Non-Molluscan Invertebrate Unit
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
Research in the NCSM Non-Molluscan Invertebrate Unit focuses largely on crayfishes and two groups of obligate crayfish ectosymbionts, although we are broadly interested in aquatic host-symbiont relationships. Really, who isn't enamored by anchor worms and tongue-eating isopods?
Check back here for updates on our results and news about the research goings-on in and with the Unit.
Check back here for updates on our results and news about the research goings-on in and with the Unit.
Highlights
Entocytherid ostracods of New York and New Jersey
Entocytherid ostracods are common, and nearly ubiquitous, inhabitants of North American crayfishes. And yet, the diversity and distribution of these tiny symbionts remains poorly known in several regions. Former NMI Unit intern Keri Shelton surveyed entocytherids in New York and New Jersey using crayfishes in the NCSM NMI Collection. Her study has just been published in the December 2016 issue of Northeastern Naturalist. You can read the first page here - https://www.eaglehill.us/…/arti…/NENA-23-4/16-Williams.shtml - or contact me for the full article. Well done Keri! |
Melyssa Minto gave a fantastic presentation entitled "Cray Cray Morphometrics: Advancing Morphological Species Delimitation of Crayfish" at the 2016 State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research & Creativity Symposium, held at North Carolina Central University. Melyssa's talk highlighted innovative research she is leading, a collaboration that includes the NMI Unit, Maria Pickering at Meredith College, Eric Butler and Lloyd Williams at Shaw University, and Zachary Loughman and his West Liberty University Crayfish Conservation Laboratory. Congratulations Melyssa!
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False mating in entocytherid ostracods
Turns out entocytherid ostracods aren't very discriminate in their choice of mates. To the right is a male attempting to mate with another male (arrows pointing copulatory complexes). We examine this behavior in a paper just published in the journal Invertebrate Biology. You can read the abstract here - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ivb.12141/full - or if you're interested in the full article, please contact me or Trish Weaver ([email protected]).
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