Miranda Lowe does exactly the same job at the Natural History Museum in London that Isabella Gordon did many years ago.
“Isabella’s job involved identifying specimens of crustacea, many of which were already waiting in the museum’s storerooms. Ocean expeditions, then and now, bring back examples of what they pull out of the sea.“
Miranda has been looking at the many specimens Isabella collected and looked after, and has lots of facts to share with you about the ones she chose for the book.
CRUSTACEANS
Crustaceans (sounds like: Crust–ay–shins)
Say it out loud then listen to Miranda & her Favourite Fact!
Crustaceans are animals which don’t have a backbone they have a shell called a carapace which acts like armour to protect their soft bodies which are in 3 sections:-
- Head
- Thorax
- Abdomen
There are about 67,000 species of crustaceans in the world and some live in the Moray Firth. Isabella studied loads of them.
- Some have 2 sets of antennae
- They belong to the arthropod family
- They mostly live in water so breath through gills like fish
- Lobsters are the biggest and Copepods the smallest
- Lobsters can live around 200 years, Copepods not long
Crustaceans are important to our oceans because of the Food Web
Water louse
(Pond slater)
Science name: Asellus aquaticus
Sounds like: A-sell-uss aqu-atic-uss
Say it out loud then listen to Miranda & her Favourite Fact!
Asellus aquaticus is a freshwater crustacean found in ponds and rivers, like the River Isla in Keith. In the book, Isabella is drawing one, and of course this one was drawn by Alexa Rutherford.
QUICK FACTS
Asellus aquaticus:-
- are very small, only up to about 15mm
- hide under rocks
- live for up to 20 months
- can help scientists measure pollution in the water
- are sometimes used to clean water in tanks or aquariums full of fish
- some people keep them as pets!
These Pond slaters have been forming clean up crews to get rid of decaying plants and animals for 300 million years!
FUN FACTS
- they can trap air beneath their shells – so they can be underwater for longer – perhaps incase they want to go scuba diving?
- They were awarded the grand title of Invertebrate of the Year 2024 in Latvia
- In Latvian they are called ‘ūdens ēzelīts’ which in English means ‘water donkey’ – sounds nicer than ‘louse’!
- Woodlice (Slaters) are very close relatives of the Water louse – in fact they are also crustaceans, but one of the very few that live on land. They have a large number of different names depending on where you live in the UK. Isabella would have called them Slaters, but in parts of England they are known as Chucky pigs, Chiggy wigs, Cheesy logs, Granny grunters, Parson’s pig and my favourite, Pill Bugs.
Water louse_(Asellus aquaticus) By Charles J. Sharp: CC BY-SA 4.0
This is a photo of a real Water louse – would you keep this as a pet?!
Common Hermit Crab
Science name: Pagurus bernhardus
Sounds like: Pa-grr-us bern-hard-us
Say it out loud then listen to Miranda & her Favourite Fact!
These Hermit crabs live in rockpools around the UK so you could find one next time you visit the seaside. Isabella probably found them if she visited the gorgeous Cullen beach, not far from her home in Keith. You can see one trying to climb out of her bucket in this picture drawn by Alexa Rutherford.
QUICK FACTS
Pagurus bernhardus:-
-
- are about 3.5cm long
- eat anything they find – they are scavengers
- live inside shells that aren’t their own!
- main predators are fish, star fish, larger crabs, gulls and crows
They are natural cleaners and recyclers scavenging on dead things which helps recycle nutrients and prevent disease. They spread shells around which means they help keep environments diverse.
FUN FACTS
- They have no ears! They hear by sensing vibrations through their legs and antennae, which is very similar to how people who are deaf hear sound – though they don’t have antennae!
- As they grow bigger they need new shells – there are two ways they might find these:-
- Steal bigger shells from other crustacea who have died – e.g. whelks, periwinkles
- Or steal them from other hermit crabs – they knock on the door and get them out for a fight!
Pagurus bernhardus © Hans Hillewaert, CC BY-SA 4.0
This is a photo of a real one. Have you, like Isabella, ever found one in a rock pool?
EUROPEAN LOBSTER
Science name: Homarus gammarus
Sounds as it looks!
