Big Bugs!

A couple photos from our visit to the Big Bugs exhibit at The Garden in the Woods:

Home grown

Our second (and last) "Sugar Baby" watermelon from the garden. The first was picked too early. This one was excellent even though it could have ripened another couple of days I think - except for the fact that some critter (squirrel? chipmunk?) was starting to nibble on the rind. Better to eat it a bit early than risk losing it completely!

Friday Dial Stopper - Anniversary Edition

Tomorrow is Linda's and my 10-year wedding anniversary. Yes, I said 10 years. We've actually known each other for 16 years - since our first year at Bowdoin. In 16 years, we've helped each other through the good and the bad of our undergraduate years, med/graduate school in Iowa (yes, I said, Iowa), residency, two kids, living on the Hopi Indian Reservation, my numerous "career" changes, two George W. Bush terms (no good, all bad), and countless family crises (large and small, real and imagined) and celebrations (often one and the same depending on your point of view). We drive each other crazy, we keep each other sane. If that makes sense to you, you "get it", much like Billy Idol...

Ti amo, mia lumaca!

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That's a lot of gorillas!

In some exciting conservation news that almost slipped me by (a hearty thanks to "the Naner" for pointing it out to me), researchers have discovered a new population of critically-endangered western lowland gorillas in the Republic of Congo. The estimate of 125,000 individuals (!), based on the number of "nests" observed in the 47,000 km² area, is more than double the previous estimate for the number of these gorillas in the wild.

At first I thought the 125,000 number must be a mistake - I would have thought finding 30 gorillas was a big deal. But then I read that these gorillas were found in the swamps of equatorial Africa in a remote part of the Congo, so I can understand why they hadn't been found before. Just thinking about their location gives me malarial chills...

Read more here...

Watch a video of the gorilla discovery here...

Not your ordinary mollusc

While going through my regular evening ritual of perusing the sites on my blogroll (I always start at the bottom and work my way up for some reason - I don't really know why), I came across the latest post by Emile over at The World We Don't Live In. This post is about the ever-so-rare phenomenon of vertebrates mimicking invertebrates. Now, while that is an interesting topic in its own right, what struck me as absolutely fascinating was the mention of a creature I had no idea even existed - the Indonesian mimic octopus, Thaumoctopus mimicus. (note: the creature is absolutely fascinating, not the fact that I had not heard of it - though I am surprised that such a critter had escaped my attention until now).

The video below does a good job of showing off this incredible quick-change artist. I'm starting to see why so many people think molluscs are so damn cool.

Friday Dial Stopper: Poster Printing Edition

Well, here I sit finishing up the poster printing I started yesterday. Of course, the process isn't frustration-free today either:

1) I met the IT guy at the room so he could let me in and log me onto the computer. He shows up and says "I hope the door isn't locked, that's the one key I don't have". Wah!? Now remember, this is the same guy that let me in yesterday (he had a key then), the same guy I talked to on the phone 15 minutes ago and who told me to meet him here so he could unlock the door for me, and the same guy who called security yesterday to come and lock up the room (oh, just to cover all bases, this is the same room as it was yesterday). Of course the friggin' room is locked. As my grandmother says (surprisingly) "Jesus, Mary and Joseph!" I shouldn't be surprised though since this is also the same guy who was "hoping" no one needed the regular printer this summer.

2) The IT guy finds someone with the key. Once inside I realize that the roll of paper I left on the printer is no longer there - it's been swapped out with smaller, cheaper stuff. My roll is nowhere in the room. WTF!! Luckily, the guy with the key had some ideas where it might be and after searching through about 5 different rooms we found it in a storage closet on the other side of the building. So much for being out of here in a couple of hours.

So, today's dial stopper is fitting. Just change the words in the chorus from 'I' to 'IT' (as in Information Technology) and it's perfect:

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Addendum: 1:30pm - Three posters (from the same lab) failed to include a faculty co-author. Guess who's reprinting three posters?

While I'm blogging about sports...

Please, oh, please, let Brett Favre be traded to the Chicago Bears...

...it would so much fun to see Gibbon Jockey's reaction...

Manny Be Gone

Warning: non-Boston sports-fans and those who haven't been following the Manny Ramirez soap opera may want to skip this post.

Thankfully, Manny Ramirez is leaving Boston. I wish it hadn't come to this, but he has become a major pain in the ass over the past few weeks - getting into fights with teammates, knocking down elderly club assistants, refusing to play, making up injuries, saying that Boston doesn't deserve a player like him, etc, etc. All because he really didn't want the Sox to pick up a $20 million option for next year (don't you hate it when someone wants to pay you $20 million a year?). Manny being Manny just went too far.

