Does anyone who knows the strange small (about 0.7 mm long) animal in the attached microscopic photo? A high-school student found it in a plankton sample collected from a brackish area of a small river in Tokyo Bay, and asked me about its name. However, I have never seen it in my zooplankton collection and in literature I have. I think it may be not a plankton but a terrestrial animal dropped in water. I would appreciate it if someone inform me the taxonomic name of the animal. You can see the same photo at the following URL: http://www.cc.kochi-u.ac.jp/~hueda/zplab/Unknown.jpg
Thank you for your comment. Yes, I also think it is beautiful and funny. Especially the leaf-like marginal elements are funny, because these seem useless for swimming or flying.
Those leaf-like extensions are most likely for gas exchange or flotation or both. I’m betting this is a planktonic larval form of some sort.
I am sorry that I could not attach the photo; this is my first question in this site. I try to attach it again.
This animal is apparently an arthropod judging from segmentation of the symmetric body.
Annelids are also segmented, have pelagic forms and have a pair of often modified parapodia that stick off of each segment.
Thank you, Dr Grober. If someone knows annelids having such the leaf-like parapodia, I would appreciate the information about them. While I looked for images of annelids, I found a larva of caddisfly with leaf like gills, which are very similar to those of the animal in problem, at :
http://quizlet.com/15736067/macro-flora-and-fauna-immature-section-flash-cards/
The number and position of gills are also similar, although the body shape is different. I add "annelid", "insect larva", "freshwater insect" to the topics of my question.
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