Student 10-Minute Presentation
Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity
Student
Student Competition
Claire S. Bailey
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Newark, New Jersey
Phillip Barden (he/him/his)
Associate Professor
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Newark, New Jersey
Eusociality is a convergently derived social organization characterized by a unique syndrome of traits. Eusociality has evolved over twenty times across the animal kingdom and is predominantly associated with insects. However, approximately one fourth of all eusocial origins occur in a genus of snapping shrimp called Synalpheus. These sponge-dwelling shrimp are the only known example of marine eusociality, and they exhibit a spectrum of social organization ranging from monogamous pair-living to communal and eusocial societies. The numerous (7-8), recent eusocial origins in these shrimps are uniquely suited to comparative investigation. This contrasts with other lineages such as ants and termites, which exhibit single eusocial origins between 100-145 million years ago.
Are there ground plan morphologies found across different eusocial lineages in Synalpheus? We are investigating if patterns of morphological evolution coincide with convergent evolution of eusociality. Our approach employs CT-scanning and morphometric analyses on novel and ecologically important features like the snapping claw. We will leverage the social diversity in this group and compare eusocial and non-eusocial species in a phylogenetic context. This project will provide a foundational phylogenetic framework for Synalpheus while generating large-scale morphological and molecular data. Our work seeks to determine whether eusociality impacts morphological evolution across lineages and if origins are associated with universal phenotypic features.