Anna Klompen, PhD

Strobilating C. chesapeakei polyp

I made my C. chesapeakei for #Invertober quickly at the bar tonight! For Scyphozoa, you have to remember the polyps and strobila :)

Hey! QUICK! Scientists/Science communicators of all kinds.

Have you taken anything you've learned from my incessant yapping about my Philly science engagement work & made your own version? Made your own zine, made your own posters, stickers, events, anything?

I would love to hear about it if so!

a blue jellyfish from spongebob squarepants is standing on a grassy hill Alt: GIF: Blue jellyfish from spongebob squarepants is standing on a grassy hill, with tentacle arms in a “bring it on” motion.

End of Sept = @sicb.bsky.social Fall Newsletters!

Need a specimen for your phylogeny? Have a field course to advertise? We’d love to feature your research, teaching, outreach and photos. Let us know!

Send a short blurb + image to secretary.diz@sicb.org!

#TeamInvert

This beautiful #MicroscopyMonday shows a sea anemone’s tentacle, which contains numerous stinging cells (green) used to ensnare and capture prey. 🔬 (Gibson Lab) #SciSky

Hello #fish 🐟 🐠 researchers and PIs of tomorrow! We would be excited to sponsor you for an Ecology, Evolution and Behavior (EEB) Presidential #Postdoc Fellowship application @michiganstateu.bsky.social. Application deadline is Nov 10, so get in touch soom!

#EndlessFishMostBeautiful

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA

10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

Applications are now welcome for the 2026 Venom Evolution, Function and Biomedical Applications GRC & GRS. Before we highlight the amazing programme of speakers we are beginning to put together, we’d like to introduce our organising committee.

Our science photo book The Radiant Sea is out Sept 2nd!!
30 years of research, 10 years of "we should", and a year of collating pix and writing.
Sönke and I show (mostly for the first time) images of how organisms produce, use, and interact with light in the sea. #bioluminescence #fluorescence 🦑🧪🌊

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

The GRFP lives!! (due end of October)
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Shedding Light on Patterns of Unconventional Expression of Opsin Genes in Hydra vulgaris Synopsis. Opsins are G-protein-coupled receptors often expressed in neuronal photoreceptor cells and used for light detection in most animals, including cn

First, first-author paper alert!

“Shedding Light on Patterns of Unconventional Expression of Opsin Genes in Hydra vulgaris” is out and open access in @sicbjournals.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/icb/advance-...

Keep reading for some highlights in the thread below!

🦑🧪

Good news! KU's IRACDA program was reinstated! We are now taking applications for postdocs. Please spread the word.

sjobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/Sear...

The #StowersGrad Class of 2025 is here! ✨ Hear from our newest graduate students about why they chose our #PhD program and what excites them most about the journey ahead. #gradschool

🔗 bit.ly/45HJ0FC

firecracker like jellyfish from Anita Brinckmann-Voss's 1970 book on jellyfish of the Mediterranean Sea.

Wavy tentacles from Anita Brinckmann-Voss's 1970 book on jellyfish of the Mediterranean Sea.

red jellyfish from Anita Brinckmann-Voss's 1970 book on jellyfish of the Mediterranean Sea.

Orange jellyfish from Anita Brinckmann-Voss's 1970 book on jellyfish of the Mediterranean Sea.

The lost jellyfish art of Ilona Richter, from Anita Brinckmann-Voss's 1970 book on jellyfish of the Mediterranean Sea...
🪼🧪🌿🌊

Florida Keys Cassiopea host benthos-like external microbiomes and a gut dominated by Vibrio, Endozoicomonas and Mycoplasma Interactions with microbial communities fundamentally shape metazoans’ physiology, development, and health across marine ecosystems. This is especially true in zooxanthellate (symbiotic algae-containi...

After many months and tears, my final thesis chap is in print! I found two really distinct pictures of a cnidarian microbiome, one from the body cavity and one from the external mucus layer :D journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Very cool! I honestly have no idea - I (unfortunately) have very little experience with field specimens. If you want any images from the lab strains we have let me know.

