Becoming a Jellyfish Expert
There’s no shortage of reasons to marvel at these sea creatures. Collins has come to love them in his years researching them at the National Systematics Laboratory, which does life history research on marine organisms of economic and ecological value and contributes to our understanding of marine biodiversity. He said that the more he knows about jellyfish, the further he wants to work to unravel their mysteries.
“Jellyfishes are living representatives of one of the oldest animal lineages, Cnidaria, so my initial interest in them had to do with what they could teach us about early animal evolution,” Collins said. “But the more I found them in nature, the more fascinated I became with all aspects of their biology.”
