Meeting Abstract

P3.153  Friday, Jan. 6  A Comparison of the Brain and Rhinophores of Tritonia diomedea and Armina californica RICE, J L*; CAIN, S D; Eastern Oregon University; Eastern Oregon University ricejl@eou.edu

It is known that many species of animals are able to use multiple sensory cues for orientation and navigation. For example, birds have been shown to use magnetic fields, polarized light, and odors to navigate throughout their habitat. Similarly, two species of marine invertebrates, Tritonia diomedea and Armina californica, use multiple sensory cues to navigate. The neurobiological processes that underlie this behavior are not well-understood. Both species are found in sea pens bed located in near-shore and sheltered waters of the northeastern Pacific. However, their behavior in the sea pens is rather different; A. californica burrows while T. diomedea crawls and swims. Both of these animals have nervous systems that are amenable to single cell investigations of nervous system function. Here we report on the morphology and neuroanatomy of the brain and rhinophores, the primary sensory organs in these animals. The tissue morphology was investigated using standard histological techniques both for general morphology and nervous system structure.