Hi everyone,
I am a vertebrate evolutionary biologist with an interested in ancient fishes.
If you would like to be part of my current scientific research study to better understand gar biology and history, I would appreciate your help.
In an effort to understand the evolutionary history of gars, I am looking for tissue samples for the Cuban and Tropical species. From this tissue, I will extract and sequence DNA to determine the evolutionary relationships of all the gar species. With this, we can analyze patterns of gar evolution.
So far, it has been difficult to purchase either of these species (for everyone it seems, judging from forum posts). My hope is that, if you have either the Cuban or Tropical gar, that you could clip a small piece of tissue from one of their fins and place it into a vial of preservative that I will send to you. Of course, I understand that no one wants to cut pieces off of their $500 fish, but I emphasize this piece of tissue is very small (no larger than 1/4" square - even 1/8" would probably work). IIl can provide any necessary equipment, including vials, dissecting scissors (if you need them), and a postage paid envelope so you can send the sample back to me.
If you are interested, please contact me, matthew.brandley@yale.edu.
I appreciate your help.
Matt Brandley
Yale University
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
by the way, if you are interested in my recent study of Polypterus, you may download it here for free: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/10/21
I am a vertebrate evolutionary biologist with an interested in ancient fishes.
If you would like to be part of my current scientific research study to better understand gar biology and history, I would appreciate your help.
In an effort to understand the evolutionary history of gars, I am looking for tissue samples for the Cuban and Tropical species. From this tissue, I will extract and sequence DNA to determine the evolutionary relationships of all the gar species. With this, we can analyze patterns of gar evolution.
So far, it has been difficult to purchase either of these species (for everyone it seems, judging from forum posts). My hope is that, if you have either the Cuban or Tropical gar, that you could clip a small piece of tissue from one of their fins and place it into a vial of preservative that I will send to you. Of course, I understand that no one wants to cut pieces off of their $500 fish, but I emphasize this piece of tissue is very small (no larger than 1/4" square - even 1/8" would probably work). IIl can provide any necessary equipment, including vials, dissecting scissors (if you need them), and a postage paid envelope so you can send the sample back to me.
If you are interested, please contact me, matthew.brandley@yale.edu.
I appreciate your help.
Matt Brandley
Yale University
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
by the way, if you are interested in my recent study of Polypterus, you may download it here for free: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/10/21
