Dear Sir or Madam, My name is Katharina Morgenthal, I am contacting you on my own behalf and the behalf of Prof. Dr Guido Dehnhardt and Dr Frederike Hanke of the Marine Science Center in Rostock, Germany. I am studying at the university of Rostock and I am currently working on my thesis on species-specific characteristics of pinniped vibrissae with a focus on quantity and type (smooth vs. undulated/beaded). In order to determine these characteristics, I will need photos of, primarily the mystacial, vibrissae of as many pinniped species as possible and I hope you could help me out with some photos of and/or information about the vibrissae of the species you are involved with. So, I would like to ask if you have any photos available which you could send me. If possible, photos including these four perspectives would be great: 1) frontal view of the vibrissal pads 2) lateral view of a vibrissal pad 3) close-up of the mystacial vibrissae 4) whole head/front with supraorbital vibrissae visible You can find example photos of the harbour seal attached to this email for an orientation regarding what kind of photos I am hoping for. In case you do not have any photos available, could you please answer these questions for the species you are involved with?: a) What type of vibrissae does the species have (undulated/beaded or smooth)? b) How many vibrissae does the species have per vibrissal pad? I would be truly grateful for any information and photos you can provide me with. As I have a deadline for my thesis, I would really appreciate it if you could send it to my email address (katharina.morgenthal@uni-rostock.de) as soon as possible. In case you are interested in the paper, I will be happy to send you the paper after it is finished. Many thanks in advance, Yours sincerely, Katharina Morgenthal ________________________________ Katharina Morgenthal Student University of Rostock Department of Biosciences & Marine Science Center Email: katharina.morgenthal@uni-rostock.de<mailto:katharina.morgenthal@uni-rostock.de>
