[Deep-sea food webs] Xray goodness

TPOTH

Vampyroteuthis
Registered
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
Messages
279
Disclaimer: No ceph content. Apologies in advance. :oshea: made me post this :lol:

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).

download.php


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).

download.php


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).

download.php


More to follow, stay tuned....

TPOTH
 
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???
 
Very interesting. I wouldn't mind seeing a whole series of these :smile:

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


roughy01.jpg


roughy02.jpg
 
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. :notworth:

roughy04.jpg


roughy03.jpg


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

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top