Field of Science

Name the Bug # 14



Possibly the most evilly difficult ID challenge I've put up yet (unless you've seen this particular figure before, perhaps) but trust me, it's so worth it. The scale bar represents 1 mm. Attribution, as always, to follow.

Update: Identity now available here. Figure from Wilbur (2006).

11 comments:

  1. Okay, I'll throw out a wild guess since I've been thinking of them today:

    Aïstopod scales

    ReplyDelete
  2. (Possible big hint) Nope, it's not vertebrate.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is cruel, it could be an EM of anything!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Then another big clue - it's Cambrian.

    ReplyDelete
  5. it doesn't look like echinoderm stereom nor like the scales from the small shelly fauna.

    My first guess was stromatolith but the details look too big.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Not an archaeocyath, nor a stromatolite (you're right, Steve, it's too big). But as for other options - don't be so quick to judge.

    ReplyDelete
  7. this is stereom?! plates from an edrioasteroid, helicoplacoid or carpoid?

    looking at the overlapping layers, i'd choose Helicoplacoid.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I will admit that I have no idea about the image but having read lots of your posts I know you're a tricky fellow with a liking for oddities so I'm going to have a wild stab at a stylophoran. Cothurnocystis?
    Please post something about the elephantidae next... You'd be amazed at how unlike a rhino the platybelodon is, under all that baggy skin.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ok, for the next Mystery Micrograph, I'm gonna torture you with obscure non-descript biflagellates as punishment!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hay! no fair posting a black fly when you haven't given us the answer to bug #14!

    ReplyDelete

Markup Key:
- <b>bold</b> = bold
- <i>italic</i> = italic
- <a href="http://www.fieldofscience.com/">FoS</a> = FoS