Odontodactylus scyllarus eye movements Michael Bok 2016-03-08 | Some video showing the independent scanning eye movements of the mantis shrimp, Odontodactylus scyllarus. The dark areas of the eye are called the pseudopupil. The pseudopupil is created by the facets of the eye that are looking directly at you. You will notice that the mantis shrimp often has three separate pseudopopils in each eye looking at you, this gives them trinocular depth perception in each eye independently. You will also sometimes see the pseudopupils get very large. This is when the animal points the acute zone of the eye at you. The acute zone has much greater resolution than the rest of the eye, and is analogous to our fovea.
Cyerce nigricans. A sea slug from Lizard Island, Australia Michael Bok 2020-11-02 | Cruising around an aquarium, looking fabulous.
Trolleberg Michael Bok 2020-09-03 | Droning around the field south of Lund, Sweden on a late summer sunset. The Öresund and Denmark can be seen on the horizon.
Athens Sunrise Michael Bok 2020-08-25 | A sunrise time-lapse of Athens waking up. November, 2018. Reuploaded with stabilized video.
Fiery Sunset near Källby Dams Michael Bok 2020-08-25 | Time lapse of a beautiful sunset South of Lund, Sweden.
Fan worms in Helford Passage Beach, Cornwall. Michael Bok 2019-06-05 | Lots of Acromegalomma vesiculosum fan worms, and a few Sabella pavonina, ducking out of the way of my Sofar Trident ROV.
Milky Way Time Lapse Michael Bok 2018-08-13 | A time lapse of the Milky Way, Venus, and Mars sweeping by. Shot from Lizard Island, Australia.
The shifting shades of a sunset at Lizard Island Michael Bok 2018-08-12 | A time lapse taken 4 August, 2018 from Research Beach at Lizard Island Research Station. Featuring the shifting colors of the sunset, a passing ship, and descending Venus.
Diadematid sea urchins waving their spines at me. Michael Bok 2018-06-19 | Diadema africanum sea urchins filmed off the coast of Tenerife Spain where we were studying their unusual visual system. They lack conventional eyes, but use a distributed photoreceptor network with coarse resolution in order to find shelter, or in this case, detect the silhouettes of looming predators. When startled, they wave their sharp spines at the threat. Read more about their low-resolution visual system here: Kirwan et al. 2018. The sea urchin Diadema africanum uses low resolution vision to find shelter and deter enemies. http://jeb.biologists.org/content/early/2018/05/04/jeb.176271
A fan worm (Acromegalomma interruptum) responds to repeated shadow stimuli Michael Bok 2018-04-18 | The video shows three shadow responses from the fan worm. Accommodation is observed as the second and third rounds required additional successive stimuli to trigger the response. Filmed at Lizard Island Research Station, Australia
Snake Pit Michael Bok 2016-10-11 | Not the best video, but it was fun to run into a sea snake off of Lizard Island at a site called Snake Pit.
Cobia Hole Michael Bok 2016-10-11 | Nice dive at Cobia Hole off Lizard Island Australia. Sea Turtle, puffers and lots of trevally
Happy Hour on Lizard Island Michael Bok 2015-09-14 | I time lapse of sunset during this year's field trip to Lizard Island Research Station.
Hauling through death valley Michael Bok 2015-04-27 | Time lapse of the drive through death valley from south to north, including a quick stop at Mustard Canyon to take light measurements.
Sunrise over Kernville, California Michael Bok 2015-04-17 | Time lapse of the sunrise from my B&B in Kernville this morning.
Fan worm (Megalomma) emerging Michael Bok 2015-03-18 | This is a tiny fan worm from Lizard Island, Australia. Note the large compound eyes located on a pair of specialized tentacles, which are first to emerge from the tube. These eyes serve as burglar alarms, warning against looming threats. Near the end of the video I pass my had over the light source, eliciting a startle response. (The worm must have been very scared of my hand: The brown pellet that shoots off into the distance as it retracts is probably a fecal pellet)
Video Abstract (Bok et al., 2014) Michael Bok 2014-09-24 | A video abstract I made at Lizard Island regarding this paper: http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(14)00672-1
How not to catch a mantis shrimp Michael Bok 2014-07-13 | I have caught hundreds of this medium-small species (Gonodactylus smithii) using a hand net. However, when I was attempting to film the act for a video abstract for my recent paper (http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(14)00672-1), I had a massive bran-fart and decided it would be a good idea to grab the animal with my hand. The stomatopod made me suffer the consequences of stupidity.
Odontodactylus scyllarus eye movements Michael Bok 2012-12-05 | Some video showing the independent scanning eye movements of the mantis shrimp, Odontodactylus scyllarus. The dark areas of the eye are called the pseudopupil. The pseudopupil is created by the facets of the eye that are looking directly at you. You will notice that the mantis shrimp often has three separate pseudopopils in each eye looking at you, this gives them trinocular depth perception in each eye independently. You will also sometimes see the pseudopupils get very large. This is when the animal points the acute zone of the eye at you. The acute zone has much greater resolution than the rest of the eye, and is analogous to our fovea. Music is "There She Is" from Portal 2.
Haptosquilla trispinosa Michael Bok 2011-09-30 | This is my best shot at showing the hawking behavior in H. trispinosa. The mantis shrimp is in an artificial burrow and lunges out to capture falling food.
Bristleworm Michael Bok 2010-11-18 | A Bristleworm from my aquarium. Read more about it here: http://arthropoda.southernfriedscience.com/?p=3812
Dancing Chromatophores of the squid, Loligo pealeii Michael Bok 2010-10-28 | Chromatophores are muscle-controlled pigment cells in the skin of cephalopods, such as squid, octopus, and cuttlefish. These chromatophores expand and contract on command in order to help the animal blend in with its surroundings, or to communicate with other animals.
Gonodactylus chiragra strike Michael Bok 2010-07-09 | Full speed and one-tenth speed video of G. chiragra striking the side of its tank.
Diving beetle larva attacks mosquito larva Michael Bok 2010-03-31 | Diving beetle, Thermonectus marmoratus, larva predating a mosquito larva. The diving beetle uses up and down head motions to scan its target with its narrow band retina. More: http://arthropoda.southernfriedscience.com/?p=1868 Courtesy of Elke Buschbeck
