| Ah, there you are. Hi, Jared. |
| Hi, Colleen. You still got time? |
| Yes, I've got almost an hour. |
| My next class isn't until three-thirty. |
| That should be enough time, shouldn't it? |
| We haven't got that much to decide now. |
| It depends how it goes. |
| We've got our topic, but we haven't divided up the workload yet. |
| And we haven't even discussed how to approach it, really. |
| I thought one of us was going to take the coelenterates and the other was going to do the sponges. |
| Seems pretty simple. |
| Yeah, well, that's fine for the basic research, |
| but don't forget that we've got to make the presentation together. |
| We just can't be 'stings' and 'squirts', like Laurel and Hardy. |
| We're going to have to field questions from the rest of the seminar, and from Doctor Mankiewicz, too! |
| Yeah, and they can be brutal! So? |
| So, we both have to have a pretty good grasp of the whole thing, the overall picture. |
| Don't forget that the key word is 'comparative', |
| 'A Comparison of the Adaptive Evolution of the Coelenterata and Porifera'. |
| It's not just how jellyfish have evolved and how sponges've evolved, |
| but a, an analysis of their comparative success. |
| So I guess we need to get together and really look at that together, don't we? |
| Yes, we sure do. |
| And it's going to take some thinking, |
| because I don't think we're going to find all that much material on this idea. |
| There're whole books on invertebrate evolution... |
| Yeah, but each phylum is kind of looked at independently, |
| you know, at least they're in the same texts I've been reading through. |
| Which are? |
| Hyman's 'Invertebrates'. |
| McEdward's 'Ecology of Marine Invertebrates'. |
| McEdward's really good, he's got a lot of fascinating examples, |
| but he doesn't really look at one phylum versus another in term of relative, uh, relative success. |
| He just marvels at their individual, uh, creativity. |
| Well, that's good stuff... |
| But we're gonna have to take it a step further than that. |
| Well, look, we're still beginning with each of us researching a phylum, aren't we? |
| Yes, yes, that's still a good starting point for sure, but... |
| I know, so let's get going on that then, |
| learn something about these critters, and then try to put it together after we've got an idea what we're talking about. |
| We've got six weeks to do this thing, |
| so why don't we, well, bulldoze our way through this first part in, say, two weeks? |
| And then plan to get together a lot after that to intercalate what we've found. |
| And get some original ideas. |
| Yeah, OK. |
| We can, like, mini-present to each other and see what angles we can come up with. |
| Put four weeks into that, and we might have something. |
| So, what do you like? |
| Huh? What do I what? |
| Which ones you want, sponges or jellyfish? |
| Oh. Yeah. Huh! |
| Y'know, they're actually both very intriguing. |
| Amazing beasts. |
| Frankly, though, the coelenterates look pretty daunting, |
| there's such a, you know, range of forms and behaviour. |
| The sponges seem much more manageable. |
| But what about you? |
| I'm easy, really. |
| Ha! That's funny, |
| to me, the Porifera seem kind of boring. |
| They're so, so... sessile. |
| They just sit there and filter. |
| They remind me of my grandfather. |
| I like that. Stick it in the presentation! |
| Maybe. |
| Anyway, I'll be happy to take the jellyfish, |
| they interest me much more. |
| OK. Say, this is working out well so far. |
| Yeah, but the hard part comes later. |
| So, shall we look at our schedules and see if we can arrange a regular time to meet? |
| Uh, sure. Once a week? |
| For now, yeah, that's enough, I guess. |
| Well, how about this time? |
| Um... yeah, that'll be good for me. |
| So... Tuesdays at 1 p.m.? |
| Fine. Uh... here? |
| This'll be OK, I think. |
| Not too noisy after lunch hour. |
| All right, then I'll see you next week, on the seventh. |
| No! I'll see you in the seminar on Thursday, won't I? |
| Huh, yep. Gotta go. |
| Right. Thanks. Later. |