No Bones

Predicting the Locations of Untouched Deep-Sea Coral Habitats

The beauty of coral reefs captivates both tourists and scientists across the globe, including myself! However, I for one have only seen live corals in the fish tanks in my dentist's office. The corals that you or I would expect to see off the coast of Australia are shallow-water corals that are relatively easy to locate and study. It’s a lot harder to study deep-sea corals. It requires a great deal of time and money to reach deep-sea coral habitats. In fact, sometimes scientists spend a lot of time and money looking but wind up not finding any.

Acadian Redfish. Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Northern Neighbors: Transboundary Exploration of Deepwater Communities 2017.

More scientists are now using predictive modeling to create educated guesses on where these corals might be located. Model results can guide scientists to areas where corals are more likely to occur, making it easier for scientists to find the rich communities they support. Predicting where deep-sea corals are is important because they serve as shelter and protection for fishes and invertebrates alike. This includes large top-level predators to small shrimp. Some of these cool creatures include the commercially important, Acadian redfish (above), and shrimp (below). Without deep-sea corals, the sea would have less life.

Shrimp living on deep-sea coral. Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Deep Connections 2019.

A recent collaborative study among NOAA colleagues, including Invertebrate Zoology’s research affiliate scientist from the National Marine Fisheries Service, Martha Nizinski, presents the first regional-scale, deep-sea coral habitat suitability models for the entire US Northeast region (Northwest Atlantic). She initiated this study because “modeling allows us to get a better handle on the big picture - where corals are most likely to occur. Modeling is a cost-effective first step in determining coral distributions, can help guide our future sampling, and can provide clues on why corals occur where they do.” The project covers an area stretching from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay all the way north to Canada (below). 

Map of study area. The grey line represents 200 meters depth, and the black crosses are the locations of known deep-sea coral sites.

It turns out that corals come in many flavors, or different taxonomic groups. In this study, the team made separate predictions for 9 groups, including soft corals, hard corals, sea pens and black corals (all shown below). [My personal favorites are the sea pens. In my opinion, they look more like sea feathers.]  Before this study, there were no models that predicted locations of all these groups of deep-sea corals in waters off the northeast coast of the US.

Bubblegum corals (a kind of soft coral). Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Northeast U.S. Canyons Expedition 2013.

So, how did they do it? The study authors used the software MaxEnt to model species niches and distributions. The models use documented occurrences along with environmental variables such as depth, slope and other physical features of the seafloor, sediment characteristics, and oceanographic parameters to make predictions. The predicted locations of these deep-sea corals do not just come out as yes or no. Rather, the software outputs habitat suitability as a sort of probability (low, medium-low, high, very high, and robust very high) of where the coral groups might be found.

Lophelia corals (a kind of hard coral). Image courtesy of Northern Neighbors: Transboundary Exploration of Deepwater Communities 2017.

The spatial relations results varied depending on the group of corals. In other words, different types of corals were predicted to be located in different areas. For example, Alcyonacea, which are soft corals, were predicted to be located in northern canyons, and Scleractinia, the hard corals, were more concentrated on the shelf and slope but more spread out around Hudson Canyon. But what does this all mean? Why does it matter? Only about 5% of our ocean has been explored and charted. By identifying these locations, we are furthering our knowledge of deep-sea coral distributions while enabling more efficient management and conservation of these deep reefs and communities that live in association with them. As Dr. Nizinski explains “Aside from creating a robust model and new methodology to improve model performance, results of this model were used by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council to determine the boundaries of Frank R. Lautenberg Deep Sea Coral Protection Area.”

Sea pen (Pennatula aculeata) from Stellwagen Bank off the coast of Massachusetts.

I find corals to be absolutely gorgeous, but they are also ecologically significant.  So it is important that deep-sea exploration attempts to assess the accuracy of the MaxEnt predictions. This study was the first of its kind, and if validated, this approach could become more a mainstream research tool. Deep coral habitats provide amazing resources that stem from the marine diversity the corals provide shelter for. Mapping out these deep-sea coral habitats has allowed scientists the ability to “dive deeper” into coral research and explore the role corals play in deep ocean ecosystems. The best part is that these habitats locations were able to be predicted and can be verified all through remotely operated technology, without risking the lives of scientists or disrupting the sensitive ecosystems of the reef habitats themselves.

Black coral (Antiphatharia). Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research Northeast U.S. Canyons Expedition 2013.

By Alex Makogon, NMNH Virtual Intern (Twitter: @AlexH2Ocean) [Edited by Allen Collins]

Additional Reading:
Kinlan, B. P., Poti, M., Drohan, A. F., Packer, D. B., Dorfman, D. S., & Nizinski, M. S. (2020). Predictive modeling of suitable habitat for deep-sea corals offshore the Northeast United States. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, 103229.

How Martha Got her start studying deep sea coral communities.

Intern Spreading the Animal Love

Hi! My name is Alex Makogon. Welcome to a part of the internet where you get to read about the incredible discoveries on our planet. For the next couple of months, I will be an intern with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History to bring you “no-spine” chilling stories here on the No Bones Blog! With COVID-19 affecting everyone’s lives in so many different ways, I am truly honored to be able to have the opportunity to work with Dr. Allen Collins and the other specialists at the Smithsonian. This is an incredible opportunity, and I hope you enjoy what I have in store to share with all of you!

