Looks Like It's On To Panama In May

I heard from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama today. They've accepted my research proposal to check out Bishop's Livebearer for gill parasites. So, now I have to firm up the details like the exact dates, housing arrangements, lab access, hopefully using their 4WD vehicles for field work, ... Last week I started the process on campus of getting approvals to spend the money for travel. A whole string of people have to sign off and approve me using allocated money for travel. I don't think anyone has a problem with it, but universities are nothing if not bureaucratic.

I did the systematics exercise in Vertebrate Zoology today. Groups of students received 8 different fish species, and looking at various external physical traits had to create a character matrix and use it to construct a cladogram to represent similarity, and presumed common ancestry. I used some local species for it from our preserved fish collection, including stonerollers, scarlet shiners, bluegills, gar, paddlefish and sturgeon. The odd thought is that I'm the only one in our department who routinely does this kind of thing, a core part of describing and understanding biodiversity (one other faculty member at least touches on this). It's a fun exercise because there's no easy, obvious answer and everyone has to think about it. I pointed out to them that biology in particular, and science in general, is one long argument so they should certainly debate any presented outcomes.