Jan A. Pechenik
Professor
Invertebrate Zoology and Marine Biology

Current Lab Activities

Most of our work concerns the marine gastropod Crepidula fornicata, and not just because the animal has such a great name. We can get larvae pretty much the entire year and rear them to metamorphosis with very low mortality (typically less than 5%). The larvae are large at hatching (about 450 µm) and grow as fast as 100 µm per day. Also, we can now control when the larvae metamorphose and can rear the juveniles to reproductive maturity within 1-2 months. The snail is native to New England but has now become an important invasive species in many other parts of the world. Some of our work also includes the related species, C. convexa, which has apparently lost the larval stage during its evolution.

Graduate student Casey Diederich is working with the marine gastropod Crepidula fornicata in both the field and laboratory to study the costs and adaptations associated with intertidal life.

Together with several undergraduates, we are also looking further at how metamorphosis is controlled in the larvae of Crepidula fornicata and C. convexa.

Download the Larval Mortality Model.

We also continue to study aspects of shell selection behavior in marine hermit crabs.

Read about the hermit crab work and watch the hermit crab video.

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