My love for animals has been with me since I was a child, and has only blossomed exponentially since then. My plans for my future have never been concrete, but I always knew that animals HAD to be in the picture. In high school, I was enrolled in the PLTW Biomedical Sciences Program where I learned the foundation of laboratory science and Biology. Taking that knowledge with me, I was able to have the amazing opportunity a few years ago to intern at a Veterinary Hospital in Gypsum, Colorado. After my internship, I moved on to work at another Veterinary Hospital, in Gaithersburg, Maryland to continue working in the veterinary field. However, this time, I was exposed to working with exotic animals as well (I even got to watch surgery on a goldfish!). Yet I knew that as much as I loved working as a veterinary assistant, it wasn’t the job for me. 

Me helping out in a vet's office.

Since then, I have developed a love for pisces, cetaceans, invertebrates and all! I have taken that love and centered it into my studies. I am currently a second year student at Coastal Carolina University, in South Carolina.Currently, I am working on a major in Marine Science with a minor in Psychology. I plan to take my knowledge after graduation to pursue a masters degree in Marine Mammalogy to be able to study my favorite animal… Beluga Whales! A fun fact about a Beluga’s bones is that their neck is so flexible due to the fact that their vertebrae aren’t fused together.

Me enjoying the underwater world!

This past March, before the pandemic hit, I had the amazing opportunity to become NAUI Scuba certified for both open water, as well as advanced diving. I plan to coordinate with my SCUBA instructor through my university to discover diving research opportunities over the next couple of years. 

Catching critters with a seining net.

If I could live under the sea I TOTALLY would! However, since that isn't possible (yet), I hope you can join me on this underwater adventure through the stories I begin to share, and amazing facts that will cross your mind. Hopefully the whole world will realize how much our ocean has to offer. So what are you waiting for? Let’s learn something!

By Alex Makogon, onTwitter: @AlexH2Ocean

Intern at the Intersection of Biology and Art

Hi! My name is Jenny and I’m a new intern working with Dr. Allen Collins and Dr. Karen Osborn! I’ll be making art pieces based on new research and cool things in the invertebrate zoology department here at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. I am an incoming freshman at Stanford who is interested in the intersection between biology, art, and creative writing. I am so excited to learn from all the amazing scientists here as well as the new and exciting research happening here.  

“Rhizobia” is an installation combining a painting with suspended petri dishes of a root nodule.

I first got into biology and biology research after joining my school’s Science Olympiad and Science Bowl teams! I studied a lot of plant anatomy and physiology as well as some classifications in my free time. Over the summer, I did genetics research at UC Irvine under the COSMOS program and also conducted research with Dr. Alborz Bejnood on computational biology on skin cancer.

“Waltz of Interstellar Volvox” is an interactive piece set in both deep sea and deep space. Petri dishes spin and mimic the dancing movements of volvox.

My art is guided by exploration. I never know where each piece will take me. I create paradoxical worlds when I paint. I love integrating the microscopic scale with the macroscopic in a single painting. For example, combining blueberries with antibodies, dandelions with viruses, waffles with neurons - abstract approaches that build unfamiliar landscapes.

Another installation type painting with mops in the front, inspired by the bear’s head tooth fungus. The painting is inspired by deep sea coral.

Below are a couple more of my invertebrate-inspired pieces, including the first work done as part of this internship.

A painting of polychaete worms weaving into and out of a jellyfish membrane!!

 

Finally, this is my first painting done this summer, based on the beautiful new species of glass sponge, Advhena magnifica, that was discovered recently by IZ postdoc Cristiana Castello Branco and collaborators! Here I depict it morphing into its spicules.

By Jenny Shi

Ambitious Anthozoa Specialist, Andrea Quattrini, Joins Smithsonian

Andrea Quattrini in the ROV control room during an Okeanos Explorer Expedition.

The Department of Invertebrate Zoology continues to bolster their reputation with the arrival of impressive, young researchers. The latest expert to board this ship of scientists is the new curator of anthozoans, Andrea Quattrini. 

Going Boneless

Quattrini’s career began surrounded by farms and creeks as she attended Millersville University in her home state of Pennsylvania. The modest school boasts a strong marine biology program, which granted Quattrini her bachelor’s and seeded her marine aspirations. From there, she carried her ambitions to the University of North Carolina, Wilmington to obtain a Master’s degree, for which she researched larval fish distributions. Quattrini seemed poised to begin a fish-focused career. 

Fortunately for the world of IZ, the Master’s-equipped Quattrini stayed at UNC to study the degree to which fishes associate with coral habitats in the deep sea. For six years she worked as a research technician with this lab and, by the end of it, Quattrini knew she wanted to pursue a career investigating deep-sea corals. Corals drew her in further because of their ability to survive subsampling, the complex ecosystems they can form, and the stories these ancient organisms tell us about our planet.

Also during this time, Quattrini earned her first submarine dive. She boarded the Johnson Sea-Link as a technician, introducing her to the awe inspiring deep sea. “It’s super humbling to be in a place no one has ever been before,” Quattrini recalls, “I thought, ‘I’m going to do this for as long as I can’... I was hooked.” At the time, she could not predict the future of her career, but she knew the deep sea and corals needed to be in it. When Quattrini finally decided to leave UNC, she returned to Pennsylvania to begin a PhD program at Temple University. There, she fully transitioned into octocoral research, solidifying her status as an invertebrate zoologist. 

Paramuricea, a common genus of deep-sea octocorals.

