Mislabeled and ambiguous market names in invertebrate and finfish seafood conceal species of conservation concern in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Background: The mislabeling of seafood, wherein a food product's marketed name does not match its contents, has the potential to mask species of conservation concern. Less discussed is the role of legally ambiguous market names, wherein a single name could be used to sell multiple species. Here we report the first study in Canada to examine mislabeling and ambiguous market names in both invertebrate (.

Collaborative parasitology: student partnerships in open education.

Student-faculty partnerships can drive innovation in parasitology education and outreach. We provide recommendations for building successful partnerships during the design, implementation, and impact assessment stages. We also introduce a new series of freely available educational and community outreach materials available on a platform that the parasitology community can contribute to.

Resources for Teaching and Assessing the Biology Core Concepts.

The report called for the biology community to mobilize around teaching the core concepts of biology. This essay describes a collection of resources developed by several different groups that can be used to respond to the report's call to transform undergraduate education at both the individual course and departmental levels. First, we present two frameworks that help articulate the core concepts, the and the Conceptual Elements (CE) Framework, which can be used in mapping the core concepts onto existing curricula and designing new curricula that teach the biology core concepts.

Tools for Change: Measuring Student Conceptual Understanding Across Undergraduate Biology Programs Using Bio-MAPS Assessments.

Assessing learning across a biology major can help departments monitor achievement of broader program-level goals and identify opportunities for curricular improvement. However, biology departments have lacked suitable tools to measure learning at the program scale. To address this need, we developed four freely available assessments-called Biology-Measuring Achievement and Progression in Science or Bio-MAPS-for general biology, molecular biology, ecology/evolution, and physiology programs.

GenBio-MAPS: A Programmatic Assessment to Measure Student Understanding of Vision and Change Core Concepts across General Biology Programs.

The Vision and Change report provides a nationally agreed upon framework of core concepts that undergraduate biology students should master by graduation. While identifying these concepts was an important first step, departments also need ways to measure the extent to which students understand these concepts. Here, we present the General Biology-Measuring Achievement and Progression in Science (GenBio-MAPS) assessment as a tool to measure student understanding of the core concepts at key time points in a biology degree program.

Phys-MAPS: a programmatic physiology assessment for introductory and advanced undergraduates.

We describe the development of a new, freely available, online, programmatic-level assessment tool, Measuring Achievement and Progress in Science in Physiology, or Phys-MAPS ( http://cperl.lassp.cornell.

EcoEvo-MAPS: An Ecology and Evolution Assessment for Introductory through Advanced Undergraduates.

A new assessment tool, Ecology and Evolution-Measuring Achievement and Progression in Science or EcoEvo-MAPS, measures student thinking in ecology and evolution during an undergraduate course of study. EcoEvo-MAPS targets foundational concepts in ecology and evolution and uses a novel approach that asks students to evaluate a series of predictions, conclusions, or interpretations as likely or unlikely to be true given a specific scenario. We collected evidence of validity and reliability for EcoEvo-MAPS through an iterative process of faculty review, student interviews, and analyses of assessment data from more than 3000 students at 34 associate's-, bachelor's-, master's-, and doctoral-granting institutions.

The genera and species of Comatulidae (Comatulida: Crinoidea): taxonomic revisions and a molecular and morphological guide.

We provide a guide for identification of Comatulidae, a family of crinoid echinoderms, incorporating morphological and molecular evidence. A non-dichotomous key for all genera is included, as well as photographs of species most likely to be encountered in the tropical western Pacific Ocean. Based on sequencing of cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI), and other genes when necessary, we identified four cases where taxonomic revision was needed.

Turbo-taxonomy: 21 new species of Myzostomida (Annelida).

An efficient protocol to identify and describe species of Myzostomida is outlined and demonstrated. This taxonomic approach relies on careful identification (facilitated by an included comprehensive table of available names with relevant geographical and host information) and concise descriptions combined with DNA sequencing, live photography, and accurate host identification. Twenty-one new species are described following these guidelines: Asteromyzostomum grygieri n.

Phylogeny of Myzostomida (Annelida) and their relationships with echinoderm hosts.

Background: Myzostomids are marine annelids, nearly all of which live symbiotically on or inside echinoderms, chiefly crinoids, and to a lesser extent asteroids and ophiuroids. These symbionts possess a variety of adult body plans and lifestyles. Most described species live freely on the exterior of their hosts as adults (though starting life on the host inside cysts), while other taxa permanently reside in galls, cysts, or within the host's mouth, digestive system, coelom, or gonads.

Phylogeny of Comatulidae (Echinodermata: Crinoidea: Comatulida): a new classification and an assessment of morphological characters for crinoid taxonomy.

Comatulidae Fleming, 1828 (previously, and incorrectly, Comasteridae A.H. Clark, 1908a), is a group of feather star crinoids currently divided into four accepted subfamilies, 21 genera and approximately 95 nominal species.

Association of rhizobia with a marine polychaete.

We report the presence of Mesorhizobium, a genus best known for its nitrogen-fixing symbiosis with terrestrial legumes, associated with the marine polychaete Meganerilla bactericola (Annelida: Nerillidae). Abundant epibionts were previously described as coating the exterior of M. bactericola, which is found within the anoxic sulfide-oxidizing microbial mats of the Santa Barbara Basin, California, USA.