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3258 TAMU Office: Lab: Fax: 979-845-2891 |
Biography |
| Mary Wicksten (b. 1948) received her A.B. and M.A. degrees in Biology from Humboldt State College and a Ph.D. in Biology under John Garth at the University of Southern California. After postdoctoral work as a fellow of the Allen Hancock Foundation at the University of Southern California, she joined the Texas A&M faculty in 1980 and is now a Professor of Biology. She has received visiting fellowships from the Smithsonian Institution, California Academy of Sciences and three campuses of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico . She has published more than 125 refereed papers, mostly on decapod crustaceans, and has described 36 new species and 5 new genera of crustaceans. She served as chief scientist on two exploratory cruises to the remote Alijos Rocks off western Mexico and participated in collecting and ecological monitoring cruises in the Gulf of Mexico, northeastern Pacific and the Galapagos Islands. She is a national fellow of the Explorers Club. An experienced scuba diver, divemaster and underwater photographer, she combines her research interests with development of teaching materials for her classes. | |
| Behavior, zoogeography and systematics of marine decapod Crustacea | |
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Decapods are among the best-known crustaceans, ranging from tiny shrimp to crabs with a leg span of up to nearly 4 m.. Major predators, disturbers of sediments, and elements of food chains, these animals are found in almost all marine habitats. New species continue to be found. Of those already known to science, often the descriptions are very old and lack details needed for more modern comparative work. Genetic studies are in their infancy. Decapods can range in color from brilliantly marked to dull, white or transparent. Color patterns can function in camouflage, courtship, or aggressive displays, but may differ within a single species according to age, diet, or sex. The consistency of color patterns within a species is unknown in many, if not most, decapods. Pigmentation may be a function not only of visual communication but also serve in physiological processes such as intermediary metabolism and strengthening of the integument. Some crabs add to their camouflage by carrying foreign objects or attaching sponges, shells, algae, etc. to their bodies. Studies on adaptive coloration and camouflage must integrate laboratory work under controlled conditions with observations and photography in the natural habitat. My own current work on spider crabs and hippolytid shrimp indicates phylogenetic trends in behavior and coloration within certain clades and marked differences within others. Do these differences reflect problems with the currently accepted systematic arrangement? To publish anything worthwhile on behavior of a species, one must be able to identify that species. I am studying the Thoridae, a family of small-sized marine shrimp that are remarkably diverse in the cold waters of the North Pacific. Evidence suggests that these shrimp may be losing range due to global warming. They may be replaced by members of a different family, the Palaemonidae, a group of more aggressive predatory shrimp. But to study such a replacement, one must identify the shrimp. The last major study was in 1906. All previous work has been morphological. Evidence from my own work and that of Greg Jensen, University of Washington, suggests that not only have species been confused (one species is actually two, three species actually are only one) but the generic designation may depend on temperature-dependent features. With a small start-up grant from the Arctic Biodiversity Study, I am collaborating with Luis Hurtado,, Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Science, to obtain some molecular data on genetic affinities within the Thoridae and potentially allied shrimp taxa. These data may at least indicate which of the supposed genera are distinct or even if the Thoridae is indeed a natural group. Examination of the 150 or more presumed species will begin following an assessment of the genera. . |
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| Selected Publications | |
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Wicksten, M. 2008. Decapod Crustacea of the Californian and Oregonian Zoogeographic Provinces. Scripps Institution of Oceanography Library Paper 26: 1-413. Soliman, Y. and M. Wicksten. 2007. Ampleisca mississippiana: a new species (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Gammaridae) from the Mississippi Canyon (northern Gulf of Mexico). Zootaxa 1389: 45-54. Pequegnat, L. and M. Wicksten. 2006. Oplophorid shrimps (Decapoda: Caridea: Oplophoridae) in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea from the collections of the research vessels Alaminos, Oregon and Oregon II. Crustacean Research 35: 92-107. Wicksten, M. and J. Packard. 2005. A qualitative zoogeographic analysis of decapod crustaceans of the continental slopes and abyssal plain of the Gulf of Mexico. Deep-Sea Research Part I 52 (2005): 1745-1765. Wicksten, M. 2005. Decapod crustaceans of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. Gulf of Mexico Science 23: 30-37. Hermoso Salazar, M, M. Wicksten and J. Morrone. 2005. Redescriptions and taxonomic notes on species of the Synalpheus townsendi Coutiere, 1909 complex (Decapoda: Caridea; Alpheidae). Zootaxa 1027: 1-26. Wicksten, M.K. and M.E. Hendrickx. 2003. An updated checklist of benthic marine and brackish water shrimps (Decapoda: Penaeoidea, Stenopodidea, Caridea) from the eastern tropical Paccific. Pages 49-76 in Hendrickx, M.E. editor. Contributions to the study of East Pacific crustaceans vol. 2. Mazatlan: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Wicksten, M.K. 2002. Midwater decapods of the northeastern Pacific. Pages 127-144 in Hendrickx, M.E. editor. Contributions to the study of East Pacific crustaceans vol. 1. Mazatlan: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Wicksten, M.K. 2000. Taxonomic studies of snapping shrimp of the Alpheus "Edwardsii" group from the Galapagos Islands (Decapoda: Caridea: Alpheidae). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 113: 964-973. Wicksten, M. 2000. The species of Lysmata (Caridea: Hippolytidae) from the eastern Pacific Ocean. Amphipacifica 2: 3-22. Wicksten, Mary K. and L. Hernandez. 2000. Range extensions, taxonomic notes and zoogeography of symbiotic shrimp of the tropical eastern pacific (Crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea). Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences 99(2): 91-100. Wicksten, M.. 1998. Cleaning behavior in reef fishes at Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. Journal of Natural History 32: 13-30. Wicksten, Mary K. 1996. Parhippolyte caverniccla, new species (Decapoda: Caridea: Hippolytidae) from the tropical eastern Pacific, with taxonomic remarks on the genera Somersiella and Koror. Journal of Crustacean Biology. 16: 201-207. Wicksten, Mary K. 1995. Associations of fishes and their cleaners on coral reefs of Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. Copeia, 1995:477-481. Wicksten, Mary K. 1995. Within-species variation in Periclimenes yucatanicus (Ives), with taxonomic remarks on P. pedersoni Chace (Crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea: Palaemonidae). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 108: 458-464. |
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