Reading Genes & Going Green

Over the course of her career, Quattrini blazed trails in genetics. She began in her doctoral years with genetic work on octocorals. Most recently, though, she demonstrated her expertise with an ambitious postdoctoral project at Harvey Mudd College. There, she worked to create a robust evolutionary tree of anthozoans - from soft corals to stony corals to anemones. Common genetic techniques like DNA barcoding translate poorly to Anthozoa and many other invertebrate groups, so species classification often depends on morphological analyses that can, at times, be unreliable. Quattrini countered this problem by developing a new genetic approach - target enrichment of ultraconserved elements and exons. She hopes to employ this new technique to help reassess anthozoans and identify new species going forward. Quattrini also plans to use this new information to see how anthozoans diversified in response to past ocean chemistry changes. As human impact transforms the oceans today, this research may reveal how organisms can cope, allowing us to perhaps predict what will happen in the future

Several agencies have recruited Quattrini because of her concern for human impact. NOAA, for example, funds her to identify vulnerable habitats using her genetic tools. Quattrini aids in the NOAA Restore Act by examining ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico, how they have responded to the Deepwater Horizon spill, and how they might respond in the future. Another NOAA project has Quattrini inform them of the species interactions throughout the Gulf in an effort to expand boundaries for the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. These projects set the tone for Quattrini’s character; she is not only a talented geneticist, she wants to take action.

Quattrini on a cruise in Whitard Canyon, Ireland, with an ROV in the background.

Team Player

In college, Quattrini roughed it with her rugby team when she wasn’t studying for biology. Now, instead of tackling people on a field, she is tackling the field of invertebrate zoology with a new team. Despite being the newbie, the ensemble cast of NMNH (which includes another new curator, John Pfeiffer) looks forward to her fresh perspective. Her work with community structure and species outside of Anthozoa means many projects besides her own will benefit from her presence. She also looks to take advantage of the Smithsonian’s international appeal to raise the potential of her research. Quattrini’s collaborative spirit has already served her well, as she has advised several Okeanos Explorer dives as a shore-side and ship-side scientist. She wishes to merge her Okeanos work with her new curatorial position by creating an “exploration command center” for the IZ department. She imagines in-person gatherings with her fellow Smithsonian scientists to view telepresence explorations, multiplying the number of expert eyes on each run. This could set a precedent for the marine science community to establish these command centers in more institutions and pool together our global knowledge.

Quattrini isn’t just concerned with connecting her peers, though. She has high hopes for the next generation too. Quattrini works hard to ensure young scientists today are more aware of these opportunities. “I didn’t realize you could get internships and be in a research lab as an undergrad,” she says, “or that there are financial resources available out there, because nobody told me.” While at Harvey Mudd College, she uplifted several young women from Los Angeles by teaching them molecular techniques that are typically inaccessible. She celebrates the freedom in her new position to continue mentoring students and conduct her own research without the burdens of academia. 

The museum setting is new for Quattrini, but she delights in it. Reveling in her chance to meet all types of guests, she says, “hands on experience is really important for education, and what I love about this place is that I can engage with the public as much as I want!” She especially looks forward to interacting with kids, who she hopes will grow up appreciating the natural wonders. “Go to the beach, go camping,” she advises, “just take a moment and enjoy this world."

By Jaimee-Ian Rodriguez

New Smithsonian Curator, John Pfeiffer, Talks Freshwater Mussels

John Pfeiffer holding freshwater mussel, Chamberlainia hainesiana, in western Thailand in 2017 underneath a trestle of the Death Railway near Kra Sae Cave.

John Pfeiffer first forayed into natural history collections work during his undergrad at Northern Michigan University. At the time, he was unaware that his professional journey would lead to a position as the new Curator of Bivalves at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Pfeiffer’s beginnings

As an ambitious undergraduate at a small university nestled on the south shore of Lake Superior, Pfeiffer developed his fascination with freshwater mussels and decided to take a stab at collections-based research. With specimen donations from the Illinois Natural History Survey and his own local collecting efforts, Pfeiffer built the school’s first collection of freshwater mussels, focused on species distributed across the Midwestern United States. Today, the school still proudly displays the exhibit Pfeiffer built to document the freshwater mussel diversity in the region. This simple exhibit with neatly labeled shells delicately fastened to the display foreshadowed the bright future of a talented researcher.

Pfeiffer’s first freshwater mussel collection displayed at Northern Michigan University.

Unlike many scientists who follow a winding path to their final discipline of study, Pfeiffer found freshwater mussels and stuck with them. “How they infect their host was really what sold me on freshwater mussels,” explained Pfeiffer as he dove into the evolutionary tale of their wriggling lures and parasitic larvae. Freshwater mussels evolved from a marine ancestor and managed to traverse into the rivers and lakes of the world against the downstream flow that characterizes most freshwater habitats. Given the limited mobility of these bivalves, this movement against the flow was a marvelous feat. For their marine ancestors to climb into freshwater habitats, mussel larvae evolved to attach to freshwater fish which dispersed them upstream. To infect their hosts, adult freshwater clams go fishing.

Poring over videos of mussel appendages that resemble the prey of their larvae’s host fish, Pfeiffer explains how freshwater mussels attract their hosts in the same way humans use bait or tackle when fishing recreationally. Instead of buying fishing supplies at a store, freshwater mussels had to rely on evolution. In a beautiful representation of natural selection, this “fishing” tactic became so specialized in some mussel species that their lures look almost identical to the prey of a single host species.

Often times, a part of the mussel’s mantle (the fleshy structure that is responsible for exuding the shell in bivalves) mimics the shape, coloring, and movement of a prey type enjoyed by the target host fish. When the host fish nibbles on the suspected snack, it ruptures a structure filled with larval mussels and sucks in a bunch of babies that attach to the fish’s gills and body. These adorable parasites hang on for a few days to weeks until they mature enough to drop off and settle on the riverbed.

