Cifonauta

marine biology image database

Database organization

Cifonauta photos and videos can be searched by basic information (metadata), such as species, place, author, size, etc. These tags organized by categories like photographic technique, life stage, habitat, etc, provides a more informative and interesting navigation. For example, you might want to look for dark-field crustacean larvae photos, or just browse through the adult forms of planktonik organisms. Image categorization and a description for each tag (with a random example) is below.

Taxa

The taxonomic information in this site does not adopt any particular classification scheme and is built automatically from ITIS database. From the taxon name (contained in the image) we can retrieve its full taxonomic hierarchy and generate a simple tree for browsing. Therefore, the classification might not be in accordance with latest findings of each area; it reflects, almost strictly, the data from ITIS. Only in some cases we employ the phylogeny proposed by the author (or expert) that identified the species.

Size

We arbitrarily created 5 classes of sizes to provide an idea of organisms' dimensions. Benthic fauna received additional size information: macrofauna, meiofauna e microfauna (see item Life mode, below). Landscape/habitat photos do not hold size information, but if they are showing an specific organism (barnacles on rocky shore, for example) a size class is provided. Size classes are:

Size Description Example
0.1 - 1.0 mm Embryos, larvae and planktonic creatures.
<0.1 mm Unicellular organisms and details of multicellular organisms.
Tintinnid with hyaline lorica +
Tintinnid with hyaline lorica
Variation on lorica shape.
>100 mm Even larger organisms.
Black Skimmer +
Black Skimmer
The black skimmer flies very close to the water, with the lower beak cutting the water surface.
10 - 100 mm Macroscopic organisms.
1.0 - 10 mm Tiny creatures but visible at the naked eye.
Hydromedusa +
Hydromedusa

Photographic techniques

Different techniques used to capture the dataase images were divided in 4 categories.: submarine, macrophotography, landscape/seascape e microscopy. To embrace the variety of microscopy techiniques the latter was subdivided. This is the list of tags related to photographic techniques:

Technique Description Example
diving Photographs taken under water.
Peixe limpador neon +
Peixe limpador neon
Cleaning fish.
landscape Depicts an environment.
Alcatrazes archipelago +
Alcatrazes archipelago
macrophotography Detail shot with a hand-held digital camera, usually of an organism in aquarium.
Scyphozoan +
Scyphozoan
Adult medusa.
mev Scanning electron microscopy.
submarine
microscopy
bright field transmitted light illumination in which the sample appears dark in a bright background
confocal Confocal microscopy.
Pluteus larva of a sea biscuit +
Pluteus larva of a sea biscuit
dark field transmitted illumination in which the light beam scatters as it hits the specimen, so it appears bright against a dark background
Differential interference contrast Microscopy technique used to enhance contrast in unstained, transparent samples (DIC).
Prism larva +
Prism larva
polarized light Polarized light microscopy reveals birefringent structures.
Juvenile sea biscuit +
Juvenile sea biscuit
Oral region with the lantern of Aristotle in formation.
protargol impregnation Silver impregnation technique.
Epizoic ciliate +
Epizoic ciliate

Life stage

The organisms photographed are not always adults.

Stage Description Example
adult Sexually mature organism.
Brittle star +
Brittle star
Invasive brittle star on octocoral host.
embryo Organism in its early stages of development.
Malformed embryo +
Malformed embryo
gamete A mature sexual reproductive cell (sperm or egg)
juvenile Sexually immature organism that resembles an adult.
Juvenile sea biscuit +
Juvenile sea biscuit
Ossicles of the lantern of Aristotle in formation at the oral region.
larva Post-embryonic stage that usually differs from the adult stage in morphology, behavior, habitat, and others. Does not reproduce sexually.
Pluteus larva of a sea biscuit +
Pluteus larva of a sea biscuit
metamorphosis Change in shape and/or body structure that occurs between the larval and juvenile or adult.
Sea biscuit metamorphosis +
Sea biscuit metamorphosis
Polarized light highlights the calcareous skeleton showing the structure of spines, podia, and remnants of the larval skeleton.
paratomy
neriliidae polychaete +
neriliidae polychaete
progenesis
Polychaete dorvinelid +
Polychaete dorvinelid

Habitat

We also indicate the habitat of each organism whenever possible.

Habitat Description Example
artificial substrate
Recruitment panels +
Recruitment panels
A consumer feeding on the fouling community, the crab Cronius ruber competes with the introduced crab Charybdis hellerii of the Indo-Pacific .
baixio não vegetado
banco não vegetado
hard bottom
Jaguareçá ou Olho-de-cão com limpador neon Elacatinus figaro +
Jaguareçá ou Olho-de-cão com limpador neon Elacatinus figaro
Cleaning station.
infralittoral Coastal region permanently submerged.
neriliidae polychaete +
neriliidae polychaete
intertidal Coastal region only exposed at low tide.
mangrove Transition zone between land and sea, dominated by a typical vegetation that grows in areas that are frequently inundated with salt and fresh water.
Crested caracara +
Crested caracara
The crested caracara is a bird of prey with a varied diet including crabs and other invertebrates.
mesolitoral
rocky-shore Transition between marine and terrestrial environments formed by rocks.
sand beach Landform along the shoreline consisting sand, gravel, or pebbles.
Kinorhynch +
Kinorhynch
soft bottom

Miscellaneous

Tags that do not fit into other categories. Could be common terms frequently searched.

Others Description Example
3d Image rendered in three dimensions.
3D projection of a sea biscuit pluteus larva 00:16 +
3D projection of a sea biscuit pluteus larva
Montagem de fotos de uma larva plúteos da bolacha-do-mar Clypeaster subdepressus mostrando sua tridimensionalidade.
alga Informal term for a diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms, including unicellular (microalgae) to multicellular forms, like kelps and sargassum.
Hydroid +
Hydroid
Colony on a red algae.
cebimar-usp Images produced at the Center for Marine Biology of the University of São Paulo (CEBIMar/USP).
cnidarian tree of life project
Cubozoan +
Cubozoan
Female medusa - oral view.
coral Marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria, colonial or not, which secrete a hard, calcium carbonate skeleton.
Fire coral +
Fire coral
Dactylozooids and gastrozooids.
holotype The type specimen used in the original description of a species.
introduced species A species living outside its native distributional range.
Brittle star +
Brittle star
Invasive brittle star on octocoral host.
invasive species Non-indigenous species, or "non-native", plants or animals that adversely affect the habitats and regions they invade.
jellyfish Any of various gelatinous aquatic organisms, particularly the medusa stage of cnidarians.
Hydromedusa +
Hydromedusa
medusoid a reduced or vestigial medusa
Hydroid +
Hydroid
Gonangium - female medusoid within gonotheca.
neotype
paratype The type specimen used in the original description of a species.
recruitment plate
risk of extinction A species that is likely to become extinct in the near future.
Balanoglossus gigas +
Balanoglossus gigas
Acorn worm (enteropneust) - marine burrowing wormlike invertebrate.
seto marine biological laboratory
Scyphozoan +
Scyphozoan
Adult medusa
symbiosis Organism living with, on, or in another, without injury to either.
Scyphozoan +
Scyphozoan
Adult medusa. The juvenile stage the spider crab Libinia ferreirae can be seen inside the bell of the jellyfish Lychnorhiza lucerna.
unicellular Organism having or consisting of a single cell.
Tintinnid with hyaline lorica +
Tintinnid with hyaline lorica