Australian Brush-turkey chick shortly after hatching and emerging
from incubation mound and showing well-developed flight feathers.
Photo: Burke Museum.
By Sharon Birks
Did you know that not all birds sit on their eggs to incubate them? Megapodes (family Megapodiidae)—a fascinating group of birds named for their large feet—cleverly harness environmental heat sources to incubate their eggs.
Depending on the species and location, megapodes may lay their eggs in burrows dug in sun-warmed beaches or geothermally active areas, or they may build large incubation mounds that function like compost piles and generate heat through decomposition.
Although most megapodes look like distant chicken relatives (they are), their unique incubation behavior has driven a suite of unusual adaptations, including:
large feet to help them dig burrows or build mounds;
thin, porous egg shells to help eggs “breathe” underground; and
the ability for chicks to dig themselves out from under several feet of soil after hatching and emerge ready to fly and fend for themselves.
Imagine the Archaeology Department’s surprise when they got a call from the WA State Archives requesting help with 12 boxes of artifacts from the Insane Asylum of Washington Territory.
Turns out that along with the historic hospital records from what has become Western State Hospital in Lakewood, WA, some artifacts were also transferred to the State Archives. The State Archivist realized these collections belonged in an appropriate repository, and contacted the Burke Museum.
But why are there artifacts coming from the Western State Hospital, the State’s psychiatric hospital? Due to the proposed construction of a new wing in the 1980s, archaeologists from the Office of Public Archaeology on the University of Washington campus were called in to investigate the land that is part of the Fort Steilacoom Historic District.
Archaeologists identified, among other things, remnants of a wooden structure dating to circa 1850-1890 and a privy dating to circa 1850-1920. This site was originally a Steilacoom band winter settlement site. In the 1830s, the site was occupied by Joseph Thomas Heath, who ran a Hudson’s Bay Company farm. It was taken over by the U.S. Army in 1849 when Heath succumbed to measles. The U.S. Army established Fort Steilacoom which housed a military hospital and surgeon’s quarters. The fort was abandoned in the 1868, and was purchased by Washington Territory, in part, to establish a facility for psychiatric patients.
This Fall, a group of UW Museology students from Museum 581: Preservation and Management of Collections, has been working with the Burke Museum's Archaeology department to rehouse and catalog the artifacts found at the site.
The artifacts include glass bottles and fragments, nails, clay pipes, ceramic sherds, metal buttons, bricks and a favorite here in the Archaeology lab, a leather shoe with shoelaces intact. This project provides a learning experience for Museology students in terms of the depth and breadth of archaeological collections, as well as the practical experience of organizing such a varied collection.
Last week, the Washington State Department of Transportation opened Milepost 31 (MP31), a new public information center in the heart of Pioneer Square. This center was championed by a group of neighborhood and historic preservation organizations brought together as part of the Section 106 process of the National Historic Preservation Act, which requires that states work to offset potential construction effects in historic places like Pioneer Square.
MP31 highlights the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement process and the history of Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood. Several organizations, including the Burke Museum, History Link, the Tulalip Tribes, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, and the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe contributed to the exhibit.
MP31 provides a unique opportunity for visitors to see how geology, archaeology, current events, and cultural heritage inform the history of Puget Sound and the future of our city.
While WSDOT conducts environmental and cultural research to comply with federal and state laws for every major construction project, MP31 represents an unprecedented effort to share this invaluable information and engage local Native communities and the general public in our shared heritage.
The Burke Museum’s Waterlines Project team curated the “Moving Land” section of MP31. Our Waterlines team has been working together for almost 8 years and is led by Burke Curator of Archaeology Dr. Peter Lape, Puget Sound River History Project staff member Amir Sheikh and research artist Donald Fels. The team explores Seattle’s history by examining the natural and human impacts on the city’s shorelines, and works to apply this knowledge to urban development decisions today.
