Echinoderm Project 2023 - Week 2

 This week we have continued to rehouse and catalog our specimens, as well as learning how to photograph them. We were taught how to properly light and focus a photo depending on the unique shape of each fossil so we can now begin to photograph the specimens as we catalog.


We did two very exciting things on Wednesday, the first being a presentation by Melanie Hopkins entitled, “Introduction to Taxonomy, Nomenclature and Classification as applied to Curation and Digitization of Fossil Invertebrate Collections.” We learned more about type specimens, further explaining our tour of the type room last Friday. We talked extensively about the rules and issues surrounding a specimen being named multiple times, being too hastily named as a different species, or accidentally included in an already existing species. It was overall a very interesting and informative presentation which informed a lot of the labeling issues we have encountered during or last week and a half of rehousing.

Melanie Hopkins talking about taxonomy and nomenclature


The second thing we did on Wednesday was a tour of Invertebrate Zoology with Lily Berniker. We saw both wet and dry collections as well as the research area. We were able to see many echinoderms which was especially interesting to see many of the fossils we have been working with in the flesh. We also saw spiders, a giant isopod, and a giant squid which was impressive in its preserved state where it measures about 8 feet long, but even more impressive to find out that during life it was 25 feet long!


Preserved giant isopod

Preserved crinoids

Star fish in dry collection

Preserved giant squid

This week, we also learned about the photography portion of cataloguing and have been made a start of photographing our rehoused and catalogued specimens.

Our photography setup


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