Photo credit: Pilar Haye, one of the collaborators in this project
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Genetic structure of a giant barnacle along the Chilean coastAustromegabalanus psittacus (also known as “picoroco”) is one of the few barnacles eaten by humans. Its broad distribution along the coast in the southern tip of South America suggests potential for natural variation and genetic diversity. I explored the genetic diversity of the picoroco along the Chilean coast and found that as expected for species with planktonic feeding larvae, there was high connectivity between populations. However, there were also signs of genetic structure across a recognized biogeographic break.
You can read more of this project here.
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If we want to think in good parenting in the animal world, probably the first examples that come to mind are those of mammals such as polar bears or kangaroos. Many invertebrates show parental care too. In collaboration with Miriam Fernández (http://www.ecim.cl/people/fernandez/) at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, I worked in a couple of projects related to how oxygen constraints affect parental care in marine invertebrates.
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