DIVE DRY WITH DR. BILL #801: AN OLD DOG AND NEW NAMES
I went down to the post office the other day and discovered a yellow slip in my box, meaning I had received a package. Initially I didn't remember ordering anything, not a surprise for a man of my advanced age (after all, I'm well over 30!). Then I remember I had ordered a copy of Jensen, Gotshall and Flores' Beneath Pacific Tides: Subtidal Invertebrates of the West Coast (available from Mola Marine Press, https://www.molamarine.com/). Of course those in the know recognize this as a play on the title of my marine biologist icon Edward F. "Doc" Ricketts' classic Between Pacific Tides. I first used that book more than 50 years ago at Harvard, taught with it at the Catalina Island School in the '60s and '70s and it is still used today.
I raced out to Avalon's wall on Front Street, opened the package and began perusing the pages... until raindrops began falling. After all, this is "sunny" southern California! As I leafed through the chapters, I was shocked to find I may need to be placed in a marine biologist re-education camp. So many of the scientific names I first learned back in the '60s and '70s have been changed due to more recent taxonomic work including the use of DNA. I wasn't sure this old dog could learn new tricks... er, scientific names. Let's look at just a few examples. I could go on and on, but I've only had the book for two hours.
One of the very first species I learned way back in my Harvard days was that of the jack frost or lace bryozoan Membranipora membranacea. Well according to my new classic field guide, that species is now considered to be restricted to European waters. The new name for the one found here in SoCal is Membranipora villosa. The same is apparently true of the slime tubeworm which I originally knew as Myxicola infundibulum. It turns out that species is also restricted to Europe and our local one hasn't even been given a new species name!
Our beautiful cobalt blue sponge is no longer Hymenamphiastra cyanocrypta. Its name has been changed to Acanthancora cyanocrypta. The market squid, known in “ancient” times as Loligo opalescens, is now Doryteuthis opalescens. At least the fish market and bait stores use common names so you won't be confused! I was saddened to find that the spaghetti worm which I learned as Thelepus crispus is now an unnamed species possibly in the same genus. Our common wavy top snail was Astraea undosa when I first moved to Catalina but Megastraea undosa today. I hope all these critters filed name change forms with the government.
Fortunately there were name changes I was already aware of. Our beautiful purple hydrocoral seen at Farnsworth Bank used to be Allopora californica but is now Stylaster californicus. Our red sea urchin, formerly known as Strongylocentrotus franciscanus, has now become Mesocentrotus franciscanus. Fortunately the purple and black urchins have fought hard to retain their old names! However taxonomists have apparently decided that the red spotted sea star, initially unnamed and later believed to be a species of Hacelia is now considered Pharia pyramidata despite possibly significant differences in morphology from the individuals I'm familiar with in the Sea of Cortez. And our beautiful and fairly common opalescent or horned nudibranch used to be considered Hermissenda crassicornis but is now Hermissenda opalescens.
Marine biologists just beginning their careers will learn these species by their currently accepted scientific names. However as genetic studies become more widespread in marine taxonomy, the rate at which species names change may accelerate. That will be hardest on generalists like myself and for some groups only the serious taxonomist will stay up to date.
As a marine biologist who focuses on entire ecosystems such as in our kelp forests, I am not a taxonomist or a specialist in a specific group of organisms. Therefore it is difficult to keep up with all these name changes since I cover so many different unrelated (evolutionarily) species. And as an ecologist, I know that even though the names have changed (to protect the innocent?), the role of these species in an ecosystem probably hasn't changed over the all-too-brief lifespan of yours truly!
© 2019 Dr. Bill Bushing. For the entire archived set of over 800 "Dive Dry" columns, visit my website http://www.starthrower.org
Image caption: The lace bryozoan on a kelp blade, the slime worm; the cobalt sponge on a rock, market squid mating; wavy top snail upended, the red sea urchin; the red spotted sea star and the opalescent nudibranch.
I went down to the post office the other day and discovered a yellow slip in my box, meaning I had received a package. Initially I didn't remember ordering anything, not a surprise for a man of my advanced age (after all, I'm well over 30!). Then I remember I had ordered a copy of Jensen, Gotshall and Flores' Beneath Pacific Tides: Subtidal Invertebrates of the West Coast (available from Mola Marine Press, https://www.molamarine.com/). Of course those in the know recognize this as a play on the title of my marine biologist icon Edward F. "Doc" Ricketts' classic Between Pacific Tides. I first used that book more than 50 years ago at Harvard, taught with it at the Catalina Island School in the '60s and '70s and it is still used today.
I raced out to Avalon's wall on Front Street, opened the package and began perusing the pages... until raindrops began falling. After all, this is "sunny" southern California! As I leafed through the chapters, I was shocked to find I may need to be placed in a marine biologist re-education camp. So many of the scientific names I first learned back in the '60s and '70s have been changed due to more recent taxonomic work including the use of DNA. I wasn't sure this old dog could learn new tricks... er, scientific names. Let's look at just a few examples. I could go on and on, but I've only had the book for two hours.
One of the very first species I learned way back in my Harvard days was that of the jack frost or lace bryozoan Membranipora membranacea. Well according to my new classic field guide, that species is now considered to be restricted to European waters. The new name for the one found here in SoCal is Membranipora villosa. The same is apparently true of the slime tubeworm which I originally knew as Myxicola infundibulum. It turns out that species is also restricted to Europe and our local one hasn't even been given a new species name!
Our beautiful cobalt blue sponge is no longer Hymenamphiastra cyanocrypta. Its name has been changed to Acanthancora cyanocrypta. The market squid, known in “ancient” times as Loligo opalescens, is now Doryteuthis opalescens. At least the fish market and bait stores use common names so you won't be confused! I was saddened to find that the spaghetti worm which I learned as Thelepus crispus is now an unnamed species possibly in the same genus. Our common wavy top snail was Astraea undosa when I first moved to Catalina but Megastraea undosa today. I hope all these critters filed name change forms with the government.
Fortunately there were name changes I was already aware of. Our beautiful purple hydrocoral seen at Farnsworth Bank used to be Allopora californica but is now Stylaster californicus. Our red sea urchin, formerly known as Strongylocentrotus franciscanus, has now become Mesocentrotus franciscanus. Fortunately the purple and black urchins have fought hard to retain their old names! However taxonomists have apparently decided that the red spotted sea star, initially unnamed and later believed to be a species of Hacelia is now considered Pharia pyramidata despite possibly significant differences in morphology from the individuals I'm familiar with in the Sea of Cortez. And our beautiful and fairly common opalescent or horned nudibranch used to be considered Hermissenda crassicornis but is now Hermissenda opalescens.
Marine biologists just beginning their careers will learn these species by their currently accepted scientific names. However as genetic studies become more widespread in marine taxonomy, the rate at which species names change may accelerate. That will be hardest on generalists like myself and for some groups only the serious taxonomist will stay up to date.
As a marine biologist who focuses on entire ecosystems such as in our kelp forests, I am not a taxonomist or a specialist in a specific group of organisms. Therefore it is difficult to keep up with all these name changes since I cover so many different unrelated (evolutionarily) species. And as an ecologist, I know that even though the names have changed (to protect the innocent?), the role of these species in an ecosystem probably hasn't changed over the all-too-brief lifespan of yours truly!
© 2019 Dr. Bill Bushing. For the entire archived set of over 800 "Dive Dry" columns, visit my website http://www.starthrower.org
Image caption: The lace bryozoan on a kelp blade, the slime worm; the cobalt sponge on a rock, market squid mating; wavy top snail upended, the red sea urchin; the red spotted sea star and the opalescent nudibranch.
