A Passion for the Infinitesimal.


Life Inside a 

Drop of Seawater

 

SCIENCE | 

A passion for the infinitesimal leads photographer 
Angel Fitor to discover countless creatures 
that live unseen in the ocean.


Clockwise from bottom right: 

a calanoid copepod, a hyperiid amphipod, a decapod larva and 
a pteropod, with jaws at its base and an anus at its pointy top. 
Angel Fitor, a marine scientist and wildlife photographer, is 
passionate about illuminating a hidden world that’s all around us. 

A drop of water contains a single 
Sapphirina 
a genus of copepod which has bioluminescent capabilities.




A male Sapphirina. 

The species is outfitted with iridescent plates on its back, 
which reflect sunlight and send out shimmering 
             signals through water.                


See the complete article published in the Smithsonian Magazine:




pt






Comments

  1. Darko DuiloJanuary 8, 2023 at 5:56 AM

    Infesting article... a little bit of cynicism is always welcomed... Thanks for sharing Peter...

    ReplyDelete
  2. PTJanuary 9, 2023 at 2:23 AM

    Well Darko, sometimes in my living room I see tiny dust mites flying around in a beam of light, barely larger than a speck of dust, and I wonder... how can anything be that small and still have functionality? Does it know where it is going? I know it's looking for my blood, but how does it find me? How long can it go between drinks? What sort of guidance system does a creature with only 10 neurons have?
    And then I find from that article that a drop of seawater contains many miniscule critturs who all seem to know perfectly well what they are doing and how to go about it. So I sit in my armchair and I wonder!

    ReplyDelete
  3. PTJanuary 9, 2023 at 2:27 AM

    Quote: House dust mites, due to their very small size and translucent bodies, are barely visible to the unaided eye.[5] A typical house dust mite measures 0.2–0.3 mm in length.[6]

    ReplyDelete
  4. Alexandra KJanuary 9, 2023 at 3:29 AM

    I had a look at his Instagram account - stunning images

    ReplyDelete
  5. Maria KorporalJanuary 9, 2023 at 11:11 PM

    Wonderful and inspiring - thank you for this post!

    ReplyDelete
  6. PTJanuary 10, 2023 at 12:26 AM

    I'm glad it has hit a mark with you, Maria K, and Alex K. It is inspiring what such a persevering dedicated person can achieve. I'm constantly astonished by the enormous range of bio-diversity that exists within and on the surface of our lonely blue planet. There may be others out there in the cosmos, way out in the Milky Way, or in other constellations, but for now we are all alone. At the same time we humans are a pestilential species, the blight of the planet. I'm certain we will not find such a range of life forms on Mars, or Venus. However, some life forms may exist in the oceans of Europa, Enceladus or Ganymede, but not within range of human voyaging from Earth. Some people who take the sci-fi view think we can do it, but I do not share their optimism. I'm for the here and now, before it's too late.

    ReplyDelete

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