College Profile 2023

WHAT LIES BENEATH Clemson researcher Antonio Baeza has discovered a tiny parasite that has implications for a multibillion-dollar fishing industry and, in some ways, the future of our planet

A ntonio Baeza spotted something unusual. The marine biologist was looking at some female Caribbean spiny lobsters recently plucked from an offshore reef during a dive in the Florida Keys. Ribbon-like worms were among the egg masses tucked beneath the lobsters’ tails. Baeza noticed the broods that contained thou sands of tiny, bright orange eggs had many dead lobster embryos and empty embryo sacks. He and his student researchers tried to identify the worm based on pub lished studies. Surprisingly, despite more than 50 years of intensive scientific research on the Caribbean spiny lobster P. argus, they found no information on the parasite, which had a long body and pale coloring with slight tints of orange. Baeza, an associate professor in the College of Science’s Department of

Biological Sciences, named the parasite Carcinone mertes conanobrieni after Conan O’Brien. What’s In a Name? Scientists who discover a new species can name it whatever they want if they follow some basic rules, such as making sure the combined genus and species name is unique — and not named after themselves. “Comedians comment on issues. They make it funny. But while they are pre senting it in a funny way to people, they are also making them aware,” he explains. The Carcinonemertes conanobrieni isn’t the only species Baeza has named after a celebrity. He and his colleagues named a tiny shrimp they discovered in the Caribbean after the actor and former teenage heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio. Perhaps that’s fitting since that genus of shrimp is popularly called sexy shrimp because of the way it sways its abdo men back and forth while walking. The name wasn’t Baeza’s first choice, but he relented because of the actor’s work to bring atten tion and funding to ocean conservation. Baeza credits his marine biology career, in part, to a celebrity: Jacques Cous teau, a French, red-bean ie-wearing explorer with a blaze of white hair and eyes

framed by glasses and bushy eyebrows. More than a half century has passed since the first episode of The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau originally aired, but much remains to be discovered about oceans, home to hundreds of thousands of known species and po tentially millions not yet known. Cataloging species — both known and newly discovered — is important. Take those Caribbean

spiny lobsters. They play a vital role in the marine ecosystem and the economy of the Caribbean. Vital Role Spiny lobsters are prey for sharks, large fish (think grouper and snapper), turtles and octopuses. They are predators, too, and eat snails, crabs and clams. Landings of the com mercially lucrative species have decreased over the past decade. Scientists have

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CLEMSON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SCIENCE | 2023 COLLEGE PROFILE