No Bones

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.

Tiny Jewels in the Ocean

In the group of marine animals known as echinoderms (from Greek, meaning “spiny skins”), there are five distinct groups alive today – the familiar starfish, sea urchins (including sand dollars), sea cucumbers, sea lilies, and brittle stars.   A beachcomber picking things up along the shore, or a deep-sea fisherman sorting his catch in a net, can usually tell at a glance to which group of echinoderms a specimen belongs, for the five main groups have fairly distinctive shapes. 

But, not always.

Figure 1. A typical brittle star. From Hendler, G. et al. 1995. Sea stars, sea urchins and allies. Smithsonian press.

 

There are about 2,000 species of brittle stars alive today, and most brittle stars are shaped like this (Figure 1), with a small central disc and five so-called arms.  But, in 1879, a British scientist, Dr. W.P. Sladen, discovered a strange little echinoderm, about half an inch across, that he at first thought was a starfish – it was certainly starfish shaped - but on further study, he was amazed to find that it was a brittle star.  He named this new genus Astrophiura, which might be translated to mean “starfishy brittle star”.  In the intervening 100 years and more, about eight additional species of this strange animal have been found, in various areas of the world’s oceans.  Until recently, though, none had been recorded from the Atlantic Ocean.

A few specimens, some in the collections of the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, and others that have been collected very recently in the vicinity of Curacao in the southern Caribbean, have proven to be Atlantic Ocean representatives of this weird starfishy brittle star, and I have named this new species Astrophiura caroleae in honor of Dr. Carole Baldwin, a Curator of Fishes in our museum, who founded DROP (Deep Reef Observation Project) several years ago, and whose dedication and enthusiasm has resulted in many new deep coral reef discoveries being made using a manned submersible, Curasub, which can dive to depths of 1000 feet and more.

Figure 2. From Pawson, D.L. 2018. Zootaxa 4378 (2).

 

Astrophiura caroleae, like its weird relatives, is about half an inch across, with a starfish-like central disc, and tiny fragile so-called free arms, which are usually broken off when individuals are collected.  This animal (Figure 2A, 2C, 2D) is usually easily visible because of its bright reddish color, and it adheres to hard surfaces, so it can be found attached to dead shells, pieces of coral, and man-made objects – such as discarded beer bottles (Figure 2B).

Does this little creature play an important role in the general economy of the deep sea?  Probably not.  It is seldom found, but it always excites interest and pleasure.  A tiny and beautiful jewel that challenges us to learn its secrets!

By Dave Pawson

Oh how you’ve grown! The Life Histories Program at the Smithsonian Marine Station, Fort Pierce, Florida

In 1972, Dr. Mary Rice made a decision that changed how biologists see the Atlantic coast. As the newly appointed director of a small marine station in Fort Pierce, FL, Rice decided to open her doors to the Smithsonian’s scientific community and research fellows, enabling them to expand their work from specimen collections, to in-depth studies of organisms in their natural habitats. At the station, Rice established the Life Histories Program, which tracks the growth and development of marine invertebrates. For Rice, the Smithsonian Marine Station became an ideal place to research these fascinating creatures and the transformations they experience as they grow from egg to adult. 

Mary Rice and Kevin Eckelbarger comparing specimens in the Life Histories lab in 1974, which was located on a barge on the campus of Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at the time.

Mary was most interested in sipunculans, or ‘peanut’ worms, a family of marine worms found worldwide from the shore to the deep sea. She studied the reproduction and development of the many sipunculan larval forms, and then compared them to the development of other worms, followed by more distantly related invertebrates. Through her research, Dr. Rice hoped to gain a better understanding of marine invertebrate development as a whole, and the role it plays in their ability to reproduce, disperse and adapt to different environments.

Mixed plankton sample showing a broad diversity and abundance of Gulf Stream animal forms.

Rice continued her research for 36 years, until her retirement in 2002. Eight years later, Michael Boyle arrived at the Smithsonian Marine Station, first to learn directly from Mary’s extensive experience (she was still working even though long retired), and most recently, as a staff scientist to manage the future course of research in the Life Histories Program. Like Rice, Dr. Boyle’s research focuses on the life histories of marine invertebrates, with a special interest in the evolution and development of sipunculans.

The Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce, Florida, as it looks today.

This research goes well beyond pure scientific curiosity. Throughout their life histories, invertebrates have a huge impact on the ocean ecosystems we rely upon to feed us and sustain our planet. The large animals we harvest are reliant on the tiny plankton as a food source directly or indirectly depending on their feeding strategies. Furthermore, many of the non-motile adult invertebrates, such as corals, oysters and even some worms, actually form reef structures that shield our coastlines from storms and erosion, simultaneously serving as habitats for all sorts of ocean life.

Compilation of photomicrographs of plankton specimens of various types and the mixed plankton tow sample they were collected from.

To gain a better understanding of the many roles marine invertebrates play in the ocean ecosystem, the Smithsonian began its StreamCode project. Inspired and coauthored by Michael Boyle and Karen Osborn, and with the passionate dedication of several Smithsonian scientists from the Department of Invertebrate Zoology (IZ) and NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the StreamCode project is focused on documenting the stunning diversity of microscopic invertebrates in the water column along Florida’s Atlantic coast. With the Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce as a base of operations, this team of scientists has set out to collect zooplankton from the Florida Current region of the Gulf Stream.

