[Taxacom] thanks to TAXACOM from a pleopod

Fred Schueler bckcdb at istar.ca
Wed Oct 16 14:39:19 CDT 2013


Taxacombers,

Here's thanks for an identification from a blogger whose reports are  
well worth following.

fred.
===============================================================


Quoting Facebook <notification+ocattt46 at facebookmail.com>:

> ========================================
> See comment
> http://www.facebook.com/n/?susannah.anderson%2Fposts%2F10151689679022797&comment_id=26802713&aref=229975964&medium=email&mid=8c6f26aG2bfd7a50Gdb5279cGb7&bcode=1.1381823804.AbmRPPusInbM2bD3&n_m=bckcdb%40istar.ca
> ========================================
>
> Susannah wrote: "Fred Schueler, I don't have access to the TAXACOM  
> mailing list. Would you thank them for me? They were so very  
> helpful, and it's wonderful to find people who don't just say, "I  
> don't know," shrug and forget about it. And thank you for taking it  
> to them!"
>
> Reply to this email to comment on this link.
>
> [http://www.facebook.com/n/?susannah.anderson&aref=229975964&medium=email&mid=8c6f26aG2bfd7a50Gdb5279cGb7&bcode=1.1381823804.AbmRPPusInbM2bD3&n_m=bckcdb%40istar.ca]
Susannah Anderson shared a link.
9 October at 06:11 via twitterfeed ·

     Wanderin' Weeta (With Waterfowl and Weeds): This has me  
completely stumped.
      
http://wanderinweeta.blogspot.ca/2013/10/this-has-me-completely-stumped.html

     Notes and photos from wanderings in the Lower Fraser Valley, BC.,  
with a few thrown in from Bella Coola and other BC visits. Favourite  
spots: Reifel Island, Boundary Bay, Mud Bay, Strathcona, White Rock,  
Cougar Canyon, etc...
     Unlike · · Unfollow Post · Share
         You and Bill Kinkaid like this.
         Jenny Getsinger Is there some kind of burning test to tell  
whether it's plant or animal? Like with fabric.
         9 October at 11:42 · Like
         Susannah Anderson Great idea, Jenny! I burnt a tiny piece. It  
smells like hair or feathers.
         9 October at 13:50 · Like
         Fred Schueler any progress in figuring out what this is  
(Polychaete tentacle of some kind?) I was once completely stumped by  
an Edwardsia that didn't extend its tentacles -  
http://www.marinespecies.org/photogallery.php...
         WoRMS - Photogallery
         www.marinespecies.org
         10 October at 09:16 · Edited · Like · Remove Preview
         Susannah Anderson No, getting nowhere fast. I thought of  
polychaetes right away, and have gone through my encyclopedia several  
times, looking at ones on this end of the continent. No luck so far,  
but they are so diverse, I wouldn't rule them out.
         10 October at 15:05 · Like
         Susannah Anderson When I burned a piece (about two rings from  
the thick end), I crushed the stem in my fingers. It was crunchy, like  
a thin eggshell. But it's not a tube like a tubeworm would build,  
because the hairs sprout from little bases on this shell.
         10 October at 15:10 · Like
         Fred Schueler I've asked the TAXACOM list - which includes  
experts in every taxon on Earth
         10 October at 16:24 · Like · 1
         Susannah Anderson Thanks!
         10 October at 17:04 · Like
         Jenny Getsinger Not a forms of horsetails? Good luck!
         10 October at 18:51 · Like
         Susannah Anderson No, I thought of horsetails, because of the  
rings, but otherwise, it doesn't work.
         10 October at 18:54 · Like
         Jenny Getsinger I will look in my paleontology book.
         10 October at 18:57 · Like
         Susannah Anderson Thanks!
         10 October at 18:57 · Like
         Jenny Getsinger Have you ruled out crinoids?
         10 October at 19:02 · Like
         Jenny Getsinger I'm going to Marine section of VNHS (nature  
vancouver) tonight, and can bring printout (B&W) of your thing and ask  
some folks.
         10 October at 19:03 · Like
         Susannah Anderson There are only three crinoids from this  
area in my Encyclopedia; very poor photos. One might possibly be  
similar, if I can get a decent photo somewhere. I'll look.
         10 October at 19:08 · Like
         Susannah Anderson I'd forgotten about the nature Vancouver  
nights! I always intended to go, but it never works out. I'll see if I  
can get a better look at the hair pores on the stem before you go.
         10 October at 19:09 · Like
         Jenny Getsinger Will check back later.
         10 October at 19:12 · Like
         Jenny Getsinger Have you ruled out artificial fishing flies?
         10 October at 19:57 · Like
         Susannah Anderson No steel hook in the middle. No wire, no thread.
         10 October at 20:36 · Like
         Susannah Anderson I think you're right about the crinoids. Or  
at least echinoderms.
         10 October at 20:36 · Like
         Susannah Anderson Here are some photos of the stem, de-haired  
and broken to look at the centre.
         Susannah Anderson's photo.
         10 October at 20:37 · Like
         Susannah Anderson With a piece detached.
         Susannah Anderson's photo.
         10 October at 20:38 · Like
         Susannah Anderson Detail
         Susannah Anderson's photo.
         10 October at 20:38 · Like
         Susannah Anderson What's in the middle.
         Susannah Anderson's photo.
         10 October at 20:39 · Like
         Susannah Anderson I think that grey area on the second photo  
would be a groove for transporting food. I thought, before, that it  
was just some seaweed still stuck on, and I didn't want to break the  
whole thing to be sure. But looking at it this closely, I can see that  
it's integral to the tube.
         10 October at 20:40 · Like
         Susannah Anderson Now I'm off to look at crinoid photos.
         10 October at 20:42 · Like
         Fred Schueler I probed the TAXACOM list with the query -

