Deep Sea News

Dr. M was kind enough to mention and congratulate me on my first publication several months back. I just had two more papers published in the time since then! I always meant to give the back story on it but hadn’t the time while I madly finished writing my Masters degree. I’ve finished and got all my signatures on August 3rd! I’ll write about the other 2 papers shortly, but for now I’d like to take a little time to tell you all a little tale of a little shrimp from a little hydrothermal vent in a big ocean.

You see kids, once upon a time I got to go on research cruises. Those were glorious days when I sailed out from exotic ports, drank the local flavors, backpacked around Fiji, and jammed up with the acoustic on the top deck The thrill of discovering something new always enticed me and I especially paid close attention to the critters that were brought up. Years of observation and identification have indeed twisted my mind so much that I dream about species and think constantly about characters. I go about my daily routine as if it were being read from a dichotomous key.

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I just sent in the proofs to a paper that will come out in the next issue of the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. I won’t go into much detail till it becomes available in April, but here is a wordle to give you a clue. The species name is blacked out until publication.