California Sea Lion as seen with BriteVu

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Sep 14, 2020/ Off Comments / in Non-Human Mammals
California Sea Lion as seen with BriteVu

The California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) is native to the west coast of North America. The male and female (featured here) sea lion heads are currently being studied to document their anatomy.  Dr Beth Townsend at Midwestern University is leading the project with the end goal to publish the anatomic findings.  This is a joint project between Midwestern University, Sea World and Scarlet Imaging (www.ScarletImaging.com).  The sea lions are being used as models to study other marine mammals such as whales and dolphins.   These wild sea lions died due to natural causes the heads frozen.  The Scarlet Imaging team received, thawed, preserved and contrast perfused the sea lion heads.  BriteVu in a Bottle was the contrast agent used.  The head was scanned using an Epica Vimago scanner at 200µm slice thickness.

Below is a sagittal section of the female sea lion head perfused with BriteVu in a Bottle. Note the visible blood supply to the teeth, nasal turbinates and brain (arrows).

Video of sea lion head rotation.

Sagittal image of the sea lion head perfused with BriteVu in a bottle contrast agent.