Toothy snakes

Even though I'm mostly working on fish stuff these days, I'm still working with herps sometimes which were the focus of my collecting interest when I first started cleaning skulls and skeletons. Among these, I've always been especially drawn to groups such as crocodilians, varanids and boids. I've always loved constrictor snakes and I currently have two live pythons at home, so I love them both live and skeletonized. As they're popular as pets, a lot of people are breeding a huge variety of species, so it's not that hard to get some captive bred specimens to work on, and due to their size, they can make very impressive specimens.

My two roommates: Otto (Python regius) and Raoul (Morelia bredli). Pictures are a bit old so they're a bit larger now. And yes, I love silly names.

Two species in particular have always attracted my attention for a variety of reasons: the green tree python and the emerald boa. First, they are absolutely beautiful snakes and make up a really cool example of convergent evolution. They're pretty high maintenance in captivity though, and quick biters as well, so never considered getting some live ones. Another thing they share is a fantastic looking skull.

 Emerald boa skull (Corallus caninus)

Green tree python skull (Morelia viridis)

Although they don't grow to very large sizes, they share the longest teeth found in non-venomous snakes. You just don't want to get bitten by one of these guys.

Fishy bits

Quick update on the blacktip (here)! I'm finally getting there. Still have to clean about half of the gills, but otherwise all pieces are cleaned, whitened, and most are dried already. I should have everything clean and dry by the end of the month so I can start putting the shark back together.

Dorsal and pectoral fins. As with the smooth-hound skeleton, I decided to keep the skin on most of the fins to protect the ceratotrichia.

Caudal fin, I used the same approach here.

And a couple of pictures from other projects:

Three catsharks (Scyliorhinus canicula) skulls in the cleaning process.

Degreasing a black grouper sull (Mycteroperca bonaci). This guy is incredibly greasy and will probably require multiple acetone soaks before whitening and final assembly.

Funky wet specimens

Happy new year!
As I was sorting through some pictures the other day, I found a few funny ones of various wet specimens I prepped a long time ago. Although my main interest is osteology, I also keep many specimens in fluid, especially when I have several specimens of the same species to work on.
So here are a few!

Musky octopus (Eledone moschata)

Musky octopus (Eledone moschata). Love the Cthulhuesque look of this one.

 Common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis). I used blue tinted acrylic with this one, which soon after dissolved into the ethanol, turning the liquid blue. So use glass if you're trying something like that.

Monkfish (Lophius piscatorius)

 Remora (Echeneidae) sucker. This is actually a modified dorsal fin (Britz & Johnson, 2012)

Stargazer snake eel (Brachysomophis cirrocheilos)

Apron ray (Discopyge tschudii)

 Ref: Britz R, Johnson GD. 2012. Ontogeny and homology of the skeletal elements that form the sucking disc of remoras (Teleostei, Echeneoidei, Echeneidae). Journal of Morphology 273: 1353-1366.

 

WIP

Been a while since I posted anything, so here are a few pictures of various specimens in the works.

Recently I was lucky to get hold of a shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) head. It's a small individual, but I was very happy about it since I've been looking for this species for a long time. Since I got it during this year's comparative anatomy practicums, I also used the opportunity to bring it to the lab, which was a lot of fun. I then did the rough part of the cleaning process when the course was over.

Speaking about chondrichthyan jaw suspension.

The cleaned skull during the whitening process.

It's been a while since I macerated anything, but I kind of forgot several specimens in the maceration tanks which are now piling up and waiting to be degreased.

Various mammal and reptile skulls waiting to be degreased.

Still in the fish department, I was also able to get a couple of really cool-but tiny heads. Without the complete body it's hard to be sure but those are probably some kind of barbelled dragonfish (most probably in the genus Stomia). They are not in very good shape and have been kept in ethanol for a while but I'm currently in the process of cleaning the skull, more on that when I'm done with them.

Barbelled dragonfish head (Stomias sp.). Awesome little critter.

I've also been skinning and drying a couple of specimens for beetle work. We have some cool facilities at the lab to dry sediments that turned out to be very useful to dry critters as well.

Blue dot grouper (Cephalopolis taeniops). Found this one at the local fish store and ate it before saving the skeleton. Very tasty, and beautiful fish that should make a nice little skeleton.

Couple of captive bred herps, a python and chameleon. It was the first time I dissected one of these and they have a fantastic anatomy. Really looking forward to work with the skeleton of this one.

And finally, still playing around with clearing and staining specimens. Still have to get better at this, but I recently completed a batch of snakes so thought I would share a pic. Hopefully I will soon have other cool cleared specimens to show. And special thanks to a friend at the lab who gave me a hand skinning all these, and more :)

Cleared and stained cornsnakes (Pantherophis guttatus) and hognoses (Heterodon nasicus).

Half digested baby barracuda skull

Well, maybe not quite exactly, but close. It's certainly partially digested, and I'm quite sure it's a sphyraenid, though it might be difficult to get a more precise ID based on its morphology. This guy was found in the stomach of a nicely sized small-spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) during last week comparative anatomy practicum. It's always interesting to see students' reactions when offered to investigate stomach contents, some are totally grossed out, but quite a few get really excited about it. We found all sort of things this week, mainly crustaceans, worms and small fish. I remember when I performed this same dissection as an undergrad a few years ago and found a large squid in the stomach of my specimen, a large female. I still have the beak I extracted from the half digested meal and the eggs I removed from the uterus laying around in a jar somewhere.

Partially digested sphyraenid head. Yum.

Catshark breeding

For once this post will not feature too much dead stuff, but there will still be plenty of fish. We've had our own small catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) breeding facility for a few months now. We currently have 15 mature individuals kept in a large tank at a nearby marine station, where they're happily reproducing and laying plenty of eggs.

The adults. They usually rest on the bottom of the tank but grow quite animated during feeding time.

Curious catsharks.

Plenty of eggs. Embryos are visible through many of them.

We bring the eggs to the lab every week or so, where we keep them in a large aquarium until the reach the desired developmental stage. The nice part is that although the eggcase color will vary from female to female, you can always see through it and check on the developing embryo inside.

Developing embryo.

We keep our weekly harvest in individual baskets in a large aquarium. The sausage shaped things on the bottom are tunicates (Ciona intestinalis). In the lower right corner you can see a newly hatched catshark resting on the bottom of the aquarium.

Catshark embryos at various developmental stages. From left to right: 1.5, 4 and 5 months old.

Scale bars: 0.4/0.6/0.8 cm

Blue-tongued skink skeleton

Some time ago I was asked by a french veterinarian to clean and articulate a complete blue-tongued skink skeleton (Tiliqua scincoides). The specimen had been autopsied, and the ribcage was damaged in the process. It was not in very good condition when I got it, especially the tail which was badly decomposed. For some reason the last caudal vertebrae had turned soft and spongy, and I could not save them, not sure what caused this. Here are a few pictures of the articulation process.

Sorting out the ribs

Almost done.

Finished skeleton

I usually reconstruct the sternal ribs using wire, but in this case I decided against it since most of the sternal region was missing in the first place (interclavicle, sternum, xiphisternum and sternal ribs were mostly destroyed during the autopsy). I did however reconstruct the missing suprascapulae and am rather pleased with how they turned out.

Here are a couple of pictures of the finished skeleton:

Dorsal view

The yellow spot on the hands and feet are remaining ligaments that didn't whiten very well.

Overall a very cool skeleton to work on, looking a bit like a reptilian version of the daschund.