Dr. Bronwyn W. Williams @BWWilliamsLab@qoto.org

Sure, sure, here's a cool mollusk for #MolluskMonday, but look 👀at all the amazing organisms growing on it! Tunicates, barnacles, worm(?) tubes? Oh my!

Formerly in the Duke Marine Lab Collection as DUML 4420, collected 12 Aug. 1981 by the crew of the R/V Dan Moore off North Carolina via trawl.

#macrophotography #museum #museumspecimen #molluscmonday

I dropped a photo of a decorator crab from the Collection into PowerPoint and was NOT expecting the suggested Alt Text.

I can’t argue with it, though…

#crabs #crustacean #photography #museum #museums #collection

This is one of my favorite #crayfish species in North Carolina, not because of how beautiful it is, but because of its etymology. This is the Broad River Stream Crayfish, Cambarus lenati, named after David Lenat, who worked with the NC Division of Water Quality before shifting to consulting. I had the good fortune of meeting and scheming projects with Dave before he passed - way too soon - in 2016. He was one of the most genuinely kind and curious people I have ever met. #crustmas

@TheKaneLab if you ever want to go down a fun rabbit hole with the students - or in general - see if you can find branchiobdellidans and entocytherid ostracods on the crayfish. There is so much we don’t know about these communities: what they are, how they formed and are maintained in ecological and evolutionary time, how each taxon individually and together responds to stressors (like increased salinities). 🧐 (My brain should be named ‘Rabbit Holes R Us’)

@TheKaneLab thank you! I started working with crayfishes in the Canadian Prairie Provinces, where there is 1 very widespread species (Virile Crayfish), albeit with a complicated post-glacial history. Even so, the local variations were mind boggling. When I landed my job here in NC, I was a bit like a kid in a candy store. So much diversity, taxonomically, ecologically, behaviorally, etc. (& phenomenal collaborators). The more we learn, the less we know. It’s both daunting and exciting.

@gmnh Yes!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the crayfish I dug that day. It’s a gorgeous form of Cambarus reduncus, the Sickle Crayfish. Using an integrated approach, we have discovered a lot of “hidden” diversity in North Carolina and South Carolina in this group of crayfishes (Depressicambarus), which includes both secondary and primary burrowing species. Finding the animals can be the most challenging aspect of this work! 📸 Michael A. Perkins, NCWRC. #crustmas #crayfish #crustacea

Last summer, Dr. Adrian Smith joined me in the field to capture video of the excavation of an undescribed species of burrowing crayfish. Three hours of digging (we were in the middle of a dry spell), untold numbers of mosquito bites, and a wee bit of caked on mud later I got one. And Adrian’s footage of it was magical; check out the video on his AntLab YouTube channel here:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rBnRKcpK8Rs&feature=youtu.be

#crustmas #crayfish #crustacea #fieldwork #curatorlife

Here’s a photo that Mike took that will always have a special place in my crayfish and worm-riddled noggin: Cambarus franklini, the South Mountains Crayfish. This was the first species that Mike, me, and our colleague TR Russ (NCWRC) teamed up to describe in 2019 (Zootaxa 4568 (3): 520-532). It’s a NC narrow endemic. This was our first description together, but will certainly not be the last! #crayfish #crustmas #25DaysofCrustmas #crustacea

Several years ago, my colleague and collaborator, Michael A. Perkins (North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission) put together a slick specimen photo setup that we have been using to capture publication-quality images of the crayfishes of North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and beyond. The imaging “torch” is now being passed to me; I can only hope to do a fraction as well as Mike! 😬
Regardless, I just want to show off some of Mike’s photos.
#25DaysofCrustmas #crayfish #crustmas

If you are interested in our holdings, please reach out to me and/or Megan McCuller. What questions can be addressed using these collections? Where to even begin? WE begin by getting the word out that we exist. We are but one collection. Think of the power of networks of natural history collections (e.g., NCMNS+Virginia Museum of Natural History+Florida Museum+Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History+etc! #museum #museumcollections #scicomm #crustacea #curation