Now that I have sufficient evidence for macrophagous planktotrophy in actinotroch larvae, I've started to shift my focus to feeding trials to see how different diets impact larval growth. I'm setting up larval treatments with three diets: phytoplakton alone, phytoplankton plus tiarina, and tiarina alone - I've labeled them "vegetarian," "omnivore," and "carnivore" larvae. I'm realizing those aren't the best treatment names though since tiarina is a protist (not an animal) and somehow the diet names make me feel like I'm anthropomorphizing my larvae...anyway....
I took images of last week's fixed and stained larvae using the confocal microscope to get images of the musculature and cell boundaries in larvae at various stages. We found that the tentacles of the larvae have non-beating cilia coming from collar cells that line each of the tentacles and that the hood lacks these structures. This leads us to think that the tentacles of the larvae are important sensory organs that can detect prey in the water and that the hood likely responds to information from the tentacles but can't actually sense prey in the same way. My oldest actinotroch larvae have developed blood which is a cool feature of this specific larval form. Their blood contains hemoglobin which is the same oxygen-carrying protein that makes human blood red, so it's pretty identifiable in the otherwise clear-bodied larvae. It's also sort of rare to see such analogous structures to humans when studying invertebrate biology, so maybe that's adding to my temptation to anthropomorphize the little guys. Or maybe I'm just spending too much time looking at them and now I'm starting to go crazy. Who knows! This week was also an interesting one for me personally. Not necessarily in a concrete, tangible event kind of way. I've just sort of had this realization slowly creep into the back of my mind that I am more free than I thought I was. I'll try to explain. When I got my driver's license it was a similar feeling and I felt it again when I moved into my first apartment away from home. I think it's something like contentment with being on my own, with realizing that home is anywhere you make it. As I've gotten to know the people here and fallen in love with Oregon, I think I've realized that I could live here. That I could be home here. And although I love Oregon and the people in it, I think it's more to do with me than it is with where I actually am. I believe that the fact that I feel this about Oregon means that I could feel this about anywhere, which makes the world feel a lot smaller to me. I am free-er than I realized because now I know that I'm not like a tube worm. I don't have to make my home in one place in the mud and stay there forever. I can carry home with me more like how a snail carries its shell. And unlike any invertebrate, I can buy a plane ticket and get places much faster than with snail-power alone. Now I'm feeling too earnest and self-conscious as I read that paragraph back so I'll end it there. I've been listening to Big Thief a lot this week, and this line from their song "Vegas" really seemed to resonate with these thoughts of home: "Tell me when we grow up do we ever go home? / You said home becomes the highway" Maybe that reads a little more rock-and-roll than how I interpret the song, but it'll do. For your listening pleasure: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAy7MVYmDD0
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AuthorHello! My name is Chloe and I am from Richmond, Virginia. I am a rising senior at William & Mary studying Biology & English. This summer, I'll be working in Dr. George von Dassow's lab studying larval carnivory. I am excited to learn lots about larval biology and the coastal Oregon ecosystem at OIMB this summer! ArchivesCategories |
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