Phyllopod Crustaceans

Crustaceans

between species, but between different segments on the same animal. They have limbs specially adapted for walking, eating, grooming, swimming, mating, sensing the surrounding environment, brooding young, spearing prey, scraping surfaces and even snapping to make noise. Lobsters provide a good example of the limb diversity that can exist on even a single individual — the thoracic and abdominal a...

Phyllopod at the intersection of developmental signalling pathways

One of the striking findings in developmental genetics over the past two decades is the realization that a very small number of conserved signalling pathways directs most, if not all, aspects of development of multicellular organisms, by transmitting extracellular signals to the cell nucleus, to modify gene expression programs. How can such a small number of distinct pathways regulate an amazin...

Polarisation Vision of Crustaceans

The photoreceptor design of crustaceans, often containing regular arrays of intrinsically polarisation-sensitive microvilli, has had a profound influence on the visual biology of this subphylum. The land-based arthropods (insects and arachnids) also construct photoreceptors from ordered microvilli; however while in many species polarisation sensitivity results, a general overview of these group...

Exploring Neurogenesis in Crustaceans

Plasticity, learning and memory, and neurological disease are exciting topics for students. Discussion around these subjects often results in the consideration of the role of neurogenesis in development, or its involvement in a potential cure for some diseases. We have therefore designed a lab that allows students to experimentally examine how the rate of neurogenesis can be altered by environm...

Cephalopods and Decapod Crustaceans