franzanthony: Last year, I was sent photographs of a 1925 book about Miocene marine fishes of Sulawe

franzanthony:

Last year, I was sent photographs of a 1925 book about Miocene marine fishes of Sulawesi, Indonesia by Tim Sosa. I was very intrigued by the book because Indonesia isn’t known for its paleontology. Not many people are interested in the field, and the tropical archipelago is pretty humid, making preservation rather tricky. Plus, the islands are rather young, geologically speaking.

Anyway, the book contains 9 images of specimens and line drawings that I’ve always wanted to illustrate. Some of them are open ocean (pelagic) fishes, which seem to be easier since they tend to look rather drab.

But the book also contains a butterflyfish (Chaetodontidae), a surgeonfish (Acanthuridae), and a damselfish (Pomacentridae). I thought, this might be a chance to look deeper into why reef fishes are so dazzling!

Here’s a writeup of what I’ve found recently. Quick reminder: my posts on Patreon aren’t paywalled. Follow me there to read my longer-format ramblings because I don’t want to flood my portfolio blog with long text blocks.