An image I produced was selected to be the JAMSTEC Image of the Week. http://www.jamstec.go.jp/e/hot_pictures/?494
The molluscs are invertebrates belonging to the phylum Mollusca, a highly diverse group of animals. With approximately 100,000 species, Mollusca is second largest animal phylum only after arthropods (including insects), and the most species rich in the marine realm. From their initial appearance in the Cambrian, molluscs have adapted to various aquatic and terrestrial environments through their evolutionary history, resulting in their amazingly disparate morphology within a single phylum. How did peculiar molluscs such as the iron-coated ‘scaly-foot gastropod’ Chrysomallon squamiferum (centre) from deep-sea hydrothermal vents and the eight-plated chiton Craspedochiton producta (bottom right) inhabiting shallow rocky shores evolve to adapt to their environment, and how did they achieve their strange morphological forms? Our research at JAMSTEC combines morphological (e.g., histology, dissection, microscopy) and genetic (e.g., phylogeny, population genetics) methodologies in an attempt to understand the life history and evolutionary biology of these remarkable animals.