Meeting Abstract

P1.58  Friday, Jan. 4  The evolution of direct development in Scyphozoa HELM, R/R*; DUNN, C/W; Brown University Rebecca_Helm@brown.edu

Scyphozoan jellies (Cnidaria) provides an excellent opportunity to study lifecycle evolution from the perspective of the evolution of development. Within Pelagiidae, a clade of scyphozoans with indirect life cyles that include both a benthic polyp and pelagic sexually mature jelly (termed medusa), one species, Pelagia noctiluca, has done away entirely with polyps and has a direct lifecycle wherein the embryo develops into a medusa. While the closest relatives of P. noctiluca are being cultured through full life cycles in public aquaria, because P. noctiluca does not have a polyp stage it is more difficult to collect. Very little published information is available on the morphological development of P. noctiluca, making it impossible to compare its direct development to that of sister species. Here we will discuss our efforts to culture P. noctiluca and characterize its morphological development.