that many are discovered using genetic / genomic identification techniques – not morphological identification or features we can see in the field . This again makes understanding what species we ’ re looking at challenging .
4 . This is where it gets really annoying Identification features may not even be testable from a remote platform , or even from a diver survey . Sponges can have characteristic smells . Tethya citrina , the golf ball sponge , carries the ‘ interior smells ’ of marine specimens which have been allowed to decay , while Suberites carnosus smells faintly of freshly cut kelp stipe .
5 . Scotland is different . So is Wales . So is every part of the UK . While the UK is relatively small in terms of ocean scale temperature and current movements , there is still a latitudinal gradient from the
Isles of Scilly to the Shetland Isles , with considerable variation in hydrographic conditions . Leptochiton asellus , a common chiton , has consistent colourings across the UK , apart from northern Scotland and the Orkney Islands , where there is consistently a very different colouring .
6 . Covering all the rest of the confusion . Identification features sometimes are only present during a proportion of the life cycle , whether that be as juveniles / adults , or whether an organism is feeding or not . The anemone genus Urticina ( dahlia / horseman anemones ) in UK waters contains two species that are very similar when the tentacles are displayed . It is only when the tentacles are withdrawn and the column exposed that confidence can be had in separating U . felina and U . eques .
The same confusion crops up with more anemones , including the yellow and white
Actinothoe sphyrodeta ( stripy column ) and the yellow and white Cylista elegans , or elegant sea anemone , with its spotty column . Sometimes all you need is to switch countries . Many nudibranchs are very similar looking , and it doesn ’ t help when Coryphella rufibranchialis in the UK is sometimes , maybe , often known as Coryphella verrucosa in Norway . Depending on who you ask . When people say that scientific , or Latin , names prevent all the confusion produced by use of common names , 99 % of the time they are entirely right . But scientific names evolve and are debated fiercely every day , and during times of flux , it can still get tricksy .
You name it , there will be a difference . It ’ s annoying , it ’ s frustrating . But it ’ s amazing and shows the incredible diversity of life in our waters . Embrace the diversity , the everchanging names and features as part of the wonderful world of underwater life . �
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