NIWA Invertebrate Collection

Aotearoa New Zealand’s marine biodiversity checklist has been updated in the latest NIWA biodiversity memoir, with an increase of 3,630 known living species since the turn of the century. 🙌

Nodding animals, pandoras, goblet worms, acorn worms, horsehair worms, tardigrades and opalinids – these are just some of the fabulous names of our marine life! 🐟🐚

The Marine Biota of Aotearoa New Zealand publication represents our current knowledge of marine biodiversity, including sponges, corals, hydroids, worms, molluscs, crustaceans, sea stars, fish, birds, mammals, reptiles and algae. The total number of known living species in this update is 18,494, a 24 per cent increase since the last update. 🐬🦀

The publication was edited by: Michelle Kelly, Sadie Mills, Marianna Terezow, Carina Sim-Smith & Wendy Nelson, and was made possible thanks to 67 experts at NIWA, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland MuseumTāmaki Paenga Hira, the University of Otago Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, GNS Science Te Pū Ao, as well as overseas institutions and independent taxonomists. 👏

We will be sharing more on this exciting update in the new year, including opportunities to order a hard copy! 📚

In the meantime, access the digital version here ➡️ https://niwa.co.nz/biodiversity-memoir-136-the-marine-biota-of-aotearoa-new-zealand

Shells are so last season. 💅💁

Here’s a hermit crab with a difference. Unlike its shell-dwelling counterparts, this fashion-forward hermit crab has a zoanthid on its back.

The hermit crab initially picks up a shell to live in, but at some stage, the anemone-like zoanthid settles on the shell and grows to envelop the crab. 🦀

Eventually, the zoanthid takes on the role of the shell, and the crab no longer has to worry about risky shell swaps. 🐚

The zoanthid gets carried around, taking advantage of food along the way, and its stinging tentacles provide extra protection for the hermit crab, win-win!

📸 Chazz Marriott

A database holding information on more than 700 shallow-water seafloor invertebrates, such as snails, crabs, and worms, is now available. 🗃️

The New Zealand Trait Database is the first of its kind in Aotearoa and includes information on everything from the animals’ feeding method and body shape, to the ways they move and mix the sediment they live in. 🦀 🐚

Creating it was no easy feat! NIWA marine ecologist, Orlando Lam-Gordillo, led the effort, scouring hundreds of pieces of scientific literature and biological collections to gather and compile the information. 👏

The database will be a useful tool to help increase our understanding of seafloor ecosystem functioning and how it might respond to environmental change.

Read the full story here 👉 https://niwa.co.nz/news/new-creature-catalogue-compiled-to-aid-conservation

📸 Orlando Lam-Gordillo

Gems from the deep. 💎⁣
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Amphipods are a group of small crustaceans that live in all aquatic environments and even in some terrestrial ones too. ⁣
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⬇️ These ones are part of the Epimeriidae family and are found in New Zealand and Antarctic waters at varying depths. 🦐⁣
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These little critters come in a range of colours and many are covered in long spines. It’s not known exactly what the spines do but it’s thought they may offer protection from predators by making the animal harder to see or simply by making it unpleasant to eat. 🤕⁣
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The prickly white amphipod shown in the middle left of the picture lives inside sponges and uses its spines to camouflage itself within its squishy home.⁣
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Worldwide there are over 10,000 amphipod species, with over 550 species known from New Zealand, including the sandhoppers you see at the beach! 🏖️⁣
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Most amphipods are only about 1cm long, but there are giant ones, up to 30cm long, living in the deepest trenches of the ocean. 😮⁣