Lepidopterae, one example of the estimated 1.6 million different Arthropods
[around 90% of the Earth's biomass]
Researchers at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County have just finished a long awaited analysis of the evolutionary histories of Arthropods, an otherwise ragtag bunch known for wild variability, by carefully selecting representative DNA from 75 (often otherwise) disparate species. [link]
I like this article for several reasons, not the least among them is its final endearing image: fellow nerds at the beach.
A key problem that the research team had to solve was obtaining specimens of some of rare and obscure organisms whose DNA was needed for the analysis... Dr. Wetzer recalls lying on the beach with a microscope at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. She was hunting for specimens of a tiny, little-known crustacean that lives between grains of sand. "I got the mystacocarids we needed, but I think I also provided pretty good entertainment to the families at the beach that day," Dr. Wetzer said.
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