Thursday, January 1, 2015

WONDERFUL THINGS: THE GIANT TRANSPARENT RIBBONS OF EEL LARVAE


The video shows large leptocephali that were filmed by divers at 3 locations within the Indonesian Archipelago from 2009 - 2011. These leptocephali were observed in Lembeh Strait adjacent to northeastern Sulawesi Island, at Ambon Island and at Bali, from December to April.

These leptocephali are about 300 - 400 mm long and appear to be metamorphosing larvae of some type of moray eel of the family Muraenidae. The morphological similarities between these leptocephali and ribbon eels, Rhinomuraena quaesita, suggest they may be ribbon eel larvae.

The video clip showing the four leptocephali that were filmed by various divers is associated with an unpublished manuscript: Observations of large muraenid leptocephali in coastal Indonesia: locations of sightings and behavior of the larvae by Miller et al.
video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UqlpHG5Z3E

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