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Echinoderms

Bivalves

Gastropods

Crabs

Beach Textures

Salt Water Aquarium

Shrimp Boat

Wading Birds

Bats

Contact

Other Marine Life

Primarily Ocean Isle Beach & Sunset Beach, North Carolina

Cnidaria

Porifera

Chordata

Mollusks

Arthropods

Worms

Bryozoans

Miscellaneous

Mammals

Dolphin jumping for joy off Sunset Beach, NC

Porifera: Sponges

Sponges found at Huntington Beach State Park, Murrells Inlet, SC, 01/31/07. The one on the right is the red beard sponge, Microciona prolifera

Sponges found on Edisto Beach, SC, 01/19/07

Sponges

Excurrent pore, oscula, of sponge found on 01/31/07

Cnidaria: Anemones, Jellyfish, Hydroids and Corals

Bunodosoma cavernata, warty sea anemone, Sunset Beach, NC, 05/01/07

Spider crab on sea anemone

Sea onion anemone,probably Paranthus rapiformis, 11/17/06, Sunset Beach, NC

Sea onion anemones,Paranthus rapiformis

Sea Anemone

Sea Anemone, Calliactis tricolor

Australian Spotted Jellyfish, an invasive, nonindigenous species, Sunset Beach, NC, 10/26/07 -- approx. 29 inches wide. Each flip flop is 10 inches wide

Portuguese Man-o'-War, Physalia physalis, Sunset Beach, NC, 10/26/07 -- approx. 17 inches wide. Flip flop is 10 inches wide

Portuguese Man-o'-War, Physalia physalis, Cherry Grove Beach, SC, 07/28/06

A Siphonophore called Porpita or "Blue Button." L top; R bottom; hundreds were on Ocean Isle Beach & Sunset Beach after Hurricane Charley

Cannonball Jellyfish, 05/09/06

Cannonball Jellyfish

Cabbage Jellyfish

Jellyfish

Moon Jellyfish

Sea Whips -- soft corals; Atlantic Wing Oysters on Sea Whip on Left

Polyp-covered Barnacles, Conopea galeata, on Sea Whip

Sea Whips found on Edisto Beach, SC, 01/18/07

Sea Pansies, Renilla reniformis - a soft coral composed of one large polyp covered with secondary polyps with a stalk called a peduncle

Sea Pansies in my salt water aquarium, with feeding polyps extended

Bryozoan

Hydroid, Halocordia_disticha

Microscope views of Star Coral, Astrangia danae

Chordata: Tunicates & Fish

Colonial tunicate, Eudistoma hepaticum, sea liver, Sunset Beach, 11/04/06

Colonial tunicate, Eudistoma hepaticum, sea liver, found on Sunset Beach on 11/14/06

Colonial Tunicates,various Eudistoma hepaticum and Aplidium stellatum

Aplidium stellatum, sea pork

Large tunicate, Eudistoma hepaticum, sea liver, found right after Hurricane Ophelia; there were hundreds of them

Sea Squirts with incurrent and excurrent siphons

Probably Southern Stingray, Dasyatis americana

Atlantic Sharp-nosed Shark -- 2-ft. long

Stingray

Upside down stingray

Blue

Striped Burrfish, Chilomycterus schoepfi, found on Sunset Beach, 11/30/06; note: the typical striped pattern has been bleached out on this carcass.

Skate egg cases

Mollusks -- Visit these separate web pages:

Gastropod Photos; Bivalve Photos; Microscope Gastropod Photos; Microscope Bivalve Photos

Octopus vulgaris found on Thanksgiving on Sunset Beach, 11/23/06

Octopus vulgaris, Sunset Beach, 12/05/04

Octopus vulgaris, Ocean Isle Beach, 09/28/04

Sea Hares, genus Aplysia, Sunset Beach, 06/06

Arthropods -- Visit the crab web page: Crab Photos and Scans

Ghost Shrimp,probably Callichirus major, found with the tip of its large claw poking out of the sand, Sunset Beach, NC, 07/02/07. It was limp & soon died. Ghost shrimp make hundreds of tiny holes near the ocean, connected by underground tunnels. One can understand how they do that with claws like this. The body of the shrimp, excluding the claw, was 5 inches long. The large claw was 1.5 inches long, for a total "length" of 6.5 inches.

Ghost Shrimp holes and waste pellets

Balanus eburneus, bleached

Megabalanus coccopoma, an invasive species of barnacle, surrounded by local barnacles and the mussel Brachidontes exustus, found on Edisto Island, SC, 01/19/07

Probably a Megabalanus coccopoma barnacle, an invasive species, and another acorn barnacle, possibly the ivory barnacle, Balanus eburneus, Wrightsville Beach, NC, 06/29/06

Probably a species of Balanus, probably either B. venustus or B. amphitrite, Wrightsville Beach, NC, 06/29/06

Live goose barnacles that were next to the barnacles above, 06/29/06

Grass Shrimp

Peppermint Shrimp, Lysmata wurdimani

Skeleton Shrimp -- Caprellid Amphipods, another species of amphipod, and an isopod found in seaweed

Annelida -- Worms

Polychaete worms, Chaetopterus variopedatus, called "mucous-bag feeders"

Decorated tube worms, Diopatra cuprea, that have a leathery case between themselves and the shells. Although they are polychaete worms, they are active predators.

Empty casings of Polychaete worms, Chaetopterus variopedatus, 05/09/06

Lugworm egg case, 05/09/06

Bryozoans

Rubbery Bryozoan

Bryozoan-encrusted Tulip

Bryozoan, Sunset Beach, 11/04/06

Miscellaneous

Questional Egg Cases -- thin threads that broke upon touch and matched the sand -- 06/28/06, Sunset Beach

Sea Lettuce -- 18" in diameter, stem at center

Purple laver, Porphyra, 04/06

Dead Loggerhead Sea Turtle

Rosy Wolf Snail found live on my front porch in Carolina Shores, NC, 12/06

I am deeply indebted to many researchers and scientists for their assistance in identifying species. Although I will list some below, I am fearful that I might be forgetting some who helped me through this exciting journey.

Gayle R. Plaia, NC State University, Raleigh, NC

Peter Meyer, M.D., Wilmington, NC
Naturalist and author of Nature Guide to the Carolina Coast

Richard Fox, Lander University, Greenwood, SC

Susan DeVictor, Southeastern Regional Taxonomic Center
Marine Resources Research Institute

Hap Fatzinger, Curator, Ft. Fisher Aquarium, Ft. Fisher, NC

David Moyer, SC Aquarium, Charleston, SC

Linda Cole, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

David Pawson, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Daphne Fautin, Kansas University, Lawrence, Kansas

Gordon Atkins, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan

David Knott, Southeastern Regional Taxonomic Center
Marine Resources Research Institute

William (Monty) Graham, Ph.D.
Assoc. Professor of Marine Sciences
Dauphin Island Sea Lab and University of South Alabama

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