No Bones

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

Metal Medusae: Trace elements in the upside-down jellyfish Cassiopea

What comes to mind when you think of a jellyfish?  Stings?  Tentacles?  SpongeBob SquarePants with his net?  I like all of these answers, but after coming across some scientific studies, I’d add the elements copper, zinc, chromium, arsenic, and iron to the list.

Cassiopea are unique in their upside-down lifestyle. This is an upward view from under the soft mesh we use as a barrier between our delicate jellies and the intake of the water filter.

Researchers in Australia have discovered that the upside-down jellyfish can accumulate trace amounts of these METALS in its bell and oral arms, and these amounts exceed those in the surrounding seawater (Templeman & Kingsford, 2010).  The specific elements measured in their study were aluminum, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, and zinc.  But if you’re now envisioning the ocean as a liquid wasteland, rife with old power wires and discarded toasters, be sure to read ahead before you cancel your next beach vacation.

Some beautiful shots of our AquaRoom inhabitants.

Some of these metals are actually ESSENTIAL TO LIFE: copper is in hemocyanin, the oxygen-delivery protein used by multiple invertebrates such as horseshoe crabs, octopuses, squids, lobsters, shrimps, and snails; iron facilitates oxygen transport in hemoglobin, the oxygen-delivery protein of vertebrates (like us!); chromium helps regulate our sugar levels; DNA function requires zinc; and manganese is present in our bones.  But as with many good things, too much = bad.  And although a good general principle is arsenic = bad, minute quantities of this notorious element may even be essential, too (Hunter 2008).

A section of the periodic table of the elements (Patti 2006), with the nine elements found in Cassiopea outlined in purple.

With such a delicate threshold between essential concentrations and harmful ones, keeping a sharp eye on these levels is quite important.  This is where the term BIOMONITOR comes into play.  Also known as a bioindicator or indicator species, this is an organism that can provide useful information about the surrounding environment.

Jellyfish have often been overlooked for this role.  To be an effective biomonitor, species should have a wide geographic distribution, be relatively sedentary, tolerant of physicochemical (physical/chemical) changes, be readily identifiable, and be able to accumulate elements of interest (Templeman & Kingsford, 2010).  But Cassiopea are unlike most jellyfish in these respects: in addition to their expansive coastal marine environments, Cassiopea ARE relatively sedentary (they hang out upside-down on the ocean floor), and this trait also makes identification easy; they are EURYHALINE (your word of the day, meaning they can tolerate water of varying saltiness); and from the studies, it’s evident they can retain metals that have significant importance to life (Templeman & Kingsford, 2010).

This aerial shot demonstrates how Cassiopea are easily identified.

But why not just sample the water itself?  Why is a biomonitor so important?  While directly measuring contaminants in the water can be helpful, getting this information from a living creature provides much more relevant data in terms of how these contaminants affect the organisms and their ecosystem (Epstein et al. 2016).  What’s more, these metals can accumulate as they are passed up the food chain, posing potential risks to larger predators and, eventually, us!  This accumulation is not apparent when only sampling the water.

And one more very cool thing: researchers were able to use a jellyfish’s metal composition to determine where it came from  (Templeman & Kingsford, 2010)!  The animals were collected from one of five locations in Australia, ranging from the continent’s north coast to its east coast, which is about 1700 miles (2700 kilometers)!  For any fans of forensic science shows, this reminded me of investigators tracking where an item was purchased based on its UPC code, or where soil found at a crime scene could have originated.  Perhaps someday soon a jellyfish will be entered as a piece of evidence because of what metals are found in its bell.

Who knew jellyfish were such metalheads?

