Weekend #Plankton #Factoid 🦠🦐

#Copepod #zooplankton are the most numerous metazoans on the planet, and some have evolved into fantastical forms. Take Calocalanus pavo, the beautiful "peacock copepod", which has amazingly plumed antenna and caudal rami. It is small, ~1mm long, and uses the plumes to slow its sinking for feeding in the upper #ocean. It is famous for being very prominent in Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur (1904) plate 54 #watercolour paintings of copepoda.
#science #art