Gifted and Talented Program Intern Mentor

Product Abstract
Each student in the Intern Mentor Program must carry out and authentic, advanced research
project, which is capable of evaluating its quality, authenticity, and novelty. The following
information, written by the student, provides an overview of the project proposal as planned.
Student: Pavan Ravindra

Date: June 5th, 2016

Research Title: Species Classification of Panopeus Mud Crabs Commonly Found on the East
Coast
Purpose: To identify various reliable traits that are exclusive to certain species of Panopeus mud
crabs that are found on the East Coast in the Smithsonian Environmental Research Centers
biannual collection for the Parasite Project.
Expected Product: To develop a species classification chart that distinguishes between the
commonly encountered species of crabs in the Smithsonian Environmental Research Centers
Parasite Project.
Novelty of Product: This product is unique, since no single, clear distinction chart exists for the
three selected species. Other sources dont have organized information that directly compare
these three species rather these sources contain descriptions of each species of mud crab in
question but dont show a direct comparison between these different characteristics.
Audience: Volunteers, students, and researchers who need to differentiate between the different
species of Panopeus mud crabs, specifically volunteers, students, and researchers working with
the Smithsonian Environmental Research Centers Parasite Project.
Results: Through the research, certain traits have been identified that can consistently be used to
determine the species of Panopeus mud crabs, such as the shape of the crabs carapace, the size,
shape, and color of a mark in the mouth part of these crabs, and the color of the crabs carapace.
Although there are still regional variations that could lead to a misclassification of species, the
traits listed in the classification chart are fairly consistent across all populations. Even though
this chart will be accurate the vast majority of the time, DNA analysis is obviously the most
reliable method, but this chart provides an alternative method that can be used if DNA analysis is
too expensive or time-consuming.
Process:
1. Collect mud crabs from various sites along the East Coast of the United States.

2. Store the collected mud crabs in containers labelled with the site they were collected
from.
3. Sort the collected crabs based on their sex, species, size, and whether or not the crab is
parasitized.
4. Enter the above data for each crab for each site.
5. Note differences between the different species of mud crabs that have been encountered
during the sorting process.
6. Compare the collected data for each site with the collected data from other sites to
establish observable trends between location and parasitism rate.
7. Create a chart of the different traits for the different species of mud crabs.