Nature Blog Network

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Sea Squirt Sperm Races



Botrylloides and Botryllus, originally uploaded by top.down.

Miriam at the Oysters Garter has an hilarious and informative post up about a quite serious subject, sperm size and reproductive success in broadcast spawners. Yes, size does matter! So does speed and quantity and...

The image above is from a researcher where I work study showing Botrylloides and Botryllus species of Urochordata. While neither Botrylloides nor Botryllus are endangered, (the topic of this weeks Life Photo Meme) these invasive colonial tunicates are endangering other benthic organisms. Of course the urochordata sexual habits have been discussed here before...

Classification for Botryllus schlosseri

Kingdom
Animalia

Phylum
Chordata

Subphylum
Urochordata

Class
Ascidiacea

Order
Pleurogona

Family
Botryllidae

Genus
Botryllus

Species
Botryllus schlosseri

3 comments:

  1. It seems invasive species, caused by man's increasing mobility whether intentionally (by importing pets, creatures to control other creatures, or ornamental flora) or unintentionally (on our produce, the ballast water in ships, or hitching a ride in a box of mexican tile) are the cause of a great many environmental issues, including the loss of some of our native species.

    ReplyDelete
  2. oh, but I'm preaching to the choir here ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. No worries!
    It is a major issue, along with acidification, pollution, overfishing, unsustainable... etc...

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.