Monthly Archives: February 2013

Meet catalogued specimen # 90.000

We recently rounded 90.000 specimens in our scientific collections, and since # 90 000 is such a good representative of what we are currently working on, we’re presenting it here.

Diastyloides biplicatus

Diastyloides biplicatus

 

This is a Cumacea, or hooded shrimp. It was collected by the MAREANO project. It was then identified by a taxonomist on a workshop arranged by the Department of Biology (UoB), the University Museum and  MAREANO. It was then implemented in the Museum’s scientific collection, and chosen to be used as a DNA voucher for the NorBOLproject (Norwegian Barcode of Life). Here it will be part of a comprehensive library of standardized DNA sequences (barcodes) which will serve as a reference resource for the research and management of biodiversity in Norway.

Bioskag Workshop

We began the year with arranging two workshops in January. The first of these was based on the extensive sampling done in the Skagerrak strait in recent years (2006 – today). The aim was to increase the rather poor knowledge of the invertebrate fauna of the region (link is in Norwegian).

The focal group of this workshop was the Polychaetes (bristle worms), and through the effort of the ten attendants, a lot of material was examined. You can read more about this at the blog of the Norwegian Polychaete Forum.

Busy lab

We are currently processing the findings from the workshop, including documenting specimens through photography and drawing. One of the tools we employ for doing this is the scanning electron microscope (SEM), which enables us to make high resolution images at a very high magnification.

A SEM image of a a Sphaerodoridae. Photo: K. Kongshavn

A high magnification close-up of a Polychaete bristle. Photo: K. Kongshavn

 

Welcome!

The Invertebrate Collections is one of the University Museum’s large collections of scientific zoological material. “Invertebrates” is a traditional grouping for animals without a backbone. At our museum, like in many other scientific collections, invertebrates is the remaining part of the animal kingdom when vertebrates, insects, spiders and millipedes (entomology) have been accounted for. Invertebrates therefore is a diverse group of very different animals with often spectacular ways of life in many types of environments. We still know very little about many species of invertebrates because they are difficult to study and identify. Many species are also still undiscovered. Scientific collections are fundamental sources of knowledge about our zoological diversity. On these pages we want to inform about the contents of the collections and about past and current activities.

If you are interested in doing your master degree in marine biodiversity or adjacent topics at the University Museum of Bergen, we have a blog with currently available thesis topics in marine biodiversity which can be found here.

Our permanent web pages can be found here

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