Recent work by Wagner and Opresko clears up the taxonomy for this coral genus, coming firmly down that these methuselah corals from Hawaii are a completely news species. Despite the misleading statements of some news pieces, the specimens were not recently collected nor recently discovered to be old.   Work back in 2009 by Rourke et al. confirmed these record holding lifespans using radiocarbon dating. The specimens were collected from 1971-2009 and have resided in the collections of scientists and museums. This does not detract from the recently published paper by Wagner and Opresko who clear up confusion because these specimens were previously misidentified or unidentified.

Because of this nobody also realized these corals are cooler than David Caruso.

Like other hexacorals, black corals have proteinaceous skeletons covered in tiny spines, polyps wit size non-retractable and non-branching tentacles, and being exclusively colonial. Another distinctive aspect is hexacorals possess six primary mesenteries, internal body walls that radially divide the polyps into compartments. Think of the dishes in Trivia Pursuit that hold the game wedges or rotelle pasta.Most black corals have six primary mesenteries and either no or four secondary mesenteries. But the species in the black coral family Leiopathidae are biologically blinged out with six primary and six secondary mesenteries. Just ignore the fact that the skeletal spines are poorly developed in the black corals. David Caruso? One mesentery and one spine.

The new species is christened Leiopathes annosa (annosa is Latin for long lived). I would have went with Leiopathes meliorcaruso. The defining characteristic compared to other Leipathes species is that the spines, diminutive though they are, are spherical and multi-lobed (see a in the photo above).  Multi-lobed. Yeahhhhh! The closest species in looks to L. annosa is L. bullosa. The spines are not multi-lobed in L. bullosa. L. annosa also has thicker and longer branches along with more and bigger polyps. Yeahhhhh!

So Leiopathes annosa is older and most definitely more awesome than a lot of other corals. And much better than David Caruso.

The post The Deep-Sea Coral That Is Older and More Awesome Than David Caruso first appeared on Deep Sea News.

*Turns down the music*

Sorry about that. Just get’s stuck in my head and then there is no stopping it. Anyways, yes, we converged on Miami for the first ever ScienceOnline Oceans conference. New friends! Old friends! Mini-DSN reunion! I do believe a great time was had by all!

The entire conference was off the hook and I send mad love to Karyn Traphagen and David Shiffman for being the masterminds behind the whole thing.

Perhaps the most epic part of this world wind weekend however involved something I have been wanting to do for quite some time now. Shark tagging with the crew from University of Miami’s RJ Dunlap Marine Conservation Program.

If you have ever been out on one of their tagging trips then you know what I am talking about. If not, then you need to go sign up for one right now: http://rjd.miami.edu/participate

As a fellow marine scientist this was cool, I can’t even imagine how amazing it is for the thousands of students and other groups they bring out every year. Some of whom have never even seen the ocean!! Essentially they took us through the whole process of what they do for their research and it was truly impressive. The morning began with a run down from the great @WhySharksMatter himself, David Shiffman, discussing the research that is currently being done in their lab and what feats they have been able to accomplish not just in Florida, but all over. All of this going on while the RJD interns, or their “undergrad army” as I like to call them, are prepping the boat for the sharkapolooza that is about to go down. It was like watching a well-oiled machine.

Once we had reached our destination, RJD PhD student Austin Gallagher used the #ShiffmanShark to explain the measurements we were going to take and why. With three measurements alone, we were collecting REAL, usable data for about 7 different projects!!!  AMAZING!!! Then with a kiss of the tuna the lines were in and we were fishing.

After pulling the first 10 lines, we had yet to catch any sharks. So what do you do when you aren’t catching sharks? A shark dance of course. And to show you the fine art of the shark dance, I give you some of my new and old SciO friends: Sarah, Violet, and Kathryn.

Teach me how to Sharky. Teach, Teach me how to Sharky. (Apologizes in advance for video shakiness….we were on a boat. Shaky happens.)

I think that deserves a round of internet applause.

Needless to say our shark dance worked for the group after us, but as David reassured us, even no data is good data.

For those interested in shark dancing tagging with the UM’s RJ Dunlap Marine Conservation Program, I highly recommend it. They are doing some pretty amazing things over there and it is exciting to be apart of. Or if playing with a 6ft bull shark isn’t really your thing, consider virtually adopting one with RJD’s Adopt-A-Shark program. Then you can tell all your friends you have a pet shark and you will henceforth be the coolest person in school.

Special thanks to the cool kids at RJ Dunlap for hosting this most exciting adventure! Keep up the good work and best of luck with your ongoing research!

The post Want to catch a shark. Got to do a shark dance. first appeared on Deep Sea News.

St. Thomas Aquinas defensive end Jelani Hamilton (6-foot-5, 250 pounds) committed to the University of Miami on Monday, citing his interest in the field of marine biology and Miami’s prowess as a leading research facility

via STA’s STA’s Jelani Hamilton eyes marine biology at Miami: Jelani Hamilton eyes marine biology at Miami – OrlandoSentinel.com.

The post Marine Science For The Win! first appeared on Deep Sea News.