Most of the June 2017 StreamCode participants (left to right): Allen Collins, Ai Nonaka, Chan Lin, Cheryl Ames, Kate Hansen, Michael Boyle, Karen Osborn, Elise Hartil, Will Jaeckle, Ellen Strong, Leann Biancani, Mike Vecchione, Robert Boyd.

With a multipronged approach using high-resolution photography, DNA sequencing of genetic ‘barcodes’, and detailed descriptions of microscopic diversity, marine scientists will begin to obtain a clearer picture of which planktonic invertebrates move with and survive in the Gulf Stream. 

Kate Hansen and Michael Boyle imaging and processing copepods collected during the June 2017 StreamCode expedition.

From the collections made for this study, more detailed life history studies will allow us to investigate the adaptations of these invertebrates to a broad assault of environmental challenges. Following in the footsteps of Dr. Mary Rice, Dr. Boyle’s efforts in the Life Histories Program, along with help from IZ and NMFS scientists, may give us a more detailed understanding of the development and dispersal of meroplanktonic animals as they surf the currents of the world’s open ocean.

Mary Rice and Michael Boyle in the molecular biology laboratory at the Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce.

 

By Robert Boyd, Department of Invertebrate Zoology Intern and Masters student at American University

The Strange Scanning Eyes of a Swimming Sea Snail

We know about many bizarre visual characteristics of animals living in the dim light of the deep sea. One of the strangest such adaptations is the scanning eye of an atlantid heteropod mollusc. Heteropods are snails that spend their entire lives swimming in the open ocean. [Heteropods are sometimes called Sea Elephants, and are also known as pterotracheoids.] Their eyes have a well-formed spherical lens with the retina the correct distance away for the lens to focus an image. The strangeness is in the shape of the retina and how it is used. In atlantids, the earliest diverging family group of heteropods, the retina is a narrow band. To view its environment, the animal rotates the narrow retina up and down periodically through a 90 degree arc. We think that when it does this, the animal scans successive slices of the environment and then mentally assembles a complete image much like we do when we watch a television screen; a TV picture is also comprised of many separate lines displayed successively but so rapidly that we see them as a complete picture.

  

Having a full-sized retina is a problem for animals of the ocean's "twilight zone" where predators look upward for silhouettes of potential prey against the dim light filtering down from the surface. A large retina makes a large silhouette/target because, in order to function, the retina has to absorb as much light as possible. A narrow scanning retina would reduce this problem while still functioning to monitor the visual environment effectively.

I knew about heteropod eyes, and teach about them in Deep-Sea Biology. However, I had never watched one in action until I went to sea this month as part of a group studying the swimming animals of the deep Gulf of Mexico. We caught this Oxygyrus inflatus and I was able to record the video by shooting with my cell phone through the eyepiece of a microscope in the cramped laboratory of a rolling research ship.

By Mike Vecchione

Leech Hunters!

Macrobdella decora, the North American Medicinal Leech, from southern Maryland.

Hello colleagues! 

Let me introduce myself, my name is Ricardo, better known as Rico. I am a Masters student at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City and I have been studying leeches for the last three years. Now I even find these slimy annelids adorable.

Most people think of leeches as segmented, slimy worms that feed on blood, but what if I told you that many leeches do not suck blood? There is a wide diversity of leeches that feed on small invertebrates such as insect larvae, mollusks and earthworms. Leeches are cute in many ways, some of them are even really good parents. When the offspring are born, rhychobdellid (proboscis-bearing) leech babies are carried on the belly of their parent who protects them and even takes them to their first meal. Once the leech babies have grown enough to look for their own food, they leave the parent leech to start living an independent life.

Ricardo Salas Montiel searching for ticks during fieldwork in southern Maryland.

I work on the North American medicinal leech, Macrobdella decora, that ranges from northern Mexico to southern Canada. Its coloration patterns are beautiful, and it is the most widely distributed species of the genus. Macrobdella decora is a good model to study phylogeography because the populations are isolated from each other and individuals cannot move easily from one freshwater body to another without facing desiccation. In order to better understand the processes that shaped the geographic distribution of Macrobdella decora, I need specimens from as many populations as possible. As part of my degree studies in Mexico, I had the opportunity to spend a 9-week research visit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History collecting specimens and working in the molecular lab with Dr. Anna Phillips and Dr. Herman Wirshing. 

The first five weeks of my stay we collected leeches from Maryland. I had some experience collecting leeches in Mexico; however, collecting leeches in Mexico and collecting leeches in Maryland are two completely different experiences mainly because of the extreme summer weather and because of ticks and chiggers in Maryland. The weather was very unpredictable with summertime thunderstorms. There were times when I was more worried about looking for ticks than for leeches feeding on my blood.

Ricardo Salas Montiel knee-deep in a swamp in southern Maryland looking for the North American Medicinal Leech, Macrobdella decora.

