![]() While this preservation method does not result in a natural pose, to say the least, it does have several benefits. The final step is to attach the dried skin, now freed from the wax paper, to acid-free, lignin-free herbarium paper using acid-free linen tape. After that it’s placed in a plant press to dry, or in a pinch, pressed and dried under a rug or even a bed mattress. Another piece of wax paper sandwiches the skin. With a blunt tool like a pencap, and some forceps, the skin is pressed and tugged and straightened on a piece of wax paper until nearly all the wrinkles are smoothed and it’s nice and symmetrical – like cartoon roadkill. While the immediate outcome seems like a flimsy, crumpled, wad of frog or snake skin,the next step is to spread and flatten the skin. And of course there are no legs to worry about. Snakes are incised down the belly as well, but off-centre along the edge of the vental scales. Ventral incisions are made down the middle of the frog, and along each limb, then the skin is stripped by hand with little need for additional cutting. Frogs are surprisingly easy to skin the skin is tougher than it looks and is only firmly attached to the body around the hands and feet and over the bones of the head. So what do a frog and a flower have in common? Well, both can be dried flat. Herpetology Meets Botany: Using Herbarium Methods to Archive Dried Skins of Frogs and Snakes. Frederick Schueler, extended the method to include skinning snakes and borrowed herbarium botanical methods to facilitate the preservation and organization of these skins (see McAlpine, D.F., Schueler, F.W. In a paper published recently in the scientific journal Herpetological Review, New Brunswick Museum Head of Department of Natural History and Research Curator of Zoology, Dr. However, as technology has evolved, it is now clear that the method offers new opportunities for both specimen collection and use. Skinning and drying amphibian skins (frogs in particular, salamander anatomy is different and they can’t be easily skinned) has been used rarely in the past to better preserve frog colour patterns. Specimen should be fixed in a way that facilitates standard measurements Unfortunately, this method results in the rapid loss of skin colouration, and because of the protein cross-linking, DNA analysis is usually not possible using current technology. The formalin stiffens the animal by cross-linking protein molecules in the cells, creating a rigid scaffold within the animals’ tissues. NBM wet-preserved amphibians and reptiles collectionīefore going into ethanol, wet specimens are injected and “fixed” in formalin (a diluted form of formaldehyde). For example, several species of fungi that cause high mortality in frogs and salamanders have been tracked historically using wet collections of amphibians. Wet specimens provide anatomical and biogeographic data and can be a source for many methods of analysis. The New Brunswick Museum research collection houses over 11,000 individual wet-preserved amphibians and reptiles stored in jars of 70% ethanol. Andrew Sullivan, Zoology Technician, NBM Department of Natural History
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |