Photo challenge
Anyone game for a little contest?
Below are a couple of photos I took today down in the wet lab at RWU - the second one is a close-up of the first. Any guesses as to what they are? The first person to answer correctly will be held in awe and respect for their vast and varied knowledge...perhaps I'll throw in a RWU rum-drinking vessel as well.
(note: family and current or recent RWU faculty/staff/students are ineligible)
To help with the scale, each black thing is approximately 1 inch (2.5cm) long. Good luck! Click on each image for a larger view.
HINT #1 (7/1/08): Check the comments. Kevin Z has part of the answer.
HINT #2 (7/2/08): The critter's common name and taxonomic class start with the same letter.
HINT #2 (7/6/08): Phylum Mollusca, but not Class Gastropoda
UPDATE (7/8.08): Congrats to Kevin Z for his correct identification. See the comments for the answer. 
17 comments:
seaweed bladders? Or probably egg cases of the Cloverfield Monster...
it's hard to see fine detail, but i originally though (given the size) maybe juvenile flatfish... but there's some weird holdfast-y appearance on what i thought were tails...
i've been picking my brain for stuff i've seen in mt hope bay (presuming that's where it's from)... 'taint quohog spat...
i'm stumped...
and is the rwu mascot just hawks now? they were sea hawks when i was there...
Kevin - sorry, not seaweed bladders (nor Cloverfield eggs)
Rick - I wanted to stick the Sea&Sea camera under the water to get a better picture, but I didn't want to mess with an experiment that wasn't mine. Also, they ain't from Mt. Hope Bay. And yes, just the hawks now.
Keep trying!
Some fat holothurian?
not to be a quitter, but we need either more detail in a photo, or a hint, or both, or simply send shot glasses to everyone who has played, or a shot glass and a bottle of rum, or keep the shot glass and just send the rum...
budak - sorry, not a holothurian
Rick - can't get a more detailed image, and I'm not sure there is much detail to see.
hint1: Kevin Z has part of the answer
I'll add more hints if no one gets it in the next 24 hours or so.
egg case from a shark or skate?
bladders from the cloverfield monster
I will go with Atlantic Dogwinkle egg case
Kevin - not from a shark or skate
Rick - at least you didn't guess seaweed egg cases
Craig - not quite, but closest yet
oh, and I added hint #2 in the main text
I am pretty confident it is an egg case from a gastropod in the family Muricidae. So a Muricid from Maine with a common name that starts with G.
Gunner's trophon (Boreotrophon gunnerri) egg-cases, Muricidae, Gastropoda?
Craig, Adrian - right phylum, wrong class.
Also, when I hinted that the common name and the class started with the same letter, I was referring to the common name such as "dolphin" and not "white-sided dolphin"
cuttlefish egg cases???? WTF IS IT JIM!!!
Are suuuuuuuuure there not gastropod egg cases?
ding ding ding...we have a winner! These are the egg cases of the cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis. Congrats, Kevin - I'll be in contact about your loot.
(so, yes, KZ, I iz sure theyz no slimy gastropod eggz)
YEAH!!!!! I IZ DA INVERTEBRITZ KING BITCHEZZZZ!!!11!!!!1!!!1
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