"HYAS AND STENORHYNCHUS MARINE CRUSTACEANS" "Hyas and Stenorhynchus, just 1.5 inches long, dress in materials found in their surroundings." "Each dresses to taste," "Algae on the tip of the nose are undoubtedly striking," "A ravishing ball gown ..." "and a simple sports outfit," "It's often difficult to tell them from their surroundings." "The Stenorhynchus is slender, with long legs and large claws." "A Stenorhynchus covered in algae." "Algae are attached to spines evenly distributed along the shell," "Here we see the Stenorhynchus blending into its natural surroundings," "Stenorhynchus crabs covered with sponges." "Note the small mandibles." "They greet each other with their third pair of legs, but they have it out with their claws," "A close-up of Stenorhynchus conjures up one of its close relations with legs over six feet long that lives in distant seas," "The Hyas is clumsy, with short legs and generally large claws." "It's easy to recognize the creature from underneath," "A Hyas covered in algae." "But from above it looks like a bunch of seaweed out fora walk," "This one is dressed more discreetly," "Seaweed in vertical spikes - the latest fashion," "A Hyas covered in sponges." "Going to grotesque lengths," "He's taken off to the police station," "The mandibles remain visible." "A praying Buddha," "An invitatíon to the walk conceals sinister motives," "Like all crustaceans they are arm-wrestling enthusiasts," "They are sometimes found near the spirograph worm, a kind of worm in a tube that can extrude or retract its respiratory plume in a spiral movement." "This worm is six inches long, and its plume is 1,5 inches in diameter," "At the center of the plume is the mouth," "Here we zoom in closer and closer on the branchiae of the plume." "An extreme enlargement shows the vibrating cilia .001 mm long that cover the branchiae." "The cilia circulate water and convey food particles to the worm's mouth," "A Japanese warrior," "Hyas and Stenorhynchus sometimes nibble on the spirograph's branchiae." "A Stenorhynchus flees, rubbing its eye," "Caresses between spirograph worms." "A Loie fuller ballet," "following a classic spiral retraction comes the fireworks display," "SEA URCHINS" "The common sea urchin digs a niche in sonrock ... or lives freely on the ocean floor," "Varied in color and almost spherical, they measure from 1,5 to 4 inches in diameter," "The shell bristles with spines an inch long," "At a certain magnification, they resemble columns of a temple," "Placed on its back the sea urchin will turn over to press its ventral side against a hard surface," "At the center of its ventral side is its mouth, five teeth allow it to dig out, crush, loosen and absorb all sorts of debris pulled from the rocks," "The complex framework that maintains and operates the teeth fills almost the entire interior cavity in some sea urchins," "Powerful muscles allow these teeth to snap straight through a spine, for example," "lnjecting this sea urchin with gelatin and removing its shell reveals its internal organs," "At the top are the five reproductive glands," "The coiled digestive tube runs from the mouth located at the base," "to turn over or move the sea urchin does not use its stingers but hydraulic feet- hundreds of hollow elastic stems that end in suckers," "Each stem is linked beneath the shell to a muscular pouch filled with water," "All these pouches adjoin each other like pages in a book," "When a pouch contracts, it sends water out through the stem," "The stem, which passes through a hole in the shell, elongates and moves its suction cup forward," "The suckers have powerful muscles, ensuring a solid grip ," "The stem extends to almost 100 times its normal length - longer than any of the spines," "When a sucker has attached itself to something, the water in the stem recedes into the pouch," "The stem then shortens and pulls the sea urchin toward the point where it's attached," "In this way, the sea urchin moves about, crawls, and climbs, lt's clear that the movement of the spines has nothing to do with this locomotion," "Here we get an idea of the adhesive power of the suction cup," "The stem may break, but the suction cup will not budge unless the sea urchin itself detaches it," "Amid the forest of spines stir delicate crystalline forms," "These are microscopic organs formed by the sea urchin itself, like humans produce nails," "They're called pedicellariae, calcareous stems from 1-9 mm that end in three jaws," "The smallest have jaws in the shape of clover leaves ands eem to clean the sea urchin's surface and spines," "The jaws are always moving, independently of each other, constantly stirring up the water," "Let's take a closer look," "Others look like a long beak atop a long neck," "The jaws, connected only at the base, cannot seize or hold on to anything," "Perhaps they serve as sensory organs, informing the sea urchin of what's happening on íts surface," "There are many variations ín form," "Here's one