What are Marmorkrebs?
“Marmorkrebs” is an informal name given to marbled crayfish that were discovered by hobbyists in Germany in the late 1990s.
Marmorkrebs are parthenogenetic: they are all females, and reproduce without sex. This is the first decapod crustacean found that reproduces only this way, giving 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.
“Marmorkrebs” roughly translates from German as “marbled crab.” The current scientific name for Marmorkrebs is Procambarus fallax f. virginalis; they are an asexual form of slough crayfish (P. fallax) that live across Florida and southern Georgia in the United States. There are no known native populations of Marmorkrebs in North America; the only known cases of them in the wild are where they have been introduced by humans.
Marmorkrebs are also an invasive species. They have been introducted in many places, and have established populations in at least three countries, damaging agriculture and threatening native species. Marmorkrebs should not be used for bait, kept in outdoor tanks or ponds, or placed in any other situation where they could be released into natural ecosystems. For research about the use of crayfish as live bait, see here. Many jurisdictions have laws regulating the import and release of crayfish. In North America, Missouri added Marmorkrebs to its prohibited species list on 1 March 2011.
Marmorkrebs introductions
View Marmorkrebs introductions in a larger map
Timeline
 News and views
Marmorkrebs blog. Award-winning science writing! Updates roughly weekly, usually Tuesday.
Research
Colonies and stocks
 North American researchers can contact Zen Faulkes to get Marmorkrebs for research. Establishment of the Faulkes lab Marmorkrebs colony was supported by the National Science Foundation (award 0813581).
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Forthcoming research papers
 Soedarini B, Klaver L, Roessink I, Widianarko B, van Straalen NM, van Gestel CAM. Copper kinetics and internal distribution in the marbled crayfish (Procambarus sp.). Chemosphere: In press.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2011.12.017
Hippler D, Hu N, Steiner M, Scholtz G, Franz G. 2011. Experimental mineralization of crustacean eggs leads to surprising tissue conservation: new implications for the fossilization of Precambrian-Cambrian embryos. Biogeosciences Discussions 8: 12051-12077.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/bgd-8-12051-2011 (Advance copy of paper in review for Biogeosciences)
Vogt G. Hidden treasures in stem cells of indeterminately growing bilaterian invertebrates. Stem Cell Reviews and Reports: In press.
Journal website
2012 research papers
Vogt G. 2012. Ageing and longevity in the Decapoda (Crustacea): a review. Zoologischer Anzeiger 251(1): 1-25.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcz.2011.05.003
2011 research papers
 Feria TP, Faulkes Z. 2011. Forecasting the distribution of Marmorkrebs, a parthenogenetic crayfish with high invasive potential, in Madagascar, Europe, and North America. Aquatic Invasions 6(1): 55-67.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3391/ai.2011.6.1.07
Supplement: Google Spreadsheet of locations used to train models.
Filipová L, Grandjean F, Chucholl C, Soes DM, Petrusek A. 2011. Identification of exotic North American crayfish in Europe by DNA barcoding. Knowledge and Management of Aquatic Ecosystems 401: 11.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/kmae/2011025
Jimenez SA, Faulkes Z. 2011. Can the parthenogenetic marbled crayfish Marmorkrebs compete with other crayfish species in fights? Journal of Ethology 29(1): 115-120.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10164-010-0232-2
Rubach M, Crum S, Van den Brink P. 2011. Variability in the dynamics of mortality and immobility responses of freshwater arthropods exposed to chlorpyrifos. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 60(4): 708-721.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00244-010-9582-6
Shen H, Braband A, Scholtz G. 2011. Mitogenomic analysis of decapod phylogeny. Zitteliana B30: 46. (Conference abstract only)
http://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/12441/1/zitteliana_2011_b30.pdf
Vogt G. 2011a. Marmorkrebs: natural crayfish clone as emerging model for various biological disciplines. Journal of Biosciences 36(2): 377-382.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12038-011-9070-9
For more research papers, click here.
Popular press
Anonymous. 2007. British crayfish could be wiped out by alien species with the plague. The Daily Mail. 28 June 2007.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-464965/British-crayfish-wiped-alien-species-plague.html
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.
http://www.lulu.com/content/6110823
Original post: http://marmorkrebs.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-marmorkrebs-can-make-world-better.html
Faulkes Z. 2011. The decade the clones came. In: Goldman JG (ed.), Zivkovic B (series ed.), The Open Laboratory: The Best of Science Writing on the Web 2010, pp. 151-156. Coturnix: Chapel Hill.
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-open-laboratory-2010/15156343
Original post: http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=the-decade-the-clones-came-beware-t-2010-11-29
Heimer K. 2010. Invasion of self-cloning crayfish alarms Madagascar. Deutsche Presse-Agentur wire story.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/339974,alarms-madagascar-feature.html
Löwe K. 2010. Gefahr aus dem Aquarium. Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (Central German Newspaper) news story. 13 October 2010.
http://www.mz-web.de/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=ksta/page&atype=ksArtikel&aid=1286541137817&calledPageId=987490165154.
Privenau K. 2010. Marmorkrebs bringt Pest. Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (Central German Newspaper) news story. 12 October 2010.
http://www.mz-web.de/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=ksta/page&atype=ksArtikel&aid=1286541132341&calledPageId=987490165154
Robbins M. 2009. Owning clones. Tropical Fish Hobbyist 57(7): 72-74.
http://www.tfhmagazine.com/freshwater/feature-articles/owning-clones.htm
Laws
Missouri has added Marmorkrebs to its prohibited species list, effective 1 March 2011. Read more here.
External links
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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 14 February 2012.
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