The Cnidarian Tree of Life Project

Ph.D Candidate, Ohio State University

Morphology and Evolution of Nematocysts

I am a PhD student in Dr. Meg Daly's lab at the Ohio State University. All Cnidaria produce intracellular capsules called cnidae. Nematocysts, one type of cnidae, are particularly diverse throughout the phylum (with about 30 types). I use electron microscopy (SEM and TEM) to document ultrastructural variation of nematocysts to determine what characters are phylogenetically useful characters for cnidarians, and to identify features that may have evolutionary significance.