I always kinda liked the guy - a big goofball who could hit the crap out of a baseball - but with the way he's been acting lately (like one of my kids when they were 2 and were told they couldn't have ice cream) I'm happy to see him go. Looks like the Sox are getting a decent player in Jason Bay in return, but we'll see (and really, at this point, I don't really care). Everyone on the team has to feel better right now - especially Tito (Terry Francona, the team manager).

The only downside to this whole thing is that my 4-year old son, Jack, lost it when he heard the news (we were listening to the radio waiting for Emma to get home from camp). Tears, sobbing, pure uncontrollable (and inconsolable) emotion. I didn't know he was so attached to Manny. I don't even want to think about how he is going to react when the same fate befalls his favorite player, Jason Varitek. He's going to be absolutely crushed. But maybe Manny's departure will help soften the blow - Jack won't be so blindsided by the fact that this happens.

Anyways, I am 100% ready for the Manny-less era to begin. Good luck, LA! Repeat after me, it's just Manny being Manny...

Research poster frustration (take 3)

Here's yet another chapter in the continuing saga of the large format poster printer I have the "privilege" of having access to.

Next Monday there is a conference co-hosted by RI-INBRE and RI-EPSCoR, two federally-funded state programs that, among many other things, provide support to undergraduates to do research. This conference consists of poster presentations for all the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURFs) from both programs throughout the state. As such, I am printing 10 posters for the SURFs here at RWU.

Not too bad, right? Each takes about 15 minutes or so to print, so I block off a few hours and give myself another day just in case anything goes awry. Am I prescient or what...

1) Poster files were due in to me by 10 a.m. this morning. How many did I have by 10 a.m.? Exactly 1. This was expected of course so not too big a deal.

2) The one laptop that is reserved for use with the large-format poster printer is kept in the Dean's office (this way we can maintain strict control over who uses the plotter - we don't want just anyone trying to use it and end up f-ing it up). However, the Dean is not here today. Neither is his secretary. The other secretary in the building doesn't have a key to his office. Luckily, security does and happily opens the door for me (wonder if the Dean knows about this).

3) The printer sits in a little room off the back of a computer lab. I have a key that opens up both the computer lab and the little room in the back. So, I unlock the computer lab and attempt to unlock the room in the back. My key doesn't fit. I try again and again and again, thinking it's just a bit sticky. Nope. No good. My key clearly does not go with this lock. Another call to security...

4) Security shows up. Long story short...their keys don't work either. WTF!?!? Security calls the locksmith. Turns out that the lock has been changed and the only folks with a key are over in IT. Apparently they're using the room for the storage of new PCs until they get a chance to swap out a bunch of old ones. Security bids me adieu and wishes me good luck. Great.

5) I call IT. Finally I get connected to someone with the key. I tell him what I need and he says...nothing. Just silence on the other side. Then I get a "Hmmmm. Huh. Ahhhhh. Can I call you back?" Sure. Why should I have expected a simple, "OK, I'll be right there"?

6) He calls back. I can't get access to the printer. I repeat, I cannot get access to the printer. Turns out the printer has been taken offline, moved to the back of the room and buried behind boxes of new PCs. It is literally inaccessible. Apparently, IT had been (direct quote here) "hoping that no one would need the printer this summer". Wah? Hoping? Other than IT (and the locksmith I guess) no-one knew this was happening. They didn't tell (or better, ask) anyone. They just were hoping it would be OK. Wow.

Everything is not lost however. The guy from IT has given me access to the computer lab in the School of Engineering. There's an older large format printer over here that I am using...once I changed the paper, figured out the proper settings, and fought with the paper loader because the roll I have is too thick so the rollers get jammed. But I'm printing now and, knock-on-wood, everything looks good.

And I remembered rubber bands this time!

The shoe fits...

(Hat tip to Kevin Z)

My Liberal Identity:

You are a Reality-Based Intellectualist, also known as the liberal elite. You are a proud member of what’s known as the reality-based community, where science, reason, and non-Jesus-based thought reign supreme.

Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com

Marine bio Camp - day 6 recap

Well, this year's Marine Biology Camp came to a close with a whale watching excursion with Capt. John Boats out of Plymouth, MA. Although our chances of seeing anything seemed slim with the heavy fog rolling in, our luck was good once we hit Stellwagen Bank and the fog cleared. Highlights from the the trip:

• Saw five humpbacks up close, including two cow-calf pairs, as well as a couple of minke whales and a fin whale off in the distance


• One of the humpback whales we saw was Salt, the first humpback to be given a name some 30+ years ago, and her new calf, Sanchal
.

