Melampus

The facts elicited put the surrender of the men out of the question; for though they frankly confessed to have deserted from the "Melampus," yet they claimed to have been impressed into the British service, and proved conclusively that they were free

The Naval History of the United States Volume 1 (of 2) Willis J. Abbot 1898

"Melampus" had joined the crew of the "Chesapeake;" and it was requested that they should be given up.

The Naval History of the United States Volume 1 (of 2) Willis J. Abbot 1898

I was at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in D.C. today and copied one of Lowe's papers on some of my favorite coastal snails, Melampus and Truncatella.

Archive 2009-01-01 AYDIN 2009

The paper, titled "On the Genera Melampus, Pedipes and Truncatella: with Experiments tending to demonstrate the real nature of the Respiratory Organs in these Mollusca", came out in 1832 in the Zoological Journal.

Archive 2009-01-01 AYDIN 2009

What we see in the case of Melampus and Truncatella is a mosaic-like pattern of mixed anatomies and lifestyles often observed during evolutionary transitions from one habitat to a drastically different one.

Archive 2009-01-01 AYDIN 2009

Thus, in his paper Lowe was concerned with the question of whether Melampus and Truncatella were in the order Pectinibranchia or the Pulmonea.

Archive 2009-01-01 AYDIN 2009

The plate from Lowe's paper showing the snails he studied: 1-7, Melampus; 8-12, Pedipes; 13-18, Truncatella.

Archive 2009-01-01 AYDIN 2009

Truncatella breathes with a gill (see my dissection here), but lives its entire life on land near the sea, while Melampus breathes with a lung, lives at the edge of the sea, but enters it to reproduce via planktonic veliger larvae.

Archive 2009-01-01 AYDIN 2009

Not surprisingly, Lowe's experiments produced contradictory and puzzling results: both Melampus and Truncatella survived outside of water in wet containers, while when forced to remain in sea water they sometimes remained alive, sometimes died.

Archive 2009-01-01 AYDIN 2009

The plate from Lowe's paper showing the snails he studied: 1-7, Melampus; 8-12, Pedipes; 13-18, Truncatella.

Reverend Lowe's snails AYDIN 2009