While searching for original descriptions of Ophiocoma species I stumbled on the description of Ophiocoma punctata Forbes, 1841, species discovered by … a cod.

 

Spurred by an urgent request to return specimens borrowed some years ago, we decided to bring a quick visit to the Zoological Museum of the University of Amsterdam. Such a visit was anyway on our agenda given that this museum is home to several important collections, most notably the collection made during the famous scientific expedition of the Siboga (1899-1900).

Sunday, 6 September 2009. The six Belgian legs in the PEET project gather at the Tervuren Museum to depart for Germany (again). We look forward to this particular trip, not because we’re particularly fond of German beer (we’re Belgains after all!), but because we’ll get to lay or hands and eyes on type specimens that have not been studied for over a hunderd years. Yes indeed, some of the long-thaught historical specimens described by nobody less than Emil Selenka await us!

Today, when getting a cup of coffee in the main lab of our Invertebrates Department I ran into my former boss Dr Jackie Van Goethem (JVG) who told me that he had brought with him a box of original reprints which he had received last week from Dr. Bert W. Hoeksema, the Head of the Department of Marine Zoology at the National Museum of Natural History Naturalis in Leiden.

Woaw!, nice very early X-mas gift this box proved to contain!