Say it out loud then listen to Miranda & her Favourite Fact!
These are very large lobsters who live all around the coasts of the UK and Ireland but they are harder to find than Hermit crabs as they live in hidey holes underwater! Isabella would have seen them brought to the shore as food when she went to University in Aberdeen. This one, drawn by Alexa Rutherford, is beside a creel which fisherfolk use to catch them – look out for creels piled up the next time you visit a fishing harbour.
QUICK FACTS
Homarus gammarus :-
-
- grow to about 50cm long but sometimes up to 1 metre
- are scavengers, searching out food on the seabed, and will eat molluscs, sea urchins and other smaller crustaceans
- one of their claws (also known as pinchers) is larger than the other – the bigger one is for crushing and the smaller for tearing its food
- live in burrows amongst rocks underwater, beneath the low tide mark and out to sea at depths of 60m
- main predators are humans – we love to eat them!
They are crucial to keeping ecosystems stable in the oceans and very important to humans, helping to sustain fishing communities around our coasts.
FUN FACTS
- as they grow bigger they shed their shells – this is called moulting – then grow a new one
- they are nocturnal, so they hide during the day and come out to feed at night
- if they lose a limb they can simply re-grow it!
- they are BLUE – yes really – look at the real picture below – they only turn pink when they are cooked
European Lobster By Bart Braun – Public Domain
ECHINODERMS
Echinoderms
Sounds like: Eck-eye-no-derms
Say it out loud then listen to Miranda & her Favourite Fact!
Echinoderms are amazing animals. They have no bones and no brains but their skin is spikey. They can move around slowly and seem very good at surviving! There are about 7,000 species like starfish, sea urchins, sand dollars and sea cucumbers, found in the oceans all over the world and some have been around for millions of years. They have radial symmetry – like a pizza – so their bodies have lines that divide them into matching pieces (I’m sure you always share your pizza in equal slices!). Their symmetry often has 5 points like the starfish on Isabella’s laboratory bench drawn by Alexa Rutherford from a photograph she took herself of a particular species:-
Common starfish
Science name: Asterias rubens
Sounds like: Ass-tea-ree-ass roo-bens
QUICK FACTS
Asterias rubens:-
-
- are usually bright orange
- can grow up to about 30cm in diameter
- like to eat mussels, clams and oysters
- live all around the UK and Ireland in rock pools and out to sea at depths of 600m or more
- main predator is the Common sunstar but sometimes sea birds, crabs and even sharks will eat them
Who doesn’t love to find a starfish on the beach?
Mussel farmers don’t like them though because they can cause a lot of damage to mussel beds.
FUN FACTS
- they dissolve their prey after prising opening the shells with their arms and then drink the resulting fishy soup!
- their arms have the ability to re-grow which is handy because if a predator catches one arm they can just let it go and grow a new one!
Common starfish Asterias rubens: photo by Alexa Rutherford
Hinge-Beaked shrimp
Science name: Rhynchocinetes durbanensis
Sounds like: Rin-kaw-seen-eat-ess dor-ban-en-sis
Say it out loud then listen to Miranda & her Favourite Fact!
Isabella Gordon was the first person to identify this shrimp as a separate species. It is one of 3 ‘type specimens’ she identified of the Rhynchocinetes family. You won’t find them in the UK – except in aquariums – they live in places like East Africa, Northern Australia and Japan. Isabella is working on a specimen in her lab in this picture drawn by Alexa Rutherford.
As you know Isabella was an important person in Japan and is still revered by marine biologists there. In 2019, one of them, Dr Junji Okuno, came to visit the NHM. He said “The most valuable contribution of the Rhynchocinetes family was made by Dr. Isabella Gordon in 1936….”
QUICK FACTS
Rhynchocinetes durbanensis :-
-
- are about 4cm long
- eat absolutely anything!
- live in deep water crevices or small holes in rocks
- main predators are most sea creatures that are bigger!
They help to keep the corals or rocks that they live on clean – picking off anything they fancy with their long beaks
FUN FACTS
- They love to squash up together together sometimes in their hundreds in their tight crevices!
- Their eyes are blue with a black spot and stick out on red stalks
- They appear to be dancing when they move, so you’d think they were an underwater ballet dancing troupe!