I also examined some specimens at the Museum Support Center. I was astonished to see how huge the Invertebrate Zoology collection was. I knew that the largest leech ever collected was deposited there and I really wanted to have a look at it. Haementeria ghilianii could perfectly take up the space between my wrist and my elbow, just as it did on Roy Sawyer’s arm some years ago. Even though I saw it in a jar, it was still amazing. Surprisingly, I found that a few leech specimens from New Hampshire in the Collection that were misidentified as M. decora but are in fact M. sestertia, a species that has been only a handful of times since it was described in 1886. 

We traveled to Omaha, Nebraska where I presented the preliminary results of my thesis at the 90^th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Parasitologists. Once the conference was over, I traveled to Illinois where I was hosted by Agustín Jiménez, a researcher that kindly supported and joined me in leech hunting for five days. We collected in several localities near Southern Illinois University and we found leeches, although not the species we were seeking.

Roy T. Sawyer, author of Leech Biology and Behaviour (1986; Clarendon Press) with a particularly large individual of Haementeria ghilianii on his arm.

The last four weeks of my visit I spent most of the time working at the Laboratory of Analytical Biology (L.A.B.). I was able to sequence different mitochondrial and nuclear markers such as COI, ND1, and 18S and also started sequencing microsatellites, all with the support and guidance of Dr. Herman Wirshing.

In the blink of an eye, nine weeks had gone by and I had to say goodbye. I am in Mexico now and I am very happy because I obtained valuable data for my Masters thesis. I am also very grateful to Anna for having me in D.C. as her student as well as to the NMNH for allowing me to use its facilities. I hope I have the chance to go back to D.C. in the future, but for now I will focus in finishing my masters on time.

See you soon colleagues!  

 

By Ricardo Salas Montiel

 

 

A Tale of Two Tanks

At the end of a long day in the inner harbor of Baltimore, we left the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) building, rolling a cooler behind us and excitedly chatting about ctenophores. With the addition of two new types of jellyfish, Cladonema and benthic (bottom dwelling) ctenophores, from the Baltimore Aquarium, the IZ aquaroom staff were at that moment preparing to dive into a gelatinous adventure. The AquaRoom in the Department of Invertebrate Zoology (IZ) is a place where IZ associates collect and care for jellyfish and other marine invertebrates, as well as carry out research with them. The room is managed by Peter Buck Predoctoral Fellow Cheryl Ames, with the help of interns Mehr Kumar and Kate Muffet. The staff is currently studying the ontogeny of Cassiopea, that is, how the animal grows from a polyp, its juvenile stage, to a medusa, its full adult stage. Such work requires a lot of care and nurture. For all of the effort that goes into maintaining the tanks, the staff has, unsurprisingly, grown quite fond of their invertebrate charges, giving some nicknames. 

Our main tank contains octocoral, various algae, hydroids, coronate polyps, and Cassiopea (upside-down jellyfish).

The latest experiment underway in IZ’s AquaRoom involves infecting certain jellyfish polyps with dinoflagellates in order to cause them to strobilate, that is, to reproduce asexually. Strobilation is a natural reproductive strategy of jellyfish in the class Scyphozoa. Other possible experiments that the staff may carry out in the future could include studying the effect of free-floating plastic particulates on the health and growth of jellyfish polyps. In addition, the staff plan to mate their living specimens, to produce new generations of jellyfish right here in IZ. So far, all of IZ’s living jellyfish were obtained from Pennsylvania State University, the Baltimore Aquarium, and the University of Kansas. The AquaRoom staff also hold outreach events in the Q?rius exhibit hall, answering questions from visitors to the museum about jellyfish and showing kids how to feed brine shrimp to Cassiopeia. 

IZ intern Kate Muffet shows children how to feed Cassiopea.

For this most recent jellyfish transfer, our day started by visiting the new Jellyfish touch-tank, in the Baltimore National Aquarium’s Living Seashore exhibit. We also looked at the aquarium’s Jellies Invasion exhibit. After, we spent hours viewing a large range of fascinating invertebrates, from Limulus (horseshoe crabs) to Aurelia (moon jellyfish), in tanks in both the aquarium’s exhibits and in IMET. We probably could have wandered through the facility for days—there were so many animals to see! When it was time for us to receive the new living additions to IZ’s AquaRoom, the aquarium’s staff handed over the Cladonema and benthic ctenophores in plastic bags, much like you would bring home a new pet goldfish from the store.

There’s no goldfish in this plastic bag, but there are jellyfish and benthic ctenophores (see images below), as well as two types of marine flora.

While our method for transporting scientific specimens may be surprisingly simple, the day-to-day maintenance that is necessary for tank upkeep at the Baltimore National Aquarium definitely isn’t. The aquarium uses a variety of methods to promote long, healthy, and stress-free lives for their jellyfish and other denizens. One such technique is called bio-filtration. In bio-filtration, the right types of sand and water are mixed together for three full days in order to make sure that the water contains the bacteria that exist in natural habitats. Because the aquarium’s water is sourced from pier five on the Chesapeake Bay, it contains small amounts of harmful waste, which must be treated and removed. To do so, the water is run through high intensity ultraviolet (UV) light treatment facilities, which kill off bacteria, while protein skimmers remove organic compounds from the water.

