We saw several Sea Pearls (Ventricaria ventricosa) when we were in Indonesia, and again on this trip in the Caribbean.

As it turns out, they are an algae (oddly enough, they are usually encrusted with a lavender crust algae). But what makes them interesting to me is the fact that they are a single cell organism. So those shimmering blobs of algae you see in the photo below are actually two individual cells! They can grow to over 2 inches in diameter, and the larger one here was probably in that size range. They are among the largest single celled organisms known.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/120th sec at f/16. Image Stabilization on. ISO 100. Ikelite Housing and Port with Ikelite 161 Strobe in TTL Mode. Raw conversion in Photoshop CS5.

Learn something new every day...

- Bill