Transmitted Oblique Off Crossed Circular Polarized Light
Definition/Function:
KINGDOM: Animalia PHYLUM: Chordata CLASS: Mammalia ORDER: Carnivora SUBORDER:
Pinnipedia FAMILY: Phocidae GENUS: Phoca
SPECIES: vitulina
Significance in the Environment:
This is a fur used in coats, wraps, and other articles of clothing. Its presence in an
indoor environment is generally indicative of clothing.
Characteristic Features:
Seal hair is around 20 micrometers wide and about 5 micrometers thick over most of its
body. Visual evidence of the medulla is absent. The
cuticle pattern is imbricate acuminate over the entire length. The scale count is about
3 to 4 per 100 micrometers over most of its length and
a little higher, about 6 per 100 micrometers, near the root and termination. Seal hair
has a refractive index along its length of about 1.56
and perpendicular to its length of about 1.55. It has a birefringence of about 0.01 and
a positive sign of elongation.
Associated Particles:
References:
References with Photographs and/or Drawings
Hausman, Leon Augustus, "Structural charactreistics of the hair of mammals", THE
AMERICAN NATURALIST, vol. 54, no. 635, pp.496-523,
Hausman, Leon Augustus, "Recent studies of hair structure relationships", THE SCIENTIFIC
MONTHLY, pp. 258-277,
Glaister, John, A STUDY OF HAIRS AND WOOLS, Misr Press, Cairo, 1931.
FBI site for Animal Hair Identification:
http://www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/fsc/backissu/july2004/research/2004_03_research02.htm
Keys Only
Mayer, William V., "The hair of California mammals with keys to the dorsal guard hairs
of California mammals", THE AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST,
vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 480-512, 1952.
Stains, Howard J., "Field key to guard hair of middle western furbearers", JOURNAL OF
WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT, vol. 22, no.1, pp. 95-97, January, 1958.
Mathiak, Harold A., "A key to hairs of the mammals of southern Michigan", JOURNAL OF
WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 251-268, October, 1938.
