Atmospheric analysis

Continuing our series ‘the face behind the name’, this week’s critter takes a closer look at the prominent 19th century naturalist Theodore Lyman III and the species Ophiomusium lymani.

The Government’s Deep South National Science Challenge provides an unprecedented opportunity for scientific collaboration that will ultimately improve the lives of all New Zealanders.

We guess we would look grumpy too if our common name was ‘wrinkled swimming crab’.

Who doesn’t want to have a species named after them? It’s usually one of the ultimate acknowledgements and the taxonomist describing the species can honour colleagues who have made a particular contribution to a field of science or have provided support for their work.

This week's Critter of the Week (number 130) is the feather star Argyrometra mortenseni.

This week we bring you a species that puts the ‘brittle’ into brittle star: the beautiful and fragile Ophioleuce brevispinum.

This delicate little gorgonian coral was collected from around 1300 metres depth from the Louisville seamount chain east of New Zealand.

The Mediterranean fanworm Sabella spallanzanii is a spectacularly large worm with a characteristic circular whirl of filaments.

We hope this Week’s Critter of the Week will brighten your day, introducing the genus of sea stars called Zoroaster.

With the Kermadec Trench Expedition coming to a close , we thought we would stay on the theme of trenches for a little longer and present to you Scopelocheirus schellenbergi.

Never complain about a bad hair day again! This week’s crab arguably gives more the impression of disbelief than grump.

If this is looking familiar, you may have read the NIWA press release or one of the many news sites that featured the exciting discovery of this living fossil.