A Nudi on David’s Wood

David is a graduate student in my lab. He wants to know what types of animals colonize wood and whale bones in the deep sea and if we can find similar critters in shallow waters using the same substrates. He brought in some wood slabs he hung off the docks the other day and, naturally, I went poking around. This little nudibranch was swimming upside down. I think it is a Cratena pilata, but that taxonomy might be dubious as well, noted by nudibranch biologist Dr. Terry Gosliner.

?Cratena pilata off the Duke Marine Lab docks