WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., Aug. 31, 2015 — West Liberty University’s Dr. Zachary Loughman and his crayfish research was recently featured in Science, in an article entitled: The Missing Mudbug.
The article focuses on global threats to crayfishes, and follows Loughman and West Liberty University students while they search for one of the planet’s rarest mudbugs, the Guyandotte River crayfish.
Reporter Emily DeMarco spent four days in the field with Loughman and his students this past May while they completed their survey for the elusive species.
“We continue to be very proud of Dr. Loughman and his fine work. He and his students are on the cutting edge of science and devote countless hours to research. We applaud them,” said Interim President Dr. John P. McCullough.
DeMarco’s complete article appears in the Aug. 28, 2015, Vol. 349 #6251 edition.
Please click here to read the summary in the online edition.
Selected as West Virginia’s 2014 Professor of the Year by the Faculty Merit Foundation last November, Loughman is also a WLU alumnus.
His research focuses on the natural history, taxonomy, and conservation of North American crayfishes and he has named five species of crayfish.
Loughman’s laboratory is one of the few in the country that focused solely on astacology, the academic study of crayfishes (crayfish biology). To date, Loughman and his students have sampled crayfish in 13 states, and more than 3,000 streams across the eastern and central United States.