To students in biological science professor Prosanta Chakrabarty’s ichthyology class, exotic fish and daily field trips aren’t unusual. In fact, they are the core of Chakrabarty’s curriculum.
Chakrabarty, curator of ichthyology for the LSU Museum of Natural Science — which is housed in the Louisiana Museum of Natural History — said students spend a handful of his class periods at freshwater sites throughout Louisiana, like the Lake Pontchartrain and Mississippi River drainages. There, they get hands-on experience collecting and identifying fish, something many naturalists and natural historians do for a living.
“There’s something special about ichthyology, and it is one of those classes that I hope everyone remembers forever,” Chakrabarty said. “When my students think about LSU, it’s not important to me that they remembered the genus and species of a certain fish — it’s about the experience.”
Few universities across the nation offer students the opportunity to study specialized biology subjects, such as ichthyology or ornithology, at the undergraduate level, Chakrabarty said. Even fewer have natural history museums, such as those at LSU, Harvard and University of California, Berkeley.
Chakrabarty, who originally intended on becoming a zoologist, has been teaching ichthyology and evolution at LSU for seven years, alternating the two courses each year.
During his time at the university, Chakrabarty has taken students to several local water habitats to collect fish. The first weekend of October, he will take students to Cocodrie, Louisiana, for the first time.
Funding for Chakrabarty’s field trips comes from the university’s biology department. Chakrabarty said students do not pay for any of the trips, which roughly cost $30 per student.
Biological sciences senior Alyssa Chauviere said her favorite part of Chakrabarty’s class is collecting fish in the field because it better prepares her for exams in which she has to identify fish.
“You get to get in the water and really embrace the whole experience,” Chauviere said. “It’s so much fun, and I gain a better understanding of the diversity of fish that way.”
Chakrabarty said he wishes more students could be enrolled in his class, but transportation restrictions and the seven hour Monday class period do not allow for that.
Aside from conducting field studies and learning fish identification, Chakrabarty teaches his students how to collect DNA samples and hosts lab dissections of fish such as lampreys, hagfish and sharks.
“I expect my students not to just look at fish in jars, but to understand what a fish curator does and collects,” Chakrabarty said.
Students’ studies do not only occur in places such as Cocodrie and the river delta, but also in the basement of the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes, which houses a tank of roughly 500,000 fish.
Chakrabarty said the tank, which will soon move to the LSU Museum of Natural Science in Foster Hall, holds fish from his recent trips outside of Louisiana.
“The things we do are pretty rare, great opportunities where someone can really learn to be a master naturalist,” Chakrabarty said. “They get to see a glimpse of what [natural historians] do, and that’s what I love.”

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courtesy of Prosanta Chakrabarty

Ichthyology