Page Contents: Section | Significance | Background | Location & Dates | Taxonomic Contents | Documentation | Description of Collection | Collection Inventory | Collection Assets
United States Navy Antarctic Expedition 1947–1948
Section Responsible for Processing
Polychaetes
Significance
A collection of specimens cited in several important papers on the Antarctic polychaete fauna by Dr. Olga Hartman.
Hartman, O. 1952. The marine annelids of the United States Navy Antarctic Expedition, 1947-48. Journal of the Washington Academy of Science 42: 231-237, 1 pl.
Hartman, O. 1953. Non-pelagic Polychaeta. Swedish Antarctic Expedition 1901-1903. Further Zoological Results of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition. 4(11): 1-83, 21 figs., 1 chart.
Hartman, O. 1964. Polychaeta Errantia of Antarctica. American Geophysical Union (Pub. No. 1226). Antarctic Research Series 3: 1-131, 39 pls., map.
Hartman, O. 1966. Polychaeta Myzostomidae and Sedentaria of Antarctica. American Geophysical Union (Pub. No. 14114). Antarctic Research Series 7: 1-158, 46 pls., 5 charts.
Hartman, O. 1967. Larval development of benthic invertebrates in Antarctic seas: Early development of Nothria notialis (Monro) and Paronuphis antarctica (Monro) in Bransfield Strait, Antarctic Peninsula. JARE Scientific Reports, Special Issue No. 1. Symposium on Pacific-Antarctic Sciences, Proceedings of the Polar Research Department, Tokyo. Pp. 192-204.
Background
Two ice breakers, the USS Burton Island (AG-88) and USS Edisto (AG-89) were deployed to Antarctica for the U.S. Navy’s Second Antarctica Development Project, also known as the Operation Windmill Hydrographic Survey and Oceanographic Research Expedition. Biological samples were taken for the Smithsonian. The polychaetes were sent to Dr. Hartman at the Allan Hancock Foundation, University of Southern California, for identification. Some of the worms were returned to the Smithsonian but a subset was retained for the AHF Polychaete Collection which now belongs to NHMLAC.
Collection Location and Dates
Collecting was done primarily from the USS Edisto in 3 main areas: Wilkes Land, 25 Dec. 1947 to 20 Jan. 1948, Ross Sea area, 26 Jan. 1948 to 6 Feb. 1948, and Peter I Island and Marguerite Bay, 15-23 Feb. 1948. At least 243 samples were taken although not all of them had polychaetes.
Taxonomic Contents
Polychaetes.
Documentation
Station list compiled by L. Harris from various reports and the Smithsonian’s on-line Invertebrate Zoology specimen catalogue (http://collections.nmnh.si.edu/search/iz/).
Description of Collection
Wet preserved collection. The specimens were probably fixed in 10% formalin-seawater then transferred to 70% ethanol as that was a common practice in the 1940s.
Collection Inventory
None at this time (13 June 2012); the individual specimens are dispersed throughout the collection according to family, genus, and/or species.
Collection Assets
| Date | View or Retrieve | File Information |
|---|---|---|
| 10/22/2014 | Retrieve [1450.5 kB] | Summary of “Second (1948) U.S. Navy Antarctic Development Project by Commander David C. Nutt, USNR. |
| 10/22/2014 | Retrieve [48.5 kB] | Raw Station data. |