By Dr. Tom Niesen One of our FMR tidepool naturalists found this star-shaped animal among the fine gravel on the bottom of a tidepool and asked for an identification. I was first thrown off by the star pattern in the photograph and sent the image to Dr. Rebecca Johnson, co-director…
By Dr. Tom Niesen The creature featured today is Berthella californica, the California Berthella or the California Side-gilled sea slug. A specimen was recently observed at FMR in a midtidal tide pool by Tom Ciotti, Board member of The Friends of Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. Berthella spp. are easily mistaken for…
by Robin Agarwal Originally published in the October 2019 Edition of Between the Tides Looking like a fanciful Pokémon creature made out of pink, blue and yellow-striped candy corn, Babakina festiva (Roller, 1973) is one of California’s more infrequently-seen nudibranchs and an even more infrequent visitor to the northern half…