Mr James Maclaine

Biography

Employment history

 

• 2000-Present: Curator, Band 5 (Lower Vertebrates/Fishes)
• 1998-2000: Assistant Curator, Band 7 (Lower Vertebrates/Fishes)
• 1998: Volunteer Curator at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh
• 1994-1997: Assistant Biologist at the Tweed Foundation, Scottish Borders 

Qualifications

• BSc (Hons) Aquatic Bioscience, University of Glasgow 1989-1993

Fieldwork

Myanmar (Burma) 

In 2007 I was lucky enough to be able to go to Myanmar (Burma) with a colleague Dr Ralf Britz to collect freshwater fishes. It proved to be a very educational trip in many ways. 

During the course of a month we travelled via car, boat and plane from Myeik in the south up to Mrauk-U in Rakhine State in the north-west of the country. We managed to collect over a thousand specimens, including several new species. 

I was somewhat apprehensive about going to a place with such a bad reputation but the local people that we spoke to were unanimously very pleased to see us and glad that we were visiting their beautiful country.

Myanmar fish discoveries article, Feb 08

 

 

Whale Strandings

I am part of a team who have the lovely job of collecting carcasses of small cetaceans and delivering them to London Zoo for autopsy and analysis. 

The majority of specimens I've collected so far have been harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) which are usually small enough to fit in the boot of a car.  

Causes of death vary between bycatch, collisions with boats and the occasional dolphin related murder.

Further information about The UK Whale and Dolphin Stranding Scheme

Curatorial Responsibilities

Curatorial Responsibilities

• Curation of stuffed type specimens
• Curation of skin type specimens
• Integrated Pest Management
• Alcohol supply to the Department
• Maintaining the Fish Section database (KE EMu)

Special projects

Curation of Dry Material

I am currently curating and databasing some of the dry fish collections (primarily stuffed and skin specimens) stored at South Kensington.  These were mostly collected in the 19th century before the advent of formalin when it was not always possible to carry large amounts of preserving fluid on collecting trips, especially those taking place inland.  There is a lot of type material in this state for which the database records are inaccurate or incomplete and I have been rectifying this wherever possible.  The type skins are currently being rehoused in archival quality storage boxes. 

I have been providing Dr William Eschmeyer of the California Academy of Sciences with information regarding our type material so that the online Catalog of Fishes can be updated.  The dry collections include many specimens of important historical value.  We have fishes that were collected by Charles Darwin, Mungo Park and David Livingstone and also from the expeditions of Sir James Clark Ross and Captain James Cook.

 

Curation of IOS Material

In the late 1990s we received a very large collection of Atlantic midwater fishes from the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences in Southhampton.  I am in the process of sorting through this material and curating the specimens.  Our database is being updated so that information relating to this important collection will made available to researchers worldwide.

Publications

Publications

2009

• Richard L. Abel, James S. Maclaine, Ross Cotton, Viet Bui Xuanc, Timothy B. Nickels, Thomas H. Clark, Zhijin Wang and Jonathan P.L. Cox  ( 2009 ) Functional morphology of the nasal region of a hammerhead shark Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology : . Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology

2007

• Britz & Maclaine ( 2007 ) A review of the eel-loaches, genus Pangio, from Myanmar (Teleostei: Cypriniformes: Cobitidae) Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwaters 18, No. 1 : 17-30 .