A popular mnemonic device used to help students remember biological classifications is "Kings Play Cards On Fat Green Stools," (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species). Hamilton College Associate Professor of Biology Patrick Reynolds specializes in the "Play," or Phylum of Mollusca, which includes snails, clams and squid. Under the Mollusca phylum heading is the "Cards," or Class Scaphopoda, within which Reynolds conducts the majority of his research. Scaphopods are one of seven molluscan classes, and are characterized by a long, skinny shell, hence the less formal name "tusk shell."
This smaller-sized branch of life is just one of the millions of branches that comprise the Tree of Life, a common term used to help visualize the relationships between all of the species in the world.
In an attempt to study these relationships, the National Science Foundation is spearheading a program titled "Assembling the Tree of Life," or AToL. The goal is to construct a genealogical map of the 1.7 million species of life that scientists have identified. In order to achieve this, the AToL program supports large teams of researchers working across institutions and disciplines to study species at the genetic level.
"The result [of this research] will be a better understanding of the meaning and importance of the Tree of Life for society, from human health to developmental biology, comparative biology to environmental problem-solving," Reynolds said. Mollusk research is used to investigate early childhood development issues such as birth defects. Many medical products utilize naturally occurring bioactive compounds used by some species as defense mechanisms, a characteristic found in several mollusca.
Reynolds is a member of one 20-person group that specializes in mollusk evolution and that hopes that a collaborative proposal to the AToL program will be successful. He has published a number of articles in science journals since his arrival at Hamilton in September 1992. He has also received hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants from the NSF for research on mollusca and the Antarctic ice shelf.
Reynolds' research is particularly impressive when one takes into account the facilities within which it is conducted. Several aquariums unsuitable for delicate seawater creatures litter a crowded laboratory. He orders scaphopods, and after arrival he and his students have a small window to conduct experiments and research before the organisms die.
That will soon change. Among the state-of-the-art equipment that will be installed in the new Science Center is a salt-water table, designed specifically for research with marine organisms. The salt-water table will be installed during Phase II of construction, cited for summer 2005.
Reynolds and several of his classes travel to the Connecticut and Rhode Island coasts each spring to conduct research in an array of marine habitats. These field trips won't become obsolete due to the presence of the salt-water tables, but "the pressure of having to conduct intensive trips will be relieved," Reynolds said. The tables will give researchers the ability to simulate a variety habitat conditions within a lab setting, in a sense bringing the field habitats to the classroom.
"These self-maintaining sea tables will be able to sustain mollusk life for a longer period of time," Reynolds added. "We will be able to expand what we do and examine their behavior and physiology better. We will be able to do something besides show and tell. The presence of the salt-water tables will open new avenues and will allow for a wider range of student research."
--by Jesse Hooker
