Now I Have 4 cyt-b Sequences, And On To A Silver Shiner Project

I now have four entire cyt-b DNA sequences, from Fundulus heteroclitus from Warwick, RI, and Oyster Pond (Cape Cod), MA, and from an F. similis from St. Joe Beach, FL, and an F. diaphanous from Warwick, RI. The latter is markedly different from the others, not surprising since the species is more distantly related to the others.

We hope to begin a population study of silver shiners, Notropis photogenis, from the Flint River. The hope is to document size and age classes, and also reproductive effort measures such as GSI. I think the species has been best studied at the far northern edge of its range in Michigan and Ontario, so we'll attempt some of the same studies here at the far southern edge of the range. By coincidence, I met a student yesterday who told me of a fairly easy river access point on Ryland Pike about a mile downstream of where we've been working, that could be useful information.