A bird eye’s view from one of IMET’s "AquaRooms".

Our guide for the day was the tremendously kind Jennie Janssen, who is the manager of changing exhibits at the National Aquarium. Her team is in charge of the maintenance, set up, and design of the many, many exhibits and tanks in the aquarium. You probably didn’t know that everything in an aquarium is specially designed for certain qualities of insulation, lighting, and tank shape, specific to certain exhibits and creatures. In the exhibits, if a jellyfish dies, the staff must carefully investigate the animal’s death, to identify whether any pathogenic diseases are present in the tank and prevent the further death of other creatures. Every detail of every tank is managed by a professional like Jennie in order to ensure that the tanks provide an optimal experience for visitors and the best conditions for scientists studying these animals, in addition to being great homes for the animals inside.

The rest of the team (from left to right): Mehr Kumar (Intern), Stacy Pirro (NMNH Collaborator), Cheryl Ames (PhD Student), Bastian Bentlage (Postdoc), Kate Muffet (Intern), Allen Collins (Curator).

Back in the IZ AquaRoom, we have big dreams for these tiny new critters. Mostly, we’re excited to continue learning about the biology of these complex and beautiful animals. 

Two new denizens of the IZ AquaRoom, the hydrozoan jellyfish Cladonema on the left and the benthic ctenophore Vallicula multiformis on the right. Both are voracious predaturs that use their tentacles to capture prey, but they are in separate phyla, Cnidaria and Ctenophora, respectively. (Images by Allen Collins)

The newest tank in the IZ AquaRoom.

 

By—Zoe Grabenstetter (post and photography, unless otherwise noted) [Edited by: Elizabeth Boatman and Allen Collins]

Check out our twitter @InvertebratesDC to see updates about our AquaRoom.

Remembering Kristian Fauchald

 

A recent photo of Kristian

Kristian Fauchald [July 1, 1935 – April 4, 2015] was a research zoologist studying polychaete worms in the Department of Invertebrate Zoology from 1979 until his death.  Just prior to coming to the Smithsonian Kristian was on the faculty at the University of Southern California.

His earliest studies in marine biology were conducted in the cold waters of Norway, especially at the University of Bergen, and the Espegrend Marine Biological Station.  After receiving the equivalent of a Masters degree from the University of Bergen (Cand. Real 1959) on the Nephtyidae polychaetes of Norwegian waters, he was hired as a staff member at the Espegrend Marine Biological Station, ending as Assistant Director in 1964.  During his time at Espegrend he received a grant from the Norwegian Research Council enabling him to go in the fall of 1963 to the University of Southern California’s Allan Hancock Foundation to continue his studies of the Nephtyidae.   He returned to his job at Espegrend but felt if he wanted to expand his polychaete research he needed to pursue a Ph.D..  He chose the University of Southern California to work with Dr. Olga Hartman who was in charge of the polychaete collection at the Allan Hancock Foundation.  Upon graduation he was hired as a USC faculty member and researcher at the Allan Hancock Foundation.  He taught summer courses at the marine labs at Catalina Island, California and Friday Harbor, Washington.  He participated in the Scripps Institution of Oceanography 1972 South Tow Expedition, which collected samples from abyssal depths from San Diego to Papeete, Tahiti by way of Pitcairn Island.

Kristian was frequently invited to teach 1-2 week long classes at universities and marine stations throughout the world, including in Italy, Brazil, Taiwan and Mexico. Topics covered included: cladistics, phylogenetics, morphology, and ecology of polychaetes.

The Pink Book

Kristian’s 1977 book Polychaete Worms: Definitions and Keys to the Orders, Families and Genera, published by the Natural History Museum and the Allan Hancock Foundation, University of Southern California, also known as “The Pink Book”, was the introductory book that taught many of us how to identify polychaete worms.  Kristian was always quick to point out that he had no say in the choice of color (pink) for the cover of the book.  Many a copy has been taken into the field around the world helping identify polychaetes and the hard copy is still available for purchase from the Los Angeles County Museum. The 2001 book Polychaetes by Gregory Rouse and Fredrick Pleijel takes the “Pink Book’ into the new era of polychaete systematics. One of the most frequently cited papers on polychaetes (nearly 2000 times) is the 1979 paper Kristian wrote with Peter Jumars: The diet of worms: a study of polychaete feeding guilds.

After moving to the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History in 1979 Kristian spent time conducting research at the Smithsonian’s labs at Ft. Pierce, Florida and Carrie Bow Cay, Belize.  He also went to more exotic locals to study polychaetes such as Aldabra, Republic of the Seychelles (1983, 1985, 1987); Madang, Papua New Guinea (1993); Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef of Australia (1983) and even Cuba (1994).  As he said in an August 11, 1999 article in the Washington Post (As the Worm Turns, So Does a Museum) “I am not fond of cold water.  I did my duty in it when I was in Europe.  I do not see why I shouldn’t study interesting problems in warm waters.”  One of his last trips was back to the cold waters of the north, this time to the Nikolai Pertsov White Sea Biological Station, Russia where he was invited to teach a class on polychaete cladistics.

