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Barrel Amphipod

rare

Barrel Amphipod

Phronima sedentaria

Habitat
Temperate to tropical open-ocean midwater worldwide
Body length
42 mm
Order
Amphipoda · Phronimidae

Weird but real

Females carve a barrel from a salp's body and raise their young inside the drifting gelatinous nursery.

Why it's cool

A transparent open-ocean amphipod that turns another animal into a tiny submarine crib.

Photographs

parasitic hyperiid amphipod (Phronima sedentaria)
Julien Renoult · CC BY 4.0 · source
parasitic hyperiid amphipod (Phronima sedentaria)
Steve Kerr · CC BY 4.0 · source