June, 1999 
SCAMIT Newsletter 
Vol. 18, No.2 
The relationship between local and regional 
scale variables and processes and resulting 
local and regional scale species richness in 
coral communities was examined in two recent 
papers (Karlson & Cornell 1998, 1999). Their 
analyses suggest that in many areas reef 
habitats are not species saturated, and that the 
reasons for this are not the traditional ones of 
competition and dominance. Their analyses 
indicate that larger scale factors are at least as 
important in determining saturation and 
community richness as are local factors. Both 
need to be taken into account when comparing 
community structure between different areas. 
The even larger scale issue of the development 
of symmetry was addressed by Martindale & 
Henry (1998). The derivation of bilateral 
symmetry from radial or biradial symmetry 
was an early and major event in the history of 
the Metazoa. The authors discuss how it may 
have happened. 
Kim et al (1999) provide another entry in the 
“lower metazoan relationships” cladistic 
sweepstakes. They use 18S rDNA sequences as 
their data of choice. The analysis upsets no 
applecarts, and instead offers good support to a 
“traditional” perception of this group of taxa. 
Poriferans were basal, with ctenophores the 
basal group of metazoans at tissue grade with a 
nervous system, and a monophyletic Cnidaria. 
MYSTERY SOLVED 
Several years ago a CSDLAC trawl sample 
yielded a small tubicolous amphipod scraped 
from debris caught in the net. This was not 
legitimate trawl catch, so was never reported. 
When time permitted this was examined and 
found to be a Corophium with an interesting 
double tooth on the 4 th article of antenna 2, and 
interesting telsonic armature. It couldn’t be 
identified as anything at the time, so was given 
the name Corophium sp A, and set aside. While 
working on the voucher sheets from B’98 
infaunal sampling I came across a slide of a 
partially dissected specimen, and decided to try 
and identify it using the Bousfield and Hoover 
(1997) Corophiinae paper. This proved fairly 
easy, with the animal turning out to be 
Monocorophium californiense. This is the first 
Southern California Bight record, with the 
previous range from Monterey Bay north to 
British Columbia. Since it was taken in a 
routine monitoring sample, I’ll add it into the 
next edition of the SCAMIT listing. Another 
provisional bites the dust: Hooray!! - Don 
Cadien 
WSM MEETING 
The annual Western Society of Malacologists 
meeting was held June 13-16 at Cal. State 
Fullerton. The three symposiums were 
entitled; Recent Advances in Molluscan 
Research, Invasive Molluscs: Environmental 
and Conservation Impacts, and Current 
Research on West Coast Molluscan 
Paleontology. SCAMIT President Ron Velarde 
attended for one day and found the talks quite 
informative. 
BIGHT’98 UPDATE FOR OUR FRIENDS 
SOUTH OF THE BORDER 
The Mexican group working on the Bight 4 98 
project collected both chemistry and benthic 
samples. They are going to work up the 
benthic samples and the data might be included 
with the main Bight’98 report or as an addition 
to the main report. In order to determine the 
level of expertise of the group participating in 
the identifications the San Diego Lab has 
volunteered to give 3 samples from their lab to 
the Mexican group for re-identification. That 
way if the Mexican group needs some 
intercalibration, the San Diego lab can provide 
it before work on the Mexican portion of the 
Bight samples begins. Resulting data will 
better coordinate with the southern California 
data if we are all on the same page 
taxonomically. 
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