The worm collection in its former location at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

The polychaete collection at the Smithsonian is among the world’s largest in terms of physical size, shown above in a picture of the worm collections former location in the Natural History building.  It also has extensive taxonomic, geographic and temporal coverage.  Kristian felt it was important to examine the type specimens, where available, of the species he was studying whether it be taken from the Smithsonian collection, or outside museums.  He spent several months in 1983 at the Australian Museum studying their collection of Eunicidae.  He was able to look at not only their types but specimens from all over the Indo-Pacific region.  In his review of the genus Eunice he scored 82 characters for 208 species: including characters such as total length, number of segments, position of the eyes.  Imagine examining a worm that was almost 1 meter long and having to count and characterize more than 500 segments!  Where type specimens were no longer available he tried to use the original description to score the morphological characters but often the descriptions were so brief or vague that he could not.

Despite the breadth of our collections Kristian went into the field to collect additional specimens. In living specimens you can see the true color and color patterns, such as seen in the three eunicids (above, to the left, and below) photographed by his former PH.D. student  Joana Zanol.  The worms quickly lose any color, often turning beige or muddy brown, once preserved in formalin and stored in alcohol.  During preservation the worms often contract parts of their body which can change their appearance, or even obscure parts making identification difficult.  With live animals Kristian could study the the appendages on the head (such as antennae and palps) as well as the parapodia and chaetae (the lobes and hairs that project from each segment and help the worm move).   

Several of the Ph.D. and Post-Doctoral students (Joana Zanol, Greg Rouse and Fredrik Pleijel) who worked with Kristian in the field over the years, especially at Carrie Bow Cay, excel in using digital cameras to capture images of living specimens.  They also have the patience to capture entire specimens and to preserve them with the least distortion possible. Search Polychaeta or polychaetes on the Internet and you will find images and videos of a wide variety of polychaete worms. 

 

Polychaetologists around the world have been influenced by his teaching and his publications but Kristian learned just as much from them.  He loved discussing polychaetes, philosophy and history whether in a formal class, during a break in a conference (shown below), or over dinner at his home.  When Greg Rouse was a Post-Doc at the Smithsonian he and Kristian had many discussions between themselves as well as with Fredrik Pleijel, Damhnait McHugh and Alexander Tzetlin that ultimately led to a series of papers in 1995 and 1997 that changed how people thought of polychaete systematics. [Rouse & Fauchald 1995. The Articulation of the Annelids. Fauchald & Rouse 1997. Polychaete Systematics: Past and Present. Rouse & Fauchald 1997. Cladistics and Polychaetes.]

Kristian and Leslie Harris at the 6th International Polychaete Conference

 

List of the Ph.D, Post-Docs and Pre-Docs of Kristian Fauchald and where they are working now.

Former Ph.D. Students

Ray Emerson-retired from teaching

Fred Piltz-retired from the U.S. Department of Interior

John Pilger-teaching at Agnes Scott College

Kirk Fitzhugh- Curator of Polychaetes, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History

Dave Russell – scientist at Environmental Protection Agency

Hua Lu

Joana Zanol-teaching at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Polo Xerém

Former Pre-Docs

Damhnait McHugh-teaching at Colgate University

Natalyia Budaeva-Post-doc at University of Bergen, Norway

Former Post-Docs

Peter Jumars-soon to retire from teaching at University of Maine, Orono and the Darling Marine Center

Chris Glasby - Curator of Annelids, Natural Sciences, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Australia

Greg Rouse-teaching at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, University of California San Diego

Anja Schulze- teaching at Texas A&M University at Galveston

Mark Grygier- scientist at Lake Biwa Museum, Japan

 

To learn more about Kristian here are links to various tributes and memorials for Kristian:

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/249432683_Kristian_Fauchald_A_Tribute

http://www.e-torch.org/2015/04/in-memoriam-12/

An obituary published in the Washington Blade

http://www.marinespecies.org/news.php?p=show&id=4152

https://twitter.com/wpolydb/status/584574524395401216

http://wwx.inhs.illinois.edu/files/6014/3044/6882/FauchaldMemoriam.pdf

 

Links to various interviews of Kristian and articles about polychaetes and Kristian: 

Kristian showing off one of our largest polychaetes

 

One of the largest polychaetes in our collection is the eunicid, Eunice aphroditois (Pallas, 1788).  Shown in this picture from the Washington Post December 10, 2006 Sunday Magazine article on unusual jobs. http://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/08/11/as-the-worm-turns-so-does-a-museum-job/a5169008-237b-48fc-80b0-85ba9eb77858/

 http://www.npr.org/2011/12/05/142678239/the-deep-sea-find-that-changed-biology

 

There are a number of websites that have videos and photographs showing Eunice aphroditois in action:

https://vimeo.com/28280553

http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/bobbit-worm

http://www.wired.com/2013/09/absurd-creature-of-the-week-bobbit-worm/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=refnOdW49rw

Polychaetes have even made the list of the 5 most Nightmarish Worms on the Planet

 

Kristian and Carrie Bow

As mentioned before one of the places where Kristian went frequently to collect and examine polychaetes was the Carrie Bow Cay Smithsonian Marine Station as part of the Caribbean Coral Reef Ecosystems Program.  Kristian collected many polychaetes at Carrie Bow and Twin Cays as well as many of the other nearby cays. 

