This incredible sea creature shares some surprising similarities with us. 🧑‍🤝‍🧑🔍 #WhatIsItWednesday #MarineBiology #Invertebrates #diginverts

Episode two of the #DigInDiaries! A deep dive into digitization at @nhmla.bsky.social Watch the full video on Instagram @diginverts www.instagram.com/reel/C6XTe_f...

#diginverts #MarineScience #OceanResearch #MarineBiodiversity #MarineInvertebrates #InvertebrateCollections #MarineResearch

Love marine worms?🪱 Venus's servant worms (Veneriserva pygoclava) are parasitic annelids that live inside other fuzzy annelids called sea mice (Aphrodita longipalpa). #diginverts

Dissecting a sea mouse reveals an adult (yellow) & juvenile (blue) parasite! @scrippsocean.bsky.social

Sea spiders have the unique ability to breath through their legs! Oxygen passes along the legs’ large surface area, and intestinal pouches in the legs diffuse the oxygen throughout the sea spiders' tissues. #diginverts #seaspiders #spiders

When you think of #coral, you are likely picturing Scleractinian corals, the group of true or #stonycorals. Scleractinians build hard skeletons and structures out of calcium carbonate, making them the primary reef-building corals. 🪸 #coralreef #diginverts

Sea stars can regenerate their nervous systems, which is a rare ability among animals. Researchers are studying this physiology for its potential to inform the development of therapeutic treatments for human brain injuries. #seastars #diginverts

Photo: Chrissy Piotrowski @calacademy.bsky.social

Spongia officinalis, aka the common bath sponge, is found in the Mediterranean. Humans have used this sponge as a scrubbing device for millennia! S. officinalis typically grow on sea floors, but these specimens from @natural-history.bsky.social grew on a piece of sunken pottery. #diginverts

Checkout this time lapse of a female rapa whelk (Rapana venosa) at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science laying dozens of egg cases over the course of two hours. One female rapa whelk can lay up to TWO MILLION eggs per season! #MolluskMonday #diginverts

Wonder where our specimen records are headed? You can find digitized collections from the DigIn project in #InvertEBase, a specimen data portal powered by #Symbiota.

Photos: Symbiota Support Hub #iDigBio #diginverts

Started decorating yet?🎄Get inspired by decorator worms! 🪱 Meet Diopatra cuprea, the ocean’s decorating expert. They craft their own ‘homes’ by gluing together shells, sand, algae, and even baby horseshoe crab molts with their special mucus magic. #FridayFunFact #decoratorworms #diginverts

A manager’s guide to using eDNA metabarcoding in marine ecosystems Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is a powerful tool that can enhance marine ecosystem/biodiversity monitoring programs. Here we outline five important steps managers and researchers should consi...

📢 DigIn colleagues @nhmla.bsky.social published an article peerj.com/articles/14071 that would not have been possible without reference barcodes derived from museum collections.

#ConservationBiology #EcosystemScience #MarineBiology #SciencePolicy #EnvironmentalImpacts #eDNA #diginverts

Did you know Arizona State University has a mollusk collection of approximately 140K specimens? It’s currently managed by a dedicated Volunteer Curator and Biodiversity Knowledge Integration Center staff.

Photos: Samanta Orellana
#iDigBio #Symbiota #SymbiotaSupportHub #ASUMOC #diginverts

Have you ever thought about why blood can be different colors?🩸 Our blood is red because it contains an iron-based respiratory pigment, whereas #horseshoecrab blood contains a copper-based pigment, hemocyanin, which turns blue when exposed to air. #TuesdayThoughts #diginverts

DigIn’s Estefanía Rodríguez, the Cnidaria Curator at
@natural-history.bsky.social, is a key facilitator of the recent launch of an Actiniaria (sea anemone) portal linked to the World Register of Marine Species.

Visit the portal at marinespecies.org/actiniaria

#diginverts #hexacorallians

Check out more photos of specimens from NHMLA's field work near Cabrillo Outer Beach and Point Fermin reef on the Research Vessel Yellowfin.

See if you can spot the globular purple-speckled crabs, Randallia ornata.👀🦀

Photos: Raney Kennedy #diginverts

We are grateful to the many scientists on our DigIn team.

#diginverts #digitization #museums #museumcollections #collections #biodiversity #marinebiodiversity #marinebiology #science