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Sonke Johnsen @sonkelab

Visual Ecologist and Marine Biologist at Duke University. Also interested in the connections between art and science

Joined November 2016
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170 Photos and videos
Looking for a postdoc starting this summer for a project on transparent fish. Needs to be able to do optical modeling and understand electron micrographs of tissue. 2.5 years of funding from a foundation that is immune to federal influence. Contact me at sjohnsen@duke.edu
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For those interested, a Radiolab episode on my lab’s work on ultrablack deep-sea fish just dropped: radiolab.org

Radiolab: Podcasts | WNYC Studios | Podcasts

Investigating a strange world.

radiolab.org
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In the midst of the political battles raging here, just posting to say that my book on working at sea and the beauty and strangeness of open ocean animals comes out Tuesday: press.princeton.edu/books/ha…

Into the Great Wide Ocean

A seagoing scientist explores how life thrives in one of the most mysterious environments on Earth

press.princeton.edu
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We’re looking for a postdoc versed in microscopy and optical modeling to study transparency in a relative of zebra fish. Three years of support starting this December via HFSP. Please contact me if interested; ad is below: academicjobsonline.org/ajo/j…
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Third time is the charm! This is actually Danophos oculatus and not Valencienellus tripunctulatus or Cyclothone like I previously wrote. Cyclothone is indeed likely the most common vertebrate on the planet, with a quadrillion individuals, but this is not it. live = learn.
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and thanks to Tracey Sutton and Jon A. Moore!
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oops, had this one mislabeled!
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This is Anoplogaster cornuta, aptly given the common name of fangtooth. The photo doesn’t quite do them justice, but this animal has some really impressive teeth, often considered the largest relative to body size. They have sockets in their upper jaw to fit the lower teeth.
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Not deep-sea, but typical of open-ocean, especially in warmer bluer waters. Our wakes, especially in the bow region, often have either flying fish or dolphins. We’ve seen the dolphins race sideway from a distance away, presumably interested in the wake of our ship.
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I believe this is Vampyrocrossota. It was from a deep trawl in the eastern Pacific, on a cruise on the RV New Horizon. I love all the red animals at depth, especially among the invertebrates, and have wondered at times why black pigments are rare outside the vertebrates.
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This is Beroe forskalii, a ctenophore that was caught on a blue-water scuba dive. The cilia are in bundles along the comb rows of the animal and are just the right thickness to act as a diffraction grating, leading to a rainbow of iridescence. Beautiful, but may have no purpose.
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This is the larva of a scorpionfish from the deep Pacific off the coast of San Diego. While the larvae of marine invertebrates are strikingly different in shape and feeding habits from the adult forms, the larvae of fish still look mostly like fish, though often transparent.
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This is a shot of the webbed arms of Vampyroteuthis infernalis as it swims in a specialized tank on board our ship. I'm not sure if there's any angle from which this animal is not charismatic. The only genus in the cephalopod order Vampyromorphida, it always impresses
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There’s an idea that deep and shallow fauna don’t overlap, but there are a number of species that are found in both worlds. This young inflated spiny crab (Rochina crassa) is one of them and can be found over a 20-fold depth range from about 50 meters to 1000 meters.
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This is an (oxymoronic) small giant clam (Tridacna) found near Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef. They have a symbiotic relationship with algae and their mantles (the colorful part) have optical adaptions that increase the amount of light available for photosynthesis.
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Some of the funnier examples of "the deep-sea floor is full of echinoderms" are the herds of sea urchins. Many of these are quite large, some are even toxic, and pretty much all of them are found in large aggregations. Since they can't graze on plants, I assume they scavenge.
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always a favorite on deep-sea bottom dives, this is the pelagic sea cucumber Enypniastes eximia, which was found a couple thousand feet below the surface in the Bahamas. It can propel itself slowly with the large tutu-like fringe around its body
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One thing I've never understood about spew bioluminescence is how how do the animals that secrete the light avoid being blinded by it? When you have a light organ, you can aim it away from your eyes, but spew can flow back right into your face, which seems to defeat the purpose.
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Sunset on Wistari Reef, which is part of the Capricornia Cays of the Great Barrier Reef. There’s often a large “changing of the guard” at dawn/dusk on reefs, and this photo shows a number of sea cucumbers that were hidden by day start to stretch out.
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This looks like a flatworm or nudibranch but is actually the tissue (mantle) lining the gape of the coral scallop Pedum spondyloidum. The mantles of scallops are often remarkable and many are lined with up to 100 eyes that work like mirror telescopes.
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