Kodi Woods

Project Description:

For my EDGE project, I did undergraduate research with Dr. Bonnie Bain on a group of poorly understood marine invertebrates called sea spiders. Most of what I did was describe, measure, and illustrate 3 unknown sea spider specimens that had been collected by MBARI from Monterey Bay, CA. In addition to these three specimens, I also drew a lectotype of a known species called Colossendeis colossea. For the better part of 2 semesters, I've been working in the lab on campus to help illustrate these specimens and determine if the 3 unknown sea spiders represent a new species. After spending a lot of time both drawing and comparing them to other known species, we were able to determine that they make up 2 new and previously undiscovered species. In the future, we hope to publish a paper that shows our results. Overall, I learned a lot in this project where I learned how to better articulate my drawings to be tailored towards scientific illustrations. I learned how to properly format in a way that was consistent, as well as how to limit detail while demonstrating the vital features. In addition, I learned how to better compare species that ever before as well as became familiar with using ImageJ. This project was therefore a great opportunity for me to complete both my EDGE project as well as gain experience for what I would like to someday become--a wildlife biologist. And I would argue it gave me both the perspectives needed in the professional field as well as an overall understanding of the kind of work behind it.