Does a nautilus ever forget?

This month, Associate Professor Jennifer Basil and her team will continue working on the nautilus, ancient sea creatures that are kept and cared for in AREAC's saltwater facility. Last year, Dr. Basil and researcher Robyn Crook published some exciting findings. They demonstrated that nautiluses have both short- and long-term memory even though they lack the dedicated brain regions for learning and memory that other cephalopods have. This work appeared in the Journal of Experimental Biology and was also featured in Nature and American Paleontologist. Robyn Crook completed her Ph.D. at Brooklyn College and has moved on to the University of Texas to continue her research.