https://www-laestrella-com-pa.translate.goog/cafe-estrella/ciencia/220902/biologia-evolutiva-asociaciones-organismos?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

The number of species that exist on the planet is a puzzle that scientists are trying to decipher, as well as their evolution, the ties between different orders, families, genera and species, and the behaviors and survival strategies that they developed over millions of years . .

“The complexity and evolution of living beings seems very interesting to me, especially in entomology. It is estimated that there are between one million and two million animals and 50% correspond to arthropods that, despite their evolutionary age, are still present”, says biologist Ramy Jhasser Martínez, researcher at the Neotropical Ecology and Biodiversity Laboratory of the University of Panama .

“As a biologist, I am excited to study biodiversity and whether there is an ecological and evolutionary explanation for an association with an organism. Evolutionary biology, being related to the diversity of species, can even help us find molecules for future treatments for diseases”.

fascinating order

According to fossil records, the order pseudoscorpions is about 390 million years old, and to date not much is known about these small, tailless, scorpion-like arachnids.

It is estimated that there are 3,850 species of pseudoscorpions in the world, distributed in 452 genera and 26 families. In Panama, 15 species, 10 genera and 4 families are known.

Pseudoscorpions are distributed throughout the world and are commonly found in leaf litter, decaying logs, on the ground, and associated with mammals, beetles, and other species.

“I am interested in phoresis, which is the interaction between a small organism and a large one; it is like when a person asks for a ride and is transferred in a vehicle. Some pseudoscorpions have phoretic behavior associated with rodents, either in their fur or in their nests”, adds the researcher.

wake up early

Martínez began conducting scientific research in the eighth grade, when he was part of the “Young Scientists” program of the Ministry of Education and the National Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation (Senacyt), in which students develop their research skills with the advice from a scientific mentor.

“That’s how I discovered that I could do research and I continued to participate in the program in tenth, eleventh and twelfth grade. In my first year of university, I applied to access research funds at the Vice President for Research and Postgraduate Studies, with Dr. Lilia Chérigo, Professor Nivia Ríos, Dr. Dora Quirós and Dr. Daniel Emmen; they were my advisers.”

He is also a former scholarship holder of the Senacyt “New Researchers” call, and received a scholarship to develop a project between 2018 and 2020 that focused on the whitefly, a pest that affects crops of economic importance.

collaboration

At 24 years old and recently graduated as a biologist, Ramy Martínez already has 10 scientific publications.

In 2021, I have published an investigation on pseudoscorpions associated with ant dumps of the genus Atta, together with his professors from the University of Panama and a scientist from Mexico.

This year he published an article in the Tecnociencia magazine of the University of Panama on the behavior of talingos (Quiscalus mexicanus).

In another study, published in August of this year, I collaborated with researchers from Mexico and Costa Rica. “I was invited by Dr. Gabriel Villegas-Guzmán, from the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico City. Federico A. Chinchilla-Romero from the Monteverde Biological Station, in Costa Rica, also participated as part of the international program of the University of California in Santa Cruz”, says the young scientist.

In Costa Rica, 9 families of pseudoscorpions and 23 species are known, but in this work, the team described a new species of pseudoscorpion of the genus Epichernes that they found in the fur of Heteromys nubicolens mice.

The new pseudoscorpion species was named E. vickeriae and is the second known species of Epichernes from Costa Rica.

“We published the finding and other researchers confirmed that it was indeed a new species,” says Martínez. This would be the fifth species of Heteromys mouse with phoresis associated with this genus of pseudoscorpions”.

Considering that the Epichernes pseudoscorpions have only been associated with mice from the Heteromys and Muridae families, it is possible that there is an evolutionary and ecological relationship between them, the publication suggests.

Further, the researchers would like to see if there is a correlation between the density of the mouse’s fur and the size and shape of the chela (pincer-like appendage) of the pseudoscorpion.

Ramy Martínez plans to continue his master’s and doctoral studies in the field of evolutionary biology, teach classes and publish books, including one on popular science.

But not everything is science for him. He also enjoys sports and the humanities, especially literature and philosophy, since he considers that they are complementary to science and allow us to understand the human being in its various dimensions, the problems in societies, and become “holistic” people and in constant growth .