As you walk through “Moving Land,” large columns containing soil layers from test drillings envelop you in the space. These columns literally share the history beneath your feet from a layer of peat of a long buried tidal lagoon under present-day Occidental Park to the sawdust from Yesler’s Mill that filled it. Also under your feet is an eye-catching floor map allows you to trace the history of Seattle’s changing shoreline.
Moving Land highlights monumental moments in Seattle’s development, from the Denny Regrade to a severe earthquake that occurred 1,100 years ago and still lives on in local Native American stories.
A video follows the histories of people and communities on Seattle’s transforming shores from the Native village site of Djidjila'letch to the heart of the metropolis we know today.
Over the past week, there has been a lot of public discussion about MP31. The center brings up concerns about tax dollars and the issue of the Viaduct replacement. But it also provides an opportunity for the Burke Museum and our collaborators to share our work with the community outside the museum’s walls and foster public discussion that helps us learn from the past and plan for the future.
Squirrels – you probably see them every day in the Seattle area and may even overlook their presence, but these common creatures have an interesting history. The University of Washington Daily's "Double Shot" sought to find out more about the squirrels on UW's campus. They came to the Burke's mammalogy collection to speak with Collection Manager Jeff Bradley and talk about changes in the local squirrel populations over time. Watch the video to find out more!
You can see some of the Burke Museum's squirrel specimens and hundreds of other specimens for yourself at Meet the Mammals on Saturday, November 12, 10 am – 4 pm.
Museum collections come from a variety of different sources. Sometimes they are donated by individuals and families, other times they are donated by other museums, cultural organizations or state agencies, and often, volunteers, researchers, and employees of the museum go out and collect themselves. These trips can take you down the street or around the world.
Regan Dunn, a UW graduate student who works in Burke Curator of Paleobotany Dr. Caroline Strömberg's lab, was in Costa Rica this summer conducting original research in the field. By looking at the shape of plant cells (phytoliths) and amount of sunlight those plants receives, Regan is trying to determine if there is a correlation between the two. By analyzing current ecological environments, Regan hopes to reconstruct and better understand past environments.
While Regan was in Costa Rica, Dr. Strömberg and Regan worked with the Burke Museum’s “Girls in Science” summer camp. Specifically, the girls examined phytoliths, learned about Paleoecology, and even conducted research on Tiger Mountain that replicated Regan’s field work. At the end of the day on the mountain, the girls came back to the Burke and talked with Regan about her research via Skype. They talked about what life in the field is like and even compared findings. Watch the video below to find out more – those rubber boots would work great for Seattle-based field work, too!
This month’s Volunteer Spotlight blog features Jeff Benca, a UW undergraduate student and volunteer in the Burke Museum’s Paleobotany division.
Jessica: How did you begin volunteering at the Burke?
Jeff: I started volunteering at the Burke back in high school for the arachnid collection with Rod Crawford. While spiders, insects, and reptiles were a major interest for me, I had thought that plants were rather boring until I started raising carnivorous plants. After I started working at the UW Botany Greenhouse before graduating from high school, I got particularly interested in early land plants and started building up a teaching and research collection of the most ancient group of vascular plants alive today: clubmosses. It was after I had started this collection that I met Dr. Caroline Strömberg, Burke Curator of Paleobotany. Through her I met another volunteer, Maureen Carlisle, who found plant fossils from a new fossil locality which included clubmosses and she was looking for someone that might be interested in describing these fossils. I happily got on board with describing clubmosses from this new fossil flora, which is what I do now at the Burke.
The work I do essentially allows me to be a perpetual kid – I get to work with ridiculously cool plants at the UW Botany Greenhouse, dig for fossils in near and far-off places while working with awesome fossil collections at the Burke. On top of this I actually get to grow plants that are extremely similar to the 390 million year-old fossils I study.
Jessica: What are you researching at the museum?
Jeff: I am studying clubmoss fossils found in northern Washington that existed 390 million years ago in the Devonian Period; for context: the bolide impact that played a role in wiping out the dinosaurs occurred approximately 65 million years ago. In the Early and Middle stages of the Devonian, the landscape was pretty bare; there were lots of open wetlands dominated by small spore-bearing herbs but no trees. Giant sea scorpions and armored fishes patrolled the world’s vast tropical oceans and the poles had little to no icecaps. It was a pretty alien sounding environment, which is also why I find it so interesting.