Female broken-rays (Lampsilis reeveiana) mussel with mantle lure mimicking a small fish to attract host smallmouth bass and rock bass. Photo from Barnhart, M. C. 2008. Unio Gallery: http://unionid.missouristate.edu. Accessed 10/3/2019.

Scouring the rivers of Thailand and beyond

Having always enjoyed time on the water, fishing and relaxing with a cold one in the great outdoors, Pfeiffer found the perfect counterpart in freshwater mussels. “They live in the river, they drink all day, and they do a little fishing,” joked Pfeiffer as he delved into his research and his plans as the new bivalve curator at the Smithsonian.

As a master’s student at the University of Alabama, Pfeiffer was more completely introduced to biodiversity science and looked into the evolutionary history of lesser-known freshwater mussel species in Southeast Asia, primarily in Thailand. Still interested in the parasitic life cycle of freshwater mussels, Pfeiffer focused his research on the evolution of different larval morphologies. As part of his master’s research Pfeiffer discovered that an endemic radiation of mussels in southeast Asia had evolved an unusual adaptation that caused the parasitic larvae to have asymmetrical shells. Pfeifer reconstructed the evolution of this trait and hypothesized about how it may be used to infect the fins of its host fish.

Pfeiffer continued his research on tropical freshwater mussels during his Ph.D. at the University of Florida and the Florida Museum of Natural history. There, he worked to uncover the evolutionary history of species in Mesoamerica and Southeast Asia. The species-level diversity between temperate and tropical freshwater mussels is comparable, but lack the same level of documentation as to their North American counterparts. Eliminating this disparity is one of Pfeiffer’s main goals.

Pfeiffer sampling for mussels in the Nan River in central Thailand in 2016. Walking upside down on the hands is standard sampling protocol when the river looks more like chocolate milk than water.

Freshwater mussel conservation

While the evolution of mussels lured Pfeiffer into his current research, he now also dedicates much of his work to conservation. “A lot of my conservation work,” he says, “has to do with understanding species boundaries. In order to protect a critter, you have to understand where its found, how that range has changed over time, and how you might expect it to change in the future due to certain threats.”

To better understand the diversity and distribution of freshwater mussels, Pfeiffer and his colleagues often use DNA tests to help identify particular lineages or groups. The goal of this work is to establish conservation priorities. By drawing a detailed map of species ranges, scientists can determine potential threats to each distinct species and the urgency of that threat.

As a newly appointed Smithsonian researcher, Pfeiffer hopes to reveal some secrets about other poorly studied mussel species housed here at the National Museum of Natural History. ‘One thing that I think we can do better in regards to better understanding mussel evolution is to more completely include endangered and extinct species in our reconstructions’, states Pfeiffer.

Many of these rare specimens are here in the museum and Pfeiffer hopes to use historical DNA techniques to pull out genealogical information to help build a more robust picture of freshwater mussel evolution across the globe. With a better understanding of evolution and biodiversity for these organisms, Pfeiffer hopes to inform conservation efforts to help maintain their stunning diversity. The Department of Invertebrate Zoology could not be more excited to have him on board.

BY Raven Benko and Jaimee-Ian Rodriguez

Spongiologist who?!

I have been trying to write this post for a while, but every time I start to think about what to write about my work on deep sea sponges, I get stuck on where to begin. So, this idea stayed in the back of my mind and, suddenly, in the last couple of months, I met different people from different places who, when they realized what I was working on, asked me two things: “Why sponges?” and “Why the deep sea?”

Most people probably think of sponges (often confused with corals by lay people) as animals that just live on the bottom of the sea filtering water. Such a boring group of animals doesn`t receive much attention, except when Sponge Bob is mentioned, am I right? But those who work with them know very well that they are far from boring. Actually, these animals are so cool! They may appear simple, but they are so hard to identify that they make one either fall in love with them, or become terrified of them. Nicole Boury-Esnault, a French researcher and remarkable spongiologist, is used to saying, “everything is possible with sponges!” All kinds of colors, shapes and an incredible number of different microstructures, which are key components to identifying most of them, occupy the attention of those who work with sponges. 

Diversity of shapes and colors. 1a, Aphrocallistes beatrix (deep-sea hexactinellid sponge; NOAA image); 1b, Hexactinellid sponge (NOAA image); 1c, Tedania ignis (shallow tropical waters Demospongiae; CCB image); 1c, Tropical demosponge species from Brazil (CCB image).

So, let me come back to the first question: Why study sponges? At first look you may think, “ok! Some different shapes and colors... and, so what?”  Like all animals, they have their environmental roles and can be found living on the bottom of all oceans, and even in freshwaters too. They have adapted to different kinds of environments and because they cannot run away from predators they have had to adapt in ways to defend themselves. They might be "simple", but we are talking about one of the oldest animal groups known in the world! They must be doing something right. So, what do they do? In terms of "mechanical"/skeletal adaptation, the most gorgeous skeleton structures are produced to make a thick, sometimes prickly, and unpalatable bodies to save themselves from predators. They also have chemical defense adaptations, and it is here where the human interest-point comes in. A lot of chemical compounds are produced by sponges to defend themselves from predation, and these compounds, known as secondary metabolites, are being studied more and more. Nowadays, we have some important medications produced on the basis of chemistry learned from different sponges (e.g. HIV and anti-tumor cocktails).

Diversity of spicules shapes (Demospongiae and Hexactinellida spicules; image merely illustrative).

