Category: Climbing the Tree of Life

Shrimp are underwater bugs? Or are bugs flying shrimp? In this one, we’re talking about crustaceans. From land crabs the size of dinner plates to tiny krill that feed the whales, this group holds some cool members.

We are finally talking about octopuses. Octopuses are definitely in the top three of my favorite animals, so I’m more than excited. Between the vampire squid from hell and cute little Dumbo-eared octopuses, there is a lot to talk about, so let’s dive in.

Sea cuttles, also wrongly named cuttlefish, are masters of disguise. Chameleons don’t even compete. But that’s not the only cool thing about these cute blobs of awesome. So, let’s talk about cuttles!

Between bobtail squids that are so cute that I just can’t, colossal squid that are, well, colossal, and squid that aren’t even squid, there’s a lot of excitingly cool stuff in this group.

Nautiluses are often considered living fossils. Today we talk about these shelled cephalopods and their more recent cousins, the allonautiluses.

Today, we talk mollusks. From clams and oysters to snails and underwater slugs in all colors of the rainbow.

Today, we are continuing our precarious climb along the ever-changing tree of life. Once I survive the three weeks of full-time lectures, we’ll make things a little more diverse on here again. There are quite a few exciting things I want to talk about, but my brain is refusing to do more than chew up…

Today, we are going to talk about one of my favorite animals: corals. Yep, I said animal. Those plant-looking things are definitely animals. It’s even weirder than that, though. Let’s dive in. Let’s quickly orient ourselves where we are on the tree of life. In the kingdom of the animals, the so-called Animalia, the Ctenophora…