By Daniel Jackson

References

Epstein, H. E., Templeman, M. A., & Kingsford, M. J. (2016). Fine-scale detection of pollutants by a benthic marine jellyfish. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 107, 340-346. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.03.027

Hunter, P. (2008). A toxic brew we cannot live without. Micronutrients give insights into the interplay between geochemistry and evolutionary biology. EMBO Reports, 9(1), 15–18. http://doi.org/10.1038/sj.embor.7401148

Patti, S. (2016). Period Table of Elements [Open-source computer software]. Retrieved from https://sourceforge.net/projects/periodic-table-of-elements-qt/

Templeman, M. A., & Kingsford, M. J. (2010). Trace element accumulation in Cassiopea sp. (Scyphozoa) from urban marine environments in Australia. Marine Environmental Research, 69, 63-72. Doi:10.1016/j.marenvres.2009.08.001

 

 

 

 

Creatures from another world right under your nose

The vast world of invertebrates encompasses some truly beautiful and bizarre creatures, animals so exotic-looking that you’d only expect to encounter them in the deep regions of underwater realms.  But many would be surprised to know that the National Museum of Natural History houses LIVING jellyfish in the 2^nd-story region of its terrestrial Invertebrate Zoology department.

These animals do not mind living amongst the webs of algae, and their hardiness make them ideal creatures to care for and study.

That’s correct—within the labyrinth of hallways and staff offices, nestled amongst the specimen collections and laboratory space, there exists the AquaRoom.  Inside, dozens of jellyfish reside in a series of aquariums, the largest of which holds 55 gallons of saltwater (mixed by hand with Instant Ocean salt, deionized water, and intern elbow grease).  And by far the most bountiful of our lovely lifeforms belong to the genus Cassiopea, commonly referred to as the upside-down jellyfish.

While called the upside-down jellyfish, these animals do not always remain so oriented. Here we see one individual breaking from the norm as it hovers over its fellows like a mothership.

Cultures of Cassiopea jellyfish are relatively easy to maintain and propagate.  Personally, the only prior experience I had with aquariums was owning a few kinds of pet-store fish, but fellow intern Christine Martin and I have succeeded in caring for these magnificent animals over the last year, allowing them to grow in size and reproduce.  Regarding size, these animals are typically 1/16-1/8 of an inch (.16-.32 cm) in diameter when they start swimming around as babies; however, our largest jellyfish currently has a diameter of around 5 inches, or 12.7 cm (a conservative estimate).  This means some of the baby jellyfish we received in 2014 have increased 40- to 80-fold in size since the AquaRoom started regularly keeping marine invertebrates!

Some of our largest Cassiopea; the jellyfish on the right is approximately 5 inches across! This is an aerial view, making it easy to see why these are called upside-down jellyfish.

And Cassiopea are not the only aquatic occupants lurking in our AquaRoom, either.  We also maintain cultures of box jellyfish (class Cubozoa), care for an impressive octocoral (class Anthozoa), and look after several other Cnidarians that we periodically receive from institutions such as the National Aquarium, although these species usually require more intensive care than our upside-down jellyfish.  Currently the primary jelly care-taking reigns have been handed over to Christine, and she would definitely be the best person to speak with if you’d ever want to take the AquaRoom tour!

One of the AquaRoom’s other inhabitants: a box jellyfish (Class Cubozoa). This shows the stages of development as the polyp (upper left) metamorphoses into a juvenile jellyfish (bottom left). You can see how earlier the remarkable eye (with lenses, etc.) of the adult jellyfish develops early during the polyp metamorphosis (upper right). 

Observing these jellyfish in person borders on indescribable, but I will try anyway.  It is strange to develop such a level of respect and awe for a faceless invertebrate animal, not to mention one that lives in water while also being 95% composed of it.  Part of this connection may be a result of feeding and caring for them for months, but I believe the feeling has deeper roots.  To be face-to-face with a being so blatantly different and strange while knowing, consciously or otherwise, that they successfully and comfortably share the same world we do—that is a mind-bender.  If you are ever annoyed, saddened, or just bored by day-to-day life, maybe spend an afternoon with our jellyfish: it’s like visiting another planet, but without running out of oxygen, or getting too close to the Sun, or getting too far from the Sun, or crashing into an asteroid, or absorbing too much gamma radiation, or…you get it.

