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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 12h

A striking red Platyhelminthes (flatworm) from a recent plankton sample. #marineplankton 🔬🦑

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I had another scale worm larva in my sample! Such a bizarre creature! #marineplankton 🦑🔬

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has purchased a tee from The Plankton Project @teemillstore ! 100% of the y profit goes towards running the CIC and no where else. These tees are still available (link in bio), but what plankton do you suggest we put of a t-shirt next? Comment below!⬇️ #marineplankton

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

This week is a big boys’ and girls’ meeting and I feel like a toddler standing on the shoulders of another toddler (who has probably only just learnt to walk), wearing a suit and a beard drawn on with eyeliner.

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Can you see the hitchhiker? Unlike me, this little Epicaridea (parasitic isopod) hasn’t paid his travel fare, and is using this copepod as both a means of transport, and lunch! I think he’s rather cute tbh. #marineplankton 🔬🦑

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Some very enthusiastic Obelia sp. (Hydrozoa) medusae in this week’s sample. I hardly ever get to see them so active! The medusa is the sexual stage of some cnidarians. #marineplankton 🦑🔬

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Such a handsome copepod nauplius! I /think/ this could be a nauplius from the family Siphonostomatoida. #marineplankton 🔬🦑

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

ystery worm time! This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this worm, and I’m still none the wiser as to what it is. If anyone knows, let me know! #marineplankton 🦑🔬

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

An absolutely chocker sample this week! Always lovely to see baby sea gooseberries! #marineplankton 🦑🔬

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Look what I’ve been gifted @rodneyforster.bsky.social ! For those who don’t know, this is a Secchi disk and it measures water turbidity.

A metal square about 20 cm square. It has a large circle on the centre with 4 segments, alternately black and white

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Lots of tintinnids in my samples at the moment. #marineplankton 🦑🔬

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Bonus Robin content! Sound definitely on.

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Hello sunshine! 🌞. Hydrozoa medusa from the genus Obelia looking stunning under polarised light. #marineplankton 🔬🦑

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Reposted by Elizabeth Beston

Sir John Falstaff (Ret.) from Shakespeare @bbo-falstaff.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

A worm that builds his own house and floats it through the sea—why, the little knave outdoes me, who hath neither house nor honest lodging but what a buck-basket provides. If I could spin mine own tube of sand and sail the Thames, I'd owe no landlord and fear no constable.

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The sand mason worms (Lanice concheliga) are still appearing every now and again in my plankton samples. The worms have larval stages in the plankton, with their own little tubes! #marineplankton 🦑🔬

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Anyone here good with marine Cyclopoida? 🦑🔬#marineplankton

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Ooooh I’ve seen copepods living in my slop tank! I shall take a sample tomorrow and see what they are. #marineplankton 🦑🔬

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I’ve discovered that Synchaeta sp. rotifers look lovely under polarised light! 🔬🦑 #marineplankton

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

What a little cutie chubby sea spider bubby. This is a protonymphon (a larval stage) of a sea spider. I love those little grabby claws! 🦑🔬 #marineplankton

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It’s time to update the UK plankton snapshot map! #marineplankton 🦑🔬 #scicomm

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

When is it going to cool the fudge down?! As someone who struggles to regulate heat, this is a nightmare 🥵. Is this it forever now? Should I move to Norway yet? I need sweater weather STAT!

static.klipy.com

Sweater Weather

Alt: Sweater Weather - GIF an eighties couple turn towards the camera as it pulls back, modelling their white sweaters. The words Sweater Weather spin into view in the centre of the gif

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Hey, sparkle pants! This amphipod really lit up under polarised light. #marineplankton 🦑🔬

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Reposted by Elizabeth Beston

Kitty @kittyfisher.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Dancing crabs, some time in the 1830s 🦀

