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Along for the Ride

December 1, 2008

This juvenile crab was hitching a ride inside the barrel-shaped body of a transparent, gelatinous pelagic tunicate collected at the Liquid Jungle Lab in Panama. Pelagic tunicates, or salps, are the subject of Joint Program Student Kelly Rakow Sutherland’s thesis work in the lab of Larry Madin. In the open ocean, crustacean hitchhikers are frequently associated with salps and other jellies. (Photo by Kelly Rakow Sutherland, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)