Sure, sure, here's a cool mollusk for #MolluskMonday, but look 👀at all the amazing organisms growing on it! Tunicates, barnacles, worm(?) tubes? Oh my!

Formerly in the Duke Marine Lab Collection as DUML 4420, collected 12 Aug. 1981 by the crew of the R/V Dan Moore off North Carolina via trawl.

#macrophotography #museum #museumspecimen #molluscmonday

Here’s the reported “fiddler crab on steroids.” Now, although not a fiddler - it’s a blue land crab, Cardisoma guanhumi - I will admit that I would be startled hearing scratching at my office door, opening it to find this not-small asymmetrically-clawed crustacean. A museum curator’s job is never dull. #crustmas #crustacea #crustaceans #crabs #collection #CollectionsCare #digitization #25daysofcrustmas #malacostraca #museumspecimen #decapoda

Here’s the reported “fiddler crab on steroids.” Now, although not a fiddler - it’s a blue land crab, Cardisoma guanhumi - I will admit that I would be startled hearing scratching at my office door, opening it to find this not-small asymmetrically-clawed crustacean. A museum curator’s job is never dull. #crustmas #crustacea #crustaceans #crabs #collection #CollectionsCare #digitization #25daysofcrustmas #malacostraca #museumspecimen

NutriB2 collection of bees sent to #kiel 's natural sciences museum 🐝 Thank you for your service #insects #museumspecimen #museumfornaturalhistory

I have a question about DNA extractions of museum specimen for UCE capture. I am curious what the minimum input folks would feel comfortable using. I'm getting low amounts of DNA for a lot of old specimen 10-20 ng total (e.g., 50 uL @ 0.33 ng/uL). I might try sequencing low input samples on a separate plate, but would rather re-extract or extract new specimen.
#question
#ultraconservedelements
#museumspecimen
#phylogenetics
#systematics
#entomology