Mom will remember that when we parked at Pt. Lobos in the early morning that we took the last parking place in the lot. Pretty much all the other places were occupied by the cars of scuba divers. A guy from work dives there, and when I had lunch with him the other day, he told me that he and his wife had discovered a new species of sea slug while diving! Turns out that they dive between 100 and 200 feet, which is not all that well traveled. They spotted this little sea slug and took some pictures.
They did not recognize what kind it was, so they consulted with a local expert in Santa Cruz. He didn't recognize it either. They kept their eyes open for it in later dives, and managed to find quite a few. They took a couple of specimens, and when the local expert examined the reproductive system under a scanning electron microscope (apparently the definitive way to identify it), it was found to be new. How cool is that! Scientific paper in the works. By the way, the other picture is Dara scouting for otters, not slugs.
They did not recognize what kind it was, so they consulted with a local expert in Santa Cruz. He didn't recognize it either. They kept their eyes open for it in later dives, and managed to find quite a few. They took a couple of specimens, and when the local expert examined the reproductive system under a scanning electron microscope (apparently the definitive way to identify it), it was found to be new. How cool is that! Scientific paper in the works. By the way, the other picture is Dara scouting for otters, not slugs.
3 comments:
That's really awesome. Do they get to name the slug after themselves?
That's what I asked! They named it after their cat: Okenia Felis. Genus Okenia.
NO WAY! They get to make the name up too? I Love it. Good thing they didn't name it after Smell Cat... Genus: Odoriferous
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