Location: Caught in a saltmarsh creek at Georgetown, SC using a net suspended in the tidal current.

Notes: Ostracods, with their bivalve shells, resemble mussels or clams at first glance. A careful look reveals jointed appendages sticking out between the valves, so an arthropod it surely is. Whether it is partially planktonic or just a benthic ostracod caught up in the current, we catch this unidentifed species in the plankton with some regularity.

Alas, there is no published information available to help identify nearshore species.

Click here for a photo of an ostracod with its valves open.

Click here for a photo of an offshore species showing its appendages.

Collected and photographed by: W. S. Johnson
Goucher College