• Great bubble net feeding beahvior


• Best of all, Sanchal gave us a show with a "spinning head breach" right in front of the bow of the boat. This was the first time I had ever seen a breach and was as amazing as I thought it would be!

Upon our return to campus, we gave the Marine Bio students their final exam. We'd been hyping it up all week long, scaring them into paying attention and taking notes, even offering bonus points for various things throughout the week. In the end though, the "final" was a fun scavenger hunt across campus, complete with a bucket for bringing back samples (e.g. an herbivorous marine gastropod, a piece of flotsam, a member of the phylum Arthropoda). No grades are assigned - everyone had fun, learned some stuff, did some things they never did before, and got a cool RWU Marine Biology t-shirt. A success by all accounts (excepting the one kid that left mid-week).

It was an intense week - I feel like we did an entire semester of a Marine Bio lab/field course in one week. I think I'll go to bed now and sleep for about three days!

Marine bio Camp - day 5 recap

Today's Itinerary:
Morning Session
Trawling on the 54' fishing vessel, the Captain Bert - students got to see the deployment of a smallish otter trawl and learn some fish biology while examining the haul;
Our catch included fluke, flounder, lobstahs, sea robins, scup/porgies, and squid;
Observe fluke dissection - examine internal anatomy and stomach contents (two recently eaten scup);

Afternoon Session
Winkler titrations of light/dark bottles from yesterday;
determine and graph primary productivity (gross and net) and respiration rates for surface and deep water;

Evening Lecture
Marine Mammals, given by yours truly (why me? cause our resident marine mammologist is on sabbatical and I lost the coin flip; thank goodness for wikipedia!)

Marine bio Camp - day 4 recap

Today's Itinerary
Morning session
Take RWU boats out for plankton sampling - one boat deploys a 150μm zooplankton net, the other deploys a 20μm phytoplankton net;
Using Van Dorn bottle, collect water samples and set-up primary productivity analysis (using the light/dark bottle technique);
In lab, use microscopes to examine the plankton samples - sketch and ID five phytoplankton and five zooplankton;
use spectrophotometers to measure chlorophyll concentration in samples filtered yesterday;

Afternoon session
Head to Fogland Beach for some fish seining along the shore and salt marsh;

Evening Lecture
Fish Biology

Highlight of the Day
Catching a 20-inch striped bass in the beach seine

Lowlights of the Day
1) Lion's mane stings
2) For tomorrow's Winkler titrations I wondered if I should use glass or plastic graduated cylinders. Are the high schoolers careful enough for the glass ones? I don't know...they're pretty fragile...and tippy (the cylinders, not the kids!)...oh what the hell, let them use the good stuff. Any bets on what I did while setting up? I decided to go with plastic.

Marine bio Camp - day 3 recap

Today's Itinerary:
Morning session
take RWU's two small boats (a 19' Lema Skiff and a 29' Master Marine) out on the Bay;
on one boat - take CTD and Secchi disk readings from three different stations; collect surface, mid-column, and "deep" water samples using a Van Dorn bottle (for chlorophyll analysis back in the lab);
on 2nd boat - deploy Van Veen Grab and small otter trawl, identify and discuss critters found

Afternoon session
discuss productivity, photosynthesis, and ways of measuring both;
process water samples collected in morning - for each sample, filter 1L through 0.5μ membrane, place membrane filter in 10ml acetone to extract chlorophyll, let sit overnight (will quantify chlorophyll spectrophotometrically tomorrow);
discuss what characteristics make a good graph;
create depth profiles using CTD data from morning (salinity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen vs depth);
interpret depth profiles and relate to the geography of the Bay;

Evening Lecture
Phytoplankton, primary productivity, and marine invertebrates (characteristics of major phyla) - presented by our two senior undergraduate camp assistants

Issue of the Day
Lost a kid. OK, not really, but one kid did decide that he hated the camp so much he didn't want to stay. So, his dad came by this evening, picked him and his stuff up, and took him home. Oh well. Maybe he was expecting dolphins and sharks or something.

