Happy Valentine's Day from the NBP!

Hello!

My name is Kamila Głuchowska, and I’m a first-year PhD student at the University of Łódź in Poland. Even though my university is located far from the sea, my research is deeply tied to marine biology. I’m fascinated by the deep ocean and love sharing its wonders with children and teenagers.

This isn’t my first time aboard a research vessel—I participated in an expedition to the Bering Sea and the Aleutian Trench in 2022. However, this will be my first time traveling to Antarctica, which makes me incredibly excited. I love all forms of marine life, but my heart beats faster whenever I see a crustacean. My favorites? Tanaids. You may have never heard of them before, so let me introduce you...

Tanaids can be described in four key words:

1. Peracarids – Tanaids belong to the superorder Peracarida, a group of crustaceans whose females develop a specialized brooding pouch during the reproductive season. Eggs are laid inside these chambers, and the hatched individuals remain there until they are mature enough to go out. Since they lack free-swimming planktonic larvae, their dispersal abilities are quite limited, making them an excellent model group for studying genetic connectivity.
2. Small – Their body size rarely exceeds 3 mm, making them smaller than a grain of rice! Of course, nature loves exceptions—the largest tanaid known to science, Gigantapseudes maximus from the eastern Pacific, can grow up to 12 cm in length.
3. Benthic – Tanaids use gland secretions to glue together sand grains, constructing tiny tubes they call home. Some species take a more adventurous route, living on sea turtles, manatee skin, or even in extreme environments such as hydrothermal vents and cold methane seeps.
4. Cosmopolitan – These tiny crustaceans are found in nearly all benthic habitats—from shallow coastal waters to the deepest parts of the ocean. They inhabit coral reefs, estuaries, algal mats, hydrothermal vents, mud volcanoes, polymetallic nodule fields, and even sunken wood.

Tanaids may be small, but they play an important role in the global food web, reminding us that even the tiniest creatures can have a huge impact on the world.

And since it’s Valentine’s Day, let’s take a moment to appreciate the hidden beauty of the ocean. From tiny tanaids to giant whales, marine life reminds us that even the smallest creatures play an important role in nature. 

Love for the sea is worth celebrating too!

Kamila Głuchowska
University of Łódź