Dr. Joel (Jody) W. Martin

Research Interests

I am a morphologist and evolutionary biologist interested in just about all groups of crustaceans, and in nearly all aspects of crustacean evolution. I am especially interested in the morphology and evolution of the Decapoda (crabs, shrimps, lobsters and their allies) and the rather primitive looking crustaceans that make up the Branchiopoda (fairy shrimp, brine shrimp, tadpole shrimp, clam shrimp, and water fleas). I am also interested in other groups (for example, the Leptostraca) that are important to our understanding of the relationships among the major crustacean groups or that play an important ecological role, and I have a long-standing interest in crustacean biogeography. To get a better understanding of the relationships of crustaceans, I study characters revealed by Scanning Electron Microscopy, information from larval development, color patterns from crustaceans freshly collected and photographed in the field, and occasionally behavioral and molecular information. Like most marine biologists, I am also deeply concerned about conservation and preservation of marine habitats, and so I strive to heighten public awareness of marine life and of our dependency on the sea whenever possible. Because crustaceans are found in a wide variety of habitats, my field work takes me from isolated oceanic islands to deep sea hydrothermal vents, and from tropical islands and their coral reefs to ephemeral freshwater pools in temperate forests of the southwest U.S. and in western deserts. Although my main employer is the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, I am also an adjunct professor at both USC and UCLA, where I have the opportunity to interact with faculty and graduate students.