With just 2 days pending until my first planned necropsy, the dead beater harp seal that was recently run over by a car is now in the Arts & Sciences building. I hope it thaws. I also hope it stays there. Logistically, this has been a little frustrating. As Jackie has complained to me about, we need a necropsy lab, or at least a time block that is only for Allied Whale in the Zoology lab. Oh well, this is a small school, you make what you need out of what you have.
There was also a stranding response to two other seals and a long dead whale, the latter found fairly decomposed in Corea, Maine, just a few miles away. Me and Amanda Dunn may head out there one of these days to collect a bone for identification...that is if we can figure out how exactly you cut up a frozen whale. I don't think it will be a smooth as a hot knife through butter. In other news, I have attempted to read the neurobiology section of The Biology of Marine Mammals. I have found the jargon and anatomical terms a bit too complex for this stage in my independent study, however, and so I will focus on more basic anatomy of the nervous system. The brain itself is wonderfully complex, and exists in varied shapes in both pinnipeds and cetaceans.
Next week I will start on cetaceans, but for now I'll just review necropsy techniques in preparation for this Friday, and watch the snow lightly fall on bar island.
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