Frank D. FerrariResearch Zoologist, Emeritus

Responsibilities: Curator of Copepoda

Education:
Hobart College, 1967, B.S. Biology
Boston University, 1969, M.S. Marine Biology
Texas A&M University, 1974, Ph.D. Oceanography

Research Interests:
Development of Copepods and Related Crustaceans, Patterning of Crustacean Limbs, Taxonomy of Deep-Sea Copepods.

More kinds of arthropods exist today than any other comparable group of animals. An important reason for their success is the marvelous variety of arthropod limbs. Although studies of arthropod development have been carried out for more than 300 years, a basic question about their limbs has gone unasked until recently: how are the limbs patterned during development? Over the last five years, analyses of the comparative morphology of crustacean limb development have begun to reveal information about that question. The protopod of a crustacean limb is patterned distally from the point where the limb joins the body, so that the youngest element of the protopod is always closest to the body. Ramal patterning is more complex; new elements can be added either proximally and distally from a source segment, so that the youngest elements are closest to this patterning center. As a result, determination of homologous segments of a ramus results from a complex analysis and is not a simply a counting exercise; the contemporary application of numerical symbols in a simple, proximodistal progression is a misleading exercise.

Sea water directly above the deep ocean floor is an extremely undersampled habitat. Analyses of this habitat have revealed a wonderful faunal diversity, particularly of calanoid copepods. Almost all of these copepods are new to science. And they are unlike copepods from any other marine habitat. Many of the characters of their morphology have not been observed before, and the states of these characters are evolutionarily derived so that many new genera and families have been established for the new species. The accumulation of myriad kinds of organic matter from primary and secondary production in the water column may account for this faunal diversity, and adaptations to detritivory seems to have played a role in how the fauna of this eternally dark world has been structured.

Recent Publications:
Ferrari, Frank D. 2012. Importance of Models of Development for Determining Homologies. Crustaceana, 85(4-5): 617-620. doi:10.1163/156854012X643744

Ivanenko, Viatcheslav N., Corgosinho, Paulo H. C., Ferrari, Frank, Sarradin, Pierre-Marie and Sarrazin, Jozée 2012. Microhabitat distribution of Smacigastes micheli (Copepoda: Harpacticoida: Tegastidae) from deep-sea hydrothermal vents at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 37° N (Lucky Strike), with a morphological description of its nauplius. Marine Ecology, 33(2): 246-256. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0485.2011.00484.x

Ferrari, Frank D. 2012. Ecdysozoans, articulates, and the needle in a haystack. Crustaceana, 85(8): 1013-1017. doi:10.1163/156854012X649531

Chullasorn, Supawadee, Dahms, Hans-U, Iwasaki, Nozomu, Kangtia, Pawana, Ferrari, Frank D., Jeon, Hyoung Joo and Yang, Wan-Xi 2012. Naupliar Development of an Ancorabolid, Paralaophontodes sp (Copepoda: Harpacticoida) Sheds Light on Harpacticoid Evolution. Zoological Studies, 51(3): 372-382.

Hidalgo, Pamela, Ferrari, Frank D., Yañez, Sonia, Pino, Pamela and Escribano, Ruben 2012. Development of Rhincalanus Nasutus (Giesbrecht, 1888) (Copepoda, Rhincalanidae) from the Humboldt Current System. Crustaceana, 85(9): 1025-1053. doi:10.1163/156854012X651673

Ferrari, Frank D. 2012. Copepoda. In: McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology. McGraw Hill, pp.753-756.

Ferrari, Frank D. and Grygier, Mark J. 2012. Variability of trunk limbs along the anterior/posterior body axis on juvenile and adult Lynceus biformis (Ishikawa, 1895) (Branchiopoda, Laevicaudata, Lynceidae). Crustaceana, 85(3): 359-377. doi:10.1163/156854012

Ivanenko, Viatcheslav N., Defaye, Danielle, Segonzac, Michel, Khripounoff, Alexis, Sarrazin, Jozée and Ferrari, Frank D. 2011. A new species of Exrima, synonymy of four species of Aphotopontius, Stygiopontius and Rhogobius, and record of first copepodid stage of Dirivultidae (Copepoda: Siphonostomatoida) from deep-sea hydrothermal vents of the East Pacific Rise (13°N). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 91(7): 1547-1559. doi:10.1017/S0025315411000178

Ferrari, Frank D., Fornshell, John A., Vagelli, Alejandro, Ivaneko, V. N. and Dahms, Hans-Uwe 2011. Early post-embryonic development of marine chelicerates and crustaceans with a nauplius. Crustaceana, 84(7): 869-893.

Ferrari, Frank D., Chullasorn, Supawadee and Dahms, Hans-Uwe 2011. Immature copepodids of Pseudocyclops schminkei (Copepoda, Calanoida) and the relationship of Pseudocyclopidae to other calanoids. Crustaceana Monographs, 16: 149-176.

Ivanenko, Viatcheslav N., Ferrari, Frank D., Defaye, Danielle, Sarradin, Pierre Marie and Sarrazin, Josée 2011. Description, distribution and microhabitats of a new copepod species of the genus Tisbe (Harpacticoida: Tisbidae) from a deep sea hydrothermal vent field of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (37°N, Lucky Strike). Cahiers de Biologie Marine, 52(1): 89-106.

Ferrari, Frank D. 2010. Morphology, Development, and Sequence. Journal of Crustacean Biology, 30(4): 767-769. doi:10.1651/10-3343.1

Chullasorn, Supawadee, Ferrari, Frank D. and Dahms, Hans-Uwe 2010. Pseudocyclops schminkei (Copepoda, Calanoida, Pseudocyclopidae): a new species from Okinawa. Helgoland Marine Research, 64(1): 35-52.

Fornshell, John A. and Ferrari, Frank D. 2010. Morphological Variability of Pleuromamma Abdominalis (Copepoda, Calanoida, Metridinidae) Along Two Latitudinal Transects in the Eastern North Pacific Ocean. Crustaceana, 83(6): 753-765. doi:10.1163/001121610X492120

Hunt, Marguerite E., Scherrer, Michael P., Ferrari, Frank D. and Matz, Mikhail V. 2010. Very Bright Green Fluorescent Proteins from the Pontellid Copepod Pontella mimocerami. Plos One, 5(7): e11517 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011517

Kotov, Alexey A. and Ferrari, Frank D. 2010. The taxonomic research of Jules Richard on Cladocera (Crustacea: Branchiopoda) and his collection at the National Museum of Natural History, USA. Zootaxa, 2551: 37-64.

Ferrari, Frank D., Ivanenko, Viatcheslav N. and Dahms, Hans-Uwe 2010. Body architecture and relationships among basal copepods. Journal of Crustacean Biology, 30(3): 465-477. doi:10.1651/09-3220.1

Ferrari, Frank D. and Ivanenko, Viatcheslav N. 2009. Remarks on the "Subcoxa" hypothesis from Bäcker et al. (2008). Zoologischer Anzeiger, 248(1): 33-34.

Park, E. T. and Ferrari, Frank D. 2009. Species diversity and distributions of pelagic calanoid copepods (Crustacea) from the Southern Ocean. In: Krupnik, Igor, Lang, Michael A. and Miller, Scott E., Smithsonian at the Poles: Contributions to International Polar Year Science.(IPY) pp.143-180.



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