Alien! The photo below gives a better idea of what it looks like.
The usual prawns you see on a plateau de fruits de mer, except these ones are certainly no longer edible.
I forgot to check the name next to this peculiar looking crab. I think it's rather cute looking.
Crab with the shell cut out to enable you to see it's anatomical structure. It reminds me of a book I had when I was small, though now I get to see the real thing!
My favourite model for my biological drawing. A group of us spent about half of the practical drawing this lobster, and listening to each other complain and grumble with frustration when bit and bobs didn't look right.
The finished product!
Probably the biggest lesson I learned today was that I will never look at seafood in the same way again- I see myself dissecting it or drawing on the napkin, and it makes just eating it seem messy. Apologies to the person I sit next to when we next have a family dinner involving sea food, because I will probably not be able to stop myself from talking about it!
You forgot to mention Pollicipes pollicipes
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