Oipo claps his hands together merrily.

The corners of Iesin's mouth turn up in a mischievous grin.

Shulamit says, "Hoo hoo! A delight!"

Oipo begins the session with the setup of a scrap-winged video-drone, which gives a mild "beep-beep" in confirmation as recording begins.

Iesin says, "You realize your air drone would be better, right?"

Shulamit gives a tendril wave to a small drone, bark creaking as it smiles at it.

Oipo carefully removes a damaged scale-imprinted fossil from a padded crate and unwraps it, displaying it to all assembled and allowing the video-drone to get a clear shot, "This fossil of pressurized substrate is smooth in texture. A harp-shaped pattern of fossilized scales is embedded along its surface.".

Oipo shrugs helplessly.

Shulamit says, "Hoo, interesting fossil yes yes. Where was it found? On Song I think you said."

Iesin prods at it gently from a tool in his toolkit.

Oipo gestures towards the attentively hovering drone, which hums in recognition and hovers low to project an incomplete visualization of the fossil, "This large, predatory fish has a streamlined body and a large, toothy snout. Its most distinctive feature is its dorsal fin, which..."

Oipo nods.

Shulamit says, "Ooh hoo, it's a BITEY fish. Lovely!"

Iesin says, "Looks predatorish."

Oipo says, "Yes! So this fossil is from a digsite on Song's surface, at Tabby station."

Shulamit rubs its chin thoughtfully, raises its eyebrow and says, "I see..."

Shulamit says, "Nice place."

Shulamit says, "Well, was, and eventually will be?"

Oipo nods sadly, "Hopefully will be - sometime soon. This specimen is very damaged, not surprising given the conditions there, so we will be conducting invasive research, so feel free to chip away at it and similar."

Oipo says, "Ah! Also, this species has been named the 'harp-finned Songfish'"

Shulamit claps its tendrils together cheerfully. "Invasive is much fun! I try and be careful. You'd think we'd be less so in Scatterhome, hoo..." it says, before leaning over close to the fossil to smell the aroma. "Mmm old. Oh, it has a name? Delightful!"

Oipo grins and nods at Shulamit.

Iesin takes a screw driver and gently pries up one of the scales to look underneath.

Shulamit watches intently, curious to see what is underneath.

Oipo peers over at Iesin's work, tilting his head to try to get a different visual perspective, "Anything interesting there?"

Iesin says, "Is this from an organ or something?"

Iesin steps back as he reveals soft inners under the scale.

Shulamit says, "Scales are generally on the outside of a creature, but sometimes can be inside. Perhaps as some sort of..."

Shulamit looks distracted for a second. "Hoo, sorry. Yes. Scales outside as armor."

Shulamit nods its head slowly, looking very wise.

Oipo says, "The fossil? I think we've hypothesized it to be the dorsal fin of the fish, maybe some surrounding tissue."

Iesin says, "It could be hardened protection."

Oipo nods at Iesin.

Shulamit says, "For the inside? That's a lot of energy for internals."

Iesin says, "Less chance of beeing easy pray."

Oipo sucks thoughtfully on his teeth.

Shulamit says, "Hoo yes! Still very energy intensive. Why many species keep the hard stuff on the outside. If something gets inside, well, already very badly off."

Shulamit thumps its barky torso. "Very hard outside! Squishy inside. Do not let people know."

Shulamit nods solemnly.

Iesin says, "Depends on the species, it might not be as energy intensive as you think."

"Heh heh heh," Shulamit chuckles.

Shulamit says, "Perhaps! Odder species do exist. Like that weird crab I saw once, hoo..."

Iesin ruffles his wings and continues to stare at the thing.

Oipo says, "I think you're onto something there with the defensive mechanisms. I think this fish is probably predatory as mentioned, but we don't know how high up the food chain it was."

Shulamit says, "If it is a predatory fish, other smaller n...not predatory fish would be required to sustain it, right? At the least, a few. Do you have any specimens of those?"

Oipo nods at Shulamit, "Let me check our files." before his eyes glaze over as he utilizes his mindsim.

Shulamit nods its head slowly, looking very wise.

Oipo blinks once as his focus returns, saying, "Sadly, we haven't been able to recover any other marine specimens, though previous research on the kicew tree fossils that have been found at Tabby station shows that it grew in muddy ground - so some form of salt marsh or estuary system is also possible for this fish."

