Fish biologist interested in all things fishy, particularly comparative and functional anatomy and early life history. I play with a CT scanner a lot. Collections manager for the Department of Ichthyology at the NHMLA.
Sadly not an option. But, of course, I’m not in charge of this poll. When *I* ran a poll to name something for the museum, we named our Pacific Footballfish “Spiny Babycakes”.
The neighborhood delivery robot, stuck against a wall on the sidewalk, is dressed up to promote the movie Garfield, now in theaters. That may be the most LA sentence I’ve ever written.
Today’s ct scanner challenge was a tough one. Scanned the head of this smushed bramble shark. Looks alright, but need to fiddle with some settings and try again for a clearer view. 🐟🧪
The latest object to be shoved* into our ct scanner. It’s about time we had a snek in there.
*packed carefully in styrofoam and placed gently but securely
The newest addition to the @nhmla.bsky.social fish collection. Took a while to get permits, but we can finally add this sawfish rostrum to the collection! 🐟🦑
Gave an Ichthyology Department collections tour today at @nhmla.bsky.social We had the weird, rare fish this student was asking about, so we made his day.
CT scanning master Kory Evans from Rice University has been with us since Thursday to scan a bunch of our weird fish. Check out this Oarfish head he did! I’ve enjoyed learning scanning techniques from him. What he’s shown me will improve my skills, for sure! Thanks Kory (not on Bluesky)!
One of the cooler exhibits at @nhmla.bsky.social is the display of the baby, sub-adult, and adult Tyrannosaurus rex skulls. They are all off exhibit now for study. Part of that involves running them through our new ct scanner, starting with baby T. rex!
How do you get a good ct scan of a stingray spine? Stick a styrofoam packing peanut onto a specimen holder with wax, jab the spine into the styrofoam, and scan away! One of my favorite things about ct scanning is figuring out the best way to fit stuff into the scanner 🐟🦑
The latest addition to the Ichthyology Collection at @nhmla.bsky.social is a whole series of cleared and stained giant sea bass, Stereolepis gigas. This species is critically endangered - our specimens came from incidental mortalities from aquaculture. Very cool, very rare.
Our beautiful Pacific Footballfish that washed ashore last October is now soaking in water after a weeks-long formalin bath. She’ll soon go into alcohol and make it into the collections. 🦑🐟
EMu is a database program used by many museums all over the world to manage their collections. Somehow, I found a new bug in the software. A fix will be coming in a future update. You’re welcome, other museums! If you recreate the very specific issue I did, maybe EMu will work for you.
Yesterday, Jordyn from CSU Fullerton visited the @nhmla.bsky.social Ichthyology Collection to work with some of our basking shark jaws. Turns out basking shark jaws are surprisingly dense and heavy!
Often, when packing the ct scanner, we have to get creative with securing our specimens. We don’t want them to move at all in the machine or we get poor scans. Scanned a stingray spine today. 🦑🐟
The newest Pacific Footballfish in the @nhmla.bsky.social Ichthyology Collections is resting comfortably in a tub full of formalin in the fume hood. In a couple of weeks, she’ll be fully processed and in a tank in the collections!