Another AquaRoom dweller, our lovely octocoral (Class Anthozoa, Subclass Octocorallia). At one point, one of this coral’s arms was knocked off, so we actually have an additional (albeit much smaller) coral that is doing just fine on its own!

In other words, there is a hidden dimension, beyond that which is known to the average Smithsonian museum visitor.  It is a dimension as vast as a small office and as timeless as 2014.  It is the middle ground between ocean and knowledge, between science and education, and it lies between the exhibit of Human Origins and the summit of the museum’s 3^rd floor.  This is the dimension of fascination.  It is an area which we call the AquaRoom.

 

By Daniel Jackson, IZ Intern

 

 

3D Scanning in Invertebrate Zoology

Today our 3D team drove to the Smithsonian’s Museum Support Center (MSC) with a car full of 3D scanning equipment. MSC is a collection storage facility that houses objects not on display at the Smithsonian museums. The 3D team’s mission is to scan a group of ancient turtle skeletons and crustaceans; specimens too large or fragile to be easily transported.

Walking through the treasures that live in MSC, it felt like a wild expedition with shelves brimming with fossils ready to be discovered.  

Tim Coffer, a Collections Manager of the Invertebrate Zoology department at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), fed our curiosity by giving us an exclusive tour of the other 99% of the Smithsonian collections not on public view.

A few weeks earlier, the 3D team collaborated with Tim on the coral pilot project scanning over 80 coral specimens in two weeks. We use several methods of scanning 3D models of coral: automated turntable photogrammetry, hand-held photogrammetry, and structured light scanning.

In addition to hundreds of mammal skeletons like deer, rams, elephants, there we also saw thousands of jars containing marine creatures. The whole team was fascinated by all the specimens and took turns asking Tim about their origins.

Following the tour, we started to setup our equipment for photogrammetry on the Invertebrate Zoology floor. Later in the week we will be getting down to business.

By Taylor Houlihan, 3D intern for OCIO-DPO

 

Translating an abstract?

Someone made the following comment upon reading the abstract of one of my recently published papers (led by Lucília Souza Miranda): "this claustrum paper just about lost me with its first sentence in the Abstract". It is definitely true that sometimes our scientific papers can be rather esoteric. This is all the more true of an abstract, which is properly meant to be a "retelling" of a paper rather than a summary.

So, let's examine the first sentence of the abstract of the paper in question:

"The claustrum in Cnidaria is a tissue in the gastrovascular cavity delimited by a central layer of mesoglea surrounded by gastrodermis (i.e., gastrodermis-mesoglea-gastrodermis), without communication with epidermis."

In re-reading this sentence, it seems a fair assessment. And indeed, in running the entire abstract through a "Readability Consensus Calculator", the consensus view is pretty clear: VERY DIFFICULT TO READ. Point taken.

So here is an attempt at getting the same information as in our abstract across using alternative language. One caveat: No doubt the language is stereotypical, inaccurate, and/or outdated. I can claim no authenticity for it. But do you get it? Is the alternative more clear than the actual?

Totally gnarly version:

So, like there is this hella cool thing in jellyfish, a piece of gut, yeah? This thing is called claustra and it’s really four different things, each one a claustrum. They grow, like, inside out from walls in the stomach and become totally new walls breaking the stomach into parts. If you zoom in way close, they have jelly-like stuff surrounded by gut tissues on both sides, and they do not connect to the outer skin (your epidermis is showing--jk). And this claustrum's been used to tryna suggest that two different kinds of jellyfishes, the square and hurtful box jellies and the beautifulest stalked ones, are closely related. But it’s totally bogus to accept that box jellies and stalked jellies both have claustra because, like, it's never really been looked at that carefully. But like we did that. Yeah. And the results are whacked. Actually, it’s like hella cool! Only the stalked guys have claustra, and just some of them at that. What some old dudes (gender-neutral) messed up was that box jellies don’t have claustra. They got these holes in their gut, though, near their throat, and that threw the brainiacs off. Cool thing though, stalked jellies also have those holes! I know, right? So, box and stalked jellies don’t share claustra but they do share gut holes. And by the way, it’s just dope to look at a fossil and think you can make out a claustrum in it.

