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Invertebrate Zoology Research Expertise

Ed Hendrycks used a stereoscopic microscope to draw the holotype of Cyphocaris new species.

Martin Lipman © Canadian Museum of Nature

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Ed Hendrycks used a stereoscopic microscope to draw the holotype of Cyphocaris new species.

Invertebrate Zoology research includes taxonomic, evolutionary, biogeographical and ecological work on invertebrates (animals without a vertebral column and skull).

Research at the Canadian Museum of Nature covers the following areas:

  • crustaceology (crustaceans, particularly amphipods)
  • malacology (molluscs, particularly cold-ocean bivalves and gastropods, exotic species and native freshwater clams)
  • entomology (insects, particularly weevils and scarab beetles of North, Central and South America)
  • insects of Canada.
A new species of Cyphocaris.

Martin Lipman © Canadian Museum of Nature

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Cyphocaris new species.

New Amphipod Species

When researchers at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in California collected some hitherto unknown species of invertebrates from just above the Pacific Ocean floor (4,050 metres down), they sent the amphipods to the Canadian Museum of Nature expert, Ed Hendrycks, for identification.

To properly describe the new amphipod shown here, Ed compared the specimens to type specimens (the original specimens used to describe a new species) of already known and similar species, borrowed from other museums, and reviewed the scientific literature. He has determined that this species of amphipod is a new species in the genus Cyphocaris. The one on the left is the holotype, and is 22.6 mm long. Both are male.

 

Illustration of the holotype of a new species of Cyphocaris.

Susan-Laurie Bourque, Ed Hendrycks © Canadian Museum of Nature

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Detailed line drawings of the amphipod’s body and other important features, like the mouthparts, must be made. A stereoscopic microscope is essential to the artistic process: the drawing tube allows an enlarged image of the specimen and its microscopic features to be accurately drawn by Ed.