[Deep-sea food webs] Xray goodness

[TPOTH]

Disclaimer: No ceph content. Apologies in advance. made me post this

So thanks to Master O's galaxy of contacts we have managed to get a few fishes to an X-ray machine. Suffice to say that I'm blown away...really...

We got Xrays for two spiky oreos (Neocyttus rhomboidalis).

One (spiky1.jpg), above, did show a rather large scar (almost guaranteed to be a predator attack which the fish did survive) on its pre-dorsal profile but said scar doesn't seem to have left any permanent "record" onto the bone structure. However we were told that this oreo got its back/spine broken at some point and survived that too. Upon playing with the contrast (and other Photoshop whatchamacallits), other "interesting" things appear which leave us rather baffled. Damage (and, i believe, healing) in areas (thin arrows) surrounding the compressed vertebrae (larger arrow).

For comparison, spiky2.jpg (above) doesn't show that kind of damage.

Also spine.jpg (below) shows a close-up of the spine areas for both oreo (spiky1 on top and spiky2 below).

More to follow, stay tuned....

TPOTH

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Mightily impressed I am!! I hope you all don't mind this slight non-ceph digression. It will become ceph-oriented in no time, once the stomach contents of these fish start getting analysed, especially the Orange Roughy.

There's method in our madness. Who wants to see more???

 

[CarlS]

Very interesting. I wouldn't mind seeing a whole series of these

--Carl - whose back problems makes him empathize with spiky1 :?

 

[Infusoria]

Here's an orange roughy (Hoplostethus atlanticus) in this picture you can clearly see the otoliths and swimbladder. This is an immature fish of about 20cm.

These are a couple of dodgy shots from my dodgy digital camera. The resolution of this is pretty crap. It will be interesting once we've had all the x-rays scanned and I've enhanced them a bit.


Interesting how dense the roughy flesh is.

 

[Infusoria]

These have been enhanced in Photoshop CS. Obviously this the same image as above, I've just tried to enhance as best I can from the original digital shot. Thanks again to Steve making this possible.

You know this marine biology thing is much more fun/interesting/cooler than making brochures about molded cupboard doors... :P

 

[Nancy]

Hey, these are really interesting! Keep them coming.

Nancy

 

[TPOTH]

Hey, these are really interesting! Keep them coming.

Yes ma'am!
We aim to please

TPOTH

 

[Jean]

moremoremoremoremore

J