Mesonychoteuthis Photo Contributions

[tonmo]

Kat Bolstad (a.k.a. Tintenfisch) has generously contributed some of the finest photos from the Mesonychoteuthis photo sessions back in April 2003.

Attached are those photos, but they may not be reprinted or reused without permission. Any permission for reuse must be secured with Kat. High-resolution versions of these images are available upon request. Please contact me at [email protected] with any questions.

Steve inspecting hooks

Steve hosing down the specimen

Steve over the specimen table

Mesonychoteuthis beak

Steve about to engage in a passionate kiss with Mesonychoteuthis

Thank you Kat and Steve!!

 

[sorseress]

Terrific photos. Steve does look like he's thinking " Ah my lovely, come, be mine". Cute!

 

[sorseress]

By the way, how is mesonychoteuthis pronounced? I think there was a thread about that not too long ago, but I couln't find it. Is the accent on the "on"?

 

[tonmo]

In the latest Octopodcast (March), you can hear Kat say it correctly (don't go by my version, though!) The discussion is in that Octopodcast thread, in fact...

 

[sorseress]

Thanks Tony, you jogged my memory. I'll go back and listen again.

 

[Tintenfisch]

We usually say 'Me-ZONN-ee-ko-TOOTH-iss.' But listening to various people speak at the ceph conference in Tasmania (CIAC) convinced me that ceph biologists are the last people you should ask for a consensus on pronunciation!

 

[sorseress]

I'll go with yours. We both speak Minnesotan.

 

[Colin]

me too, that' how I'd say it Kat

also, as an example, while i remember, from the last octopodcast, if the word ends in an 'i' it is usually pronouned 'eye'

e.g. tintenfischi' would be tin-tin-fish-eye

but i guess that wouldnt happen as kat is a girl it would be 'Me-ZONN-ee-ko-TOOTH-iss tin-tin-FISH-er- ae'

 

[Tintenfisch]

Yeah, normally it would be 'tintenfischae' if named for a woman, but then it gets complicated because 'der Tintenfisch' is a masculine noun, so you could make a case for a masculine ending, except that 'Mesonychoteuthis' has a feminine ending, and the species name is supposed to agree with the genus name... confused? Try the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature for some light reading!

 

[Tintenfisch]

Hi all,

Just shifting some photos around on my computer and found some more Meso shots that might be worth having here. All from the 2003 Ross Sea specimen except the small, brown hooks which are from a South Australian specimen that was about ML 1m.

 

[Tintenfisch]

More...

 

[Tintenfisch]

And some from the latex model that Discovery made, based on the same specimen, for the Animal Face-Off series.

 

[Michael Blue]

Jesus, those EYES!!!!!!

WOW!!!

 

[Tintenfisch]

Yeah... we now think they might not be quite so googly... but it was the best info we had at the time.

 

[tonmo]

Thank you T!!