Table of Contents

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Volume 25, Number 19
04 October 2006

pp 4413-4696

Black hole - The mantle with the exhalent siphon of the giant clam Tridacna squamosa (Lamarck, 1819) contains zooxanthellae and a high number of pigment-containing cells, the so-called iridophores. The pigments, mainly in the color range of blue to brown or green to yellow protect the clam and its zooxanthellae against excessive light and UV radiation. 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.

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