The Carrie Bow station has a remarkable history and this is the “Big House”, which burned down in 1997.  Many of the samples collected over the years have a collecting location of “off the Big House”, a location that would mean nothing to researchers collecting on the cay today.  Thanks to modern technology, such as GPS, one can pinpoint precise collecting sites today and avoid using land marks that may disappear. 

Kristian and Brian Kensley are shown above using the sun to illuminate their microscopes so they could sort their samples.  One took advantage of the sun light to sort in order to avoid having to listen to the gas driven generator.  Today thanks to solar power one can have electricity in the lab without the noise.

Lu Hua, at the time a Ph.D. student of Kristian’s, examining live eunicid polychaetes in the old lab at Carrie Bow, Sept. 1997, 3 months before the lab burned down. 

 

by Linda Ward

Respect the 'droids! Getting stung while studying cnidarians

Some of my work, which focuses on learning and sharing as much about the biodiversity of the medusozoan Cnidaria (Jellyfish and kin), involves box jellyfish (class Cubozoa). When interacting with the public, I love to bring up this group because they have a great deal of charisma. After all, they have vision! And at least one species has a sting with the capacity to kill a human in five minutes. As a result, they get a lot of attention (despite being a relatively small group in terms of diversity, with less than 50 distinct species known). I often attempt to capitalize on this attention in order to gain interest when talking about jellyfish in general and not surprisingly I have often been asked "Have you ever been stung by a box jellyfish?" to which I have always answered "No." Well, in the immortal words of Inspector Clouseau "Not anymore".

Carybdea cf. xaymacana from Bonaire, the first box jellyfish that stung me. Note the eyes, of which there are 24, six each in four integrated sensory structures known as rhopalia (seen in the lower part of the bell midway between each tentacle. The bell is a few centimeters tall, and the tentacles can trail out up to 30-40 centimeters behind the animal when it is swimming.

While conducting field work in Bonaire (the Netherlands) a couple of weeks ago, I was stung by the box jellyfish above (not that exact specimen, but that species). I was swimming with my wife and colleague Jennifer a few hundred meters from shore. Not too far away were two "jellyfish whisperers" about whom we will write in the near future. It was a wonderful night, about 11PM and we were swimming with underwater lights looking for jellyfish in water dropping off to hundreds of meters deep. I flipped over to marvel at the stars and the grand privilege I have of being a research zoologist and said, "Jen, look at the stars"! They were beautiful and it was a beautiful moment. And then it happened, "Ahhhhhhh!" Fire all over the back of my neck. Earlier we had encountered several of these animals about this far from shore and I have no idea why I decided it was a fine idea to swim without looking where I was going. But luckily for me, while the sting hurt quite a bit, this is a comparatively mild stinger for box jellyfish. We knew that I was in very little danger of developing more serious, and complicating, reactions, such as those known as Irukandji Syndrome, but both Jennifer and I knew that it would be prudent to get me to shore. 

The back of my neck the day after I was stung by the box jellyfish Carybdea.

During the ensuing minutes (up to about two hours), the burning sensation on my neck was fairly constant. Back on shore, we administered a new cream developed by our colleague Angel Yanagihara. I suspect it was working, but there was no noticeable affect at the time of application. We headed back to the hotel where I administered hot, nearly scalding, salty water to the back of my neck because mounting evidence suggests that hot water immersion is among the most effective ways to treat the pain associated with jellyfish stings. Whether it had more to do with the cream or with the hot water, I have no idea, but I went straight to sleep pain free and stayed that way from then on. 

In fact, this was not the worst sting I got on this trip, by far! Earlier in the trip, we had been looking for hydroids (benthic stages of the class Hydrozoa) in the mangroves of a fantastic bay called Lac Bai. I had forgotten my handy forceps for plucking small hydroids off of sea grass and mangrove roots, both of which are quite plentiful in Lac Bai. So, what's a biologist to do when confronted with the gorgeous opportunity shown in the picture below?

Nemalecium lighti, dangling from a mass of organisms clinging to a mangrove root. I was also stung by this species and all and all it was much worse.

Reaching out with fore finger and thumb, he or she plucks a bit off for science, that's what. Well, that was a bit of a mistake. It did not give me the burning sensation of the box jellyfish sting, but by the end of the snorkel there was a strong tingling sensation in the tip of my finger and thumb. Over time this grew to pain, albeit always less intense than what I experienced from the box jellyfish, that has yet to completely go away more than two weeks ago. 

My finger more than two weeks after getting stung by Nemalecium. It is still tender and a bit painful.

It turns out that Nemalecium lighti packs a pretty powerful sting of its own, and more than two weeks after touching one I am still paying the price. Like all cnidarians, hydroids have stinging organelles called nematocysts, and there are "bad stingers" distributed across the phylum. So, what makes a given species a bad stinger? One variable almost certainly is the size of the nematocysts. They have to be big enough to pierce the skin to deliver the venom into your tissues. However, the venom itself, which is a complex mix of proteins, must certainly play a role in the severity of stings and fortunately more and more work is being done to characterize the venom of different cnidarians. But see this note of caution about how the press can sometimes get venom research all wrong!

