Update

G'day Ya'll.

I'm slowly settling into life as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at The University of Alabama and a curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the Alabama Museum of Natural History.

My lab is starting to take shape and I'm now looking for awesome grad students. Check out my lab webpage for more details:
www.kocotlab.com

In other news, I was quoted in Science on my take on work presented in a talk by Bill Brown from The University of Miami at Ctenopalooza. Traditionally everyone thought ctenophores have a one-way gut but it turns out that the anal pores really do function in defecation. The question is how many times did a 1-way gut evolve?
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/03/why-watching-comb-jellies-poop-has-stunned-evolutionary-biologists

Back to writing papers and grants...

Day 9: Genetics working group presentation

Today Chester Sands and I presented about the work that the "genetics" team will be doing. We're a group with diverse interests ranging from population genetics to deep phylogeny of gorgonians, molluscs, ophiuroids, and ice fish. So far we make a great team and I'm looking forward to the first trawl!

I saw a couple seals go by my window today but I didn't manage to get any decent photos of any charasmatic megafauna while I was outside today.

The genetics team: Daniel, Kevin, Rebeca, Cheps, and Henrik.

Day 8: We're in the ice now

I'm really bad at this blogging thing. Here's the "letter to mom from summer camp version": There's ice and penguins and seals outside (I'll get around to taking pictures when I'm not trying to finish up a grant). The people are great and I'm really excited about my team. To help pass the time, we're playing a clue-esque game where some people are 'murderers' and some are 'victims' and victims can only be killed when they are alone. As someone who spends a lot of time alone in the lab at the computer or the microscope I have some concerns...

Just a few more days to Neumeyer Station...

Day 7: We're getting closer...

The ship is making it's way to our first stop, which is Neumeyer Station, in the Weddell Sea. We've had a bit of weather and I'm trying to regain my sea legs but this is an incredibly smooth and stable ship. To pass the time, we've begun having nightly talks about the science various groups will be doing onboard Polarstern. There is a very diverse group onboard and we've already heard talks about various aspects of oceanography, geology, and meterology.

The ship also has a blog. We'll begin taking turns making posts about what each team will be doing during the cruise. Here's a link to the ship's blog:
http://blogs.helmholtz.de/polarstern/en/

We're starting to see the first tiny chunks of ice.

Polarstern Cruise PS96 Day 3

So far so good. Everyone on board is lovely, we have great lab space, and slowly I'm reßadjusting to using a German kezboard. It will be about a week before we reach the ice, then we will drop off supplies and pick up people at Neumeyer station. More soon...

Track the ship here: http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=DBLK

Here's our current location.

Lots going on

G'day y'all,

There's a lot going on in my life lately. Yesterday was my last official day as a postodoc in Bernie Degnan's lab at UQ. Two years went by really quickly.

I just finished packing up all of my stuff and later today I'm moving away from Australia and heading to Antarctica for a research cruise onboard the R/V Polarstern in the Weddell Sea. You can follow the track of this ship here:
http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=DBLK 

I'll be in Antarctica for two months and some change sampling marine invertebrates and then my new position as an assistant professor and curator of invertebrates at The University of Alabama begins.

I'll try to be a better blogger during the cruise but I'm much better at facebook...

Cross your fingers for good weather in the Southern Ocean.
Kevin

June Heron Island Research Station collecting trip

G'day ya'll. Last month I spent two weeks on Heron Island collecting marine invertebrates. The main purpose of the trip was to collect entoprocts for a comparative genomics project with Bernie and Sandie Degnan but I was also opportunistic and collected or at least photographed a number of other interesting animals a well. Most of the animals I collected were found on algae or in sand samples examined under the stereomicroscope and thus were quite tiny. Here's some photos in no particular order. I have many other photos, especially of different species of flatworms and acoels that I didn't get very good photos of that I am still trying to identify. If you can help satiate my curiosity and ID some of these critters, please drop me a line at k.kocot at uq dot edu do au. I'm also happy to share specimens of most of these if anyone's interested (although I don't have specimens of all species). I'd be happy to share the rest of the photos as well.

Loxosomella sp. (Entoprocta, Loxosomatidae). We were calling this Loxosomella cf. vivipara but based on COI barcode sequences, it is more closely related to Loxosomella stomatophora. Found on Amphiroa sp.

Loxosomella sp. (Entoprocta, Loxosomatidae). We were calling this Loxosomella cf. vivipara but based on COI barcode sequences, it is more closely related to Loxosomella stomatophora. Found on Amphiroa sp.

Loxosomella sp. (Entoprocta, Loxosomatidae). We were calling this Loxosomella cf. vivipara but based on COI barcode sequences, it is more closely related to Loxosomella stomatophora. Found on Amphiroa sp.

Loxosomella sp. (Entoprocta, Loxosomatidae). We were calling this Loxosomella cf. vivipara but based on COI barcode sequences, it is more closely related to Loxosomella stomatophora. Found on Amphiroa sp.

Loxosomatidae sp. Found on Amphiroa sp.

Barentsia sp. (Entoprocta, Barentsiidae)

Barentsia sp. (Entoprocta, Barentsiidae)

Loxosomatidae sp. "warty"

Loxosomatidae sp. "warty" This species appears to have defensive structures that 'fire' like cnidarian nematocysts. There are Antarctic species of entoprocts with similar structures. Unfortunately this was the only specimen of this species that I found.

Loxosomatidae sp. "yellow"

Loxosomatidae sp. "yellow"

Loxosomatidae sp. "Harry's Amphiroa"

Loxosomatidae sp. "Harry's Amphiroa"

Loxosomatidae sp. "dirty"

Rhabdopleura sp. (Hemichordata, Pterobranchia)

Juvenile Cryptoplax larvaeformis (Mollusca, Polyplacophora; anterior end)

Newly settled Heteronemertea sp. juvenile (complete with caudal cirrus)

Bryozoan larva (I think)

Bryozoan larva (I think)

Bryozoan larva (I think; same specimen as previous pic)

Acoela sp.

Acoela sp.

Acoela sp.

Acoela sp.

Tetrastemma sp. (Nemertea)

Tetrastemma sp. (Nemertea)

I saw a lot of these but I'm not sure what they are. Proseriate flatworm? (Platyhelminthes)

Kalyptorhyncha sp.? (Platyhelminthes)

Rhabditophora sp. (Platyhelminthes)

Shizorhynchidae sp.? (Platyhelminthes)

Sclerite-bearing flatworm! (Platyhelminthes)

Sclerite-bearing flatworm! (Platyhelminthes)

Platyhelminthes?

Polygordius sp. (anterior end; Annelida)

Polygordius sp. (posterior end; Annelida)

Sabellidae sp. (Annelida)

Mystery annelid. Anterior end.

Mystery annelid. Posterior end.

Cirratulidae sp.? (Annelida)

Cirratulidae sp.? (Annelida)

Dorvellaidae sp. (Annelida)

Another mystery annelid.

Spadella sp. (anterior end; Chaetognthata)