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