Marine bio Camp - day 2 recap

Itinerary:
kayak in Ninigret Pond;
explore the salt marsh, tidal flats, eel grass beds, sandy beach;
search for, find, and identify critters, discuss their ecology/natural history;
discuss sedimentation, local geology, glacial past, anaerobic decomposition, hydrogen sulfide production;
visit rocky intertidal zone at Beavertail State Park;
discuss important physical and biological factors at play here;
examine zonation;
search for, find, and identify critters;
compare and contrast with sandy beach environment;

Problems encountered:
Shuttle bus with students taking the long way around, getting stuck in morning rush-hour traffic;
kayak outfitter unable to unlock kayaks -> go out and rent bolt cutters -> cut lock;
kid from CA forgetting his parent-signed kayaking release form;
RWU shuttle failing to return to pick us up to take us to the rocky intertidal (they didn't see the second destination on the shuttle request form);
hung around kayak center parking lot for a couple of hours waiting for RWU security to "do their best to get someone out to pick us up";
had approximately 40 minutes at rocky intertidal;
one bloody shin and one smashed toe (neither mine);

At least it didn't rain on us. And I didn't lose anyone.

Kayaks, Winklers, and Otter Trawls....oh my!

Today was the start of the RWU Summer Marine Biology Camp, a one-week, intensive, hands-on marine biology experience for high school kids. And I'm running it. Or rather, I'm co-running it with Scott Rutherford, our resident geologist. Today, 15 students arrived with their parents (well, technically, 14 arrived with parents, 1 flew in solo from CA), got settled into their dorm rooms, and got oriented to the program. Our week is packed full - so much so that I think I may not see my wife and kids until Saturday. Sorry, Linda! Here's a quick run-down of some of the things happening the week:

• kayaking at Ninigret Pond - we'll explore this coastal lagoon (aka salt pond) and associated habitats (salt marsh, sand/mud flats, barrier beach, eel grass beds), keeping an eye out for as many critters as we can


• tidepooling at Beavertail State Park - a great, wave-swept, rocky intertidal area - perfect for observing zonation


• using a small, hand-deployable CTD to create water column profiles in Mt. Hope Bay (a part of Narragansett Bay)


• using Van Dorn bottles to collect water samples at various depths for chlorophyll analysis


• phyto- and zooplankton tows and then some microscope work to see what we caught


• investigation of primary productivity using light and dark bottles and Winkler titrations (if I can find the burets!)


• fish seining at a local beach - we should find plenty of silversides, mummichog, and sheepsheads, among other things


• deploying an otter trawl off the 54' fishing-cum-research vessel, the Captain Bert - I am really looking forward to this one as I have never done or seen this before - we should pull up a good variety of critters, hopefully with minimal harm/bycatch


• whale watching on Stellwagen Bank - a good way to end the week.

Just so you don't think the students are having all fun this week, there are also evening lectures after dinner that they have to endure and a final exam at the end. I'll be giving a lecture later in the week on marine mammals (!!) in prep for the whale watch (more on this later). Should be an exhausting, but fun week!

Jack and Jellies

While visiting the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History:

In the garden

Inspired by the wonderful photos by Kathy over at Skippy's Vegetable Garden, here are a few pics of what's growing over here. (Oh, and for you marine-only types who may not otherwise be interested in my terrestrial biota, check out the first two pics and notice the shells of Mytilus edulis from the Coast of Maine compost I used this year.)

Friday Dial Stopper - bonus post

Although I already posted an FDS today, I wanted to share this live video of Putnam Smith, a fellow Bowdoinite who graduated a couple of years ahead of me. He and his then-musical-partner, Bryn (collectively known as Bryn and Putt) used to play at Jack Magee's Pub (and before that in the old Moulton Union pub) on campus and I very fondly remember attending as many shows as I could. They did a kick-ass cover of R.E.M.'s It's the End of the World As We Know It and the Lemonhead's Being Around (at least I think that was it; I just remember everyone calling it the "booger song") . I recently discovered that Putt has continued making music and is performing in the Northeast this summer. Check out his music at his website - his new CD, this blue, is excellent.

Friday Dial Stopper

Haven't posted a FDS in a while, so to get me started again, here's one of my all-time favorite songs from one of my all-time favorite bands. It's even got an oceany theme to it!

My inner fish

(hat tip to Peter "Hammerhead" Etnoyer over at Deep Sea News)

I played the fish game and based on the results of the quiz, the fish I am closest to is a Swordfish!

According to the site I am a large and powerful migratory fish that can be found in oceanic regions worldwide, including the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. I am cold blooded and have special organs next to my eyes that warm my brain and eyes to improve my vision. I am often identified by my sword, a long flat bill that helps me swim faster, hunt for food, and defend myself. I can weigh as much as 1400lbs, eat mostly squid, fish, and crustaceans and use my sword-like bill by stunning my prey. I prefer to swim and hunt alone.

I was once a very popular restaurant entrée, served at restaurants around the world. While chefs, supermarkets and people have agreed to not eat as many swordfish, I still face overfishing in many parts of the world. It is also difficult to track and manage my population because I tend to swim across international borders.

