No Bones

Biocubing the SF Bay Area with Kids

Chris Meyer recently went to the San Francisco Bay Area to work with Nature Bridge and photographer David Liittschwager to explore all the organisms that live in a single cubic foot, a so-called Biocube, and share the experience with an amazing group of 6th graders.

 

Chris Meyer with Zack Korbinsky and 2 sixth graders

 

Stay tuned for a great forthcoming video that shows the fun and all the amazing things students learned from slowing down and considering just how much biodiversity lives in a single cubic foot of pond. 

See this Nature Bridge blog post and another post for more info. 

by Allen G. Collins

New Paper Reveals Diversity of Sponges without Skeletons

 

I collaborate with many different scientists interested in better understanding the biodiversity of sponges and cnidarians.  I am extremely fortunate to have such great colleagues and to be involved in a few large collaborative projects, for instance the Porifera Tree of Life project. 

One recent PorToL paper led by Cristina Diaz centers on sponges without skeletons. Within the sponges (phylum Porifera), only a small number of taxa are characterized by lacking both fiber and mineral skeletons. Within the order Verongida, just a single genus, Hexadella, is charactized as not having any sort of skeleton. Our collections from Panama and French Polynesia, the latter as part of the Moorea Biocode Project, contained several samples of Verongida without skeletons. Were these known or new species of the genus Hexadella? No, it turns out these sponges, many of which were found growing in the crevices of dead coral rubble, represented a number of different lineages within Verongida. While superficially these sponges look quite similar, histological examination reveals details that easily distinguish them from eachother and from species of Hexadella. So, are the skeleton-lacking lineages of Verongida independently evolved through the loss of a skeleton? Or is this possibly the ancestral condition with independent gains of skeletons in different groups? Studies with more complete taxon sampling will be necessary to test these alternative hypotheses to explain the patterns we observe.

 

External Morphology and histologic sections of Pseudoceratiniidae 2 . (A) Laboratory live photograph of BMOO-07061 in bright yellow (P3), with a cobalt blue sponge overgrowing it (Es); scale=1.5 mm. (B) Cross section of BMOO-07061; scale=75 um. 

by Allen G. Collins

 

 

 

New Zealand Natural History Research and Collections in Peril

IZ's own Dave Pawson is featured in a video. In it, he makes empassioned comments about the fate of natural history research and collections at the Te Papa Tongarewa Museum, the National Museum of New Zealand, his just happens to be Dave's country of origin. The Smithsonian comes up several times, once as a possible landing spot for some potentially displaced or neglected collections. It is great that the Smithsonian is considered secure and well thought of, but such specimens are national treasures and important resources that should reside in a home country's "National Museum". 

New Zealand Te Papa Museum, from Wiki-commons

by Allen G. Collins

 

Photos of Imperiled Sea Butterflies by Karen Osborn Featured

The online version of Smithsonian Magazine has a new article that features a series of wonderful pictures of pteropods taken by Karen J. Osborn. Commonly called Sea Butterflies, shelled pteropods are gastropod snails that live in the open ocean. They are remarkably beautiful, especially as captured by Karen, and they hold important ecological roles as predators and prey in our pelagic ecosystem. Unfortunately, changing ocean chemistry ("ocean acidification") due to anthropogenic CO₂ build up in the atmosphere is hindering the ability of shelled pteropods to make their shells.

Cavolinia uncinata. Photo © Karen Osborn

Check out the great article with many pictures.

by Allen G. Collins

Visitor Shedding Light on Whip Black Corals

Expanded polyp of Pseudocirrhipathes mapia from Bunaken, Indonesia, 30 m, by M. Boyer

I am a visiting researcher from Italy and I am conducting a taxonomic revision of the genera Stichopathes and Cirrhipathes (Antipatharia, Hexacorallia, Anthozoa).

