Ichthyology jars are all boxed up
This week, the final room of the Ichthyology collection is being packed and loaded up to move into the department’s new collection rooms at the new California Academy of Sciences. For transport, the small jars are packed closely together in re-usable orange crates, while larger jars (below, right) are stabilized with packing peanuts that are also re-usable.
More than 200,000 jars of unicornfishes, lanternbellies, fangtooths, needlefishes, and numerous other species sit on the earthquake-proof shelves – totaling 2 million specimens. The alcohol-filled jars must all be carefully secured because the specimens are a valuable resource to researchers from around the world.
As opening day approaches, wishing you and all staff congratulations on this huge undertaking, as the final days of preparation unfold.
I am posting a comment on this area because some years back–7 ? 8?= my dad spent a wonderful afternoon as guest of curators/staff at the Academy. In his late 80′s at the time, my dad, Bill Coleman, was the only surviving member of early Galapagos expeditions (1930′s} led by Templeton Crocker on the yacht Zaca. They collected many of the specimens long housed at the Academy; I hope some are still intact now! My dad was still able to recall details about studies they’d done on marine iguanas. Dad lived to be 93, and I know he would have been as thrilled as my family is to see the new Academy this year.
Comment by Lissa Coleman — September 19, 2008 @ 12:03 am