Marine invertebrate zoology in Friday Harbor, Washington
Paleontologists speak of Friday Harbor Labs in the nostalgic tones reserved for only the best field stations. As I hopped off my ferry to the San Juan Islands, carried my duffel bag through the namesake harbor town, and stepped at last under the campus’ old-growth cedars, it was clear why.
I came to take FHL’s flagship summer course, Marine Invertebrate Zoology, which surveys forty phyla in as many days. In the mornings, we drove to diverse intertidal settings around the island during the lowest tides of the decade. At False Bay, we dug up polycheate and nemertean worms along a two mile stretch of mudflats. At Reuben Tarte, we slipped along algae-covered basalt outcrops to help with a sea star exclosure experiment. At Roche Harbor, we reached beneath docks to photograph enormous ascidians and Christmas-tree anemones, under the skeptical gazes of local yachters. During the afternoons, we learned how to collect subtidal invertebrates by trawl, van Veen grab, and plankton tow, returning to lab to dissect our specimens. The evenings, though, were when I learned the most. We gathered around a whiteboard, and each of my classmates took a turn leading our review of the ecology and physiology of their favorite phylum. Each graduate student’s enthusiasm for their study system was contagious. When we weren’t studying, I was conducting an observational study comparing larval brooding in two orders of bryozoa.
Bryozoa are a phylum of colonial invertebrates with an abundant fossil record going back 400 million years. In the Mesozoic, multiple orders independently evolved calcified external larval brood chambers. To generate questions about their fossil record, I wanted to better understand the reproductive ecology of the living. This proved a fruitful approach. I collected the intertidal species Dendrobeania lichenoides along with the subtidal species Crisia occidentalis and observed the number and arrangement of their brood chambers, finding surprising and unexplained variation in their fecundity. Our class symposium highlighted that I was not the only one leaving with no answers but better questions.
I am grateful to our fearless instructors Dr. Megan Schwartz, Dr. Joie Cannon, and Mo Turner for their inclusivity and expertise, as well as the FHL Adopt-A-Student program and the UCMP for funding.