Espegrend, bryozoans and gingerbread cookies
November is often a month where things are a bit dark and dreary, and there is generally little to look forward to, but luckily we had a workshop planned at Espegrend Marine Biological Station. The plan for the trip was to plan the final parts of the project, unravel DNA sequence mysteries, and go through exciting and relevant samples.
The genetic data we have received contains many exciting "mysteries". Among other things, some samples of common species have split into two or more groups/clades. This can sometimes be due to misidentification, but sometimes it is a sign that there may be cryptic species involved!
We also went through a large number of samples that are relevant for both invasive and deep-sea species. Over 500 new registrations were the result of this workshop, and again we found new species for the project and species that have no/very few registrations in Norway. Some of these have been brought to NHM to be photographed a SEM (scanning electron microscope).
In previous workshops, the evenings have often been spent doing more lab work, but this time we managed to fill most of them with activities so that we got some well-deserved breaks. There was both an SEM presentation from me and a Cyclostomatida presentation from Maria (who recently finished her master's thesis: "Diversity and Distribution of Cyclostomatida (Bryozoa) - An integrative Approach to Increase Knowledge on a Neglected Taxon in Norwegian and Adjacent Waters")
We even had a few evenings where we baked and decorated gingerbread cookies. Of course we had to make some bryozoans and other marine organisms, and there were many creative shapes and decoration styles (as you can see in the pictures)!
Fortunately, the weather wasn't bad all the time, so we had the opportunity to take some nice walks throughout the day to get a break from all the sitting down.
So to sum it up: An amazing week with amazing company and amazing bryozoans!