It's Been A Busy Week, But No New Data Yet

School began this week and I've been going flat out. I've taken on a lot of students for various research type classes which is both good and bad, it's good to have the help but I have to be organized and plan things out in advance so that they can meaningfully participate. Two students will be placed on DNA extraction of some Fundulus collections I have, both for the heteroclitus project and also for the similis/majalis project. One student will help to work on a carotenoid extraction project primarily with scarlet shiners; Jim Anderson has agreed to help establish protocols and with any luck the University's HPLC is both functional and available. Since Jim's a trained equipment tech I have faith he could make it work, I hope so! And finally the biggest group of students will be helping to carry out a study of the reproductive biology of telescope shiners (Notropis telescopus) in Hurricane Creek in the Walls of Jericho tract. The potential is good for both a lot of good work, and for participants to get lost or confused; I'll be doing the polite Mussolini Headkick, keeping the trains running on time. At least I better!

I corresponded with Thomas Near at Yale today after a conversation that started on the NANFA Forum. He's doing a darter DNA study with a particular interest in Tennessee Snubnoses, Etheostoma simoterum. We've arranged it so that I'll send him several collections of darters from around north 'bama, both putative simoterum and also duryi. He needs the data for his work, and I'm curious to see that my ID's are accurate. So on our first Hurricane Creek trip in February I hope to snag around 15 snubnoses to send him. I think I've found both and duryi and simoterum there in the past, so hopefully genetic information will help to clear this up. You'd think it be easy to tell two species apart by physical characteristics like having a snout frenum or not, but life's not so simple. I'll keep you posted, as always.