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After months drifting about in ocean currents, rock lobster larvae transform into a puerulus phase, which resembles a miniature transparent crayfish. Fuelled by fat stored in their bodies, thumb-sized pueruli swim back to the coast and undergo a further metamorphosis into juvenile rock lobsters. Four pueruli are shown here in a glass Petri dish.
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NIWA – National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research
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