MOESM11 of BMC Ecology Image Competition 2016: the winning images

Additional file 11. “This picture was taken in the frame of a pluridisciplinary study of the biochemical and anatomical basis of echolocation functioning in toothed whales. As a part of this study, specialists of medical imaging of the Brest Hospital (France) use MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to decipher the complex anatomical structure of “acoustic fat” tissues (melon and mandibular fats) in odontocetes. It [was] during such a working session (grouping Marion Arribart, veterinary student at ONIRIS, Nantes; Douraied Ben Salem and Julien Ognard, medical doctors, specialists of medical imaging, CHRU of Brest; and Jean-Luc Jung, molecular biologist and geneticist, BioGeMME laboratory, University of Brest), that Douraied Ben Salem had his attention drawn by this strange and surprising image of a harbor porpoise head, appearing on the screen, among other more classical pictures. The MRI captured the harbor porpoise head as an amazing kind of tribal mask, where the melon and the mandibular fats are visible, inter-bones spaces and the pharynx appear as eyes and mouth, and mandibulae look like very visible earrings, thus giving a strange artistic dimension to this scientific picture. The picture has not been modified or altered in any way.” Attribution: Jean-Luc Jung (University of Brest, CHRU of Brest, ONIRIS).