 

And the real deal:

The claustrum in Cnidaria is a tissue in the gastrovascular cavity delimited by a central layer of mesoglea surrounded by gastrodermis (i.e., gastrodermis-mesoglea-gastrodermis), without communication with epidermis. By dividing the gastrovascular cavity, the four claustra provide an additional level of complexity. The presence of claustra in Cubozoa and Staurozoa has been used as evidence supporting a close relationship between these two cnidarian classes. However, the detailed anatomy of the claustrum has never been comparatively analyzed, rendering the evolution of this character among Cnidaria and its homology in Staurozoa and Cubozoa uncertain. This study provides a comparative investigation of the internal anatomy of the claustrum in Staurozoa and Cubozoa, addressing its evolutionary history based on recent phylogenetic hypotheses for Cnidaria. We conclude that the claustrum is a character exclusive to some species of Staurozoa, with a homoplastic evolution in the class, and that the structure called the “claustrum” in Cubozoa corresponds to the valve of gastric ostium, a structure at the base of the manubrium, which is also present in Staurozoa with and without claustrum. Thus, the claustrum cannot be a synapomorphy of a hypothetical clade uniting Staurozoa and Cubozoa, nor can its hypothetical presence in enigmatic fossils be used to support cubozoan affinities.

And since a picture tells a thousand words (much longer than your typical abstract), here is a diagram that compares species of stalked medusa without and with a claustum. We do not know for certain what the function of the claustrum is, but it does provide a space (pr-principal radial pockets, also known as mesogons or main radial pockets) where the gonads can be separated from the rest of the gut.

Comparison of stalked medusa without (left) and with (right) a claustrum (CS), logitudinal section at the perradii. Abbreviations: an-anchor/primary tentacle, mn-manubrium, gp-gastric radial pocket, pe-peduncle, gf-gastric filaments, gd-gonad, pr-principal radial pocket, ar-accessory radial pocket, and CS-claustrum.

 

 And here is what a claustrum looks like in histological transverse section, marked CS:

Histological transverse cross section through a stalked medusa (Staurozoa) that has a claustrum. The claustrum is marked CS. Other abbreviations: gd-gonad, ar-accessory radial pocket, in-infundibulum, and sp-septum.

And here is the bottom line of the paper: Contrary to what has been stated in the past (and repeated by me in some papers), this structure known as a claustrum is not present in box jellyfish (Cubozoa), but is present in some but not all species of stalked jellyfish (Staurozoa). You can read all about in detail in: 

Miranda LS, García-Rodríguez J, Collins AG, Morandini A & AC Marques (2017) Anatomy and evolution of the claustrum: a comparative study in Cubozoa and Staurozoa (Cnidaria) reveals that it is exclusive to some species of Staurozoa. Organisms, Diversity & Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-017-0342-6

Or you can contact any of the authors to request a PDF copy of the paper.

by Allen G. Collins

“GALLERY OF CARCINOLOGISTS” Returns to IZ-NMNH

The Department of Invertebrate Zoology (IZ) holds a unique collection of more than 400 portraits of influential scientists that have worked on crustaceans (carcinologists) from Aristotle to the present. Accompanying the portraits are biographical files that contain valuable information on their life and works. This collection has been painstakingly gathered by various IZ curators, with help of outside colleagues, over many decades, and holds valuable information for biologists and historians of science. The portraits consist of large format photographs and negatives, as well as line drawings (some original), and many were framed and exhibited on the hall walls of IZ, each with a brief biographical summary. This collection exhibited on the halls of IZ floors on the West Wing of the Natural History building was originally called the “Rogue Gallery”.