The moral of this story, though, is clear: Respect the 'droids (and the potential of any given cnidarian to do you harm should you happen to touch it)!

By Allen G. Collins

 

Desde la ecotoxicología hasta la visión de anfípodos bénticos

It is Polyglot Tuesday -- Martes multilingüe. Bringing invertebrate goodness to a wider audience! Read this article in English.

Hoy es ‘Polyglot Tuesday’ -- Martes multilingüe. ¡Presentamos artículos colmados de invertebrados a un público más amplio!

Antes de que Jamie Baldwin-Fergus estudiara la visión en los crustáceos, se encontraba en una misión autoproclamada de salvar el mundo. Después de su licenciatura en biología de la Universidad Estatal de Illinois, ella comenzó estudios de postgrado en un programa de ecotoxicología en la Universidad de Wisconsin – Madison. El interés de Jamie en la ecotoxicología se debía a las historias que le habían contado sus padres sobre el infame incidente de 1973 sobre la contaminación de alimento para ganado con polibromobifenilos (PBB) en Michigan. Los padres de Jamie estaban viviendo en Michigan durante ese tiempo. Para cuando la causa de la contaminación fue descubierta, la mayoría de los residentes de Michigan, incluyendo los padres de Jamie, habían consumido carne, leche y productos lácteos contaminados. En contraste al programa de ecotoxicología en Wisconsin, el cual se encontraba a solo un estado lejos de casa, el océano y la carrera de biología marina con las cuales ella soñaba de niña, parecían tan distantes como imposibles. 

Jamie buceando en el Atlántico Norte. (crédito: Mike Lombardi)

Sin embargo, durante su primer semestre en la Universidad de Wisconsin, Jamie empezó a cuestionar su interés por obtener una licenciatura en ecotoxicología. Siendo una estudiante universitaria había participado en un programa de verano de Experiencia de Investigación para estudiantes universitarios en el Laboratorio Biological MDI, en donde ella estudió la osmorregulación de peces de agua salobre. La disparidad entre el trabajo de laboratorio en su programa de ecotoxicología y la oportunidad que le esperaba en la Universidad Duke, donde el profesor Sönke Johnsen le había ofrecido un lugar, era profundamente notable. Entonces, más tarde ese año, Jamie empacó y se dirigió a la costa este, donde inmediatamente se inscribió en el programa de biología de Duke, con el fin de convertirse en una bióloga marina. 

Ahora, años después, Jamie es una investigadora exitosa en el área de ecología visual. Ella trabaja con anfípodos hyperiidos, los cuales llama “animalitos divertidos y gruñones.” Ha colaborado con otros investigadores en la estación de campo del Smithsonian en Carrie Bow Cay en Belice y ha visitado el océano con el Instituto de Investigación del Acuario de la Bahía de Monterey (MBARI) para recolectar especímenes para su trabajo. En particular, los anfípodos hyperiidos le parecen fascinantes porque, aunque han sido identificadas 250 especies, los científicos aún no saben mucho sobre su ecología o su historia natural. Además, estos animales tienen una gama increíble de adaptaciones ópticas para la vida en la columna de agua profunda. 

Jamie en cubierta, examinando un pequeño crustáceo, en un crucero en el Atlántico Norte.

Para su trabajo con estos crustáceos diversos, Jamie examina la fisiología y morfología de sus sistemas de visión. Un objetivo de su trabajo es determinar la sensibilidad espectral (es decir, la sensibilidad a los diferentes colores de luz) de varias especies que viven en distintas profundidades del océano. Para lograr esto, los especímenes son recuperados del océano usando redes de arrastre de fondo y luego son mantenidos en obscuridad total durante 12 a 24 horas. Después, los ojos de los animales son cortados en secciones delgadas usando un criostato. Usando un microscopio especial, acompañado con un espectrómetro, se proyecta luz a través de las secciones delgadas de los ojos en incrementos de 1-nm, abarcando ese espectro de luz visible (300-800 nm). El sistema de microespectrofotometría hecho a la medida registra las intensidades de las longitudes de onda transmitidas y absorbidas, permitiendo que Jamie pueda determinar los colores de luz que pueden ser percibidos por cada especie. Sin embargo, para poder entender completamente lo que puede ver un hyperiido, Jamie tiene que tomar en cuenta el espectro de luz al cual el organismo estaría expuesto en su entorno. Para este aspecto de trabajo, se combinan las medidas de calidad de agua con registros subacuáticos de espectros de luz, variando de la superficie del agua hasta profundidades bajo 500 m. Después Jamie utiliza un programa de modelización que puede reproducir el entorno submarino de la luz para localidades específicas a cualquier tiempo del día, profundidad, o condición climática. Cuando son emparejados con las especificaciones del sistema visual de un espécimen, estos modelos pueden usarse para estimar las capacidades visuales de la especie en su entorno. La técnica de Jamie brinda la oportunidad para que los científicos puedan ver el mundo como posiblemente el animal lo ve. 

Jamie organizando las capturas recuperadas por un vehículo de operación remota (ROV).

