Spotlight On…
Check out this week’s featured specimen!
(Pictured below, really close up!)
Photo: N. Sincero 2011
Can you guess what it is?
Here are some hints:
- This animal has a gizzard.
- This animal has a very sharp tail, which it can use to turn itself over.
Leave us a comment with your answer! Then come see us outside the Project Lab on Friday, September 9th at 11:30 AM for Specimen Spotlight in order to find out if you’re right.
Sharp tail grouse
Comment by Linda Lasky — September 6, 2011 @ 12:55 pm
The eye of a horseshoe crab! Though it’s really not a crab at all. Rather, they are members of the Arthropod subphylum Chelicerata, related to spiders and scorpions.
“I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas…”
T.S. Eliot
Comment by Martin Holden — September 6, 2011 @ 12:58 pm
Horseshoe crab!
Comment by Dave Gunderson — September 6, 2011 @ 1:01 pm
Horseshoe Crab! Is that the compound eye?
Comment by Daniel — September 8, 2011 @ 6:22 pm
Yes, it is a horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus to be more precise)! If you don’t know about them, take some time to look through this site: http://horseshoecrab.org/; they are truly fascinating creatures.
The photo is indeed a close up of one of its compound eyes. It also has simple eyes and photovoltaic receptors on its tail.
We’ll have a new guess the specimen game up on Tuesday, but in the meantime won’t you tell us Who Pooped?
Comment by nature — September 9, 2011 @ 11:23 am