Comparative Animal Biology

Thought I would give an update on what has been going on with my studies here in New Zealand. I woke up this morning at 5:30AM feeling great! I made some tea, got some cereal, and turned on the BBC news that's played through the web. I stumbled upon an interesting link leading to the National Geographic site and saw one of the coolest things: prosthetic limbs for an injured 20-year old loggerhead sea turtle! The turtle was found intertwined in fishing nets in Japan she also had various wounds caused by sharks (lost half of one forelimb and a third of the other). Loggerhead turtles are endangered and it is amazing that scientists have developed this solution!


Today in my Comparative Animal Biology lecture we discussed the Phylum Chordata (includes vertebrates). The lecturer was pretty comical. We learned about the supergroup that includes the Hagfish and Lamprey. Ugly creatures! They are jawless and my lecturer made a joke that "you can see the teeth better on a circumcised one." We all found that pretty funny. It's scary knowing that these creatures eat dying fish by starting at the anus and eating the flesh from the inside out! He then joked that from now on we'll all be swimming with our legs together. I can already tell that this section will be fun!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pancho is 6 months and I'm finally published!

Image
Work is going fine. My boss has given me some lab activities to keep me interested in my work, so I'm testing antibodies. The positive control turned out as expected, but it is such a pretty staining that I have to share the picture. This is an embryo of a starlet sea anemone ( Nematostella sp.) approximately 30 hours old. The green is actin (a protein in cell walls), the blue is nuclei, and the red/pink is clusters of DNA. There are some pretty examples of cell division in this embryo! Also, as of a couple weeks ago I'm officially a published scientist! ....well, the paper has been accepted for publication, so it will likely not be in the journal before next year. The journal is called ICES Journal of Marine Science. Furthermore, this weekend the mountains got a nice thick layer of snow, so I took Pancho up for his first time in a proper bit  of snow (not counting the icy leftovers that were on Jutenheimen this summer). He's now 6 months old and weighs bout 34
Read more

This week on M/S Brennholm

Image
[There's something wrong with the synchrony of the acoustics] My job aboard Brennholm is to work on the acoustic part of my thesis. So I am practicing some sonar and echo sounder scrutinozing. I am also relating the mackerel movement to the currents, but this will be hard since mackerel are so hard to see at all on any of the acoustic equipment since they lack a swim bladder. It is nice to just have a 7:30 to 10 work day though and I have my supervisor right next to me for help. Everyone on the cruise has gained weight, and despite doing some exercise almost everyday I am no exception. We are feed too well on the boats and you don't move around too much. (I was even convinced to try salted and dried whale meat from the Faroes. I stayed far away from the blubber!!) At least I have been able to run 13.5 km the past couple of days with the calm seas. There aren't many options for exercise on this ship compared to G.O. Sars. [The "gym" in the bow of th
Read more

Smalahove

Image
Many Norwegian traditions are distinctly regional. Even recipes are variable by region to go along with dialects that can be different by town separated by just 50 kilometers. This tradition, that both Marius and I were new to trying, was from a town just about an hour and a half east of Bergen called Voss....smalahove, or half of a sheep's head that is cooked in a broth for several hours. Smalahove comes from two Norwegian words: smale = sheep, and hove = head. It is served before Christmas with potatoes, mashed rutabaga, and red cabbage. Many of my friends were telling me that the cheek is supposed to be the best part, and others were saying that they wouldn't dare eat it. So I can now say that I have done something that many other Norwegians haven't dared try. I actually really enjoyed it! It had a texture like corned beef and had a very nice flavor. Marius went as far as to try the tongue, and thought that eating the eye was a normal thing, so tried that as well...bu
Read more