Shulamit says, "With the damage to the planet, simply none might have survived. Perhaps this critter dwelt very deeply, or inside rocks when not hunting."

Oipo nods at Shulamit.

Iesin says, "Maybe I should have ran another song site instead."

Shulamit says, "Is there another site on Song?"

Oipo says to Iesin, "Ah, we have lots of specimens from there, its mostly research progress that is lacking for that site."

Iesin nods.

Shulamit says, "Ah hoo, you mean you went to Not Song."

Shulamit nods its head slowly, looking very wise.

Oipo grins and nods at Shulamit.

Shulamit says, "The museum expansion was put through on Scatterhome, so I need to setup the Ishbi wing hoo yes."

Shulamit says, "I don't...think Ishbi will have many fish."

Shulamit nods to itself as though amused.

The corners of Oipo's mouth turn up in a mischievous grin.

Oipo says, "Okay, so, hypotheses on this fish? So we have an idea on which parts to focus our destructive study?"

Shulamit says, "Hoo hmm. Perhaps study the wee scalies and see if the flesh is inside or outside flesh. That *is* how flesh works, right?"

Shulamit scratches its head in confusion.

Iesin says, "Find out if its armor or not."

Iesin says, "Also where this might have wound up on the eco food chain."

Oipo grins mischievously at Shulamit.

Oipo nods at Iesin.

Shulamit hums a happy tune.

Oipo inches his face closer to the chipped fossil before fishing a pair of tweezers out of one of his jumpsuit pockets. He carefully tugs at a scuffed scale embedded in the fossilized substrate, grinning as it detaches without much resistance. Oipo hums as he holds it up to the light.

Shulamit ogles the tiny scale, nodding solemnly.

Iesin eyes the scale thoughtfully.

Oipo shifts the angle at which he holds the scale to the light. The scale seems only slightly translucent, though it is hard to determine if this is the fossilization's effect on it. "Ah, I know there are many variations of fish scales, but without molecular or similar lab analysis, my expertise here is limited." Oipo carefully places the detached scale onto a convenient petri dish.

Shulamit nods slowly.

Shulamit says, "Perhaps can send it away for testing at a bigger lab, hoo hoo. For next study."

Iesin says, "Probably the b est idea."

Oipo says, "It does seem quite sturdy, not much give to the structural integrity, so probably good armour protection."

Oipo nods at Shulamit.

Shulamit says, "Enough for a fishy."

Oipo says, "I think they'll need more samples to work with at the labs, so do you want to extract the other pieces of scale from this fossil? Then we can chip some other samples for the lab."

Shulamit nods solemnly before wriggling several tendrils into a tendril glove. With a gentle plucking motion, it wiggles a scale off the fossil, gently placing it with the other scale.

Iesin says, "Maybe two will be enough."

"Heh heh heh," Shulamit chuckles.

Shulamit says, "Perhaps! Science has come far."

Shulamit acknowledges the point with a grave nod of its head.

Shulamit says, "It certainly can't be placed out for exhibition anymore though, missing those scalies."

Oipo nods.

Oipo says, "Yes, especially once those scientists are through with it!"

Acknowledging Oipo's point to be true, Shulamit nods its head gravely at him.

Iesin says, "I'm more of a field work guy myself."

Shulamit nods solemnly at Iesin.

Oipo grins and nods at Iesin.

Oipo claps his hands together merrily.

Shulamit says, "We need the field beings, extremely important! Without them, no study, hoo hoo!"

Shulamit acknowledges the point with a grave nod of its head.

Oipo says, "Okay, so I can go ahead and set these samples and the fossil aside for the lab crew. Unless either of you have any other poking you want to do?"

Iesin says, "I'm good."

Shulamit says, "Hoo, I have poked all I wish to poke!"

Shulamit acknowledges the point with a grave nod of its head.

Oipo collects the damaged fossil from its location on the lab table, carefully depositing it safely into a new crate with a red sticker and a hastily configured holotag on it, then sets the crate aside, petri dish secured and placed on top of the crate with a similarly configured holotag.

Oipo beckons to the recording drone and it flies closer on scrap-wings, allowing him to click a button on the underside of the drone, which gives a single "beep" in confirmation as recording stops.

Oipo says, "Thank you both for attending!"

Iesin nods.