Selachophobia

Seems like the perfect time for this. First, it's almost Shark Week. Second, there are sharks in Boston and now also on Nantucket.

I grew up in Massachusetts. I spent my summers at the beach on Cape Cod. I have studied the ocean and its critters. I love the ocean and its critters (yes, even molluscs). I think sharks are incredibly cool. I know that people are far more likely to die in a car accident than by being attacked by a shark. But still, every time I go in the water or take my kids to the beach I can't help but think of Jaws. EVERY time. Now, it doesn't stop me (normally) from going in the water or letting my kids have fun splashing around and throwing seaweed at each other, but there it is, always in the back of my mind, tickling my amygdala. Don't get too deep, kids. OK, that's far enough. Maybe we should build a sandcastle now.. My wife likes to tell a story about a time when we went swimming near dusk and I kept getting more and more anxious, refusing to go any deeper - she used to think it was silly until she heard about great whites being reported off Cape Cod. Part of me thinks it's silly too, but a bigger part of me likes all my limbs, thank you very much.

Irrational? Yup. But not terribly surprising either - being attacked by a shark seems to fit all four types of things we fear:

1. We fear what our ancestral history has prepared us to fear. As a survival tactic, fear of being eaten has served us well.


2. We fear what we can’t control. I don't care if you're Michael Phelps, you ain't in control. I'd feel more in control being attacked by a grizzly bear.


3. We fear things that are immediate more than the long-term. Sharks don't nibble.


4. We fear threats readily available in memory. Thanks for nothing, Mr. Spielberg.

So, as much as I enjoyed Jaws, and all its memorable quotes ("You're gonna need a bigger boat"), I think I'd rather my kids never see it.

Cuttlefish babies!

In case you missed it, Kevin Z was the winner of the mystery photo contest - he correctly guessed identified those inch-long black things as cuttlefish egg cases. Congrats, Kevin! Your hard-earned loot is in the mail (or, rather, will be tomorrow).

Specifically, those were the egg cases of the common cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis, one of the organisms currently in residence here at RWU. One of our undergrads is working on more effective and efficient ways of breeding and raising them. The black color comes from ink that the female injects into each egg case.

The eggs hatched over this past weekend - 88 in total. Each hatchling is a tiny, yet fully formed cuttlefish that feeds, changes color, and inks if disturbed. They're very cute (for a mollusc).

Some pics of 2-day old cuttlefish (I'll try to get a better, close-up later when they're a little bigger). Each baby is about 1.5cm or so:




Here are some older, bigger cuttles (approx. 15-20 cm):

Does this look right to you?

The back-ordered case for my new Sea & Sea underwater digital camera finally arrived today. I am not impressed:

The Musical Illusionist

On a whim, I picked up The Musical Illusionist and Other Tales by Alex Rose while in a local public library the other day. I had never heard of it or Alex Rose, but the title and the slim volume grabbed my attention as I perused the New Fiction section.

I just started it and am only a handful of pages in. Already it is clear that the various short tales are a mish-mash of fiction and non-fiction - or perhaps, a better description would be that they are fiction wrapped up to look like non-fiction. The first part of the book is about time and quantification. I don't know where it is going, but I already like what it is saying. Here's an excerpt from the small piece on cause-and-effect:

Even now, many of us are content to relinquish our curiosity by invoking a primordial agent, the particular breed of which is arbitrarily determined by our religious heritage. But unlike the ancient teachings, these traditions are rooted in sacred scripture rather than observation, undeterred by modern methods and reasoning. In yet another strange loop, history would seem to have folded in one itself, cycling back to an era of willful ignorance.

Well, back to the book.

Boom De Yada

Ever since P.Z. Meyers brought this video/commercial to my attention I can't seem to stop watching it or humming/singing the tune. The kids love it too. Jack particularly likes the lines, "I love real dirty things" and "I love the giant squids". Em is partial to "I love Egyptian kings" and the tribal "Boom De Yada" chorus. We must have watched it a 100 times over the weekend. Other than the Future Weapons guy blowing up a building, the message is just awesome.

Photo challenge

Anyone game for a little contest?

Below are a couple of photos I took today down in the wet lab at RWU - the second one is a close-up of the first. Any guesses as to what they are? The first person to answer correctly will be held in awe and respect for their vast and varied knowledge...perhaps I'll throw in a RWU rum-drinking vessel as well.

(note: family and current or recent RWU faculty/staff/students are ineligible)

To help with the scale, each black thing is approximately 1 inch (2.5cm) long. Good luck! Click on each image for a larger view.

HINT #1 (7/1/08): Check the comments. Kevin Z has part of the answer.

