Current mood:

exhausted

Thesis reeled, gaffed and bagged
My thesis entitled "Revision and description of the Actinopterygian fishes of Devonian Eastern Gondwana" is in the bag. Came out as a gargantuan 8 chapters, 320+ pages, 12 colour plates, c.70,000 words plus c20,000 word appendices. Took 48 hours to print 6 volumes - ran out of toner and found it was cheaper to throw away the old printer and buy a new one instead of buying a replacement cartridge? Wheres the logic in that!?

Anyhow - the last 3.5 years of work has paid off. 3 Papers in print, 1 in press and 2 in revision. 6 new species/2 new genera described. Before Gondwana was a ray-finned backwater of the Devonian with just 3 species - now it has at least 8, comparable with northern hemisphere diversity at the time.

This salmon has completed its spawning run. I can feel my body coming apart...(after typing non-stop since time immemorial). Now the waters will gently deposit my tattered carcass onto the shore.

Need sleeeeep.