July 12, 2020: Copepods
Image courtesy of Russ Hopcroft, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Download larger version (jpg, 1.2 MB).
During the Gulf of Alaska Seamounts 2019 expedition, scientists used plankton net systems to collect zooplankton from the water column. They sorted plankton net collections on the ship in order to photograph species and archive them for genetic barcoding.
After one evening of sorting, the team left several predatory plankton in the same jar for several hours, only to have come back to find many partial copepods in that container, along with one that seemed very happy. They dubbed this copepod “Big Red.” Measuring 12-millimeters in length, this relatively large copepod is evidently a voracious predator on other zooplankton – and should never be put in a jar with anyone else!
From: Small But Mighty.