with very short jaws buta very long stem," "Even more rare is this variety with four jaws," "The protective pedicellariae have rigid stems, but the jaws can all move in different directions," "Each jaw has a venomous gland and sharp injector teeth from 1/300mm to 1/500mm in length," "When the jaws close, the teeth hook together in a very effective spherical triangle," "In some pedicellariae, the stems too have venomous glands," "Lit from behind, the jaws call to mind a stained-glass window," "Pedicellariae around the mouth may help carry debris to or from the mouth," "Their stems are flexible along almost their entire length," "Their jaws, sturdy and strong yet craned like the finest lace, look like serpents' heads," "They too have many different forms," "The pedicellariae and spines, and the entire sea urchin are covered with billions of vibrating cilia ,001 mm long whose incessant motion stirs up constant eddies, thus ensuring that the water around and inside the sea urchin" "is constantly and vigorously renewed, a vital requirement for the sea urchin's life," "HOW SOME JELLYFISH ARE BORN" "Outside the marine biology station at Roscoff, in finistere lies a channel of water where many types of animals live," "At low tide it's easy to collect whatever's sheltered in the rich forest of algae, hiding in the roots, attached to the stems or crawling along the surface," "We choose a clump of algae that's the common habitat of the animals we wish to study," "We place a branch of it bearíng the desired animals into an aquarium," "We have to move in very close because these animals are very small," "These polyps resembling minuscule amphorae are actually only 1 or 2 mm long," "Essentially a stomach attached to the algae by a foot, the animal is surrounded by three rings of tentacles," "The floating limb bearing the mouth extends effortlessly," "Each tentacle ends in a bud composed of hundreds of poisonous cells, making it look like a blackberry," "These cells burst at the slightest impact, projecting a filament 1/20 mm long that harpoons its microscopic prey and injects it with a paralyzing poíson," "The animal explores the surrounding water with its flexible neck and tentacles," "Once the prey is paralyzed, it must be inserted into the mouth head first." "The animal reproduces by budding." "The buds deform its rear section," "Several days pass before the buds hatch but thanks to film we can look at it speeded up," "With the naked eye, no movement or transformation is discernible," "But speeding it up 400 times, we observe in just seconds the little polyp's final stage of development and see it break out of its casing," "The newborn floats freely for several days and then attaches itself to algae," "Among these algae one can also find rather remarkable crawling jellyfish," "Their disks measure I/2 mm in diameter and have 6-12 tentacles," "Each tentacle forks into two branches," "One branch ends in a sticky pad that allows it to move about," "The other ends ín a sac of poisonous cells that capture prey," "Once the prey is paralyzed, it must be eaten," "That's no easy task," "The jellyfish is able to push out its stomach," "In any case, the prey must be introduced- this time rear-first- into the jellyfish's mouth, which readily dilates," "Reproduction takes place via buds formed inside the jellyfish," "They later emerge and become a miniature replica of their parent," "The buds develop slowly, and the parent's movements are equally slow, but speeded up 200 times, the strenuous efforts of parent and bud to separate become clear," "Let's return to normal speed," "After a few days, the bud can secure its own food," "When the cord of living matter linking it to its parent becomes suffíciently thin, the offspring detaches itself from its parent," "Reproduction can also occur via the eggs we see inside the jellyfish, ln some that are both male and female self-fertilization occurs," "Each egg produces a larva 0,1 mm long that swims by means of vibrating cilia, lt will turn into a polyp, fíx itself to one spot, and eventually become a crawling jellyfish," "This larva resembles the previous one, but it will bud into hundreds of polyps and form a colony," "Such marine colonies are found in this estuary, flooded by the rising tide, and spanned by a railway bridge 1,25 miles from its mouth," "At low tide, the sea takes with it everything on the fresh water riverbed," "At very low tide, the bridge's central pillar stands on dry land," "We easily collect well-populated branches from around its base," "This time it's not algae that we put in a sea-water aquarium, but animals sharing a common substance and a common structure," "Together they can reach a height of eight inches," "Using a slight magnification, we see that the colony puts forth filaments to grow within which we can trace the path of digestive particles with a microscope," "A succession of contractions dilations and standstills enables this circulatíon throughout the