- Their amazing red and white patterned bodies have a strange little hump and they have beaks on a hinge (like a door)
Rhynchocinetes durbanensis Gordon, 1936 Jens Petersen – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
I wonder if Isabella ever saw them dancing?
White-spotted Hermit crab
Science name: Dardanus megistos
Sounds like: Darda- nus meg-ist-awss)
Say it out loud then listen to Miranda & her Favourite Fact!
These large crabs can be found in the seas around many places from East Africa to India, Australia and of course Japan. Its possible that Isabella would have seen them during her visit there as they can be found near the shore in rock pools. Alexa’s drawing is from Isabella’s Japan trip where she took photographs with her small camera. When she was leaving she was given a brand new hi-tech camera but it was confiscated at customs, though returned to her later when they realised their mistake. In those days people thought women couldn’t possibly own, much less understand how to use such a complicated piece of technology!
QUICK FACTS
Dardanus megistos :-
-
- are the largest hermit crabs, reaching 20cm in length
- eat anything they find – they are scavengers
- live inside shells that aren’t their own!
- main predators are ……………..?
They are natural cleaners and recyclers scavenging on dead things which helps recycle nutrients and prevent disease. They spread shells around which means they help keep environments diverse.
FUN FACTS
- This crab is known in Japan as Komon-yadokari (⼩紋 ヤドカリ/寄居⾍) (sounds like it looks!)
- Komon (小紋): A traditional type of kimono with a repeated pattern for wearing every day.
Yadokari (ヤドカリ/寄居虫) is the Japanese word for a “hermit crab”
- It has red hairy legs with white spots and often has a stinging sea anemone or two attached to its shell to ward off predators
- They like to eat worms!
Dardanus megistos by Was a bee – Public Domain
This is a photo of a real one. Perhaps Isabella really did take her own photo in Japan.
FOOTSTEPS ACROSS THE WORLD
Shrimp, Copepods & Corals
Isabella Gordon travelled the world, meeting other marine biologists and even collecting her own specimens to take back to the Natural History Museum in London for further investigation. The map above is from the book and shows some of the species that she very particularly studied. Did you guess which countries they come from?
4. Spain – Pistol shrimp
Science name: Alpheus glaber
Sounds like: Alf-ay-oo-ss glab-ur
Say it out loud then listen to Miranda & her Favourite Fact!
A Goby fish and Pistol shrimp, best of friends CC
QUICK FUN FACTS
Alpheus glaber makes the loudest noise of any animal in the sea when it shoots its prey with hot bubbles made by its snapping claw! Watch out – it can break glass!! They also often make friends with helpful partners like the Goby fish as you can see in the picture above.
5. Canada – Copepod
Science name: Calanus finmarchicus
Sounds like: Kal-a-nus fin-march-i-kus
Say it out loud then listen to Miranda & her Favourite Fact!
QUICK FUN FACTS
Calanus finmarchicus are tiny, only 1-10 millimetres long. There are more of them than almost any other animal on the planet. They have two swimming speeds: 1. slow, steady, smooth 2. repeated jumps and stops! Their responses to climate change are very fast, so they help us predict the future.
6. Jamaica – Soft Corals
Purple Sea Fan
Science name: Gorgonia ventalina
Sounds like: Gore-gone– ee-ah Vent-a-lean-a
Say it out loud then listen to Miranda & her Favourite Fact!
Gorgonia ventalina by James St. John CC BY 2.0
QUICK FUN FACTS
Gorgonia ventalina looks a bit like a plant growing on coral reefs but is in fact an animal which has anchored itself, like a ship, to a rock. It can grow up to 180cm or 5ft tall and almost as wide. Its a filter feeder, picking up passing food from the current. They really help biodiversity as they provide shelter for small fish, crustaceans and other creatures.
Underwater candelabrum
Science name: Eunicea mammosa
Sounds like: You-neess-eeah mam-moh-za
Say it out loud then listen to Miranda & her Favourite Fact!
