[Taxacom] Mystery Organisms

[Amanda Neill]

Otoliths (fish ear bones) colonized by algae (and other organisms)?
But then I'm a botanist and this might be a bad guess.
Amanda


________________________________________
From: Taxacom [taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] on behalf of Richard Pyle [deepreef at bishopmuseum.org]
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2014 7:29 PM
To: TAXACOM
Subject: [Taxacom] Mystery Organisms

Dear Taxacomers:

We are on expedition in Pohnpei, conducting surveys of deep coral reefs.
 We've been finding an unusual organism that is extremely abundant on the
sea floor at depths of about 80-95 meters (more or less).  The collective
wisdom of our team (with primary expertise in fishes and gorgonians) has
come up with a best-guess taxonomic identification as "some kind of animal
-- or maybe algae?"

Photos and a brief description are available on the expedition blog:
http://blog.bishopmuseum.org/research/?p=294
(feel free to browse the rest of the blog as well!)

All suggestions are welcome!  We return home tomorrow, and will have better
access to microscopes, etc. as of next week.  If you know what it is, or
have any suggestions, please feel free to comment on the blog site itself,
reply to this taxacom post, or email me directly.

Aloha,
Rich

Richard L. Pyle
Bishop Museum
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