Photos and Fungi

The first photos from Philadelphia are up on the photostream.

Here's what I learned today... genetically fungi are more closely related to animals than plants. I wonder how vegans feel about mushrooms then (yes, that was a bad joke)? Another surprise: crocodiles are more closely related to birds than lizards and snakes. Apparently this all falls under the lively and vigorous field of systematics (taxonomy using genetic rather than morphological characteristics).

And tomorrow I get to use both morphology and mitochondrial DNA sequencing to try and place my mystery insect into a phylogenic order. Granted, the fact that I get to send DNA out for sequencing is seriously cool, but I just can't wait until I get to start dissections (squid, shark, pig...etc).