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This amazing video presents the life cycle of the sea biscuit Clypeaster subdepressus, as part of a master's thesis project conducted at the Biosciences Institute of the University of São Paulo.

Adult specimens were collected from sand beds in the São Sebastião Channel (São Sebastião, SP, Brazil). Researchers then induced gamete release (eggs and sperm), followed by in vitro fertilisation. The resulting embryonic development was observed under light microscopy in a controlled laboratory setting.

As development progressed, embryos transformed into free-swimming larvae approximately 0.2 mm in width. These larvae were sustained on a diet of microalgae until they reached the stage of metamorphosis. During this stage, a juvenile sea biscuit began forming within the larval body. Once the tiny podia (tube feet) and spines developed, the larva sank and underwent metamorphosis, resorbing its larval tissues in the process.

The juvenile then began life among sand grains, exploring its new benthic environment.

The video footage was captured at the University of São Paulo’s Marine Biology Center (CEBIMar-USP), located in São Sebastião, on the northern coast of São Paulo State, Brazil.

Here's the video - enjoy!

They are completely blind, but somehow driver ants (Dorylus wilverthi) manage to make their way through their African forest home.  They coordinate through chemical signals with the larger workers, with hooked jaws (that can bite us, yes indeed) protecting the smaller ones.  If they come across an obstacle – no problem, they just use themselves as bridges.  If you’re an insect and you get in the way of a driver ant swarm, you have no chance.  Even human babies and the infirm have been known to fall victim to a driver ant swarm…

This fascinating short documentary was made by a member of the Day’s Edge team when he was a teaching assistant in UCLA's Field Biology Quarter program. His class of 15 undergraduates spent three weeks conducting original research in Kibale National Park, Uganda. They encountered these amazing driver in the forest whenever they entered it. On his return to Los Angeles, he decided toc create a short documentary about the driver ant species.

Watch the video below.

When I was a kid there was a place on the walk home where touch-me-not balsam used to grow.  Over the years, I had great fun touching their seed pods, as, if they were ripe enough, they would explode in contact with my fingers.  Pow!  The seeds would be ejected, sometimes quite a distance and always at super-high speed.  However, during all my pod popping years I never once saw a caterpillar (or noticed one at least).

Yet the touch-me-not balsam is the favourite food of a certain moth’s caterpillar.  I never saw one because the netted carpet moth (Eustroma reticulatum) was, metaphorically, on its knees at that point in time.  It was, in fact, close to extinction in the UK and is now still only found in a few places in the Lake District.  That was a good hundred miles away from where I grew up (Chester) and as such explains why I never saw any of the moth’s caterpillars. It is, fortunately, found elsewhere in Europe and Asia so there is no fear of a complete species extinction – in fact the moth has seen a 900^% increase in abundance in the UK since 2000 (due to some clever conservation management).

That’s great news – but you might notice when you watch the video below that this caterpillar doesn’t do much to help itself in terms of staying safe… Just as I would never know which pod was going to pop when I was a child, likewise the caterpillars have to risk, for the sake of a good munch, being the trigger for an explosion which will send it flying through the air.  One can only hope that these caterpillars have a safe landing and can make their way back to the plant without too much trouble.  It just leaves me wondering how many times the average netted carpet moth caterpillar finds itself being ejected through space before it undergoes its metamorphosis into adult form and can use its wings instead…

Watch the amazing video from BBC Earth below.

Did you know that the collective noun for pandas is an embarrassment?  So, when you see more than one of them you can say “Oh, look – it’s an embarrassment of pandas”.  Lions get a pride.  Owls get a parliament. And hippos get a thunder.  Meanwhile, pandas get an embarrassment.  (Image Credit)

While there is no doubt that the antics of any family member can leave relatives slack-jawed in bewildered puzzlement, a question must be asked here. Is it fair to condemn a whole species because of the actions of just a few?  At Ark in Space, we think not.  It is time that this gross injustice was exposed, overturned and ended.  Today we begin the search for a new, worthier collective noun for Ailuropoda melanoleuca, otherwise know as the Giant Panda.  You will be able to vote for your current favorite or suggest your own at the end of this article.

And yet. Before we move on, let’s take a moment to acknowledge that yes, pandas in general are somewhat prone to doing things that could be considered embarrassing.  They love climbing, but they aren’t very good at it.  They like rolling down slopes, even if the slope is, in fact, an abyss. They get stuck in awkward places where it might be assumed a panda of average size could not fit.  There is so much evidence stacked against them that panda fail compilations are all over the internet. Here’s just one of them…

You may not have heard of the Alpine Newt but, like every other organism, it starts as a single cell.  It is silent, so put some inspiring music on in the background to accompany the newt’s development.   The detail is absolutely amazing, from the single cell right up to the hatching of the larva, you will remember the alpine newt for some time to come!

Becoming is a film by Jan van IJken. a Dutch filmmaker and photographer whose work lies at the intersection of art and science. He explores the hidden dimensions of nature, focusing on microscopy, embryology, and the complex relationships between humans and animals.

Watch the full video below - and don't forget to find some great music to go with it!