MBL March Madness: MBL Classics Division
For more than 130 years, scientists from around the world have gathered at the MBL to study the local organisms in our ecologically rich waters. According to the MBL Archives, when students first arrived in the 1880s, people asked not what problem the research would address, but what research organism could be used to address it. The animals in this division have been popular research organisms for more than a century.
Meet the Organisms:
Atlantic Purple Sea Urchin
With their long spines to deter predators, sea urchins are known as the porcupines of the sea. The dark-purple body of the Atlantic purple sea urchin (Arbacia punctulate), called a test, is made up of ten fused plates that encircle the urchin. Sea urchins eggs have been important for studying embryological development since the nineteenth century.
Atlantic Horseshoe Crab
We call them crabs, but Atlantic horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) are more closely related to spiders and scorpions than true crabs. The blood of Limulus polyphemus is used in biomedical research to test pharmaceuticals and medical devices for potentially deadly endotoxins.
Softshell Clam
The softshell clam (Mya arenaria) is an important recreational and commercial species in coastal New England and the mid-Atlantic. Clams have transparent eggs and embryos, which makes them ideal for studying cellular and embryonic development. Softshell clams are temperature-sensitive and the southern limit of their range is controlled by the upper water temperatures, making them an interesting species for studying the effects of climate change on bivalves.
Comb Jelly
Since MBL opened its doors in 1888, scientists and students have been studying the interesting and unique biology of the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi. Experimental embryologists at MBL have a long history of using Mnemiopsis for cell lineage analyses, facilitated by the rapid and synchronous development of their optically transparent embryos. Insights from sequencing the whole genome of Mnemiopsis leidyi has served to highlight the early branching relationship of ctenophores relative to other animal phyla and driven a resurgence of interest in ctenophore biology.