Thomas Schwaha

The ectoparasitic seal louse, Echinophthirius horridus, relies on a sealed tracheal system and spiracle closing apparatus for underwater respiration - Communications Biology Morphological and experimental analyses of seal lice reveal a unique spiracle-closing system and exclude plastron use, suggesting cuticular and pigment-based respiration with limited tracheal oxygen s...

and the second here:
www.nature.com/articles/s42...

09.06.2025 09:19 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Host-parasite coevolution leads to underwater respiratory adaptations in extreme diving insects, seal lice (Lepidophthirus macrorhini) - Communications Biology Seal lice survive deep-sea dives by closing spiracles, reducing oxygen use, and breathing through their skin. Genomic data suggest they store oxygen via haemoglobin, showing insects can adapt to extre...

In two independent collaborations with two different labs (Leonardi-lab Argentinia, and Gorb-lab Germany) new data on different seal lice and their adaptations for underwater respiration. See more here:
www.nature.com/articles/s42...

09.06.2025 09:18 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

#FossilFriday Jabba the Zooid. This teratological zooid in a colony of the bryozoan Tornipora reminds me of Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars. Cretaceous, Campanian, Archiac, SW France.

23.05.2025 06:01 — 👍 14    🔁 5    💬 0    📌 0

Join the best invertebrate event of 2025!
The official website for the 6th International Congress on Invertebrate Morphology (ICIM6) is now live! Check it out:
icim6.com
Thank you Felipe and colleagues for hosting this!

13.03.2025 18:50 — 👍 7    🔁 8    💬 0    📌 0

great morphology meeting of the dzg last week in kiel

26.02.2025 21:01 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Phylogenomics of the rarest animals: a second species of Micrognathozoa identified by machine learning royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

22.02.2025 09:28 — 👍 28    🔁 8    💬 1    📌 0

It is amazing to see so many #Morphologists attending #Morpho25 in Kiel. The renaissance of #Morphology is continuing

21.02.2025 07:24 — 👍 14    🔁 6    💬 0    📌 0

Holotype of Patagurus rex, dorsal view. Photos by Arthur Anker. This is a strange hermit crab, shown naked. Its carapace is shaped like 2 triangles stuck together, hardened with several lateral projections. Unlike other hermits that have a long, curved abdomen, this one is tiny, perhaps 1/3 the length of the carapace. The carapace is whitish/pinkish, claws red, walking legs red and white striped.

Dorsal view of the Patagurus holotype again (always the holotype because there are no other specimens). This time you see a small bivalve, the mussel Gregariella, covering the pleon in a sideways fashion.

Similar to the last photo, except the bivalve is popped off (but in the image) and the crab is seen slightly more anteriorly, so its mouthparts are visible

P is for Patagurus, a hermit crab known from only ONE SPECIMEN EVER!

Instead of a snail shell, it wears a bivalve to cover its tiny abdomen. Is this how hermit crabs gave up their houses in carcinization? 🤔 (see king & coconut crabs, ALSO hermits)

#CrabAZ 🦀🧪🦑

www.biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/arti...

16.02.2025 12:48 — 👍 301    🔁 70    💬 12    📌 3

Next trip, Thailand, sampling freshwater bryos

08.02.2025 12:06 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Was great to have @cblei.bsky.social in Vienna for this weeks departmental seminar!

29.01.2025 09:47 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

UM - Research

Applications for Unitas Malacologica Travel Grants to attend the World Congress of #Malacology in São Paulo, Brazil from August 4-8 2025 are now open! unitasmalacologica.org/projects.html

15.01.2025 23:45 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

first of 2025.Taiwan. Great to be here working on a variety of bryoans. Also great to meet @yjluo.bsky.social during my stay, thanks! Looking forward to some nice collaborations!

12.01.2025 14:52 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Ecology of endolithic bryozoans: colony development, growth rates and interactions of species in the genus Immergentia - Zoological Letters Boring bryozoans dissolve calcium carbonate substrates, leaving unique borehole traces. Depending on the shell type, borehole apertures and colony morphology can be diagnostic for distinguishing taxa,...

zoologicalletters.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
On the final day of 2024, first data on growth rates from boring bryozoans of the genus Immergentia. Great work from Mildred Johnson and other colleagues.

31.12.2024 08:09 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Recurrent evolution of breathing microtunnel system in terrestrial operculate snails (Gastropoda: Caenogastropoda: Cyclophoroidea) Abstract. The Cyclophoroidea are a group of land snails possessing an operculum that seals the aperture when the snail withdraws its body into the shell. S

New publication on gastropod respiratory tunnels.
academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

16.12.2024 05:42 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0