Gonodactylus
Premium Member
I managed to get on to a computer for a few hours today and couldn't resist logging on to see how the stomatopod world was going. I just finished a month in Italy talking with colleagues and photographing over 100 fossil stomatopods. The ones from 100 mya don't look all that much different from some modern species.
A couple of interesting developments.
1. A colleague just returned from a deep water oceanographic cruise and brought back several PELAGIC stomatopods. They are squillids and appear well adapted to spend their entire llfe swimming in mid-water. I had heard of this, but never had seen one.
2. Stomatopods are going to be back on top as having the fastest known animal movement. Look for the story to appear this winter and also for a BBC film that was shot using an incredible color video camera capable of producing clear images at 20,000 frames per second. I think we have just about figured out how the raptorial appendages work.
O.K,, I'm off to record the siren calls of love-sick stomatopods and watch O.s. do battle with blue-rings.
If I get a chance, I'll try to log on now and then.
Gonodactylus
A couple of interesting developments.
1. A colleague just returned from a deep water oceanographic cruise and brought back several PELAGIC stomatopods. They are squillids and appear well adapted to spend their entire llfe swimming in mid-water. I had heard of this, but never had seen one.
2. Stomatopods are going to be back on top as having the fastest known animal movement. Look for the story to appear this winter and also for a BBC film that was shot using an incredible color video camera capable of producing clear images at 20,000 frames per second. I think we have just about figured out how the raptorial appendages work.
O.K,, I'm off to record the siren calls of love-sick stomatopods and watch O.s. do battle with blue-rings.
If I get a chance, I'll try to log on now and then.
Gonodactylus