Whip black corals are abundant and diverse coral taxa of tropical and subtropical reefs. With their unbranched, unpinnulated skeletons, up to several meters long, they may grow upward in the water column and break the continuity of the massive growth of scleractinians. Their flexibility and resistance help them to withstand currents of great intensity, both in shallow and deep waters, where they often characterize dense multi-species coral meadows. Despite their great diversity and ecological importance, no comprehensive taxonomic efforts have ever been carried out to accomplish a complete revision of these species in the form of a taxonomic monograph, a field guide and a dichotomic key. This probably is due to the numerous difficulties encountered in the classification of Stichopathes, Cirrhipathes and Pseudocirrhipathes species. These challenges include  missing, incomplete or poorly described type material, a wide range of intra- and inter-species variability in key skeletal features, and a high phenotypic plasticity due to environmental conditions.

 

Spiral colony of Cirrhipathes spiralis from Bunaken, Indonesia, 25 m, by M.Bo

My work at the Smithsonian Institution has been focused on the re-evaluation of 31 type specimens present in the collections and an in-depth taxonomic study of the over 400 specimens kept in the NMNH. The analysis consists in morphological description of the specimens, including size, shape and arrangement of polyps and variability of size, shape and ornamentation of the spines along the stem. Each specimen has been photographed, and these images will be archived in the NMNH collections database. These results will be accompanied by a bibliographic study of all nominal species, detailed morphological investigation (through SEM) of selected NMNH specimens, the search and analysis of type specimens kept in other museums, and the integration of field data about living colonies studied for several years in shallow water Indonesian reefs.

Marzia Bo with her species P. mapia from Siladen, Indonesia, 25m, by D. Pica

Results of the investigation will be used to compile a taxonomic monograph of all valid whip black coral species, representing the first attempt to shed light on some of the less characterized coral taxa known from shallow and deep waters of the world.

Left: Tuberculated spines of Cirrhipathes cf. rumphii, SEM, by M. Bo

Right: Verticillated spines of Pseudocirrhipathes mapia, SEM, by M.Bo

by Marzia Bo

 

Nancy Knowlton joins the National Academy of Science too!

NAS celebrates 150 years

Wow, what a week. Nancy Knowlton, the Sant Chair for Marine Science, who was just recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has just been elected to THE National Academy of Sciences. Congratulations Nancy.

 

by Allen G. Collins

Musing about the Long-term (Personal) Impacts of a Funded Fieldtrip

 

Cheryl Lewis -- from volunteer to PhD student

More than 6 years ago, I organized a collecting trip to Japan as part of an NSF-funded Tree of Life project on Cnidaria (jellyfish, corals and kin). We blogged about it at the time. It was only five weeks of fun and discovery, but I find myself musing about how many ongoing impacts it is having on my career and life as an invertebrate zoologist.

A volunteer, Cheryl Lewis, has become my PhD student and all around great collaborator (not to mention karaoke inspiration). 

The desk next to mine is occupied by Lucília Souza Miranda, the PhD student of a Brazilian collaborator who participated in the trip, Antonio Carlos Marques. 

Lucília and I are actively working with Yakko Hirano, who hosted us on our visit to Hokkaido, and who just happens to be the world's most renowned researcher of Staurozoa.

I just received samples (in my freezer awaiting genetic analysis) from our main host, the famous Shin Kubota. 

And I have trouble keeping up with my son's demands for sushi and nori.

For me, the funds to support that excursion to Japan has been a gift that keeps giving. 

 

Manania uchidae, a staurozon collected in Japan, 2006, still being studied

by Allen G. Collins 

Collaborative Efforts Yield New Species, Dark and Light

Most researchers in the department of Invertebrate Zoology work collaboratively with other researchers around the world. One of our prime scientific endeavors is to document biodiversity. Two new collaborative papers have been published with IZ curators as co-authors.