And speaking about those adaptations to different places, can you imagine how much pressure, darkness and lack of nutrients deep-sea animals have to deal with? How do they survive in such extreme environments? When I say “deep sea”, I mean depths below 200 meters, ~656 ft. There are huge sponge gardens and reefs in deep waters, and such animals not only persist, but succeed wildly, creating structures that support an incredible array of other diverse organisms. Deep sea sponges exhibit amazing body shapes, as in Hexactinellida -- a group that is nearly exclusively found in cold- and deep-waters. One species of hexactinelid sponge in the deep waters from Pacific (east of China sea), Monorhaphis chuni, has been dated as the oldest living animal on Earth (11,000 years old!!). Imagine, individuals of this species have lived for pretty much the entire Holocene, and the rise and fall of so many civilizations. In 2016, another hexactinellid sponge also broke a record -- as the largest sponge ever found -- by being the size of a minivan. 

Hexactinellid skeleton (Sarostegia oculata).

Another exceptional family of sponges are popularly called carnivorous sponges because they have body parts that catch (like velcro) to small and unsuspecting animals that swim around or seek refuge. This is a surprising way for a sponge to make a living given that all the rest filter minute prey (often bacteria) from water that they pump through their bodies. Have I given you a little taste of why I am so in love with these animals?

Sponge garden from South Atlantic (Hexactinellida species: Sarostegia oculata).

This is my work: Within all these different forms and structures, I try to answer questions such as what makes this species unique among the others? Or, how many species are there in a particular region or area? How are those groups distributed in the oceans? And how are these distributions to be explained?

Carnivorous sponge, Chondrocladia grandis (NOAA image).

 By Cristiana Castello-Branco [Edited by Allen G. Collins]

Additional Reading:

Godefroy, N., Le Goff, E., Martinand-Mari, C. et al. (2019) Sponge digestive system diversity and evolution: filter feeding to carnivory. Cell Tissue Res. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-019-03032-8

Newman, D.J. & Cragg, G.M. (2004) Marine Natural Products and Related Compounds in Clinical and Advanced Preclinical Trials. Journal of Natural Products 67(8): 1216-1238. https://doi.org/10.1021/np040031y

Van Soest, R.W.M., Boury-Esnault, N., Vacelet, J., Dohrmann, M., Erpenbeck, D., De Voogd, N.J., et al. (2012) Global Diversity of Sponges (Porifera). PLoS ONE 7(4): e35105. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0035105

And more from No Bones:

• Sponges Aren’t Just for the Bath
• 5 Incredible Ways Sponges Might Save Your Life

Corals Got You Seeing Blue?

Those who have studied the Smithsonian are no doubt familiar with the U.S. Navy’s U.S. Exploring Expedition, called the Ex. Ex. for short.  This ambitious trip around the world took four-years (1838-1842), included six ships, and the crew had a team of nine scientists and artists.  It is one of the largest in the history of scientific discovery and thousands of articles (from ethnographic artifacts to biological specimens) were collected. These objects became the foundation of the Smithsonian’s collections. 

Right around this time, in Great Britain, Anna Atkins was experimenting with a new photographic technology called the cyanotype.  Using ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide, it makes blue images (this is the process that would come to be used to create architectural blueprints).  Atkins made impressions of algae by laying her algal specimens directly onto paper coated with these chemicals and then exposing them to sunlight.  From these images, she created the first photographic book, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843).

Here I am taking photographs in the Department of Invertebrate Zoology's Dry Collections Area

Among the specimens gathered during the Ex. Ex. were numerous stony corals, many of which were the first of their species described by science (such specimens are known as holotypes). But with the technology at the time, it would’ve been difficult to make meaningful cyanotypes of these corals, as the process requires the object to be relatively flat and being somewhat translucent is also helpful. Neither of which applies to most stony corals. However, using digital photography, I was able to capture images of particularly charismatic specimens in the Smithsonian Invertebrate Zoology coral collection. Along with the associated data, as well as scraps of paper and notes that are attached to these items (which, I think, tell interesting tales of both the history of these objects as well as their species more generally), I imagine a historic collision between the Ex. Ex. and Anna Atkins. 

Herpolitha limax

I was driven to do so because such stony corals are in great peril due to the rise in the temperature and acidity of the oceans, which is driven by climate change.  Coral reef bleaching events, where the living coral is abandoned by its symbiotic algae, result in corals with tissues so transparent all that can be seen is their white skeletons. Bleaching events increase coral mortality, and have become more frequent and of greater magnitude in recent years. I hope that my cyanotypes are an aesthetic and conceptual reflection on the trouble facing coral: the blue and white prints look like a sea full of the white coral skeletons… within my lifetime, it’s possible that most of what will be left of stony corals are their skeletons, crumbling in the oceans or on museum shelves [See Additional Reading below].  

Lophelia pertusa

Printing these images as cyanotypes, a technique once used by architects also seems significant.  In many ways, stony corals are the “architecture of the oceans.” The reefs that they create are among the most biodiverse environments on the planet and are critical breeding and feeding grounds for many other marine creatures.  If these reefs perish, many species will be without a home and the effects will resonate across the oceans. Many of these effects will be felt by human societies around the globe. In economic terms, the value of reefs is immense. 

Turbinaria sp.

It’s not too late for the coral, although we’re at a critical moment when action is required to save them, and there is plenty that can be done. Historical, The Ex. Ex and Atkins represent two crucial moments for the democratization and dispersion of information… The Ex. Ex. was a grand and ambitious voyage of discovery, while Atkins as the persistent individual pursuing knowledge.  This seems fitting, as both ambitious global coordination as well as thoughtful personal choices are crucially needed if we are to save the world’s coral. 

