[Nhcoll-l] Procedures for Transferring Specimens from Ethanol to Dry Storage

[Tom Schiøtte]

Hi Matthew,

I don’t know if you ever got an answer to the question below. I would say that much depends on whether you talk of large or small shells. Ideally, if you have shells that are clean of soft parts and are only immersed in clean alcohol diluted with demineralized or distilled water you could dry them directly. The problem is of course the possibility of additives in the alcohol that you need to get rid of. If we are mainly talking about formalin and/or sea salt (the latter relevant for marine mollusks only of course), small shells of 1 cm or less need just a couple of ½-1 hour dips in demineralized water before dryíng.

The larger and especially the more porous they are, the more you will need to rinse them. It is a simple question of sound judgment, and I cannot supply a table or similar. A larger shell overgrown with bryozoans and worm tubes and perhaps infested with boring Porifera may require a couple of days with regular changes of water, and you may even have to reconsider if it should be dried at all. In general, however, drying is a good idea, because alcohol get acidic over time, taking up CO2 from the air.

Cheers

Tom

Tom Schiøtte

Collection manager, Echinodermata & Mollusca
Natural History Museum of Denmark (Zoology)
Universitetsparken 15
DK 2100 Copenhagen OE

+45 35 32 10 48
TSchioette at snm.ku.dk<mailto:TSchioette at snm.ku.dk>



From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Matthew Pruden
Sent: 15. marts 2023 18:56
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Procedures for Transferring Specimens from Ethanol to Dry Storage


You don't often get email from mjp368 at cornell.edu<mailto:mjp368 at cornell.edu>. Learn why this is important<https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification>

Hello,

My name is Matthew Pruden; I am a PhD candidate at Cornell University. I have a series of samples containing mollusc shell remains (empty bivalve and gastropod shells), which are currently stored in 90% ethanol (and formalin before that), and I want to transfer them to dry storage.

I was wondering if anyone had recommendations on how to properly prepare the shells for dry storage. I.e., Should the shells be soaked in deionized water after rinsing off the ethanol? And if so, for how long? Should the shells undergo multiple soakings to fully remove the ethanol and any potential formalin left over?

I apologise if a similar question has been asked before, this is my first time asking a question on this forum, and first time preparing ethanol samples. Thanks in advance for your help, and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Cheers,
Matthew
--
Matthew Pruden
PhD Candidate
Dept. Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Cornell University
ResearchGate<https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fprofile%2FMatthew_Pruden&data=05%7C01%7CTSchioette%40snm.ku.dk%7C70c6fcc14b8441fa9d0208db257f1790%7Ca3927f91cda14696af898c9f1ceffa91%7C0%7C0%7C638145000020059834%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=SlRECUhcLI0ISD%2FBPNNzgiw4VjMCztvryvUYI8QI6rE%3D&reserved=0>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20230320/0418b0ca/attachment.html>