colony by periodically reversing direction," "By speeding up the film up to 1,000 x, we see the 1/5-mm-wide filament growing," "We can also see the contractile plumes of the polyps that feed the colony, plumes loaded with poisonous cells," "Under the microscope, speeded up 800x, over the course of 72 hours" "We see one of these stomachs forming," "The filament grows in both smooth and ringed sections," "It narrows four times and then expands significantly to create a feeding organ," "When it reaches 3/4 mm long, the casing stops growing," "The stomach can now be discerned surrounded by separate tentacles," "Due to the movement of the polyp and perhaps a chemical change, the top of the casing is finally cut away around its circumference and opens like a lid, allowing the plumes full of venomous cells to open out," "Let's return to the colony, lt reproduces by means of jellyfish formed in sealed tubes 1 mm long," "The jellyfish emerge at a set time - here, 11 am, and 8 pm," "It is noon, and we will see the evening hatching," "The jellyfish are like a flight of butterflies 1 mm in size," "It takes a speeded-up camera and a microscope to observe their formation," "We're witnessing the final stage of the phenomenon, when the jellyfish are ready to come out, they grow very slowly but come out very quickly, so the camera speed must be changed at just the right moment," "At each hatching, two jellyfish emerge with a half hour between them speeded up here to a few seconds," "These jellyfish retain the contractility and the venomous cells of their group," "They are male or female depending on their colony, and they'll release their reproductive elements into the sea where fertilization will take place, from this, larvae will develop as we saw earlier giving rise to new colonies." "LIQUID CRYSTALS images from the work of YVES BOULIGAND to illustrate Antarctíca the last musical opus of Françols de Roubaix" "Certain liquids obey the laws of crystallization." "Under a polarizing microscope, we observe transformations in structure, form and color with certain changes in temperature and pressure." ". 1." "Smectic to cholesteric transition isotropic liquid 2." "Smectic rods 3." "Supercooling of a cholesteric form" "THE SEA HORSE" "The sea horse despite its unusual appearance, is an ordinary fish no longer than six inches when found off our coasts, the sea horse's body is covered by a system of scutes which form spines, adding to its medieval appearance," "Its upper body is like a horse, its lower body like a caterpillar, lt is the only aquatic vertebrate to "stand upright"" "This vertical stance is typical of the sea horse and lends it a slightly pompous air, lt's also the only fish with a prehensile tail like the chameleon, allowing it to wrap itself around algae or a fellow sea horse's neck," "Thus suspended by its tail, it can maintain its vertical stance unlike the monkey, who hangs upside-down due to gravity," "The sea horse is usually brick-red, dark green or dark grey and can turn white under certain circumstances and sometimes even a mixture of colors," "Its bulge, reminiscent of a horse's chest corresponds exactly to other fishes' upper body and houses all the animal's organs," "This is the air bladder a very sensitive stabilizer, which, if upset, can cause the sea horse to lose its balance," "Its respiratory organs, shaped like a powder puff, are characteristic of the group to which it belongs," "Watching the animal breathing from behind, we see the strange way in which its small cranial bones rise and fall," "The pouting lower lip of its toothless mouth gives it a look of unease, transformed into one of worry by its shining eyes," "Some species have horns on their head and body," "It moves horizontally with the help of a dorsal fin, and vertically with the help of fins on each side of its head," "The tail helps it to balance but does not propel it," "What makes this fish even stranger is the exceptional fact that the male has a pouch on his front into which the female deposits 200 eggs in several batches," "Here, multiple sea horses form a lovely balletic tableau," "the male fertilizes the eggs as he receives them from the female," "What's more he takes on what's usually the female role,- nourishing the embryos ín his pouch," "five or six weeks later the male truly goes through giving birth," "An anguished expressíon accompanies a rolling of his eyes," "His body convulses and twists on the spot," "His breathing speeds up," "finally, a massive contraction flattens the pouch, signalling that it's time for the offspring to be released," "Since just a few babies leave each time delivery takes several hours," "Opening up the male's pouch shows a lining of tissue that encases the eggs in a network of blood vessels vital to the embryos," "Once the embryos have left, this tissue reverts to ordinary connecting tissue," "At first, the embryo in the father's pouch has no mouth, lt has a roundhead with huge eyes, its body