On Wednesday, Professor Drew Harvell of Cornell’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology presented “Fragile Legacy”, a film made by David Brown. She expressed her enthusiasm with creatures of the deep sea and called to restore one of the most valuable resources in learning about the world’s past. Cornell is home to a collection of glass representation of ocean invertebrates, which were made by a famous father-son duo in glass making, Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka.

The film illustrated the intricate glass objects that could only be crafted with years worth of training and experience back then. Andrew Dickson White, Cornell’s first president, had set aside money to commission a set of these sea animals for the university to study ocean biology. However, this collection soon ended up in a storage house and only when Professor Harvell asked to restore this collection and bring it back to the Cornell campus did restoration begin.

But what is most valuable in restoring this collection is not in its aesthetic value, but in the insight it gives to marine biologists and evolutionary biologists. In the making of “Fragile Legacy”, Professor Harvell and a few of her colleagues when out on a quest to see if living counterparts of these glass representations still existed. Unfortunately, the world’s changing climate and well as industrialization has led to changes not only on land, but also in the ocean. After many failed attempts in searching for the common octopus, Professor Harvell and her team finally found it living in the oceans nearby the Mediterranean, where there was a body of water preserved for studies.

There has been many changes in biodiversity and Cornell’s collection of Blashcka’s Invertebrate Models give helpful and interesting insights in biodiversity. Evolution is constantly progressing and one of the most overlooked fields is marine biology. Research is constantly being conducted and the Blashcka models are only a portion of what the ocean offers.