I just got back from about three weeks in Florida, two weeks of which were spent at Fort Pierce's Smithsonian Marine Station and in the Florida Keys. The marine lab was a wonderful place to be, full of welcoming scientists who were admirably tolerant of our team's buckets and buckets (and buckets!) of sand samples.
We were looking specifically for nematodes with our collaborator Ashleigh Smythe. I learned so much about a group that I had previously overlooked, and even attempted to key a couple out. If you've never tried to key out a nematode, make sure you have a brilliant nematologist with you to make it fun instead of impossible. I even now have a favorite group, the Stilbonematidae, which have an incredible ability to "farm" bacteria on their own bodies for food! They are, and I use this word quite seriously despite the fact that I'm describing a nematode, BEAUTIFUL. Definitely look up some SEM images - they look like an intricate braid.
We also SCUBA dived for sand samples in the Florida Keys, and of course collected chitons! I also got to hold a sea hare, find kinorhynchs and gnathostomulids, meet some microscopic sipunculids, and saw my first pycnogonid (sea spider). What a trip!
We were looking specifically for nematodes with our collaborator Ashleigh Smythe. I learned so much about a group that I had previously overlooked, and even attempted to key a couple out. If you've never tried to key out a nematode, make sure you have a brilliant nematologist with you to make it fun instead of impossible. I even now have a favorite group, the Stilbonematidae, which have an incredible ability to "farm" bacteria on their own bodies for food! They are, and I use this word quite seriously despite the fact that I'm describing a nematode, BEAUTIFUL. Definitely look up some SEM images - they look like an intricate braid.
We also SCUBA dived for sand samples in the Florida Keys, and of course collected chitons! I also got to hold a sea hare, find kinorhynchs and gnathostomulids, meet some microscopic sipunculids, and saw my first pycnogonid (sea spider). What a trip!
