Atmospheric analysis

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.

This week we introduce to you a rare species of squid.

Sea pens are generally found in deep sea soft sediment habitats (rarely are they encountered by divers).

The strong wind and rain that has battered Auckland this week has presented some special challenges for workers trying to paint NIWA’s flagship research vessel Tangaroa while she has been in dry dock.