Poor neglected blog! It’s been so long since my last post, but don’t worry, we haven’t been slacking off. Here, Adania is sorting Jenna’s Tuamotus collection which we recently received in the mail. Adania is probably smiling because Jenna really nailed it with the data organization and packaging of this collection. The formalin and ethanol preserved item were separated! And well-marked!

Adania sorting Jenna's Tuamotus collection

Carmen also assisted with the sorting of this collection; it was a big project! I think John might be doing some put-away to help clear out space on the table for the incoming collection.

Carmen and John sorting the collection

Elizabeth is kicking it old-school. Instead of a collection generated through recent fieldwork, she is precataloging a collection donated to us from Diane deVry. It includes some interesting specimens from some locations that are underrepresented in our collection.

Elizabeth seated at a computer cataloging the deVry collection

This picture also represents an incoming collection. You’d be forgiven for thinking that it looks like battered boxes of sand because that’s exactly what it is. Over the past several days, we have received packages containing sand from Moorea, the Marquesas, and the Tuamotus. George has already started combing the sand for ostracods and has found some new and exciting material. Sahale Casebolt (one of Michal Kowalowski’s students) has also been notified and will soon be swooping in to look at the mollusc assemblages.

incoming collection boxes wraped with duct tape

Nicole is a volunteer working with John Starmer on a project sorting and identifying land snails from Micronesian sediment samples. In the photo below she is labeling some tiny snails in a tiny jar.

Nicole labeling snails

The aquariums are still going strong. Here is Portunus gibbesii, freshly molted and either threatening me or begging for food…I’m sensing threat.

Portunus gibbesii in the aquarium

Also, check out the floor around my desk. Are you thinking “I see nothing”? Exactly! There are no boxes of specimens piling up around my chair and awaiting my attention. You know what that means, Gustav is out of town.

empty floor around Mandy's desk

He and Patrick just returned to dry land from several weeks on a research vessel in the Red Sea with researchers from KAUST. They will return to us in a few weeks with their collection…we’d better clear out some more space.

🙂 Mandy

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