HINT #2 (7/2/08): The critter's common name and taxonomic class start with the same letter.

HINT #2 (7/6/08): Phylum Mollusca, but not Class Gastropoda

UPDATE (7/8.08): Congrats to Kevin Z for his correct identification. See the comments for the answer.

Oh ye! who have your eye-balls vexed and tired, Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea;

Sea Education Association's SEA Semester is a program that I fully support and am happy to promote. Beyond a top-notch, hands-on education in marine science, I learned more about leadership, teamwork and self-confidence while working and living on one of their sailing vessels than with any other experience I've had. I suggest all undergraduates with even a remote interest in the ocean look into SEA and strongly encourage any that are able to participate in SEA Semester to sign on tout de suite. As it so happens, there is still room on board their Fall "Oceans & Climates" cruise. So all you undergraduates, go check it out. And all the rest of you, spread the word.

Sea Education Association is pleased to announce our

Fall 2008 SEA Semester: Oceans & Climate Distinguished visiting lecturers & student-research advisors

Joining us for this year's semester program will be:

Dr. Cynthia Pilskaln, University of Massachusetts, SMAST
Dr. Christopher Sabine, NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Dr. Jorge Sarmiento, Princeton University

SEA Semester: Oceans & Climate is a specialized program for advanced science majors that focuses on the marine carbon cycle and global climate change and takes advantage of a repeated equatorial Pacific transect (Mexico - Tahiti) to observe regional and temporal phenomena. For detailed information (pdf)

NOTE: Some spaces are still available for undergraduates to enroll in this special fall program. We encourage you to talk to interested students as soon as possible, as admission is on a rolling basis.

(PS: the title of this post is from On the Sea by John Keats)

Self-evaluation

Would it be too arrogant to leave the question "What skills do you believe you could improve?" blank?

Garden Inverts

(click on images for larger view)

Wolf Spider with egg case (family Lycosidae; female)

Aphids (Uroleucon sp?) on Heliopsis

We're baaaaack

and we will not be denied...

Weekly Urchin - what's in a name?

Chris at Echinoblog, coupled with the National Spelling Bee, gave me the inspiration for this week's urchin post.

Now, if you haven't heard, the green sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis, is my favorite urchin (yes, that's right, I said favorite urchin). But what, exactly, is the meaning of that name (certainly one of the longest species names out there)? This info was not easy to find, but with a little digging, this is what I've come up with:

First the classification:
Phylum Echinodermata
Class Echinoidea
Order Echinoida
Family Strongylocentrotidae
Genus Strongylocentrotus
Species droebachiensis

Now the various etymological roots:

echino - this was actually trickier than I thought it would be - from what I can tell the Greek ekinos means either 'hedgehog', 'sea urchin', and/or 'spiny'.

derma is Greek for 'skin'.

For Echinodermata, 'spiny skin' is the translation usually given, which makes sense. I like 'hedgehog skin' myself. Not so sure about 'sea urchin skin' to describe a group that contains the sea urchins.

Strongylo: from the Greek strogkylos meaning 'round'

centrotus: from the Greek kentrotos meaning 'spiked' (perhaps especially in reference to a type of spiked buckler)

droebachiensis: refers to Drobak, Norway where the species was first described

I guess this means that a literal translation would be something like 'spiky, round thing from Drobak'. Northern green sea urchin sounds better.

Serrefine, S-E-R-R-E-F-I-N-E, serrefine.

It's time once more for that weirdly fascinating event known as the National Spelling Bee (airs tomorrow and Friday). The kids are awkward (some more than others), yet there is something captivating about watching these middle school boys and girls triumph on national t.v., unashamed of their nerdliness. If you've never seen this event before, I highly recommend catching some of it - Tivo the finals if you can - I'm willing to bet you won't be able to click away from it.

Friday Dial Stopper: the Sunlight Zone edition

I must thank Miriam over at The Oyster's Garter for this week's dial stopper - she posted this Dresden Doll's video and I thought it was simply brilliant the moment I saw it. So I stole it.



Does that video look familiar? It should (and therein lies its brilliance):

Critter collecting

I just came across this blog that documents a fish critter collecting expedition in the Bahamas by the President of the New England Aquarium. The collecting has finished (and thus the blog as well), but this "behind-the-scenes" account of the week-long trip is an interesting read.

Dr. Ian Malcolm would not like this

Forgive my Malcolm-esque skepticism, but this "solution" to Australia's cane toad problem sounds like a bad idea:

Native animals, such as quolls, goannas, snakes and crocodiles, that eat the toads usually suffer an agonising death. The bigger the toad, the greater the dose of its poison, and the greater the chance the predator will die.

