Parasites
photo: Carlos Idrobo
My first foray into science was studying parasites under the guidance of George Benz. It is easy to become enraptured by parasites. The ways in which they complete their life cycles boggle the mind (I especially love this Radiolab episode: www.radiolab.org/2009/sep/07/).
The photo on the right shows a female Ommatokoita elongata attached to the cornea of a Greenland shark.
I was incredibly fortunate to work with George on parasites and to be included on this paper:
Benz, G. W., K. Nagasawa, A. Yamaguchi, B. C. McMeans, and A. McElwain. 2006. New host and ocean records for Driocephalus cerebrinoxius (Sphyriidae, Siphonostomatoida) and a reconsideration of phylogeny within Sphyriidae. Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 36(1): 1-9.
I also contributed to a section on Greenland shark parasites in this review paper:
MacNeil, M. A., B. C. McMeans, N. Hussey, P. Vecsei, J. Svavarsson, K. Kovacs, C. Lydersen, M. Treble, G. B. Skomal, M. Ramsey, and A. T. Fisk. 2012. Biology of Somniosus microcephalus. Journal of Fish Biology (Special edition on elasmobranchs) 80(5): 991-1018.
And the samples collected on a research cruise focused mainly on parasite sampling led to this paper:
McMeans, B. C., J. A. Olin, and G. W. Benz. 2009. Stable isotope comparisons between embryos and mothers of a placentatrophic shark species. Journal of Fish Biology 75: 2464-2474.
The photo on the right shows a female Ommatokoita elongata attached to the cornea of a Greenland shark.
I was incredibly fortunate to work with George on parasites and to be included on this paper:
Benz, G. W., K. Nagasawa, A. Yamaguchi, B. C. McMeans, and A. McElwain. 2006. New host and ocean records for Driocephalus cerebrinoxius (Sphyriidae, Siphonostomatoida) and a reconsideration of phylogeny within Sphyriidae. Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 36(1): 1-9.
I also contributed to a section on Greenland shark parasites in this review paper:
MacNeil, M. A., B. C. McMeans, N. Hussey, P. Vecsei, J. Svavarsson, K. Kovacs, C. Lydersen, M. Treble, G. B. Skomal, M. Ramsey, and A. T. Fisk. 2012. Biology of Somniosus microcephalus. Journal of Fish Biology (Special edition on elasmobranchs) 80(5): 991-1018.
And the samples collected on a research cruise focused mainly on parasite sampling led to this paper:
McMeans, B. C., J. A. Olin, and G. W. Benz. 2009. Stable isotope comparisons between embryos and mothers of a placentatrophic shark species. Journal of Fish Biology 75: 2464-2474.