Shell museum to present next lecture in series
The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium on Sanibel is continuing with its seasonal Lecture Series at the museum, at 3075 Sanibel-Captiva Road, Sanibel. The next lecture will be:
– March 13 at 5:30 p.m.: “Exploring the Atlantic Canyons: Searching the Deep Ocean for Cephalopods and Other Marine Life” with Dr. Elizabeth Shea, director of collections and curator of mollusks at the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science
Cephalopods, such as squids and octopuses, are charismatic mollusks found in all marine ecosystems, from shallow coral reefs to the deepest oceans. They are difficult to study because they are fast swimmers and highly cryptic on the ocean bottom, but video exploration provides new opportunities for observation and to collect data on their distributions, habitat preferences and behaviors.
Shea will describe research cruises exploring deep-sea canyons off the U.S. east coast that helped identify preferred habitat for deep-sea corals and the animals that live around them. Photographs and videos of a variety of deep-sea cephalopods will be shown and discussed.
She is the director of collections and curator of mollusks at the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science, where her primary responsibilities include oversight of the 2.3 million shells in the museum’s collection, and collections-based research. Shea completed her Ph.D. at Bryn Mawr College with a research focus on the ecology and biodiversity of cephalopods. She has published 27 peer-reviewed papers and participated in more than 20 research cruises to the canyons and seamounts in the northwest Atlantic.
Cost is $10 or free for museum members.
For more information or to register, visit https://www.shellmuseum.org/in-person-lectures.