Meet the Smithsonian’s Newest Mollusk Expert

Dr. Stewart Edie will be the new paleobiology curator who specializes in the evolutionary history of marine bivalves — a taxonomic clade including clams, mussels and more. In this “Meet a SI-entist,” we chat with Edie about what the ancient history of these sea creatures could tell us about biodiversity on ancient and modern Earth.

How did you find yourself studying paleontology?

I remember being pretty curious about what made all of the sights, noises and smells on the tidal flats where I grew up in the southeastern United States. I carried these questions with me into college, where I sought out intensive research experiences to answer them. I learned how paleobiology can help us understand not only the ecology of tidal flats and other ecosystems, but also how they’ve evolved and may change in the future. I was hooked.

Speaking of past life, you specialize in the history of bivalve mollusks. What clues do bivalves hold about Earth’s ecological history?

Bivalves are a class of mollusks closely related to snails, octopuses and chitons. They’re found in rivers and lakes, but most live in the ocean. Bivalves grow two hard shells that tell us a lot about the animal like how it’s related to other species, how it adapted to its habitat and even how it grew. These shells fossilize really well. So, they leave a terrific record of bivalve biodiversity going back half a billion years.

This is a really important archive to study because biodiversity is so much more than the number of species. It includes how species are phylogenetically related, how diverse they are in their body forms (or morphologies) and how different they can be ecologically. Studying these elements of biodiversity together gives us a more complete picture of how species respond to climatic and environmental changes.

Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-of-natural-history/2020/12/03/say-hello-smithsonians-newest-mollusk-expert/