Day 1: First Day at HMNS

    Today was my first day interning at the Houston Museum of Natural Science for my independent M Term study. Specifically, I will be working in the "paleontology" exhibit — centred on the study of fossils — alongside James Washington, whose professional background is with paleontology and geology. This being the beginning of the project, I was first shown by Carolyn Leap around the main areas of the museum I would be visiting, to ensure I didn't lose my way...

    The first thing we did was tour the main offices at the Lower Level of the Museum, with Ms. Leap helping me with signing in and out of the system to log in. I was also shown one of professor Washington's rooms which he uses to teach lessons, full of minerals and boxed mollusks and remains. 

However, the professor will be busy these first two days and won't be in until Wednesday, so I was advised to not touch anything that seemed to be conserved since I do not yet have extensive hands-on knowledge on how to work with them just yet. 

    So, we continued touring so I could see some permanent exhibits which I could study in order to start familiarising myself with topics in similar fields. I found myself really liking "The Strake Hall of Malacology" — specialising in the study of mollusks — so I started my M-Term study by partaking in an independent inquiry.

What I learned:

    The first thing I looked into was three of the eight classes of mollusks: bi-valves, gastropods and cephalopods. 

It was actually surprising to see how these ordinary shells are so different when you pay attention to the fine details! 

Firstly, I looked into how things are classified and why they're put into the same categories as other things. Well, it turns out all of the complicated names and allocations of different species is incredibly useful when seeing the evolution of that organism. Not only does this provide scientific names for things (eg. dog = canis lupus familiaris) but it illustrates the relationships of living species. Basically, one form of classification (Linnaean Classification) has seven levels which go from less specific to more specific: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. 

So, when we talk about mollusks, for example, that is in terms of phylum, but if you want to discuss specific classes of mollusks, you go into more specific characteristics that the species you're talking about has.

    Of the three mollusk classes I mentioned earlier (bi-valves, gastropods, cephalopods), bi-valves are unique in the sense that they have a shell consisting of two (hence "bi") hinged parts. An example of these are clams, oysters and scallops. They have very unique techniques for survival. Some bivalves live their whole lives attached to rocks, corals and other mollusks, while others lay buried in the sand or mud. But, all bivalves are filter feeders, which means that they strain their food from the water and ejecting what they don't need. 

Gastropods are the most abundant class of mollusk, with as many as 75 thousand species, and these can be terrestrial, freshwater or marine. You can differentiate them from their other classes, as these live in spiral shells that usually swirl to the right (unlike the Left-handed whelk). 

On the other hand, cephalopods are the least widespread. Some common characteristics they exhibit are two eyes, a mantle and a shell. Nautilus, octopi, and cuttlefish are some examples. "Cephalopod" in Greek literally means "head foot," which is a funny reference to the fact that its head is directly connected to its many arms. 

Large gastropods

Large bivalves

    

I also looked into the diverse skills a lot of these mollusks have as a defence which play a vital role in their survival. One of these is camouflage. Since many mollusks are either pretty slow-moving or just don't move at all, their best chance to have predators leave them alone is to be hidden from view. Some attach themselves to other shells or materials in their general habitat, while others grow a thin organic coating or "skin" which helps to protect the shell. 

I then looked at the different ways that these interesting creatures are important to humans, which are used as food, for decoration, in jewellery and even in scientific studies. 

One of my favourite families of the bivalve class is the "spondylidae." They are beautifully coloured and are funnily shaped bivalves, popular because of their flamboyant spines and many colours. For example, the spondylus regius is a bivalve mollusk which oddly enough to me looks like a pointy spider...

Spondylidae

Another one of my favourite families, this time of the gastropods is the conidae. They are more commonly known as "cones" and use stealth and poison darts (or radular teeth) like tiny arrows to paralyse their prey. They can be deadly to humans as well. I think that their patterns are very appealing too!

Conidae

After I felt I had gathered as much information as I could from the exhibit, I went back down to the Lower Level we had visited at the start, and took a short break. After that, I continued to read up on mollusk anatomy, which is more complex than I imagined. 

    I briefly went back up towards the end of the available time and took a quick look around the other nearby exhibits, such as the "Hall of African Wildlife" and "Texas Wildlife Hall" to continue in the general subject of biology. By the time I was done it was time to go back to school, so I then went back down to be seen off by Ms. Leap. 

    I am definitely satisfied with how today went, I feel it was a productive use of time, and I am happy that I was able to responsibly manage that time independently. For tomorrow, I want to have another look at the Mr. Washington's office I was quickly shown this morning, to have another look at the materials there and see if I can link it back to what I learned today. Also, funnily enough I did not go visit the Paleontology exhibit today, so I plan to visit it tomorrow for more research. 

    All in all, today was incredibly interesting and I am happy it was productive even without the professor present. I absolutely cannot wait to start working with Mr. Washington and learning to work in the Paleontology exhibit!