Table of Contents

cover image

Volume 25, Number 23
29 November 2006

pp 5443-5634

Rippled - In contrast to other scleractinian corals, the polyps of Mycedium elephantotus (Pallas, 1766) lack tentacles. Collection and accumulation of food particles is performed by mucus nets and filaments secreted by highly specialized cells, and the subsequent engulfment through the orange-coloured mouth openings. 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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