[Nhcoll-l] [EXTERNAL] Precipitate or Mold in Ethanol Stored Specimens

[Pellegrini, Rodrigo]

I’m sure folks with much more experience than I will eventually reply (and probably set me straight), but it sort of looks like what happened to a handful of our specimens. If I recall correctly, it had something to do with the concentration of formalin in the specimen when switched to (in our case isopropyl) alcohol. We didn’t stage them long enough in enough steps when we put them into 70%, which caused the crystallites to form.

Rod

Rodrigo Pellegrini
Registrar, Natural History Bureau
New Jersey State Museum
PO Box 530
Trenton, NJ 08625-0530
USA

Rodrigo.Pellegrini at sos.state.nj.us<mailto:Rodrigo.Pellegrini at sos.state.nj.us>
From: Nhcoll-l [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Alex Krohn
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2018 1:53 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [Nhcoll-l] Precipitate or Mold in Ethanol Stored Specimens

Hi everyone,

I recently found some bizzare white granules in some our ethanol preserved specimens. See the attached photos. The white granules tend to stick to the items in the jar, rather than rest at the bottom of the jar. They do not crush easily (like I imagine precipitates would), but instead squish more like tiny styrofoam bits or pieces (like I imagine mold would).

Has anyone seen this before? I washed the specimens and jars in fresh 70% EtOH, and then replaced the EtOH in the jar. So far no new granules have appeared. If anyone has any better ideas of what this might be or how to treat it, I'm very interested.

Thank you!

Alex Krohn

---------------------
Assistant Director
Kenneth S. Norris Center for Natural History
University of California, Santa Cruz

https://norriscenter.ucsc.edu/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__norriscenter.ucsc.edu_&d=DwMFaQ&c=4BTEw-1msHjOY4ITcFLmDM6JB8x6ZgbU2J24IH0HZLU&r=k0bLHoQ91UYPSTqgFVbo6Ecs-Hyvwdgw5wDdbmSq0Ac&m=8K9GS2cwbXhmzzWpHcPLR8D7FJFZdldKudF7EWdYECM&s=ZKvbBC4Ub5_nyuy2QV3z85s6jSaPY6QspQXv_jWhjcI&e=>
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