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Megalodoras uranoscopus
I am a volunteer at The Higgins museum in Bedford, and they have a weird and wonderful natural history collection, gathered by masters and old boys of Bedford Modern School many years ago. Amongst this are three, long bony structures with 'teeth' along both long edges, so they don't seem right for jaws, and with a socket at the end where they were presumably articulated. Each is around 15cm long. Written on them is 'FISH TUSK R AMAZON', but that is all we have apart from a collector's name and a date. I do have photos of them. I've looked up 'tuskfish' and from the images I've found, that doesn't seem right. Can anyone tell me what they are? Thanks
River Amazon?
Spotted on Sep 15, 2017
Submitted on Sep 15, 2017
11 Comments
You lovely people!!
Take care though, I may find all sorts more in the museum collection to sort out... :)
All the best to everyone!
What a brilliant string of hepful comments and interesting post!
Don't you love citizen science and PN :)
Go Mark! Impressive work and thank you Sarah for sharing these fascinating spines with us.
Excuse me for butting in....but I simply had to...this is why I love PN!!!! So much to learn...so many to learn from. Thank you Sarah77 and Mark.
Hi Mark
That's quite fantastic - I think you've cracked it! Thanks so much to you and to Dr Grove for what you've done. My museum can complete its records now. Much appreciated.
This is my first time on Noah, but I'll have a go at updating this spot!
Sarah
Hi again Sarah..
I took the liberty of updating the fields here as I needed to test my access to the system. Let me know if you disapprove..
Thanks, Mark
..and here's the good contextual shot http://www.scielo.br/img/revistas/ni/v12...
Ok Sarah... I have chatted with Dr Simon Grove from Tasmania Museum who believes they are the pectoral fin spines of a catfish. Could well be Megalodoras, the giant talking catfish (family Doradidae). Here's a blog with photos to support... sure looks good to me.
Please update fields if you agree. All the best.
Hi Mark
Thanks for your post. It's a little hard to read but written on the 'tusks' is 9/5/28 (so that's May 1928). I can see there's an articulation at the base of each 'tusk' so I'm wondering if they are some sort of erectable spine - but I have no idea what species.
What is the collection date?