Lab work by Rick Shine at Sydney University and his team shows, though, that if an animal eats a small cane toad and manages to survive, it doesn't usually repeat the mistake. "It's astonishing how quickly fish, frogs and some small mammals are learning to avoid the toads after a bad experience," Shine says.

He now proposes taking advantage of this by releasing baby, sterile male "teacher toads", in advance of the invasion front. Native animals that ate these small toads would probably vomit up their meal, but survive – and should then steer clear of the larger, deadlier toads when they arrive....For good measure, he says, the teacher toads could also be infected with a lung worm parasite that targets only the toads so that they won't start invading themselves.

Clearly, I am no expert here, but what percentage of intentionally released non-native species has worked out as expected? Why do I get a feeling that ten years from now we'll be reading about Australia's native amphibians succumbing to an invasive lung worm parasite, yet "surprisingly" the cane toads will still be around and poisoning the native wildlife?

Perhaps this is just my knee-jerk bias against introducing non-natives to an area rearing its ugly head - as one commenter suggested when I wrote about Pleistocene rewilding - but I don't see how adding more cane toads to the picture is a sustainable solution.

As reported in New Scientist

Friday Dial Stopper - Cookie Monster Edition?

This week's dial stopper brought to you by one of the best live bands in the history of music. And the letter 'C'. (confused? you must have missed this post)

And if you need a refresher on what Cookie Monster sounds like:

Weekly Urchin: Crash and Burn Edition

Click on image to enlargeData from the National Marine Fisheries Service
How's this for a poster child of overfishing and mismanagement? (actually, to be fair, I imagine that the sudden rise in urchin demand in 1987 took the fisheries folks by surprise and by the time they implemented a management plan, it was already too late.)

Can somebody explain this to me?

(no, this isn't a picture of Jack)
Remember that stack of papers I have to grade? Well, I'm still working on them. But I had to stop and vent some frustration. Tell me how I interpret this:

One, single project, with four group members, on the effect of two different diets (Artemia and copepods) on jellyfish growth and budding. Here are summaries of each student's account of their methodology:

Student 1 - project ran for 23 days, fed jellyfish 10ml of the two different diets at first, then reduced to 5ml after 10ml was deemed too much.

Student 2 - project ran for 4 weeks, fed jellyfish 1ml of both diets.

Student 3 - project ran for 6 weeks, fed jellyfish 3ml of both diets.

Student 4 - project ran for 4 weeks, fed jellyfish 1ml of one diet, 5ml of the second

It's one thing (and expected) for members of a team to differ in how well they explain their experimental procedure - some leave things out that others include, some are more concise and understandable, but no one in this group agrees on the day-to-day details of the experiment. How does that happen?

Does this mean they didn't actually do the experiment and made stuff up? Was this a complete breakdown of teamwork and each individual did their own thing? Did one student do the whole thing and then screw with the other three by telling each something different?

Tangled Bank #105

The Beagle Project is the latest host for The Tangled Bank - a great collection of biology-laden posts.

While you're there buy a t-shirt or make a donation to their project!

Dicky B and Cookie

In the car this morning a song by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones came on the radio. My daughter was fascinated by the lead singer (Dickey Barret). First she commented that his voice sounded strange. Then, after listening for a while she came to the conclusion that he sounds just like Cookie Monster. As I listened more closely myself, I think she might be on to something.

(for those of you unfamiliar with the Bosstones, I'll have something up on Friday to help make the Cookie Monster connection)

Ebb & Flow

Would have been better if had a tripod. Next time.

Quick hits

The platypus genome put me in the mood for more evolutionary biology, so here are some interesting recent papers of an evolutionary bend (note: Abstracts available, but subscription or "pay-per-view" needed for full article access. Sorry.):

Amino acid sequence data from collagen extracted from the bones of Tyrannasaurus rex and the mammoth, Mammut americanum, were used to build a phylogeny of these two species. As expected, based on previous phylogenetic work, M. americanum groups with modern elephants and T. rex groups with modern birds (chickens to be exact). This paper builds on earlier success in using protein sequences to elucidate evolutionary history of extinct organisms.

Hermaphoditism evolves when mate-search efficiency is poor. In other words, if ... you ... move ... really ... slowly ... and ... don't come across another individual of your species all that often, it's best to be prepared when you do - it would really suck to look all that time for a mate only to come across an individual of the same sex and have to start the search all over again.

Analysis of oxygen isotope levels in the tooth enamel of extinct relatives of elephants suggest that modern probocidians evolved from aquatic or semi-aquatic forms. This is expected given the close phylogentic relationship between extant elephants and the sirenians (manatees and dugongs) and provides new arguments for the idea that elephant trunks may have originally evolved as a snorkel.

