Elephants Under the Microscope

“Microscopy is really fascinating” – says Professor Martin S. Fischer of theInstitute of Zoology and Evolution at the University of Jena  and Director of the  Jena Phyletic Museum  for nearly three decades. His passion for microscopy is unmistakable when describing using this technology to examine his most unique samples – thin tissue sections of four elephant embryos. He explains that these embryos were collected during a field trip to Africa in the 1950s after the mother elephants were found dead. The samples were preserved and, later, they were cut, Azan stained and put on glass slides during Fischer’s time in Tuebingen, Germany. These samples are highly unique as they are the only elephant embryo microscopy samples in the world. Fischer believes it is essential that all scientists have access to studying these rare specimens.

Ernst Haeckel was a scientist and founder of the Jena Phyletic Museum (1907). Haeckel regarded partnerships with industry to be important for the advancement of science and was also cooperating with ZEISS at the time. Fischer’s project follows in Haeckel’s footsteps, partnering with ZEISS to make new discoveries.

Additionally, a collaborator of Fischer’s just made an amazing discovery.  While cleaning up the attic of the museum, a cupboard with 400 slides originating from Haeckel was found under the 50,000 insect samples waiting to be digitized. These medusae and polyps, most of them collected during the Challenger expedition  of 1872–1876 by John Murray, and most likely hand-labeled and lovingly sorted by Haeckel himself, now await their systematic cataloguing and digitization. The formats of the slides are uncommon and their stains faded. Despite the diverse range of sections stemming from different biological areas and questionable conditions, the researchers are enthusiastic to get started.

However, due to the thickness, the old slides cannot be digitized with ZEISS Axioscan. Together with Fischer’s team, ZEISS is working on a  creative solution  to automatically digitize these slides at good image quality.

Stay tuned!