The Sea Anemone Public Lecture
“Hidden treasures of biodiversity: flowers of the marine world”
By Professor Daphne Fautin
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Kansas
Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center
University of Kansas
Tuesday 21st June 2011: 7.00pm
Lecture Theatre 23 (next to Science Canteen; map)
Science Drive 2, Faculty of Science
National University of Singapore
Take SBS No. 95 across the road from Buona Vista MRT Station. Stop at the second bus stop after the bus turns right into NUS/NUH.
Register to let us know you’re coming - http://tinyurl.com/fautin-21jun2011
About the talk - “Nemo lived in a sea anemone. These animals, which look like harmless flowers, are actually carnivorous that can eat Nemo and other larger prey. My study of Singapore’s sea anemone diversity over the past five years suggests that there about 50 shallow-water species and most of them undocumented until recently.
The sea anemone diversity in Singapore waters include one species that can swim and several that can sting humans. The diversity is so high that it was postulated that Singapore has more species of sea anemones than the entire west coast of north America!
In this talk, I will explore questions like: What allows clownfishes to live in such a hostile environment? What factors are responsible for Singapore having a greater diversity of sea anemones than any area its size anywhere in the world? Where else do sea anemones live? And what role do sea anemones play in nature?”
About the speaker - Daphne Fautin is the world authority on sea anemones working with the Ocean Biogeographic Information System and the Census of Marine Life and she has produced a resource webpage “Hexacorallians of the World“.
She is in Singapore to figure out the biodiversity of sea anemones and conduct a capacity-building workshop as part of the Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey. In the meant time, she has been discovering new records and species with the help of local naturalists in the field.
Having visited Singapore on and off since the late 50′s with a keen eye, and who lived and worked in Malaysia during her stint with the Peace Corps, she has experiened many faces of Singapore and Malaysia.
We are lucky to be having her come and teach and share – she is a great teacher and will be conducting a workshop at St. John’s Island for a week and is looking forward to this public talk. A fiery, energetic and scholarly speaker, she is not to be missed.