The biographical files are stored in acid-free reprint boxes and contain original obituaries or copies of biographies, photographs and slides, and in some cases, news clippings and/or unpublished notes on life aspects of the scientists. Given the size and importance of this collection, all components were scanned and digitized over the last decade with the help of several hard working student interns. In a digitized format, this unique resource is accessible to researchers and interested users around the world, and eventually will be posted online.

With downsizing and renovation of the Natural History building (NHB), the “Gallery” exhibit was removed from the walls and moved to for temporary storage at the Museum Support Center (MSC, Suitland, MD).  The portraits were wrapped and packed into storage bins to await their next showing.  Fast forward 4 years (and 2 moves), the “Gallery” once again is up and gracing the walls of the Department of Invertebrate Zoology at NHB. Drs. Rafael Lemaitre and Stephen Cairns were instrumental in making this happen.  Dr. Cairns assisted with selection and placement of the portraits.

A small selection of portraits and corresponding biographies is presented here.

Just a few of the storage bins packed with framed portraits and ready for delivery to NHB.

Selecting and moving Gallery portraits from MSC to NHB. Dr. Cairns holds a portrait of Dr. Paul Illg destined to be hung outside Dr. Jon Norenburg’s office at NHB, by request.

Paul Louis Illg (23 September 1914 – 10 May 1998)

Professor of Zoology, University of Washington. Had an illustrious career in life sciences, and contributed to making his University’s Seattle campus and Friday Harbor Laboratories, one of the leading institutions in the world for studying marine zoology, especially invertebrates. Published prodigiously for more than 50 years on parasitic copepods, particularly those living in ascidians. His research on microscopic ascidicolous copepods greatly extended biological and taxonomic knowledge, and illuminated evolutionary processes in these extremely complex parasitic crustaceans. His work is without equal in the systematics literature.

Arranging the portraits after they arrived back to the halls of IZ at NHB.

First ones first….Dr. Ted Bayer’s portrait was hung outside Dr. Stephen Cairns’ office. (Dr. Cairns was a student of Dr. Bayer.)

 

Frederick “Ted” Merkle Bayer (31 October 1921 – 2 October 2007)

Received his BS from the University of Miami, and MS (1954) and PhD (1958) from George Washington University. Published over 130 papers and books on the taxonomy and natural history of soft corals, describing over 170 new species, 40 genera, and three new families. Species from different groups of animals have been named in his honor, including the hydroid Hydractinia bayeri, described by the Emperor of Japan, Hirohito. A curator at the Smithsonian Institution (1975 until retirement in 1996); emeritus researcher until 2006.

Not a carcinologist, but an outstanding bio-illustrator, he was tasked to create detailed water color sketches of color patterns of live Trapezia, coral reef crabs.  These sketches and associated field notes are now part of the Illustration Archives of the Department of Invertebrate Zoology, and have become extremely useful for modern revisionary taxonomic studies of these spectacular and ecologically important reef crabs.

 

CLASSIC CARCINOLOGISTS:

Georges Cuvier (23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832)   

French anatomist considered the founder of the sciences of comparative anatomy and paleontology. Worked at the Museum of Natural History, Paris. Was Chancellor of the University of Paris, and served in the cabinet of Louis XVIII. An antievolutionist, he became the most eminent European scientist of his time, and virtually an intellectual dictator in the field of biology. Perfected the animal classification system of Linnaeus by grouping related classes into broader groups he called phyla: Vertebrata, Mollusca, Articulata (jointed animals), and Radiata (everything else). In doing so he stressed internal structures as indicative of relationships, rather than external features. Made important collections of crustaceans and published on groups such as the isopods.

Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882)

His participation as naturalist in the 5-year voyage of exploration of the H.M.S. “Beagle” (1831-1836) made this expedition the most important in the history of biology. His observations led him to propose in 1858 (jointly with A.R. Wallace) the famous theory of evolution, detailed in “The Origin of Species” (1859). Began work on barnacles in 1846, and intensively studied their larval development, metamorphosis and adult morphology. His 4-volume work on living and fossil barnacles (1851,1852,1854,1855) elucidated their affinities, functional morphology, and evolution, establishing a classification still used today. A painstaking perfectionist in collecting and classifying his information, he was a man of independent means. Member of The Geological Society of London.

Henri Milne Edwards            (23 October 1800 - 29 July 1885)   

Head chair of Crustacea, Arachnida and Insecta, and also of Mammals and Birds, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris. Great French morphologist and classifier. Best known for his multi-volume work considered the first breviary of carcinologists: “Histoire naturelle des Crustacés” (1834-1840), where he named 1400 species and 350 genera. First to propose idea that the crustacean body is arranged in series of homologous segments each with a pair of appendages.

Alphonse Milne-Edwards (13 October 1836 - 21 April 1900)        

French carcinologist, succeeded his father (H. Milne Edwards) as chair of Mammals and Birds, and became director of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris. Studied fossil crustaceans, and published many works documenting the diversity and morphology of decapods, mostly Brachyura and Anomura, from classic exploratory expeditions conducted on ships such as the "Travailleur", "Talisman", and the "Blake".

James Dwight Dana (12 February 1813 – 14 April 1895)    

Professor, Yale College. One of the first professional American scientists. Attained the rank of zoologist, then leaving this for geology, his chief field. Became known in 1836 with a treatise on mineralogy, followed by a series of short papers on copepods. Geologist and Zoologist of the “U.S. Exploring Expedition” (1838-1842), one of the great events in the history of science in the United States. In his monumental work “Report on the Crustacea” (1853-1855), described hundreds of new species, and presented a philosophical treatment of the classification, relationships, and distributions of species. Editor for 50 years of “The American Journal of Science”, and founder of the National Academy of Science.

Classic carcinologists: Georges Cuvier, Charles Darwin, Henri Milne Edwards, Alphonse Milne-Edwards, James Dwight Dana.

Modern day carcinologists at the National Museum of Natural History: Austin Beatty Williams, Thomas Elliot Bowman, Isabel C. Pérez Farfante, and Fenner Albert Chace, Jr.

 

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION/NMFS STAFF

Austin Beatty Williams (17 October 1919 - 27 October 1999)

Research Scientist, Systematics Laboratory, National Marine Fisheries Service, based at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Obtained his Ph.D (1951) at the University of Kansas, studying Ozark crayfishes. His numerous publications covered the taxonomy, systematics, biogeography, and evolution of various decapod groups, both Fossil and Recent. Best known for his invaluable and widely used "Marine decapod crustaceans of the Carolinas" (1965), and its later expanded version "Shrimps, lobsters, and crabs of the Atlantic coast of the eastern United States" (1984). He was co-founder and president (1983-1985) of the Estuarine Research Federation, and was an active member of The Crustacean Society, and the Biological Society of Washington, among others.

(Photo: 1997, taken during ceremony in his honor)

Thomas Elliot Bowman III (21 October 1918 – 10 August 1995)

Curator, Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Produced 163 papers on isopods, copepods, amphipods, mysids, and mictaceans. His mastery of crustacean comparative anatomy and morphology led him to produce classic, provocative studies such as on structural homology of the telson and on the evolution of stalked eyes.

Isabel C. Pérez Farfante (24 June 1916 – 20 AUGUST 2009)

Carcinologist Emeritus, U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, Systematics Laboratory. Born in La Havana, Cuba, she received her Ph.D. from Radcliffe College (1948). She was professor and researcher at the University of Havana; director of the Cuban Centro de Investigaciones Pesqueras; and associate in Invertebrate Zoology, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. She has authored zoology textbooks, and numerous papers on the systematics of penaeoid shrimps, most notably landmark studies of the commercial genus Penaeus. She is senior author of the book “Penaeoid and sergestoid shrimps and prawns of the world” (1997). (Married name: Isabel C. Canet)

