When UC Berkeley biologist Nipam Patel was searching for a new crustacean to study, one of his graduate students paid a visit to a large public aquarium. Rather than select an organism from one of the breeding tanks, the student sifted through the aquarium's filter system.

There he found Parhyale hawaiensis, a sea scud. Because of its living conditions, Parhyale was already naturally selected to require minimal care, perfect for life in Patel's bustling laboratory. Patel, a professor of Integrative Biology and Molecular and Cell Biology, studies the development of arthropods to better understand evolutionary differences among a wide range of organisms.

Read the complete article at ScienceMatters@Berkeley.