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What are Marmorkrebs?“Marmorkrebs” is an informal name given to a species of marbled crayfish that was discovered in the aquaria of tropical fish hobbyists in Germany in the late 1990s. It has no formal scientific name, and its origins are unknown. Marmorkrebs are unusual because they are parthenogenetic: they are all females, and reproduce asexually. Because this is the only decapod crustacean species to reproduce this way, it has incredible potential as a model organism for research. Some of the advantages of Marmorkrebs are that they are genetically identical, reproduce at high rates, and are easy to care for. Unfortunately, these same properties also give Marmorkrebs the potential to be highly destructive and invasive pest species. They have already been introducted into the waters in several countries in Europe and Madagascar. Click here for a map showing introductions. “Marmorkrebs” roughly translates from German as “marbled crab.” Own Marmorkrebs? You can help research!If you live in North America and have Marmorkrebs as pets, please consider taking a brief survey on Marmorkrebs to help scientific research on this animal. Click here to take the survey. News and viewsMarmorkrebs blog. Award-winning science writing! Updates roughly weekly, usually Tuesday.
ResearchColonies and stocks North American researchers can contact Zen Faulkes to ask about getting Marmorkrebs for research. Establishment of the Faulkes lab Marmorkrebs colony was supported by the National Science Foundation (award 0813581). Cover gallery    .gif) 2009 research papersFarca Luna AJ, Hurtado-Zavala JI, Reischig T & Heinrich R. 2009. Circadian regulation of agonistic behavior in groups of parthenogenetic marbled crayfish, Procambarus sp. Journal of Biological Rhythms 24(1): 64-72. Jones JPG, Rasamy JR, Harvey A, Toon A, Oidtmann B, Randrianarison MH, Raminosoa N & Ravoahangimalala OR. The perfect invader: a parthenogenic crayfish poses a new threat to Madagascar’s freshwater biodiversity. Biological Invasions 11(6): 1475-1482. Marzano FN, Scalici M, Chiesa S, Gherardi F, Piccinini A & Gibertini G. 2009. The first record of the marbled crayfish adds further threats to fresh waters in Italy. Aquatic Invasions 4(2): 401-404.
Vogt G, Wirkner CS & Richter S. 2009. Symmetry variation in the heart-descending artery system of the parthenogenetic marbled crayfish. Journal of Morphology 270(2): 221-226. For more research papers, click here. Popular press
Robbins M. 2009. Owning clones. Tropical Fish Hobbyist 57(7): 72-74. Faulkes Z. 2009. How Marmorkrebs can make the world a better place. In: Rohn J (ed.), Grant RP (deputy ed.), Zivkovic B (series ed.), The Open Laboratory: The Best In Science Writing On Blogs 2008, pp. 86-87. Coturnix: Chapel Hill. Laws
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Banners for use in your own website. Windows users, right click and select “Save as.”  This work by Zen Faulkes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. This site maintained by Zen Faulkes. Last updated 22 May 2009. |
Vogt G. Research on aging and longevity in the parthenogenetic marbled crayfish, with special emphasis on stochastic developmental variation, allocation of metabolic resources, regeneration, and social stress. In: Bentely JV, Keller MA (eds), Handbook on Longevity: Genetics, Diet and Disease, in press. Nova Science Publishers: Hauppauge.
