Everybody knows about poppa bear, momma bear, and baby bear, but do you know about water bears? Join Dr. Emma Perry at the Wilson Museum’s Hutchins Education Center in Castine on Friday July 7 at 3 p.m. as she discusses her research on tardigrades (microscopic invertebrate organisms, also known as water bears), both terrestrial and marine species, which she has found throughout Maine. Perry will also talk about the tardigrade’s ability to survive the extremes of earth and the vacuum of space, and their ability to lay dormant for years, to be brought back to life with a single drop of water. They are found all across the globe, and the first tardigrade found on this continent was collected in New Gloucester, Maine more than a century ago.
Dr. Emma Perry completed her undergraduate degree in Zoology at Exeter University, Britain, where she was born and raised. She took her Ph.D. in Biology at The University of South Florida. Since then Perry has become more generally interested in the biology and systematics of lesser known marine invertebrates, such as tardigrades. As a professor at Unity College, she, and her students, have been researching tardigrades all across Maine.
This program is open to the public and free of charge. For more information contact the Wilson Museum at 207-326-9247 or www.wilsonmuseum.org.
