Annmarie Fearing

I have been working in the sawfish field for about 8 years and it all started when I was an undergraduate student volunteering for the Florida Museum of Natural History. The museum basement that I volunteered in was full of these amazingly odd sawfish saws and I thought these animals were the strangest things I had ever seen. Years later my graduate work revolves around finding these saws in museum basements, people’s homes, etc. to assess the genetic health of Largetooth Sawfish. I have completed a master's with Dr. Nicole Phillips assessing Largetooth Sawfish genetic health and I am pursuing my Ph.D. to expand on this work.

I am passionate about using museum specimens to help conserve biodiversity on Earth and spreading this message to the public. So many amazing specimens are available to the scientific community to answer our questions about species and our use of sawfish saws demonstrates this. Outreach is a great way to show how useful museum specimens can be to science and it gives the public a chance to see what goes on behind the exhibits at a museum. Many people do not realize there are millions of specimens found below their feet in museum basements and I would love to help remedy this. Sawfish saws provide the perfect specimens to wow and entice the public and I hope to continue this outreach with sawfish during my trip to Brazil!

April 2023