3. Why radiography?
3
“Turning to living fishes, the higher classification of these is based to a
large extent… on comparative osteology.”
“When fishes are skeletonized, the soft parts are lost along with many
of the smaller bones, and unless great care is taken the relative
positions of many of the parts no longer can be determined.”
4. Why radiography?
4
“Another method of osteological work is that of clearing and staining.”
“The difficulties here are that the process is tedious, the soft parts
again are lost for all practical purposes, and the specimens must be
kept thereafter in glycerin. Because of the various limitations of
this technique, clearing and staining can advantageously be applied
only to quite small specimens.”
5. Why radiography?
5
“… a [radiograph] makes available for fish classification a meristic
character not otherwise easily accessible, namely the number of
vertebrae.”
“…there is one category of material on which no method other than X-
rays can be employed for osteological work. This is the type, or very rare,
specimen. On such material the X-ray alone does not injure or alter the
specimen.”
6. Primary Types Imagebase
6
•Over 1600
primary type lots
•NSF-funded,
1999-2001
•Photographs,
radiographs, and
illustrations
http://research.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/types/index.asp
7. A chance to upgrade equipment
7
GE grain inspector
Picker dental x-ray machine
developing trays
protective screen
