a linnean stroll down the beach
flabdablet reminds us that “barnacles are crustaceans, not molluscs. Did they not get the memo about turning into crabs?”
Yeah, I’ve always classified that in my head next to the weirdness of octopuses being molluscs! Now if only we could find a crab-seeming creature that's really a surprise.... what would we even expect an octopus to be? Maybe a tunicate?
“If you want to be a barnacle, you’ve got to turn upside down and catch food with your feet.” - Richard King1 (National Maritime Historical Society) (this is a total digression, but a great article with charming illustrations)
nm, spelling is clearly more on topic. “Today it is well established that "mollusk" is the American spelling, and "mollusc" is the British spelling",”2 declares Conchologists of America after explaining the long contentious history of this debate.
“Malacologists and conchologists often wonder whether "mollusk" or "mollusc" is the correct or preferred spelling of the vernacular name for the phylum Mollusca. A debate on the subject appeared in Hawaiian Shell News from April to July of 1993.” - Gary Rosenberg (Conchologists of America3)
That article has the most perfect hook4 I’ve ever seen (though it turns out that an octopus hook is not made for catching octopus5 - it’s just a hook where the eye is bent backwards “so that if you’re snelling67 the hook, the line can go straight down to the backside of the shank.”)
Not the point. Right. Back to tunicates, since today is Halloween, let’s take a look at the skeleton panda sea squirt - just as a treat. Why not!
That’s all for today, gonna stop here so I can go fishing obsessively read everything ever written by Richard King and Gary Rosenberg instead
hoo boy am I suddenly obsessed with this marine life guy
is it, though?
“The Conchologists of America, better known as COA, is a society for shell enthusiasts from all walks of life, at all levels of interest.” - COA
srsly, I now want to read everything Gary has ever written on literally any topic whatsoever, no questions asked
This fishing guy also ranks fishing knots. God I love how much detail there is in the world.
A snell ("comparative sneller, superlative snellest") knot is tied around the shaft of the hook, not through the eye. Variations include (but are presumably not limited to): the easy snell knot, the uni-snell knot, the double hook snell knot, the sliding snell hook knot, the egg loop knot, the improved snell knot, and the nail snell knot. Of course.
I’m so tempted to expand the wikipedia entry on snell knots, despite never having heard the term in my life before today