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Two marine snails (pteropods) mating in a dish. Clione limacina.

Two marine snails (pteropods) mating in a dish. Clione limacina.
Two marine snails (pteropods) mating in a dish. Clione limacina.
Two marine snails (pteropods) mating in a dish. Clione limacina.
Two marine snails (pteropods) mating in a dish. Clione limacina.
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Bianco-Bercial, Leo
Two marine snails (pteropods) mating in a dish. Clione limacina.
Still Image
09/03/2012
amorous_angels.jpg
Image of the Day caption:
Two shell-less marine snails, captured with a plankton net, mate in a glass dish. These half-inch-long animals are swimming snails called pteropods that live in open ocean waters. This species, Clione limacina, are hermaphroditesindividuals have both male and female organs and can mate with any other member of their speciesa useful trait when looking for a mate in the vast ocean. These were collected on an NSF-funded cruise in the Pacific Ocean led by WHOI scientist Gareth Lawson. This image is part of the 2013 WHOI calendar, available at the WHOI store.
Caption from 2013 wall calendar:
February - Amorous Angels
Two shell-less marine snails, captured with a plankton net, are mating in a glass dish. These half-inch-long animals, Clione limacina, are a kind of swimming snail called pteropods (wing foot), that are widespread in the open ocean. Clione are hermaphroditesindividuals have both male and female organs and can mate with any other member of their speciesa useful trait when looking for a mate in the vast ocean. Also called sea angels, they are not very angelic, being voracious predators on smaller planktonic snails. These were collected on an NSF-funded cruise in the Pacific Ocean.
Photo by Leo Bianco-Bercial
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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