Acropora rotumana (presently known as Acropora abrotanoides (Lamarck, 1816)

 My title for this series is Ex. Ex. Colonies.  This title pays homage to the U.S. Exploring Expedition, although many of the coral I photographed were collected on later voyages (coincidentally, I find it very interesting that the age of coral collecting maps remarkably well onto the heyday analog photography, roughly from the 1830’s to the early 2000’s).  And colonies, of course, refers to most familiar corals being colonial species.  But my title is a word play with multiple meanings. For example, “Ex. Ex.” also refers to the removal of these species from the environment through human intervention (once by scientists collecting these specific corals and now at a global scale due to climate change). And “Colonies” also references the problematic colonial history that is entwined with the history of museum collecting. 

by Todd R. Forsgren [Edited by Allen G. Collins]

Additional Reading:

• Smithsonian Ocean Portal's "Corals and Coral Reefs"
• NOAA's National Ocean Service's "Coral Reefs - Rainforests of the Sea" [and links therein]
• NPR's "Climate Change Is Killing Coral On The Great Barrier Reef"
• UN Environment's "Fate of Corals Hangs in the Balance"
• International Coral Reefs Initiative's "The Coral Reef Economy The business case for investment in the protection, preservation and enhancement of coral reef health"
• Reef Resilience Network's "Value of Reefs"
• NOAA's National Ocean Service's "What can I do to protect coral reefs?"

Women Carcinologists at the US National Museum (National Museum of Natural History)

Surely you have heard of the famous US National Museum female carcinologist, Mary Jane Rathbun, but there are a number of other female carcinologists who worked or were associated with the Museum that also deserve the stage light, most notably Harriet Richardson Searle, Mildred Stratton Wilson, and Isabel Canet Pérez Farfante.

Fig. 1. Mary Jane Rathbun

Harriet Richardson Searle

Harriet Richardson Searle was known as the First Lady of Isopods, and one of the earliest woman carcinologists (Mary Jane Rathbun preceded her by only 5 years!).  With a career spanning more than 20 years and 80 publications, very little is known about her.

Fig. 2. Harriet Richardson Searle

Richardson was born on 9 May 1874 in Washington, DC. She obtained her B.A. (1896) and Master’s (1901) degrees from Vassar College at Poughkeepsie, New York, and her Ph.D. (1903) from Columbian University (now George Washington University), Washington, DC. 

Richardson focused her research on isopod systematics, with her first publication in 1897 on the Socorro Isopod, Thermosphaeroma thermophilum. This thermal water isopod, endemic to Sedillo Spring in Socorro County, NM, is now on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Her Ph.D. dissertation was a 266-page “Contributions to the Natural History of the Isopoda” containing information on a miscellany of isopods in the Museum’s collections.

Her association with the US National Museum (now National Museum of Natural History) began in 1896, and in 1901 was appointed Collaborator in the Division of Marine Invertebrates. In 1952 she was given the museum title of Research Associate. She worked at the museum for over 20 years, all unpaid, describing over 70 new genera and 300 new species of isopods and tanaids. Her best known work, “A monograph on the isopods of North America” (1905, reprinted 1972), is an overview of isopod systematics, literature, distributions, and habits of all the species (terrestrial, freshwater, and marine) that is still used today.

Her research material expanded beyond the U.S. National Museum. Richardson wrote reports in foreign publications, including materials from the National Museum of Natural History, Paris and the Rothschild collections from East Africa. She also wrote some of her papers in French. She was honored by many contemporaries with a number of isopod species named after her.

Soon after marrying in 1913, Richardson’s research work diminished; her last publication was in 1922.

Harriet Richardson Searle was a member of the Biological Society of Washington, and the Washington Academy of Sciences, and the Washington Society of Fine Arts. Richardson was also an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution where she was Regent of the Captain Molly Pitcher Chapter (1914-15). She died on 28 March 1958 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery with her husband and son.

 

Mildred Stratton Wilson

Wilson was born in Seaside, Oregon on 25 April 1909. She obtained her B.A. with honors from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1938, and then joined her husband in Washington, D.C. With a letter from her professor, S.F. Light, Wilson was introduced to W.L. Schmitt at the U.S. National Museum (USNM) where she continued work on freshwater copepods.

Fig. 3. Mildred Stratton Wilson

Her studies of C. Dwight Marsh’s collections as well as her own resulted in major publications on the revision of North American diaptomids.  At the USNM she was appointed Assistant Curator (1944-46) during WWII, and was in charge of the Division of Marine Invertebrates. In 1946 she moved to Alaska with her husband, but continued her freshwater copepod work and association with the USNM as honorary Collaborator in Copepod Crustaceans, and in 1960 she was appointed Research Associate, Division of Crustacea.

Mildred Stratton Wilsoncontributed greatly to the knowledge of the genus Diaptomus, harpacticoids, and caligoids, among others. She was a woman of remarkable talent and strength of character. She would often conduct her research in home laboratories, working on her own collections from Alaska using a specialized net she and her husband devised. Despite much hardship and physical disadvantages due to poor health, she continued with her studies until her death in 1973.

 

Isabel (Isa) Canet Pérez Farfante

Isa, as she was affectionately called, was born on 24 July 1916 in La Habana, Cuba, and received her undergraduate training at the University of Havana. She served as professor of biology at the Instituto de La Vbora and assistant professor of zoology at the University of Havana until 1942.

Fig. 4. Isabel Canet Pérez Farfante

She attended Radcliffe College of Harvard University where she obtained a master’s degree in biology in 1944, followed by a doctorate in 1948. Isa was one of the first women to attend Harvard University, and was the first Cuban woman to earn a doctoral degree from an Ivy League Institution. Returning to Havana, she served as professor and researcher of zoology at the University of Havana until 1960.