Fenner Albert Chace, Jr. (5 October 1908 – 30 May 2004)

Zoologist Emeritus, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Born in Fall River, Massachusetts. Obtained his Ph.D. in 1934 from Harvard University. He was Assistant Curator of Invertebrates (1934-1942) and Curator of Crustacea (1942-1046), at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. Joined the staff of the U.S. National Museum* in 1946 where he worked until his retirement in 1978. He then completed his 7-part study of the caridean shrimps from the “Albatross” Philippines expeditions (1907-1910), published in Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology between 1983 and 1997. His interests centered primarily on caridean shrimps, and he is considered by his peers as one of the most influential and respected specialists on caridean shrimps in the latter half of the 20^th century.

Mary Jane Rathbun (11 June 1860 – 14 April 1943)

Ascended from “copyist” to assistant curator in charge of the Department of Marine Invertebrates, U.S. National Museum. Prodigiously productive, considerably advanced knowledge of fossil and Recent decapod crustaceans of the world, describing 1147 new species, 63 genera, and 5 higher categories. Best known for her unparalleled, monumental 4-volume monograph of New World brachyuran crabs, and a treatise on freshwater crabs.

Waldo LaSalle Schmitt (25 June 1887 - 5 August 1977)

Head curator, Department of Zoology, U.S. National Museum. Succeeded M.J. Rathbun. His tireless collecting efforts during numerous expeditions worldwide led to the immense holdings of the national collections. His dedication to the advancement of invertebrate systematic zoology contributed to the unmatched growth and international recognition of the Department. Author of numerous taxonomic studies on decapods and stomatopods, and the popular book "Crustaceans" (1^st printed 1931).

Raymond Brendan Manning           (11 October 1934 – 18 January 2000)

Senior Zoologist, Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.  Earned his BS (1956), MS (1959), and PhD (1963) from the University of Miami.  He published 278 papers on stomatopods and decapods, including landmark monographs and other studies on West African crabs, Indo-pacific dorippids, commercial geryonids, cave shrimps, and callianassids.  Above all, he was a master in stomatopods, and increased the known species from a handful to nearly 500 worldwide.  In all, he named 279 species, 138 genera, 5 subfamilies, 19 families, and 3 superfamilies of extant decapods and stomatopods, and at least 15 genera and 27 species of fossil decapods.  A tireless collector, he obtained more than 50,000 decapod and stomatopods for the Museum and other institutions.  One of the founders, and first President (1981-1983) of The Crustacean Society, from which he received in 1999 the “Excellence in Research Award”.

 

OTHER NOTABLE CARCINOLOGISTS:

Aristotle (384 – 322 B.C.)

Greek philosopher, founder of zoology and natural history. Organisms we now call crustaceans (decapods, stomatopods, copepods) can be identified in his “Historia Animalium” under the account of “bloodless” animals. His description of 180 different Aegean Sea animals is the precursor of all subsequent publications in marine biology.

Maria Sibylla Merian (12 April 1647 – 13 January 1717)

Artist-naturalist, born in the imperial city of Frankfurt am Main. She was not only skilled in watercolor and oils, but also was a keen observer of habits of caterpillars, flies, spiders, and other creatures. Her most famous works are her “Raupen”, and after traveling to America, her “Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname”, and “European Insects”, which include exquisite plates depicting life stages of insects.  She can be hailed as the first woman carcinologist as she prepared 60 crustacean paintings for Georg Everard Rumpf’s (Rumphius) 1705 book on the crustaceans from Amboina.

Jean-Baptiste P.A. de Monet de Lamarck (1 August 1744 – 28 December 1829)

French naturalist. Took a long time finding himself. As a soldier he fought with distinction in the Seven Years’ War. In 1781 he was appointed botanist to the king, and in 1793 (at nearly 50 years of age) professor of zoology at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, at which time he came into his own. Between 1815 and 1822 he produced the gigantic 7-volume work “Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertèbres” which founded modern zoology. He coined the terms “vertebrate”, “invertebrate”, and “biology”. In his book “Philosophie Zoologique” he was the first biologist of rank to rationalize the evolutionary development of life. Unappreciated and often maligned in his time, he died blind and penniless.

