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Name: Antarctic krill
Scientific name: Euphausia superba
Details: taken with remotely controlled vehicle
Status: grazing under the ice on diatoms, one in the free water
Dynamic: one animal in typical oblique hovering position with pleopods beating and filtering basket open
Special: largest biomass on globe (from all the species visible with the naked eye), central predator/prey organism in the antarctic ecosystem. Form dense schools in summer (up to 20 000 individuals per cubic meter) around the ANTARCTIC, filter small plankton-organisms with filtering basket (mesh-openings down to 2 micron), in the winter they harvest ice algae from under the ice with rake-like structures (at the tip of the filtering-legs) and hide in ice-caves, fast swimmers with amazingly high escape capacity (over 50 cm per second) in spite of their cold environment (down to minus 1.7 degree Centigrade)
Articles:
KILS, U 1982 Swimming behaviour, Swimming Performance and Energy Balance of Antarctic Krill Euphausia superba. BIOMASS Scientific Series 3, BIOMASS Research Series - Southern Ocean Ecosystems and their living resources, Editor Sayed El-Sayed, Texas A & M University, 122 p
KILS, U 1983 Swimming and feeding of Antarctic Krill, Euphausia superba - some outstanding energetics and dynamics - some unique morphological details. In: Berichte zur Polarforschung, Alfred Wegener Institut fuer Polarforschung, Sonderheft 4 (1983) On the biology of Krill Euphausia superba, Proceedings of the Seminar and Report of Krill Ecology Group, Editor S. B. Schnack, pages 130 -155 and title page image
KILS U, MARSCHALL P 1995 Der Krill, wie er schwimmt und frisst - neue Einsichten mit neuen Methoden (The antarctic krill - feeding and swimming performances - new insights with new methods) In Hempel I, Hempel G, Biologie der Polarmeere - Erlebnisse und Ergebnisse (Biology of the polar oceans) Fischer Jena - Stuttgart - New York, 201-207 (and images p 209-210)
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