waterflea helmets – lamarckian, or epigenetic?

Water fleas – Daphnia – are rather cute little freshwater arthropods: In some circumstances (water temperature, presence of predators), rather than having that sharp little point on their heads (top of the picture, above the eyespot) some Daphnia will have a longer, spikier ‘helmet’. And this is where it gets interesting: it depends on the mother. If a […]

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the beauty of biscuits…

… sea biscuits, that is – what we call sand dollars. PZ has just posted a video clip of the early development of sand dollars, & it’s absolutely gorgeous. It starts, as he says, with a bit of echinoderm porn – I never knew that sand dollar sperm looks like that whipped ‘cream’ stuff that […]

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