tapers to a thin, already ringed tail, the enormous yolk sac attached to its front will be gradually absorbed," "then the body begins to take shape, the mouth develops, making it look like a king Charles spaniel," "the outline of its scutes begins to form," "Greatly magnified, we see the very young colored cells in strange shapes," "the heart," "Soon the snout grows longer," "We see the small valve closing, the mobility of the articulated tail contrasts with the rest of the animal," "the eyes are still very large compared to the head," "the adult in miniature is finally formed, lt can move vertically, with its head at a right angle to its body," "It's at its optimum stage of development an era successful birth," "Artifícially slowíng down the heart, we can see more clearly the contractions of the auricles ventricle and bulb of the aorta," "The rays of the dorsal fin move independently," "Every young sea horses attach themselves to each other and play push-me-pull-you in twos or threes," "Although his pouch is now empty, the male is still affected for some time by contractions caused by gaseous secretions from the internal pouch walls," "The sea horse is too slow to get very faraway in an emergency or quickly hide in algae or sand," "Besides, a frantic getaway typical of other fishes would not befit the majesty of this animal," "It feeds on microscopic animals, crustaceans, and various larvae that it catches with a snap of the mouth," "One can imagine how much food is needed to feed certain species of sea horses off the coasts of Australia and Japan that grow to two feet in length," "Maybe it isn't really threatened by other marine animals or by man, which would account for its calm in the face of events which do not form part of its daily life," "You can't help wanting to give this animal limbs or legs," "When you see it moving about, its body vertical, its head horizontal, this aquatic vertebrate is strangely reminiscent of a biped," "fight tentacles, 2,000 suckers," "A two-foot-long octopus can have 250 suckers on each tentacle," "Octopus ..." "Cephalopod ... horrific creature," "THE LOVE LIFE OF THE OCTOPUS" "On coasts laid bare by the sea, some years you find them everywhere," "flabby, without a shell, it slithers at low tide one tentacle after the other, lt can live for some time out of the water, lt changes colors depending on its surroundings and its emotions," "An extraordinary detail,- This simple mollush's eye is like that of higher animals, lt has folds of skin that act as eyelids," "It nestles in the ground or takes shelter in the tiniest crack ... which it conceals with pebbles, sand, leftovers from its meals" "shells and carapaces," "The rippling water is the only clue to its presence," "The rippling is caused by its breathing," "Water drawn in through an opening on either side of its body is expelled through a tube," "Although it can crawl ín all directíons it swims backwards violently expelling water through its front-facing tube," "A crab scurries along, but the octopus grabs it with its tentacles or pounces on it," "In the center of its mouth the powerful beak tears the crab to pieces and swallows the flesh," "In the spring, some preliminary approaches precede mating," "These vary in force, length and the distance kept depending on the size, age, and condition of the partners," "The male typically has several very large suckers," "This fit specimen violently grabs a female, who's not amused," "Perhaps she's already been impregnated," "She carries him on her back," "The skin becomes bumpy and changes color," "The male has to insert the end of his special arm, the third to the right of his head, into the female's respiratory cavity," "There's no officially sanctioned position for doing that," "The small male on the left white from fear reacts to this female's advances while keeping a prudent distance," "The specialized arm íntroduces packets of sperm into the female's egg-laying orifice," "Mating is repeated over hours and days," "When the male removes his arm he tears open the packets he's deposited in the female, and billions of sperm swim out, here seen greatly enlarged," "They are stored and will fertilize the female's eggs when she lays them," "These eggs are attached to a central string that she hangs from the roof of her nest," "She lays around 30 stríngs, containing up to 500,000 eggs," "During the month they take to develop, the female doesn't eat or leave her nest," "She constantly fans the strings with her tentacles to circulate jets of water, which ensures that the eggs will breathe through their shells and also keeps them clean," "Each egg is about 1 mm long and reveals some strange stages in its development, shown here speeded up 1,400 times," "first, torsion," "Then comes rotation," "The embryo develops ... and three weeks later the miniature octopus is clearly distinguishable in its capsule," "Large colored cells begin to play," "They continue to grow a Iittle after the