Abstracts Gelsleicher-Kouched Last Edited 5/19/2017 0437 AES Reproduction, Pecos, Sunday 16 July 2017 Jim Gelsleichter University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL, USA Preliminary Observations on the Search for a Shark Early Pregnancy Test Information on the reproductive biology of sharks and rays, including as size- or age-at- maturity, reproductive periodicity, reproductive cyclicity, and the location of breeding events is critical for the management and conservation of exploited elasmobranch populations. However, the lethal approaches often used to obtain these data have become increasingly rejected in recent years as they are often viewed as being inconsistent with a conservation ethic and unsuitable for use with threatened or endangered species. This has led to growing use of nonlethal approaches for characterizing shark reproduction, such as the analysis of circulating gonadal steroid concentrations as indicators of reproductive maturity and stage and field-based ultrasonography. Notwithstanding the utility of these methods, there remains a need for the development of a reliable test for shark pregnancy as none of the gonadal steroids typically assayed in shark reproduction studies exhibit correlations with the gestation period and the use of ultrasonography has limitations that preclude widespread application. Because of this, we have devoted great effort towards the identification of a shark early pregnancy marker, first by examining the usefulness of blood-borne markers shown to be useful for identifying pregnancy in other vertebrates and more recently, by conducting more specific observations on differences in the circulation of pregnant versus non-pregnant elasmobranchs. In this presentation, I provide an overview on these efforts, highlighting more recent use of proteomics and metabolomics as methods for pregnancy biomarker discovery in elasmobranchs. ______________________________________________________________________________ 0271 Poster Session II, Rio Grande Exhibit Hall, Saturday 15 July 2017 Amy George1, Tatiana Garcia2, Benjamin Stahlschmidt1, Duane Chapman1 1U.S. Geological Survey - Columbia Environmental Research Center, Columbia, Missouri, USA, 2U.S. Geological Survey - Illinois Water Science Center, Champaign, Illinois, USA Comparison of swimming speeds in larval bighead, silver, and grass carp Asian carp are invasive in the waterways of central North America, and are being found in the Great Lakes and their tributaries. Questions about recruitment potential motivate a need for accurate models of egg and larval dispersal. In order to improve these dispersal models, swimming behaviors and capabilities during early ontogeny are needed. We measured ontogenetic changes in routine and maximum swimming speeds of bighead, grass, and silver carp larvae after hatching. Daily measurements of routine swimming speed were taken for two weeks using a still camera and the LARVEL program, a custom image-analysis software. Larval swimming speed was calculated using larval location between pairs of subsequent image frames and their time frame. Using an endurance chamber, we found the maximum speed of larvae (post-gasbladder inflation) for 4-8 weeks post-fertilization. For all species, larval swimming speeds showed similar trends with respect to ontogeny - increases in maximum speed, and decreases in routine speed. Maximum speeds of bighead and grass carp larvae were similar and generally faster than silver carp larvae. Routine swimming speeds of all larvae were highest before gas bladder inflation, most likely because gas bladder inflation allowed the fish to maintain position without swimming. Downward vertical velocities of pre-gasbladder inflation fish were fastest. Grass carp larvae had the highest speeds in the pre-gasbladder inflation period, and the lowest speeds in the post- gasbladder inflation period. Knowledge of swimming capability of these species, along with hydraulic characteristics of a river, enables further refinement of models of embryonic and larval drift. ______________________________________________________________________________ 0139 Poster Session I, Rio Grande Exhibit Hall, Friday 14 July 2017 Michael Ghedotti1, Josephine Gruber1, Ryan Barton1, W. Leo Smith3, Matthew Davis2 1Regis University, Denver, Colorado, USA, 2St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA, 3University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA Morphology of the glowbelly (Acropoma) bioluminescent organ (Teleostei: Acropomatidae) Bioluminescence, the generation of light by living organisms, is widespread in fishes but organs that generate light or that generate light by housing bioluminescent bacteria are often poorly known. The largely deep-sea glow bellies (genus Acropoma) have