Sabellaria spinulosa

Paula Lightfoot Does anyone know what makes these little round balls on the seabed? The habitat was soft shale bedrock covered in Sabellaria spinulosa tubes, very silty environment. The balls are just a few millimetres across.

Marco Faasse I think it's not by accident that the urchin is close to the balls ...

George Brown Pooh! Got a fun video but don't know how to post it. Yet. And it's fluorescent.

Paula Lightfoot Thanks! another 'marine poo mystery' solved ;-) George you could post your video on YouTube and put a link from Fb...

George Brown Paula, the problem is, getting it from the Sony camera onto my computer and editing it down to a clip. YouTube is the easy bit. My laptop doesn't like the analogue to digital conversion bit. Working on it.

Liz Morris I've always wondered this myself... very interesting thank you :)

Becky Hitchin We need a poo gallery like the eggs gallery

Erling Svensen I can take a poo picture from my bathroom "next time".....;-)

Sarah Bowen Please don't bother; that's what's called "over-sharing"!!!

George Brown Go on Erling! Do it! Do it!!!

David Kipling Different shots of the same unidentified wormy/crustacean-y thing that keeps appearing in close-up shots of the Pembs reef. Confidence as to phylum would be a good starting point - 'elp!

Marco Faasse Looks like Sabellaria spinulosa. That species has extremely hard tubes of sandgrians glued together. Did you check the hardness of the tubes David Kipling?

David Kipling No, so far I've only seen them in photos by accident - they are small and singular. But I will try Marco!

Marco Faasse Often S. spinulosa forms clumps, but sometimes they do occur singly ... And they start small. Probably you would recognise them when larger or in clumps.

David Kipling And these are tiny compared to the inter-tidal Sabellaria I've seen!

Marco Faasse I don't rule out S. alveolata or another related species, but intertidal S. alveolata I've seen had flaring tube ends.

Andrew Mackie I think you are correct Marco. The tube and tentacles fit I think, though the opercular paleae are not obvious. Worm not in a 'normal' aspect. Solitary S. spinulosa tubes tend to be low and encrusting on stones. Apart from the two Sabellaria species, there is also Lygdamis murata - described off Plymouth if I remember correctly - which is solitary, but I haven't seen this.

Becky Hitchin Does anyone know why Ross coral is called Ross coral? Who / what / where was Ross?

Chris Whitehead I wonder if it was originally 'Rose Coral'? The colonies do look a lot like rose flower heads. Ross coral isn't actually a coral of course. it's a colony of bryozoans. http://tinyurl.com/d396peg

Marco Faasse In French it's "rose de mer", so it's not so strange to think of "Rose Coral" as the original name. Names sometimes show strange behaviour in the course of time.

Becky Hitchin Oh interesting, Marco! That would make sense as nowhere seems to ever mention any connection to a Ross. The colonies could, I suppose, resemble rather wrinkly roses!

Marco Faasse Oh, as an afterthought: this made me think of the Ross worm Sabellaria spinulosa:http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/marine/protectandmanage/mpa/mcz/features/habitats/rosswormreefs.aspx (couldn't access MarLIN now). Again: what/who/where is/was Ross? Here a have no explanation at all ...

Becky Hitchin I know ... that's strange too

David Kipling June RP Ross perhaps? http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Bryozoa.html?id=Jl0WAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y

George Brown It used to be called Rose coral (petals, etc) but was mispelt in a book (Collins I think) that, unfortunately, has stuck. A few species have suffered in that way.

Andy Horton http://www.facebook.com/groups/WordOrigins/

Andy Horton Plumose = feathery (from memory). In old books there was a transcription error that may have been repeated in a later book.

David Kipling I'm struggling with my new OS have quite vicious autocorrect, which is making tagging FB pics with latin names fun at times. Elegans >> elegant and so on.

George Brown Dawn, exactly. Which is why I always try and use the scientific name. It can also tell so much about the creature you are looking at. And this coming from someone who proudly achieved 7% in a latin exam in school!

David Kipling Ciona intestinalis ... looks like an intestine, tick. Coryphella browni is more redi than browni though ...

George Brown Yes, it's named after Greg Brown, one of a small group of folk that brought the world of nudibranchs to the attention of us mere divers. Greg blended art with science in British Opisthobranch Molluscs published in 1976.

David Kipling Yes, I know ;) The book you mention - is that the same as the 2-vol 'biology of opisthobranch molluscs' I have sitting here? (ie the Ray Soc volumes). That's Thompson and Brown. Wouldn't want to think I'm missing a uk nudi volume somewhere!

George Brown No. This is Synopsis of the British Fauna No.8, British Opisthobranch Molluscs, Thompson and Brown, 1976, for The Linnean Society of London, ISBN: 0-12-689350-0. The drawings are black and white but a friend of mine has coloured in the plates on her copy. Beautiful. I last dived with Greg some time in the 70's. On a Nudibranch expedition to Kerrera, by Oban. With Keith Hiscock!

Becky Hitchin Now I want to hunt out a book showing Pentapora as Rose Coral. I got out my 1958 Collins, but no mention of it in there

Becky Hitchin It is? I blame Dawn for this new piece of information!

Douglas Herdson I am glad to see people still using the familiar "Ross Coral". I had been told we now had to used "Potato Crisp Bryozoan".

David Kipling Pringle bryozoan fits though, and is a better match to the shape ;)

Becky Hitchin I don't know what strange Pringles you eat! :P

David Kipling Well they have that curve to them that remind me of Pentapora's curves. MCS should start to do "product placement" in its field guides and earn a few extra £££!

Becky Hitchin Haven't they done enough of that this weekend?!

David Kipling Dawn ... it's Pentapora fascialis in Hayward and Ryland (1995). When did the official change from P. foliacea take place?