This is Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus, a lab strain we have had for a while. Polyp color certainly go between white to “bright” pink depending on last feed, but egg color is pretty consistent. I have to look back at some pics of other species to see how much egg color might vary.

A little snail fur hydroid (Hydractinia) close up for #ToxinTuesday. This female colony has tons of eggs developing across multiple reproductive polyps (called gonozooids).

🪼🧪🪼

#Hype4Hydrozoa
@stowersinstitute.bsky.social
@sicb-diz.bsky.social

Close up image through microscope of the mouth and surrounding tentacles of an adult starlet sea anemone. The green spots all around the animal are developing or mature stinging cells. The green is most dense around the mouth.

This sea anemone holds some serious stinging power around their mouth!

📷 Transgenic Nematostella where green marks developing and mature stinging cells, which are densely packed around the mouth.

🪸🧪🪸

#StunningStella #ToxinTuesday @stowersinstitute.bsky.social

Hey everyone! @sicb-diz.bsky.social is now here! Follow them for all your invertebrate science needs! 🧪🦑🌎

#ToxinTuesday

A single-cell ATACseq atlas of our favourite sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis! By @aelek.bsky.social @martaig.bsky.social

A red flower on a green stem withe the words: BHL Call for support now open overlayed.

📢 The #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary is entering a bold new chapter – and we need your help! Today we release our official Call for Support. We’re seeking new hosts for BHL’s staff, infrastructure, and services. Learn more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/06/tran... #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL

United States of Science 2025 By Skype a Scientist

States that need $50 or less to close:
Utah
Nebraska
Maine
Alaska
Louisiana
North Carolina
Rhode Island

Fill those bubbles! givebutter.com/USS2025

Small hydrozoan jelly without a mouth. It has four radial canals covered in relatively large pale pink eggs

When I caught this itty bitty jelly last night, I knew I had something weird. What I didn't realize was that this little medusa is believed to only live for minutes, just long enough to pop off and spawn. I put it aside and texted Claudia Mills. Minutes later, I was bolting back to lab... 🐙🦑🪼

What is animal venom? Rethinking a manipulative weapon The scientific study of animal venoms covers a broad phylogenetic domain. We argue that the true extent of this domain has been obscured by researchers having overlooked the biological essence of venom. Venoms manipulate the physiological functioning of recipients to produce extended phenotypes that are beneficial to the venom producer and detrimental to its victim. The ability to produce extended phenotypes in living victims, such as prey paralysis, distinguishes venom from saliva. Understanding venom from this perspective substantially broadens the phylogenetic domain of venom to include taxa that use toxic secretions to feed on plants and manipulate sexual partners, and it paves the way for unifying the field of venomics with the fields that study invertebrate–plant interactions and sexual conflict.

Online now: What is animal venom? Rethinking a manipulative weapon

Calling all lovers of Non-bilaterian EvoDevo!!💙

Our incredible invited speaker for the Non-Bilaterian Satellite symposia at the #PASEDB2025

Paulyn Cartwright @pcart.bsky.social
University of Kansas

Organizers: Athula Wikramanayake, Bill Browne & @natclarke.bsky.social

I am looking for a new postdoc to join the lab. Interested in pluripotency, germ cells, and in investigating these in a genetically tractable cnidarian? Get in touch! We offer a long-term contract, excellent research environment, and a lovely city #Galway. www.urifranklab.org

New Nematostella transgenic slowly but surely on the way! Any guesses?

#StunningStella
@stowersinstitute.bsky.social

Meet @stoilovamarina.bsky.social
(eeb.ku.edu/people/stoil... )
ICB submitting author
Have you ever seen #jellyfish eyes?
Here we have to two #Cladonema sp. medusae full of orange brine shrimp after feeding. If you look closely at the base of their tentacle bulb, you can see their tiny eye spots.