rotation stage, ingesting their nutritive yolks," "At the opposite end, the heartbeats 100 times a minute," "Then they hatch in a great explosion, ln a few minutes thousands of baby octopuses" "2 mm long leave their shell," "They bounce backwards, but the respiratory tube may bend, propelling them in all directions," "Those who can't get out now will never hatch," "Shrimping is the most beautiful and most enviable of sports," "It develops initiative ... cures rheumatísm ... and gives one a sense of achievement," "Mommy!" "I caught a shrimp!" "SHRIMP STORIES" "flashing like a crystal in its headlong flight, this pathetic victim resorts to futile wiles." "Its precarious refuge of algae and rocks offers little protection from the implacable net, which in one fell swoop wrests it from its family," "Preceded by gropíng sensory antennae ... topped by a rostrum, a pitiful weapon, despite its proud curves, and the silk that grows between its sawlike teeth," "Its eyes on stilts take in its whole world yet see only in vague shadows," "from head to tail its colors that run ín unexpected lines embellish the architecture off its body," "This fan is both rudder and brake as it swims with its sculling feet set behind the pincered walking feet," "These pincers, using violent jerks, if needed, serve to seize food and carry it to its mouth... or carve it into pieces before settling down for a meal," "Here we see the movements of the stomach that push the food along," "The food is first broken up outside the mouth by the maxillipeds," "Then it cleans itself, an essential procedure to ensure that all its sensory organs are alert and ready for actíon," "The strong claw is used for heavy work," "The finest one is reserved for the nooks and crannies of the delicate parts, such as the respiratory organs," "or for polishing the eyes," "And thanks to the acrobatic folding action of its medieval armor, they reach under the abdomen to scratch the sculling feet," "The eggs laid by the female cling ín dense clusters to her sculling feet," "We see the well-formed babies in their casings," "After three weeks there's an unstoppable and explosive delivery," "Of these thousands of larvae few will have much of a future," "These tiny larvae must undergo a transformation to become shrimp," "Even the adult shrimp must periodically break its rigid skin once every month or so, lt's always a dramatic operation," "The shrimps waits expectantly, and the contractions follow," "The back of the carapace suddenly breaks open," "Then, Iike a ghost emerging from its draphanous cloak, the shrimp pushes away its old casing, trampling its discarded skin with its sculling feet," "With one violent leap it makes a clean break," "It seeks to find its balance," "Before its new skin hardens the creature is soft and defenseless long enough to serve as prey for its hungry fellow shrimp," "All that remaíns now is its last monthly shroud," "ACERA or THE WITCHES' DANCE" "High tide at Carantec in Brittany," "As the water recedes, it reveals mudflats as far as the eye can see," "Here one finds little balls,- Acera, a kind of mollusk," "fully extended, the creature measures up to 2 inch length," "It has two eyes on its head," "Underneath, a deep furrow houses the senses of touch, taste, and smell," "A shell in the rear protects the internal organs, the animal slides along the ground on an extended foot towing its shell by fits and starts, like a snail," "A fold of skin forms a cloak around its body, allowing it to move and swim as well with its shell serving as ballast," "As with other animals dancing is a way of finding a partner, but touch, taste, and smell also play a part in the quest," "Here they're slightly speeded up," "Reproductive organs are on the right side of the neck, so the creature must pivot its neck when introducing it beneath a partner's cloak," "Being hermaphroditic creatures, each animal functions successively as both male and female," "They can also form chains, Here is a chain of three," "The one in the middle functions as both male and female simultaneously," "The animal in front goes on about its business -- eating mud, for instance," "Here's a chain of five," "Eggs are laid continuously, even during intercourse," "Each Acera discharges its eggs by movements of its neck," "Eggs are laid in a string about a foot long containing approximately 3,000 eggs," "In each egg, a larva develops, surrounded by vibrating cilia that help it move," "After the eggs hatch, the cilia enable the larvae, 1/20 mm in size to scatter carried along by the current," "they will be prey for other marine animals, the survivors drop to the bottom, their cilia capable of catching only microscopic food," "the foot on which the animal will crawl from now on continues to develop," "A few weeks later, the growing cloak will spread out around the body," "After six months, the young Acera will approach adult size, becoming "mom and dad"" "able to reproduce for a while before it dies."