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (22 October 1783 – 18 September 1840)    

Born in Constantinople, Turkey, into a French-German family. He privately studied natural sciences, medicine and mapmaking. He was an eccentric, perhaps unbalanced man, but his intellectual breadth was enormous. A keen naturalist, nearly every one of his 900+ publications is rare, appearing in obscure places or journals. His carcinological work focused on the faunas of Sicily and the eastern U.S. Most of the numerous crustacean names he proposed never attained taxonomic status because of faulty descriptions, lack of illustrations, and his practice of not keeping specimens. His work was unfairly ignored or minimized by contemporaries. He died in poverty and isolation in Philadelphia, and his collections and books sold as junk. In early years he used the name Rafinesque-Schmaltz.

by Rose Gulledge

 

A blast from the past -- linkage between IZ and WWII history

In June 2016 we received a request from William Langford of Plattsmouth, Nebraska for a photograph of shells that were donated to the museum by his grandfather (Daniel Boone Langford) during the first half of the 20^th century. William recalled visiting IZ and seeing some of these specimens 44 years ago. His grandfather was a shell collector whose knowledge of the Pacific Island reefs and beaches (acquired in part through his fieldwork) was so extensive that the United States Navy employed him as a civilian expert to assist with the planning of the amphibious invasion of Okinawa during WWII (see W.J. Holmes, Double Edge Secrets, U.S. Naval Intelligence Operations in the Pacific During WWII, Naval Institute Press, 2012). 

Daniel Langford, who passed away in 1954, discovered a number of new mollusk species, several of which were named after him by Smithsonian curators (including William Healy Dall) and other malacologists.  We assembled a plate with images of some of these species and sent photographic copies to William Langford and his two sons.  Many thanks to volunteer Nick Raymond, and Yolanda Villacampa for taking the photographs of these specimens.

Selection of shells collected by Daniel Boone Langford.

 

For those who are interested, some of the details of Daniel Langford’s life can be found in Harald Rehder’s memorial sketch of Langford’s friend and brother in law Ditlev Thaanum, who was also a well-known Pacific shell collector.

By Bob Hershler

Anemone Recently Spotted by NOAA's Okeanos Explorer Potentially Packs a Wallop

A couple of days ago, the Echinoblog (by IZ's Chris Mah) posted this wonderful picture of a withdrawn sea anemone in the family Aliciidae from a recent Okeanos Explorer Dive observed on Ahyi Seamount in the Mariana Islands region at 275 meters.

A seldom seen sea anemone in the family Aliciidae, with its lengthy tentacles withdrawn. Captured on film by NOAA's Okeanos Explorer.

Dr. Dave Pawson, Curator Emeritus has apparently encountered these sea anemones before!  Upon reading Chris' Echinoblog post on the recent Okeanos observations, he shared a “real world” encounter with an aliciid anemone in the Atlantic.

"We picked up one of those in the Bahamas years ago…a small animal that was about 6 inches long when we laid it out in a dish on the mother ship, but when in situ, the tentacles extended out about 1.5 meters!  We were looking at this weird animal in the dish, and wondered what the scattered knobby structures were on the body.  Could they be “buds” – was the animal reproducing asexually?  I touched one of the knobs with a fingertip, and received a jolt that felt like a million volts of electricity!  The knobs were masses of nematocysts (stinging cells).  My fingertip was very painful for some hours, but it survived; in in fact I’m typing this e-mail with it, in my usual two-fingered manner."

Below is a fantastic picture by Philippe Guillaume of a similar-looking aliciid anemone with tentacles extended. Explore his Flickr page for additional images.

 By Chris Mah