Table of Contents

cover image

Volume 24, Number 14
20 July 2005

pp 2491-2713

At first sight - What is evocative of swimming spermatozoa at high magnification is in fact a close-up view of the calcareous radiating septa of the mushroom coral Fungia fungites (Linnaeus, 1758). Mushroom corals represent over 40 species inhabiting shallow waters in the tropical Indo-Pacific. The picture was captured off the shore of Ellaidhoo, a small island within the Ari atoll (Maldives) with a Nikonos RS/50mm macro lens on Kodak Elitechrome 100 ASA colour slide film. The photographer,Wolfgang Seifarth, is molecular biologist at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. His main research interests focus on the impact of endogenous retroviral elements (HERV) in the human genome, on marine biology, and underwater photography.

View larger image