After leaving Cuba with just a suitcase, Isa joined the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 1961 as a researcher in charge of commercial shrimps in US waters. She was also an Associate in Invertebrate Zoology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) at Harvard University from 1961 to 1969.

In 1966 she joined the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) as Systematic Zoologist at the NMFS Systematic Laboratory in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. until her retirement in 1986. From 1987-1997 she was a Research Associate in the NMNH Division of Crustacea.

Isa authored zoology textbooks, and numerous papers on the systematics and reproductive morphology of penaeoid shrimps, most notably landmark studies of the commercial genus Penaeus. She was a senior author of the book “Penaeoid and sergestoid shrimps and prawns of the world” (1997).

Fig. 5. Penaeoid and sergestoid shrimps and prawns of the world

Isabel Pérez Farfante's name is synonymous with penaeiod systematics.  Her keys and descriptions of penaeid genera are still considered essential references today.

By Rose Gulledge

References

• Bauer, R. T. 2010. Isabel Pérez Farfante de Canet 24 June 1916-20 August 2009. J. Crust. Biol., 30(2): 345-349.
• Damkaer, D. 1988. Mildred Stratton Wilson, Copepodologist (1909-1973). J. Crust. Biol. 8(1): 131-146.
• Damkaer, D. 2000. Harriet Richardson (1874-1958), First Lady of Isopods. J. Crust. Biol. 20(4): 803–811.
• McLaughlin, P. A., and S. Gilchrist. 1993. Women’s contributions to carcinology. History of Carcinology.— Crustacean Issues 8: 165–206.

IS IT A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL?

Imagine you’re in the car on a rainy day looking out the window. What do you see? Then, pull your focus back to window itself and the raindrops beading up. Now what do you see? An entirely new world, right? Smaller, but a world just the same, individual droplets all interacting. A world you might not have even noticed was there, if you hadn’t looked closely.

It was a discovery, much like that classic raindrop riddled one from childhood, that rocked our world in the Department of Invertebrate Zoology (IZ) AquaRoom just a few short weeks ago. Looking in at the Cassiopea jellyfish and octocoral being cultivated inside the AquaRoom’s 55 gallon saltwater tank, it was all too easy to miss what was, quite literally, right under our noses; but, with the help of time lapse photography zoomed in to focus on the tank glass, an entirely new world was revealed. One of flatworms, isopods, and placozoans - each with a presence larger than life once given the spotlight.

An animated GIF by IZ Intern Alia Payne, depicting the organisms found on the tank wall.

It was in early February that a species of distinctly orange flatworm seemed to randomly appear. Curator Allen G. Collins first noticed the tiny organisms twisting and turning on the tank glass, and with IZ interns Lauren Thomas, Allie Straus, and Kela Bakari hard at work studying individuals under a microscope and thinking through important questions on what makes these captivating creatures tick, the AquaRoom team is making some exciting steps towards grasping the complexity of this tiny world. Armed with a Nikon D7200 camera and 60mm lens shooting 1 image every 3 seconds, the interns are capturing time lapse videos like this one that we hope will enable new insight into these organisms’ activities. There’s so much more to that 55-gallon tank than meets the eye!

In this video you can see a sampling of the countless interactions happening every moment at this microscopic level!

“I think our flatworms should have a Youtube channel,” Lauren joked after I spent so long mesmerized by these animals sporting vibrant orange, and moody brown hues that I had worm-shaped spots wriggling through my vision. I was inclined to agree-- though the skittering isopods and translucent placozoans reminiscent of The Blob are something to behold, the fiery eye-catching flatworms steal the show. But what do we know about these invertebrates?

 

Well for starters, flatworms as a whole glide through their environment by moving hair-like structures known as cilia. They have bilateral symmetry, meaning they’re divided into two halves that are almost mirror images of each other. Surprisingly, the flatworms all used to be united within a single phylum, Platyhelminthes (quite literally platy- “broad or flat” helminthes - “worms”), but now we know that one group, Acoelomorpha, has a separate evolutionary history from the other flatworms. While many flatworm species are parasitic which, unfortunately for their microscopic roommates, means they take from another organism in a way that’s harmful-- such as living in or on the body of the organism they are feeding off of, acoelomorphs are free-living worms.

 

As for our AquaRoom Flatworms, after some literature searches, we concluded that our orange fellows belong to the acoelomorph species Convolutriloba longifissura. This is a species known to reach a maximum length of 6mm. [3] C. longifissura often eat brine shrimp and copepods, and they consume their prey like a vacuum, scooping it right up! [1] Though we relate to how flatworms down their meals, these organisms unlike us have no gut cavity to speak of-- their mouths open up directly into the main layer of tissue in their body. [3]  Speaking of food, their interactions with placozoans and other critters traversing the glass are especially interesting: In the time lapse above (and the cropped excerpt below), a flatworm appears to attempt eating a writhing worm that we initially mistook for a placozoan, but then rejects it just as quickly. While the flatworm recoils, the weird worm then seems to make its escape. One of our questions is whether this is a typical interaction between the two species. And of course we need to put that worm under a microscope to learn more about what it is.

This video depicts the mystery worm's harrowing encounter with the Convolutriloba longifissura.