Coloured lithograph of two dark green crabs (I have no idea what species they’re meant to be if any - C maenas I guess?) dancing a horn pipe or jig together, stood on their swimming legs on a bed of sand and shells. By Henry Monnier from Le Caricature magazine, probably 1831

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Hello little rotifer! I think this is a rotifer from the genus Proales, from my latest marine plankton sample. #marineplankton 🦑🔬

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This is what a baby sea squirt looks like! An ascidian larva - looks like a tadpole! Sometimes they are, indeed, referred to as ‘tadpole larvae’. Polarised light. #marineplankton 🦑🔬

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The only ghost I ever want to see (and believe in)! A Müller’s larva of a Polycladida flatworm. 👻 #marineplankton 🦑🔬

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Reposted by Elizabeth Beston

The Marine Biological Association @thembauk.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Congratulations to Dr Clare Ostle on being awarded a (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellowship. The Fellowship will support Dr Ostle’s project, Leading the Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey into the Future: Innovating Plankton Observations for Global Ocean Biodiversity Monitoring and Forecasting.

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Just wow! Yesterday, I used my new polarised light knowledge to photograph some copepods from my latest marine plankton sample. The results are so sparkly! And this is with just cheap polarising film, no expensive filters required 😮😍! #marineplankton 🦑🔬

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Reposted by Elizabeth Beston

🍁 Alex Smith 🍁 @alexsmithants.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

So happy to be able to wear my newly arrived #ctenophore t-shirt in #ZOO3700 lecture today! Check them out! @elizabethbeston.bsky.social t supporting the Plankton Project theplanktonproject.teemill.com/collection/a...

screen grab of a lecture where there is a plot of host mass against parasite size and students have annotated their expectation. top right hand corner speaker is wearing snazzy ctenophore tshirt!

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

An exquisite dancing cercaria larva of a parasitic Trematode (flatworm) from yesterday’s plankton sample. #marineplankton 🦑

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

This ascidian (sea squirt) larva looks glorious dyed with lugol’s iodine solution. #marineplankton 🦑

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Super fun time at microscopy club today. Polarised crystallisation photography!

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

These little fellas don’t usually appear in plankton samples, so it was a real treat to be in its company - an adult Rissoa parva snail. #marineplankton 🦑

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I feel like the Plankton Snapshot needs a theme tune! Welcome to this week’s plankton update. Please consider contributing if you sample plankton in the uk! #marineplankton #scicomm 🦑

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Reposted by Elizabeth Beston

Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

This Is Incredible

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Here’s a beautiful scale worm larva from my latest marine plankton sample for #internationalmicroorganismday ! #marineplankton 🦑

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

A weeny hydroid medusa from this week’s plankton sample. #marineplankton 🦑

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I’ve not had time to process any of my latest plankton images, so here’s a video of a mudsnail, Peringia ulvae, cleaning my slop tank glass. 🦑

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Took littlest for a cheeky snorkel this afternoon when I was supposed to be doing a plankton analysis 🙈. You’ve gotta grab those snorkelling moments when you can in the North Sea!

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Morning! Sample day. May try for a swim later. #marineplankton 🦑

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Can anyone help me with marine tardigrade ID? I have the guide but I can’t pinpoint it! #marineplankton 🦑

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Sea squirt larvae! These are both ascidian larvae, but look a little different to each other. The top one is a solitary sea squirt, and the bottom is a colonial species. You can tell because the trunk (the ‘head’-looking bit) of the colonial larva looks a little more complex. #marineplankton 🦑

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

My Bluesky is freaking out and I can’t see any posts from anyone. I’ll reply to stuff soon!

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Another nemertean pilidium larva! Just my second ever! So lovely. #marineplankton 🦑

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Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Can you see the little interloper hiding in this young sea squirt? I can’t quite tell if this lil’ guy is inside the tunicate, and whether it’s there on purpose or by accident. But, I think it’s a nauplius of the mysterious Facetotecta - no one knows what the adults look like! #marineplankton 🦑

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