photo by Greg Hofmann

2/16/2004: The latest landscape from a Mars rover? Actually, this photo of mudflats in shallow water was taken at the wildlife blind on the Five Fingers Loop trail (map). Each little "volcano" is the entrance to the burrow of a ghost shrimp (Callianassa californiensis). In their search for food (plankton and detritus), ghost shrimp tunnel almost constantly, reworking the sediment to a depth of as much as 30 inches.