>> ...some sort of filament-bearing appendage?

Quoting Doug Yanega:

> Yup. From a crustacean, surely, since the fine details don't match  
> an insect antenna (e.g., a marine chironomid). Crustaceans are  
> jam-packed with wacky appendages.

Quoting Tony Irwin:

> I'm fairly sure this is part of the pleopod (abdominal appendage) of  
> a crustacean such as a crab - if you Google Image search "crustacea  
> pleopod", you'll get quite a few similar structures.
10 October at 23:10 · Like

         Susannah Anderson Thanks! That looks promising! The crinoids  
turned out to be a dead end.
         10 October at 23:32 · Like
         Jenny Getsinger Okay, report from about half a dozen marine  
biologists: a couple of no confidence votes on the crinoid idea; one  
vote for a fishing lure; one for rotting horsetails; no one quite knew  
what it might be. Still have not seen a good match in any of the  
suggestions.
         11 October at 00:27 · Like
         Jenny Getsinger Have you ruled out manufactured stuffed animal tail?
         11 October at 00:27 · Like
         Jenny Getsinger Everyone said email Andy Lamb
         11 October at 00:29 · Like
         Jenny Getsinger http://www.amazon.com/.../dp/1550173618
         Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest: A Photographic  
Encyclopedia of Invertebrates, Seaweeds And...
         www.amazon.com
         With 1,600 superb color photographs of over 1,200 species,  
MARINE LIFE OF THE PA...See more
         11 October at 00:29 · Like
         Susannah Anderson Andy Lamb; that's a good idea! And that's  
the Encyclopedia I'm using.
         11 October at 03:40 · Like
         Susannah Anderson And Fred Schueler's experts from TAXACOM  
are "fairly sure" it's part of a crustacean. I think my next step is  
to go to the beach and find myself a big dead crab.
         11 October at 03:43 · Unlike · 1
         Susannah Anderson I just wrote Andy Lamb.
         11 October at 04:15 · Like · 1
         Fred Schueler if it were the external aspect of an entire  
organism one of us would recognize it - it's got to be an "internal  
external" fragment, and as Doug Yanega says "Crustaceans are  
jam-packed with wacky appendages."
         11 October at 09:52 · Like
         Susannah Anderson Fred Schueler, I don't have access to the  
TAXACOM mailing list. Would you thank them for me? They were so very  
helpful, and it's wonderful to find people who don't just say, "I  
don't know," shrug and forget about it. And thank you for taking it to  
them!
         Yesterday at 03:56 · Edited · Like
         Susannah Anderson Final ID; it's a pleopod of a large female crab.
         Yesterday at 03:55 · Like · 1
         Jenny Getsinger Still no photos as detailed as yours show up  
on image search of "pleopod"--you have done us a service by showing  
this interesting body part.






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