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Discovery

Mussel Man

Research expert Andre Martel shares his fascination with the tastiest of bivalves...mussels.

By Katelyn Low

April 30, 2011 •

Taxonomy - the study of classifying species - has long been considered one of the driest of the scientific fields. But it only takes one conversation with mussel expert André Martel, '90 PhD, to dispel that notion. He's so taken with the tasty bivalves that he has devoted his life and considerable intellectual prowess studying what most of us are primarily familiar with as Mussels Marinara.

Why? For one thing, he says, the relationship between mussels and their habitat is fascinating. Mussels can act as facilitator species, meaning that their presence in a habitat makes it possible for other species to populate the same area. "One species of mussel alone creates a home for well over 200 species of invertebrates," says Martel, who expresses equal fascination for red turf algae, the complex, leafy marine plants that serve as homes for mussels just starting out in life.

"If you were to take a 10-by-10 centimetre square of algae and count all the species living there - from the tiniest single-celled protozoa to the snail and the mussel - there would be hundreds," Martel says.

Martel is currently on the verge of identifying what he suspects is a new species of mussel, tentatively christened Adula. "I could literally spend the rest of my life studying this one new species," he says, without a hint of hyperbole. "Where this thing is from, what it does, where it lives, when they settle - it's all fascinating to me. When you begin investigating their lives, you realize it's not simple. It's complicated. It's fascinating. It's full of questions. It's like us humans. We have a life, we go to school, we do this, we do that, and they have their own story, too."

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