These corals were photographed and identified by the late Mr. Hans Ditlev, MSc (1946-2013) who was a coral specialist educated and working at Aarhus University, Denmark. These reported observations (c. 550 species, over 3.900 photos) are parts of his lifetime work with scleractinian taxonomy. Important parts of his collections are deposited at Phuket Marine Biological Center, Thailand; and Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia.
The corals are carefully identified by this expert in taxonomy and have a geographic position. The nomenclature follows WoRMS (marinespecies.org). However, the dates of collection or photographs are usually not given. The date is therefore arbitrarily set to 1. January 2000 to make it possible to enter them in iNaturalist. The high quality of the photos as well as the careful identification of a real specialist makes them valuable as references and will also, hopefully, contribute to the improvement of the AI system for Automated Image Recognition in iNaturalist. These photos are uploaded to iNaturalist with permission from Hans Ditlev’s wife, Mrs. Else Ditlev, Hornslet, Denmark.
Hans Ditlev published the book “A field-guide to the reef-building corals of the Indo-Pacific” in 1980. After that, he worked on a revision of this book, as he understood the importance of literature for identification as fundamentally important for work in ecology, evolution, conservation etc. His too early death motivated two colleagues to try to complete his work which resulted in the books “Indo-Pacific corals identified and illustrated by Hans Ditlev” by Jørgen Hylleberg & Tomas Cedhagen as authors; vol 1: viii+406 pp. 2015, Thailand National Science Museum; and vol 2: xxii+374 pp. 2018, Phuket Marine Biological Center. Hans Ditlev published scientific articles and described some new coral taxa.
Found on Diopatra tube cap. Approx 3.5 mm long from basal disk to mouth.
< 1m
The anemone.
< 1m
The fluffy anemone to the left.
Not sure about this one. I hope the image of the column is useful in ID'ing.
Possibly a strawberry anemone? Found on Diopatra tube cap. About 4 mm across.
On roots of Rhizophora stylosa
Found on beached styrofoam fishing float, north of Peter Iredale
Oarfish stranded in La Jolla Cove
La Paz, BCS, Mexico
I've seen a couple of these around so never thought to check I.D. going back through photos and can't see any similar on here. Help would be appreciated :)
Abundant on underside of coralline algae encrusted cobbles. Dark purple individuals were frequently observed clinging to translucent individuals, as shown in the second image. Not sure of this is some kind of courtship behavior.
I think this may be a hybrid of Lutjanus kasmira and L. fulvus due to brown stripes. Location obscured to project fishing spot. General location is south shore Oahu.
Can anyone comment on what appears to be some extra long oral tentacles?
This mola was caught in this anemone. What type of anemone is it?
undescribed sp first seen by @imlichentoday
found on kelp (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/194171357)
but rearing when found, detached quickly
no wind, light to no surge, night, water temp 61 F, -0.8ft tide
found by @nudibitch
2nd record of this species! Found at a -.8ft low tide, at night, no wind, no waves
more pictures of this individual: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/194171352
More pictures of 1st recorded individual: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/90419664
Found by @nudibitch! Second record of this species recorded, first is here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/90419664
More photos of the second individual here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/194213584
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/194171352
Just around the corner from this one:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/194785728
Couldn't find one fully open.
Wonderful creature! It was huge and I thought it was a moray at first! More than 1/2" wide and 12" long, and was crawling across the reef and poking its nose into holes just like a hunting moray. Didn't react to my proximity at all and didn't seem to have any kind of fangs/hooks on the front.
Snorkeling.