Michael,
  Regarding the chitons that are enrolled I will offer the following
advice. My first question would be "Why do you want or need to straighten
the specimen?" If you do have a need or desire then you can try one of the
follwing re-hydration techniques.

You can try soaking the specimen in a 0.5% aqueous solution of trisodium
phosphate (Van Cleave and Ross, 1947). Thompson, Thompson and Drummond
(1966) used a method that involved soaking the dried specimen in a mixture
of 50% ethylene glycol and 50% water. Lastly, you can try a 1% aqueous
solution of Trend detergent as described in Presnell and Schreibman
(1997). If the tissue to be re-hydrated is small, you may only have to
soak it overnight; larger specimens may require several days.

These techniques were not necessarily designed by malacologists but they
may be of help. If you do try them a short article published in a journal
or conchological magazine might be a nice follow-up. Who says that all
research has to be conducted by professionals.


Presnell, J. K. and M. P. Schreibman. 1997. Chapter 29: Special Procedures
IV: Reclaiming Dried Gross Specimens (pp. 483-484). In Humason's Animal
Tissue Technique, 5th. Edition. The John Hopkins University Press.
Baltimore, MD. 572 pp.

Thompson, R. J., M. H. Thompson and S. Drummond. 1966. A method for
restoring dried crustacean specimens to taxonomically usable condition.
Crustaceana 10: 109.

Van Cleave, H. J. and J. A. Ross. 1947. A method of reclaiming dried
zoological specimens. Science 105:318.

On the other hand you were actualy asking how to prevent this (or so I
believe) and this question has been adequately answered by others already.

Regards,
Charlie
******************************************************************************
Charlie Sturm, Jr
Research Associate - Section of Mollusks
                     Carnegie Museum of Natural History
                     Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Assistant Professor - Family Medicine

[log in to unmask]