Sabertooth Salmon Gets CT Scan

Sabertooth salmon - Illustration by Apokryltaros

This is one of those rare occasions in which the doctors did not have to remind the patient to be completely still while they were trying to perform a CT scan. Another positive aspect was they didn’t need to worry about the specimen “flipping out” while lying inside the $900,000 wonder of modern medicine.

This sabertooth salmon, dubbed “Mr. Salmon”, was not giving any trouble at all you see, as it died some 5 million years ago.

Edward Davis, of the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History, came up with the name after being told that the scan would not be performed until the proper medical form was filled out. The scan was carried out at the Oregon Imaging Centers in downtown Eugene Oregon.

However, the proper scientific name of “Mr. Salmon” is Oncorhynchus rastrosus, more commonly known as the sabertooth salmon. This fish is a fanged water dweller which is about 7 feet long and made its home along the coast of the Pacific in the late Miocene age, some 5 to 24 million years ago. There are only two other such specimens, one is at the University of Michigan, and the other is at the University of California at Berkeley.

However, by performing a scan of the salmon’s head and slapping it up on the web, now researchers across the globe can study the specimen online, using a 3D rendered model for their research.