1. Liu, H., R. Hershler, B. Lang, and J. Davies. 2013. Molecular evidence for cryptic species in a narrowly endemic western North American springsnail (Pyrgulopsis gilae). Conserv.Genet. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10592-013-0483-x

2. Martínez, A., M. Di Domenico, K. Jörger, J. Norenburg, and K. Worsaae. 2013. Description of three new species of Protodrilus (Annelida, Protodrilidae) from Central America. Marine Biology Research 9(7): 676-91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17451000.2013.765574

 

Network of COI haplotypes (I–XXIII) of the springsnail Pyrgulopsis gilae

 

Both of these papers uncover new species, but they contrast in that one paper documents what are becoming known as "dark taxa". In the paper by Liu and colleagues, two new species of springsnail are revealed and documented through genetic sequencing. These two species are very similar looking to a third, known as Pyrgulopsis gilae, but they live in different forks of the same river system and are genetically distinct. The diagram to the left, known as a haplotype network, graphically shows the differences in one genetic marker derived from a bunch of different samples. This result has conservation implications because what was thought to be one more widespread species is actually three more narrowly distributed species. However, the species need to be formally named and described and that work is in progress. Until then, they are "dark taxa", species we know exist through some sort of documentation, but for which we have no formal name, a phrase popularized by Rod Page and IZ's own Chris Meyer.

The other paper by Martínez et al. describes and names 3 new species of worm from Central America. These species were discovered, at least in part, during a training workshop on marine meiofauna (minute critters living in and on mud, sand and other sediments), sponsored by the Encyclopedia of Life. Just about three years after the workshop, these authors have completed the long process of bringing these species "to light" by giving them formal names and descriptions, including their morphology and genetics. 

 

Protodrilus smithsoni, one of three new species described by Martínez and colleagues, named in honor of the Smithsonian Institution and its founder, James Smithson.

 

So many species, so little time. . . .

by Allen G. Collins

Congratulations! Nancy Knowlton Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences

I get to work with a lot of amazing people at the department of Invertebrate Zoology, from students to "famous" people. I put famous in quotes because renowned scientists are rarely famous in the sense of being widely known by society. They should be, but that is a subject for another, longer post.

One of the most prominent of scientists I have worked with is Nancy Knowlton, the Sant Chair for Marine Science, and her star is shining even brighter. Nancy has just been elected as a new member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The Academy has a membership of about 4000 known for their achievments in the humanities, arts and sciences. And check out the company that Nancy is keeping as she enters the Academy with: Robert De Niro, Sally Field, Paul Theroux, Bruce Springsteen, John Glen, Annie Dillard. . . 

Vicky Morgan, Nancy Knowlton, Matthieu Leray, Art Anker in Bali, Indonesia

In addition to being really smart, Nancy is an amazing communicator of science. I get to see that firsthand as we co-teach a summer course on Marine Biodiversity Inventory Methods, with Chris Meyer, as part of the Indonesia Biodiversity Research Center. Conducting quality science and being an effective communicator of science are both of incredible importance, and it is great to see one of our own recognized for her efforts. Congratulations Nancy!

 

by Allen G. Collins

Visitor Studying the Biogeography of Southern Ocean Hydroids

 

Thaís Pires Miranda

I am a PhD candidate from the Laboratório de Evolução Marinha (Laboratory of Marine Evolution), Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, and I am visiting the Hydrozoa Collection of the Department of Invertebrate Zoology, under supervision of Dr. Allen G. Collins, for nine months. My visit is being funded by the São Paulo government’s FAPESP BEPE program.

 

 

Sertularella robusta

           My doctoral dissertation is entitled “Faunistics and areas of endemism of benthic hydroids (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) from Patagonia and Antarctica”, and the purpose of my visit is to check the taxonomical status of the species of benthic hydroids (except hydrocorals) and to document their geographical records from Patagonia and Antarctica.

 

            Biogeographic studies focusing on inferences of areas of endemism for the marine realm are uncommon and have a number of challenges. One of the main difficulties is the reliability of species identifications, which underlie the determination of the actual geographical presence points of a taxon. Some taxa of benthic hydroids, such as Campanulariidae and Sertulariidae, have a complicated taxonomy and consequently a high number of specific names related to one or few morphologies. While I am here, I will focus my taxonomical investigation on the morphometry of these groups, mainly on the genus Sertularella and Symplectoscyphus.

 

Symplectoscyphus magellanicus

 

by Thaís Pires Miranda