Últimamente, Jamie espera estudiar 10 especies diferentes de anfípodos hyperiidos utilizando este método. Su trabajo en esta área representa un intento fascinante de correlacionar adaptaciones en la morfología de los ojos con habilidades visuales. Una vez que haya recopilado los datos necesarios, Jamie podrá hacer predicciones sobre la percepción y las actividades de otros hyperiidos. En el futuro, Jamie espera encontrar un puesto permanente que le permita continuar su trabajo con crustáceos marinos. Aunque Jamie escogió seguir una trayectoria de investigación básica en biología marina, en lugar de una carrera en ecotoxicología, ahora comprende qué tan importante es su trabajo para el medio ambiente y también para la salud de las especies que viven en el océano así como para los humanos, que dependen de el océano para su sustento.

“Para poder conservar nuestros océanos y ser buenos guardianes, debemos primero entender a los animales y al ambiente que aspiramos proteger. Es difícil llegar al mar profundo y es difícil encontrar a los animales, pero debemos seguir intentándolo para poder seguir investigando estas preguntas básicas.” Dicho de otra manera: parece ser que Jamie, en muchas formas, sigue verdaderamente con su misión de salvar el mundo. 

Por Liz Boatman. Traducido del inglés al español por María Robles González

Collections, Field Work and Water Color Sketches

Invertebrate researchers from around the world visit the Smithsonian Institution to have access to the expansive collections of our Department. These collections can reveal some true invertebrate gems, but they aren’t exactly the most eye-catching or revealing…..

Most crustacean specimen lots look like this:

Trapezia cymodoce (Herbst, 1801); USNM 49056 (Credit: Rose A. Gulledge)

 … stored in jars, preserved in ethyl alcohol, devoid of color, and often with missing limbs or crushed body parts.  Although preserved, these specimens reveal no information about their natural habitat or coloration/color patterns unless, of course, the collector made note of this information on field notes and jar labels).

A number of ground-breaking studies in carcinology (the study of crustaceans) have resulted from working with the collections even without detailed information that can only be noted while collecting in the field. Yet, one must not forget the importance of field work: seeing the animal in its natural environment, observing its behavior, feeding, movement, and documenting the natural color that is completely lost after years in preservation.  Species within the same genus can often resemble each other in shape and size, but coloration and habitat can set them apart.

Today’s collecting trips differ greatly from ones conducted just 50-60 years ago when there were no underwater cameras, no submersibles, no cell phones with GPS…. just nets, traps, gloves, paper, colored pencils and lots of patience.  OK, field work is still an exhaustive and down-and-dirty job… difference now is that we can post collection bloopers on YouTube, and transmit comments and images almost instantaneously!

Without modern collecting gear, specimen documentation in the past relied on detailed written descriptions and meticulously hand-drawn colored sketches.  Yes, some talent was required here.  Now, not all carcinologists were so talented; some often brought along collecting colleagues that were artistically inclined, or employees specialized in the task of illustrating specimens in the field.  Such was the case of Dr. Frederick “Ted” M. Bayer whose first task as an SI employee was to join a collecting team during an expedition to survey the marine fauna of Bikini Atoll 1 year after atomic bomb testing (1947 Scientific Resurvey of Bikini).  Dr. Bayer, an octocoral researcher, was an outstanding bio-illustrator, but a rather modest man who would not admit to having such a skill (that’s another future No Bones blog entry!). 

Color and carapace detail of two Trapezia species from Eman Island, 1947 (right, female; left, male)

Dr. Bayer was instructed to collect reef corals and document the small commensal crabs associated with them: species of Trapezia. With his ‘modest skills’ he was able to create detailed water color sketches in life of the numerous color patterns of the specimens he collected. As these Trapezia species are quite similar in shape, Dr. Bayer prepared paper templates which he then filled in with water colors to record in the field live color patterns and other fine morphological or habitat observations.  These field notes are now part of the Illustration Archives (paper and digital) of the Department, and have become extremely useful for modern revisionary taxonomic studies of these spectacular and ecologically important reef crabs.

Other images of Dr. Bayer’s Bikini Atoll sketches have been showcased on the Smithsonian Institution Ocean Portal on-line exhibit: Celebrating 100 Years -- The Bikini Atoll Survey "Operation Crossroads," 1946-47.

Fig 3. Color images of Trapezia and related species from the South Pacific Ocean: A. Quadrella coronate; B. Q. maculosa; C. Trapezia cymodoce; D. T. lutea; E. T. guttata; and F. T. rufopunctata [Plate from: Castro, P. 2009. Shallow-water Trapeziidae and Tetraliidae (Crustacea: Brachyura) of the Philippines (Panglao 2004 Expedition), New Guinea, and Vanuatu (Santo 2006 Expedition). The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. Supplement No. 20: 271-281.]

These sketches of Trapezia crabs were later successfully identified by Dr. Peter Castro (Professor emeritus at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, specialist in the taxonomy and ecology of brachyuran crabs) highly due to the attention to detail in color and color patterns, all illustrated by an octocoral researcher with “modest” water color skills!

by Rose Gulledge [edited by Maria Robles Gonzalez]