So flatworms live on other organisms, feed off of them, or try to, but do they ever team up? Apparently, they do. Flatworms of Convolutriloba have symbiotic relationships with green algae that live within their tissue, and it’s these same green algae cells that enable the flatworms to naturally fluoresce. [3]

Though it remains a mystery how exactly these flatworms appeared in the tank, it soon became apparent how their numbers flourished so quickly. Flatworms reproduce asexually through division. What sets C. longifissura apart from other Convolutriloba species however, is the stages it undergoes during division. Through a transverse fission the flatworms posterior end splits off, and then within a 24-hour period, the posterior end splits in half via a longitudinal fission. Within 2-3 days, during which the two budding flatworms develop eyes and a mouth, what began as one individual flatworm has now become three. [2]

Of the genus Convolutriloba’s four known species, three of them have been named from specimens found on aquarium walls-- and placozoans were described from aquarium walls, as well. It seems as though we aren’t the only ones exercising our curiosity by staring at the glass walls of aquaria! These organisms may be minute and mysterious, but just like their Cassiopea tank mates, they are ambassadors of a remarkable natural world worthy of the up-close attention.

By-- Alia Payne and Lauren Thomas

FURTHER READING:
1. Åkesson, B., Gschwentner, R., Hendelberg, J., Ladurner, P., Müller, J., & Rieger, R. (2002, January 06). Fission in Convolutriloba longifissura: Asexual reproduction in acoelous turbellarians revisited. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1463-6395.2001.00084.x
2. Identification - macropyga. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/macropyga/identification
3. Euichi Hirose and Mamiko Hirose "Body Colors and Algal Distribution in the Acoel Flatworm Convolutriloba longifissura: Histology and Ultrastructure," Zoological Science 24(12), (1 December 2007). https://doi.org/10.2108/zsj.24.1241

Powerful Florida Storm affects biodiversity

Powerful Hurricane Irma altered the marine fauna of Ten Thousand Islands, Florida as it blew through on Sept. 10, 2017.  One of the most prominent observations in its aftermath was the appearance of a marine invertebrate species that is not commonly found in this area, Molgula manhattensis. This species was found in high abundance attached to submerged mangrove debris and formed patchy mats on the sandy bottom of barrier island passes.

Molgula manhattensis belongs to the subphylum Tunicata (Urochordata) commonly referred to as tunicates or sea squirts. They are notable invertebrates (animals without backbones) because they constitute a subphylum of the phylum Chordata (animals with a notochord or backbone, such as ourselves); that is, they are our closest living relatives among the invertebrates. Sea squirts exhibit a backbone type structure called the notochord in their larval stage that is used for swimming to find an ideal location to attach.  Once they attach, the notochord is reabsorbed and shrinks to a simple nerve ganglion.  The animal then metamorphoses into an adult. While developing, a “tunic” or covering is formed for protection. The name tunicate comes from the outer covering. Tunicates are filter feeders, feeding on tiny particles especially bacteria from the water. They are found attached to all types of hard substrate including mangrove roots. Importantly for this story, there are no known freshwater species, all are marine (all live in seawater), but a small number of species are capable of living in brackish water.  

Mangrove branches covered with Molgula manhattensis

 

Molgula manhattensis, the species that appeared in large numbers after the storm, is of interest because there are no former records for the Ten Thousand Islands region, despite long-term research on the turtles that live there. Van Name (1945) indicated M. manhattensis occurred along the U.S. coast from Maine to Texas but its distribution appeared to be interrupted by the Florida peninsula. Regarding this discontinuity, however, Frey (1965) warns that “lacking really adequate data on distribution one must always be cautious that a presumed interruption in range reflects the actual condition in the species rather than merely the patchiness of fortuitous collections”. The latter appears to be the case with the perceived distribution in western Florida.

Published (Dragovich and Kelly, 1964) and online information indicate that M. manhattensis occurs as far south as Tampa Bay. The Department of Invertebrate Zoology database shows additional records from Charlotte Harbor, a major estuarine system south of Tampa Bay. The southernmost records (Captiva Pass in Pine Island Sound and the Caloosahatchee River) are only around 90-100 km north of the recent collection in Ten Thousand Islands. We have since received unconfirmed reports of sea squirts (most likely M. manhattensis) being collected during fish trawl studies in the backwater bays of the Ten Thousand Islands prior to the hurricane (P. O’Donnell, RBNERR, pers comm.). Collectively, these data suggest M. manhattensis has occurred cryptically in the less-saline backwaters throughout southwest Florida and it took a major hurricane to bring it out of hiding.

Prior to Hurricane Irma’s landfall, southwest Florida was already experiencing an excess of 15” of rainfall (138%) for year-to-date historical amounts. This amount increased to +24” (150%) after the storm’s passage. All the nutrient-rich freshwater draining into the estuaries and the churning of waters by Irma’s strong winds created hypoxic (no oxygen) conditions for weeks in the Ten Thousand Islands. M. manhattensisis one of the few sea squirts that will live in polluted, low-salinity waters (Van Name, 1945) so it makes sense that this species flourished after the storm. Now that conditions have improved, it will be interesting to see whether M. manhattensis continues to thrive in the outer zone of this estuary or retreats to obscurity in the backwater bays.

By Linda Cole – National Museum of Natural History, Dept. of IZ and Jeff Schmid – Conservancy of Southwest Florida, Dept. of Environmental Science

 

REFERENCES

 

Dragovich, A. and J.A. Kelly, Jr. 1964. Ecological observations of macroinvertebrates in Tampa Bay, Florida 1961-1962. Bulletin of Marine Science of the Gulf and Caribbean 14:74-102.
Frey, D.G. 1965. Other invertebrates-an essay in biogeography. In: H.E. Wright Jr. and D.G. Frey, The Quaternary of the United States. A Review Volume for the VII Congress of the International Association for Quaternary Research, pp. 613-632. Princeton University Press, New Jersey.
Van Name, W.G. 1945. The north and south American ascidians. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 84:1-476.