Marine Mammal Parasite of the Month- Answer January 2020
These are Acanthocephalans or thorny headed worms. They use their proboscis (shown below) to burrow into the intestine. The hooks on the proboscis help them to pierce and attach to the intestinal mucosa. These hooks also serve as a way to differentiate between species. The number and size of hooks as well as the size of the proboscis varies between species.
Pictured is Corynosoma wegeneri, the species found in local pinnipeds.
Sources
Amin, Omar M. (1998) Marine Flora and Fauna of eastern United States, Acanthocephala, 1-5.
Raja, Juan Antonio. Parasite Diversity. Parasites (Marine Mammals), 5. http://what-when-how.com/marine-mammals/parasites-marine-mammals/.
For this week's #turtletuesday we have some photos of our awesome volunteers helping us with a transport earlier this month! This dedicated team showed up
Our first release at The Farmhouse - Plymouth, MA! Nothing is better than release day!
Sam Eagle enjoying fish for dinner! Happy #sealsunday!
Hello, and welcome back to…you guessed it, #FactFriday! Now its time for the facts! As you know, sea turtles can become entangled in fishing gear
Happy #wishlistwednesday to one and all! The items for this week, that we are VERY much in need of, are water heaters for our native