Tiny Shrimp Found in Upweller

Volunteer Vic Palmieri retrieved specimens of tiny animals (grass shrimp?) from the IBSP upweller on Monday June 7. He e-mailed me these pics and how he was able to take them with his microscope. I have copied part of his e-mail below and thought I would share these interesting photos with you.

Those small shrimp like specimens I collected from the IBSP upweller were alive and well in the bottle when I got home. I did have a problem getting good images in the microscope because in microscope scale these little animals are thick. Also, they were thicker than the depth of the well slide so once the cover slip was placed on top of the water on the slide a water bubble formed. The bright edges you see are the edges of the bubble.

Visually or with the electronic eyepiece you could easily see the animals breathing and movement in the internal organs. The eyes were very interesting.

A LED light source was used. In the first image the microscope condenser was opened all the way to allow the most light. This was the best for showing the eye structure. I am not sure what that is to the right of the eye but it looks like it is connected to the digestive tract(?) Below the digestive tract is that linear feature that has alternate small and large nodes along its length. Anyone know what they are? The bright arc over the animal is the bubble's edge.

The next image was also taken under full light and shows the dark digestive tract(?) Tail appendages are also visible.

Frank