The tools of molecular biology allow us to answer questions about development, evolution, and phylogeny that had reached a stalemate. Submersibles and remotely operated vehicles allow us to study entire life histories of organisms that we did not even know existed. Now, at the turn of this century, we have the opportunity to bring gelata back into primacy. During this period, the most dramatic breakthroughs in cnidarian research came from laboratory studies of neurobiology, physiology, and development, particularly of certain model organisms. While plankton scientists were busy summing tattered parts, they lost sight of the whole jellies themselves, and a crustaceocentric view of the ocean came to dominate. In the ensuing years, focus on zooplankton shifted toward more ‘industrial’ goals such as quantitative sampling using plankton nets. Siphonophores, carefully figured in their entirety, and gauze-like lobate ctenophores too fragile to touch, were described by the dozens. The study of the natural history of gelatinous zooplankton (‘gelata’) reached a high point at the end of the 19th century, when scientists first began to understand the phylogenetic and ecological links between cnidarians and ctenophores. A golden age of gelata: past and future research on planktonic ctenophores and cnidarians A golden age of gelata: past and future research on planktonic ctenophores and cnidarians
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