Hi Canhamiana, Please forgive my delay in responding. Attached please find images of the grouper skull you so ably prepared for us. Despite sub-par storage conditions, the piece is holding up quite well. Some bones are seeping a little oil but without noxious odor or anything that would raise concerns. There’s a little wire corrosion here and there but nothing serious (tiny dots of green where wire pierces bone, not at all or just barely visible in images). I removed one dangling wire from proper left anterior opercle (you’ll see 4 holes); I don’t know when or how it got that way. R’s camera is amazing, I think you’ll agree. He took general shots but I also asked him to highlight areas of decay in the jaws and some close-ups of your excellent wiring technique. R and I are inspired to mount this somewhere in Jack’s office. Don’t hold your breath because it means we have to clean up respective messes we’ve created in there, but we agree it’s the right thing to do. There’s no ruler in the images but the length from lower jaw tip to edge of opercle (middle flattened spine) is about 615 mm (mouth slightly open as imaged in profile). The greatest height from bottom of branchiostegal rays to skull crown (with measurement line just touching posterior orbit) is about 430 mm. The skull width measures about 340 mm. Rough weight, 14.5 lbs. I’ve included a low res profile image with measure lines approximated. Best wishes, -A
This is a fine profile shot showing the skull and how its measured. I still think its beautiful and it’s held up well considering how long ago I did that work.
You can see the open mouth and the decay in the jaws. This was an old fish and we speculated that bone decay was a natural result of aging. When I was working the jaws the decayed areas were packed with a black mass which I carefully picked out. One person suggested that it may have been some form of cancer. There’s no way to tell. These fish are not well known to science and are very rare in the wild. Before this fish was caught no Ichthyologist had ever examined a specimen. The holotype was described by a naturalist named Bloch in 1790. After that it was mostly forgotten by science.
This is a better view of the decayed upper jaw. The teeth that remained I preserved. That was a difficult procedure. If the water is too hot the teeth fall out. Given its condition I think I managed rather well on this skull.
The lower jaw had some decay as well. It also retained many more teeth. I fretted and fretted over preserving them.
This shot shows my wiring technique. It’s not easy as the wires have to positioned just so to allow for the bones to move as they would in life. I could not bring myself to wire this beautiful specimen in a fixed position. I’ve enjoyed revisiting this skull and the many memories it invokes. As I said before, I regard this skull as my finest of that work.
Aloha Nui Loa
Canhamiana