Eunicea mammosa by Quintín Muñoz -Public License
QUICK FUN FACTS
Eunicea mammosa probably got its science name from Eunice – a sea nymph who loved to dance from wave to wave. You can find plants called mammosa on land too – some with very beautiful flowers. They got their English name because they grow long fingers up to about 30cm tall that look a bit like a candelabra on a posh dinner table!
Lobster, Crab & Barnacles
Isabella’s Footsteps led her across the globe, but very often she would be in London at the Natural History Museum and other people would send her creatures they had collected, like the ones on the map above. She couldn’t always see them in their habitats and of course in those days she couldn’t look up a video of them online!
1. Australia – Deep-sea Squat lobster
Science name: Eumunida pacifica
Sounds like: You-moon-ee-da pass-if-ika
Say it out loud then listen to Miranda & her Favourite Fact!
Eumunida pacifica Gordon, 1930 Public Domain
QUICK FUN FACTS
Squat lobsters aren’t really lobsters, they are more like Hermit crabs, though they’re not really crabs either! They don’t have shells on their backs, instead, to protect themselves, they jam their bodies into crevices in rocks, leaving their long claws exposed. Perhaps they’re hoping for a passing meal, despite being mainly scavengers.
It was Isabella Gordon in 1930 who first identified this particular species, Eumunida pacifica, so it became a ‘type specimen’ kept in a red top jar (you may already have seen one of these on this page or in the book).
2. Japan – Inflated spiny crab
Science name: Rochinia crassa
Sounds like: : Rock-in-ee-a krassa
Say it out loud then listen to Miranda & her Favourite Fact!
Rochinia crassa – NOAA Photo Library, Public Domain
QUICK FUN FACTS
Rochinia crassa has very long and thin legs and its pincers can be four times the length of its shell. Its spiny hard shell helps to make it not so nice to eat for predators. Despite this very scary armour it’s really a gentle, slow moving recycler that helps the ocean. It’s habitat is known in science as soft-bottom ooze!! Which to you and me means mud flats….Phew!
UK – Goose barnacles
Science name: Lepas anatifera
Sounds like: Lep-ass anna-tea-fair-a
Say it out loud then listen to Miranda & her Favourite Fact!
Lepas anatifera by Franciscosp2 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
QUICK FUN FACTS
They make their own glue that is as strong as cement. They use it to attach themselves to rocks, ships, bits of wood, even turtles. There was once a report of barnacles stuck to debris from a space rocket that had been in the sea for a while.
Did you know that boats with barnacles stuck to them can’t sail properly?
Charles Darwin thought that their body parts were like an upside-down shrimp, on its head! What do you think?
Image by Raquel Candia from Pixabay
It was once thought that barnacle geese hatched from goose barnacles. When the birds first arrived in Scotland no-one had seen a nest or eggs – so they thought because its head looked like a goose barnacle shell then the geese must emerge from the barnacles as feathered birds!
DEEP WATER CRAB
Science name: Monodaeus couchii
Sounds like: mon-o-day-us koo-chee-eye
Say it out loud then listen to Miranda & her Favourite Fact!
Isabella was a talented artist, she’d learnt to draw from life as a child in Keith when she was growing up. This is one she made when she was visiting Millport, on an island west of Glasgow in 1948.
If you look in the top left hand corner of the picture you’ll see where she wrote the original name of the species, Xantho couchii, which was correct at the time. Later, the name was changed, which happens very often. Can you see that she went back to the drawing in 1967 to change it to the new name? She always made sure all her notes were correct, not matter how long it was since she wrote them. That’s part of the reason her work is still so valuable to us now.
BIG-CLAWED SHRIMP
Science name: Caridion gordoni
Sounds like: car-idi-on gawr-dawn-ee
Say it out loud then listen to Miranda & her Favourite Fact!
This is another of Isabella’s beautiful drawings that we found in the library at the Natural History Musem in London. It was another in the collection she called Sketches Made at
Millport, full of examples of how she and other scientists recorded species they had found.
This shrimp was originally called Hippolyte gordoni by someone called Spence Bate in 1858. He had chosen to name it after the man who discovered it – a Rev. G. Gordon from Elgin. Elgin is of course very near Keith where Isabella grew up, but she was not, as far as we know, connected either to the Reverend Gordon or to this species other than drawing it!