Weird animal, not-so-weird genome

(After reading PZ Myers's post on the matter, I've decided to stop using "weird" to describe the platypus's genome. However, I still think the animal itself can aptly be described as weird.)

Nature reports today that the platypus genome has been sequenced by a large international team (note: subscription needed for full article). Fittingly, it seems that the genome is just as delightfully weird interesting as the platypus itself - a mixture of mammal genes interspersed with ancestral reptilian and avian sequences, with a bit of novelty thrown in, all of which tells us a great deal about mammalian evolutionary history.

Some highlights:

The sequenced genome, with all of its peculiarities details, corroborates the idea that the platypus lineage is the earliest diverging mammalian lineage - diverging from the rest of the mammals over 160 million years ago. Side note: the marsupial-placental split occurred ~150 mya, and all modern placentals orders appeared by ~75 mya.

The genes for caseins, the proteins found in milk, align well with the casein gene families found in other mammals. This suggests, as expected, that milk production evolved before mammals evolved live birthing (or nipples - platypus secrete milk through pores in the skin).

Speaking of birthing, the platypus genome contains sequences that match mammalian genes for the zona pellucida, but also has copies of zona pellucida genes previously only found in amphibians, birds and fish. There is also a gene for the yolk-stored proteins, vitellogenins, that are also found in amphibians, reptiles, and birds, but that have been lost in non-monotreme mammals.

Genes for the proteins found in the platypus' reptilian-like toxins turn out to be novel sequences, independently evolved and are not homologous with reptile toxin genes. Toxin production in reptiles and platypus seems to be a case of convergent evolution. Interestingly though, the same defensin genes were co-opted in each case.

(Note: I was going to strike the word weird from this item, but I've decided that this is indeed weird.) Weirdest of all might be the sex chromosomes. Platypus sex chromosomes are known to be strange structures cytologically speaking, but it turns out that none of their X chromosomes match the X chromosomes of other mammals - they're more like the Z chromosome found in birds. A "normal" autosomal chromosome however matches the mouse X chromosome.

microRNA sequences are all over the place - platypus have both microRNA sequences that are found in birds, but not mammals, as well as microRNA sequences that are found in mammals, but not birds.

Further study of the genome will certainly add to the uniqueness of the platypus and will be helpful in understanding early mammal evolution. I think it's rather poetic that such an odd cool creature has such an odd cool genome. Wouldn't it have been disappointing if it didn't?

Circus of the Spineless

Kevin Zelnio has the latest edition of the Circus of the Spineless up at Deep Sea News. Go check it out.

It's that time of year again...

By the end of the day today, I should have a stack of papers to grade. Woohoo!! My intro bio students undertook a "semester-long"^* research project and their formal write-ups are due today. What are the chances that I have them all before I leave? Yeah, that's what I think too.

The students gave group presentations of their research last week, so I have a good feel for what to expect. I've flipped through some already and have found that my oh-so wonderful suggestions I gave after their presentation have not been incorporated into their final paper. Not a good start. But at least some of the students stopped referring to earthworms as insects. So they've got that going for them.

^*Apparently, "semester-long", for some groups, means wait until the last weekend before everything is due to collect and analyze samples and then when they realize they don't have enough time to actually quantify anything, they "eye-ball" it.

Weekly urchin - new toy edition

Part of my job as coordinator of the Undergraduate Center for Marine Life Sciences is to purchase equipment that could be used by students and faculty for research. The newest edition to the Center is a Sea & Sea DX-1G digital underwater camera and strobe. It seems on first inspection to be a marvelous piece of equipment. (Thanks, Rick, for using your power and influence to coerce some useful camera feedback from your "peeps" for me)


The second the battery finished charging, I grabbed the camera and headed down to the RWU wetlab to try it out. I must say that I'm really impressed with the quality of the images this camera takes, especially since these test shots were taken with me just sticking the camera into a bunch of tanks, hoping I was focusing on something, and using only the built-in flash instead of the big strobe. With some fine-tuning I think this will take some phenomenal shots out in the field.

First up, Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis, of course:

Here's an oyster toadfish trying to hide:

Apparently tautog like to snuggle with toadfish:

Lined seahorse:

Fire shrimp:

Baby Juvenile jawfish:

The clownfish thought I was going to feed them:

Probably doesn't taste like chicken

Drop what you're doing and go check out Coral Week at Deep Sea News - everything you never wanted to know about those cnidarious crusteose critters.

Better yet, start with ChrisM's post about echinoderms that eat corals.