a pronounced bilaterally paired light organ that houses bacteria in the genus Photobacterium. In this study we seek to determine the anatomic structure of the bioluminescent organ and shed light on its likely evolution. We used histological sectioning and gross dissection to explore the anatomy of the bioluminescent organs in Acropoma japonicum and A. hanedai; and we used a DNA sequence dataset to generate a phylogeny for the group. The bacterial bioluminescent organs in Acropoma are derived from the posterior intestine, internally compartmentalized, lined by a simple epithelium (columnar peripherally and cuboidal more centrally), and connected across the midline. This anatomy in the context of the phylogeny suggests that the bioluminescent organs of Acropoma likely originated independently of those in the related pempherids despite the presence or a posterior intestinal bioluminescent organ in Parapriacanthus. Continuing work is needed to have a reasonably complete understanding of bioluminescence evolution in this group. ______________________________________________________________________________ 0133 Poster Session I, Rio Grande Exhibit Hall, Friday 14 July 2017 Sam Ghods1, James Orr2, Ingrid Spies2, Duane Stevenson2 1University of Washington, School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, Seattle, WA, USA, 2NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering Division, Seattle, WA, USA Next-Generation RAD Sequencing of 22 Species among 10 genera of Snailfishes (Liparidae) Snailfishes (Family Liparidae) are difficult to identify and present a challenging phylogenetic problem using traditional morphological methods. This study aims to provide support for an earlier mitochondrial DNA gene cytochrome oxidase (CO1) molecular phylogeny of species of the family Liparidae, produced primarily using eastern North Pacific species and augmented with BOLD data for a global analysis. In that analysis, 490 bp of DNA sequence data obtained by Sanger sequencing clarified the taxonomy and phylogenetics of 79 species and 29 genera of liparids. Using next generation sequencing of restriction-site associated DNA tags (RAD sequencing) we will identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 22 eastern North Pacific snailfish species across 10 genera, many of the same species used in the COI analysis, in order to hypothesize interspecific relationships. We expect that this approach will provide hundreds to thousands of SNPs, primarily from nuclear DNA, that will complement the phylogenetics based on CO1 data. ______________________________________________________________________________ 0241 HL/SSAR/ASIH Symposium - The Science, Management, and Policy of Amphibian Conservation: Extending the Legacy of Ray Semlitsch, Glass Oaks, Saturday 15 July 2017 Whit Gibbons University of Georgia, SREL, Aiken, SC, USA Ray Semlitsch: A Brief History of a Visionary in Amphibian Ecology Ray Semlitsch was the paragon of the outstanding field biologist and consummate scientist that many herpetologists and conservation biologists strive to be. His contributions to amphibian conservation and mentoring of students to become natural historians are legion. His productivity as a scientist and his effectiveness as a mentor were underpinnings of his legacy to his students, colleagues, and future amphibian ecologists and wetland conservation biologists. His ultimate dedication to conserving wetland habitats and amphibian biodiversity rests on a foundation of childhood experiences spent exploring forests, streams, and beaver ponds in the Adirondack Mountains. Details of the personal back story of Ray Semlitsch’s journey from fur trapper to combat Marine to student/technician to professor of biology will focus on key crossroads that led to his becoming a visionary in amphibian and wetland conservation. ______________________________________________________________________________ 0029 Herp Physiology, Brazos, Saturday 15 July 2017 Anthony Gilbert, Donald Miles Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA Natural Selection on Thermal Preference and Performance Over a Rapid Timescale Climate change is radically transforming the thermal quality of global habitats. Changes in ambient temperature due to anthropogenic climate change portend to alter species activity patterns, raise field-active body temperatures, and modify their performance capacities. Whereas species have already altered their distributions or phenology to cope with changing environments, the evidence for physiological traits evolving in response to rising temperatures is limited. When organisms specialized to narrow thermal niches prefer and are active at body temperatures close to their upper thresholds for activity and function, shifts in the operative temperature