November 18, 2009 | 2 comments
By Gary Stix
Water flea (Daphnia atkinsoni) sports a comblike crown of thorns (green, spiny structure in head) to make itself unappetizing to predators. The crown, which measures about 200 microns across, emerges in offspring of parents that sense a chemical signal emitted by the tadpole shrimp (Triops cancriformis). Jan Michels of Christian Albrechts University of Kiel, Germany, who won first prize, used confocal laser scanning microscopy to create the image. Exposed to the laser light of the microscope, a dye that stains the exoskeleton fluoresces green, and some of the internal tissues fluoresce on their own, including the compound eye, which turns blue and red.
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