Meanwhile, back at the lab...
As Cameron heads back out to sea with the full suite of instrumentation, Rebecca, Pete and I work tirelessly to pull together the data we've collected over the past fortnight. Today I was sorting through our optical data for vertical migration patterns--which I will chronicle later--when Meredyth (from the education team) burst in exclaiming, "What do you know about lobsters molting!?"
Alas, my meager knowledge of decapod molting comes from the accounts of the late Stubb, an eloquent blogging crayfish. Nevertheless, we gathered the crew together, along with a loose assortment of equipment, and cobbled together a video system for documenting this fascinating phenomenon.
These images diagram our video system, composed of sticks, tape, and bungee cords. The 95 second video below shows a time-lapse of this mesmerizing event, from almost the beginning of ecdysis until the teneral lobster emerges from its exoskeleton.
Ples My apologies for the choppy footage. Filming continues even as I compose this, and we will post the full video later. Fascinated readers may also enjoy this nice animation of a molting cicada.
Nick Record, signing off.
As Cameron heads back out to sea with the full suite of instrumentation, Rebecca, Pete and I work tirelessly to pull together the data we've collected over the past fortnight. Today I was sorting through our optical data for vertical migration patterns--which I will chronicle later--when Meredyth (from the education team) burst in exclaiming, "What do you know about lobsters molting!?"
Alas, my meager knowledge of decapod molting comes from the accounts of the late Stubb, an eloquent blogging crayfish. Nevertheless, we gathered the crew together, along with a loose assortment of equipment, and cobbled together a video system for documenting this fascinating phenomenon.
These images diagram our video system, composed of sticks, tape, and bungee cords. The 95 second video below shows a time-lapse of this mesmerizing event, from almost the beginning of ecdysis until the teneral lobster emerges from its exoskeleton.
Nick Record, signing off.
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