University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, January 25, 1989
11
Rare fish added to collection
Researchers study species once thought extinct
by Michele Logan Kansan staff writer
Kansan staff write1
This is the story of the rare fish that didn't get away.
a way.
In October, the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History acquired a rare fish, called a coelacanth, that was thought to be extinct until 1939, when one was caught off the coast of South Africa, said E.O. Wiley, curator of ichthyology.
The coelacanth is about three feet long and weighs about 30 pounds. Adults coelacanths are usually three to six feet long and can weigh up to 100 pounds.
They usually are found near the Comoros Islands, between Madagascar and Africa, where the water temperature is cool enough for the fish to function properly.
A biochemical reaction in the coelacanth's body prevents it from living in water warmer than 18 degrees Fahrenheit, said Richard Cloutier, research assistant at the Museum of Natural History and Montreal graduate student in systematics and ecology.
The museum's specimen is preserved in alcohol and will not be displayed to the public because exposure to light and air causes tissue damage.
In October, the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History acquired a rare fish, called a coelacanth, that was thought to be extinct until 1939.
Instead, a cast of the fish is being prepared for exhibition in the museum and should be ready for display in a few months, Cloutier said.
display in a new way. The museum's fish story began two years ago when it was attending a meeting in New York on the study of fish and amphibians. A colleague told him that the Virginia Institute of Marine Science had two frozen coelacanths and a group was forming to study them.
group was roting to begin. Cloutier, who wrote a dissertation on coelacanth ossiis; Willingham other KU museum curators were doing research related to coelacanths, Hanne Peter-Schultz, curator of vertebrate paleontology, and Linda Trueb, adjunct curator of herpetology, sent a research proposal to the institute that outlined a study of the bone structure and anatomy of the fish.
They proposed using two high-tech medical procedures to study the fish before dissecting it.
The first, computer-assisted tomography (CAT), creates three-dimensional X-ray images that are converted into video images. The second, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), uses a combination of radio waves and a strong magnetic field to produce images.
What resulted was a library of more than 800 images of the coelacanth anatomy.
The proposal was accepted, and in January 1988 the researchers spent five days at the institute in Gloucester Point, Va., studying the coacanth.
"I did this so that other researchers in the science field could investigate the subject further." Wiley said.
Cloutier said that the coelacanus was important to science because it could answer questions researchers had about the transition of animals from water to land.
from water. "This is a rare and unique opportunity to study an animal that everyone thought had been extinct 65 million years ago." Cloutier said.
This coelacanth is the only preserved specimen available for study in the area and because there are only 200 left in the world, the museum is taking special care of the one it has. Wiley said.
Soviet gesture could save map
The Associated Press
LONDON — A Soviet man has donated his stamp collection to help save the Mappa Mundi, a 13th century map that financially troubled Hereford Cathedral might have to sell, church officials said yesterday.
Alexei Petrov gave his stamps to a Hereford businessman attending a Moscow exhibition in December, along with a letter to Hereford's bishop, the Right Rev. John Eastaugh, saying he had read of the cathedral's plight in a Soviet newspaper.
"I first thought of sending a sum of money — which is next to impossible from here," Petrov wrote in the letter delivered to the
cathedral by businessman John Bone.
"As a way out of the predicament I remembered my small stamp collection, which, incidentally, is connected with maps.
"I thought it might raise a couple of pounds at a jumble (rummage) sale and thus help you in your almost impossible task of raising more than 7 million pounds ($12.4 million)," the sum the cathedral says it will give. "Let it be humble Christian and gift it to the Church of England for saving Mappa Mundi." Petrov wrote.
Petrov's album contains more than 100 stamps depicting maps of various countries. A cathedral
spokesman said the value of the collection was not known.
collection, we visited Petrov gave the collection to Bone in December, and it arrived at the 900-year-old cathedral in western England in early January, she said.
"This is an unexpected and wonderful gesture," the bishop said. "I have written a letter of thanks to Mr. Petrov and sent him a copy of the Mappa Mundi."
The cathedral decided last fall to sell the Mappa Mundi unless it raised enough money to pay off debts and make repairs.
The map, one of Europe's greatest medieval treasures, is scheduled to be sold at Sotheby's auction house in June.
ROTC leader to tour KU
by a Kansan reporter
The commanding general of the nation's Army ROTC program is scheduled to visit the University of Kansas Jayhawk Battalion tomorrow.
Maj. Gen Robert E. Wagner, the first commanding general of the U.S. Army ROTC Cadet Command, will arrive at 12:15 p.m. tomorrow in the All-American Room at Adams Alumni Center.
Wagner will tour the campus and KU's Army ROTC facilities and will speak with the cadets. He will be briefed by the cadets on the corps and its activities. Wagner also will meet with Chancellor Gene A. Budig.
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- Are you concerned about the cost and quality of your education?
- Lobby Day 1989 Monday, February 6 State Capitol Building in Topeka
- Do you want to do something about it?
This year we need to talk If you want to help the university and help yourself, get involved.
our concerns as HD Last year we took more than 150 students to Topeka. This year we need to take more.
Here is your chance Announcing
We will be meeting with Governor Hayden and members of the state legislature to let them know our concerns as KU students.
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