Research Training ProgramSmithsonian
Institution
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 Kurt Galbreath Illinois Wesleyan University Bloomington, Illinois |
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| James Thomas, Ph.D. Supervising Scientist Department of Invertebrate Zoology |
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| "The experience of working
side by side with one of the Smithsonian's finest scientists was fantastic
and I will always be able to draw upon the wealth of information that
I obtained." |
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ABSTRACT |
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The most important mesoscale element of coral reefs are the amphipod crustaceans. Certain shared characters indicate that amphipods, especially juveniles of the genus Nepanamixis in the family Anamixidae, will be extremely useful for interpreting the evolutionary history of reefs. Nepanamixis juveniles are suspected of exhibiting characters that are more primitive than those found in other Anamixid genera. If this is so, their distribution patterns could provide strong evidence for the idea that the reefs that border tectonic plates conserve remnants of ancestral lineages. In this study, museum collections were searched for juvenile specimens of Anamixids in order to investigate evolutionary relationships between geographically separated taxa. No juveniles were found, but two new species were discovered which implies the existence of a single, wide-ranging, ancestor to the present day members of Nepanamixis.
This research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, Award Number DBI-9531331.