Jessica: What do you like most about volunteering at the Burke?
Jeff:I get access to all these crazy fossils that are so nicely organized and taken care of as well as a fantastic team of curators and paleobiologists. I want to encourage other students interested in paleobotanical or paleontological research in general to get involved at the Burke because they can give undergraduate research students incredible access to the collections. The faculty and collections managers at the Burke are welcoming to students with research project ideas that are mentored by Burke or university faculty, or to students that are interested in volunteering through helping organize and catalogue the fossil collections or help prep fossils.
Jessica: I heard you’ve won some awards and recognition recently – can you tell me about that?
Jeff: Dr. Strömberg and I are currently writing a paper on a potentially new species of clubmoss as well as a second paper on a global analysis comparing morphology in Leclercqia across six continents. Recently, I received the Isabel C. Cookson Paleobotanical Award for the best paper presented by a student in paleobotany and palynology at the Botanical Society of America conference this summer for presenting on these two projects. Usually this award is given to a graduate student, so I was surprised to receive it as an undergraduate. I feel fortunate as this award can possibly help generate additional recognition for the Burke Museum and its Paleobotany Collection as a great resource for researchers. I also recently received a National Geographic Young Explorer grant to study changes in clubmoss and fern leaf structure in response to climate change in Hawaii this September for a few weeks and will be joined by another regular at the Burke Museum, Adam Huttenlocker, a graduate student of vertebrate paleontology curator Dr. Christian Sidor for this work.
Thank you, Jeff, for the great work you do for the Burke and congratulations!
Congrats to two UW graduate students working with Burke Curator of Genetic Resources and Herpetology, Adam Leache: Matt McElroy and Rebecca Harris! They were recently awarded prestigious National Science Foundation Fellowships. The fellowships strive to fund graduate students who have a history of being successful at research and outreach. The fellowship provides three years of funding, allowing Matt and Rebecca to dedicate more time to research. It’s no wonder they were awarded this prestigious award, they’re both studying really cool things!
Matt is interested in how lizards adapt to different thermal environments and will be traveling to Puerto Rico to study Anolis lizard species.
Matt: “I am interested in how lizards adapt to different thermal environments. Since lizards absorb heat from the sun and their surroundings, the habitat a lizard finds itself in will influence its body temperate and physiological performance. On Puerto Rico in the Caribbean, species of Anolis lizards utilize either cool closed-canopy forests or hot open-canopy habitats. Interestingly, closely related species in this group use different thermal environments, indicating that species may have diversified when populations adapted to different thermal habitats. At some point in Puerto Rico’s past, four species split into eight, and my research aims to understand how and why this happened.”
Matt: “I am really excited to go to Puerto Rico and collect lizards and genetic material for this project. Doing fieldwork is an amazing experience – you learn a lot about new habitats, new animals, new cultures, even new things about yourself. As I prepare for summer fieldwork, you may find me reading articles in the office or practicing my baile de salsa out on the dance floor!”
Rebecca is pursuing how species change through hybridization and how large chunks of DNA are transferred when two different species hybridize.
Rebecca: “Evolution occurs at multiple different levels, including changes in the structure and organization of chromosomes. I’m interested in the role of these changes in speciation and how these large chunks of DNA transfer when two different species hybridize. In 1983, the Pytilia finches, a genus of African finches, were shown to have numerous chromosomal rearrangements, but no technology was available to look any closer at these areas. Now, thanks to the human genome project, there are techniques available to explore the actual nature of these rearrangements – a task made even easier by the completion of the zebra finch genome. My proposed study system is a two Pytilia species thought to be hybridizing in the mountains of Malawi.”
We've been reporting on the Antarctic fossil expedition that our vertebrate paleontology curator and two of his graduate students are currently part of, and we're getting really excited for them to return to Seattle in a couple of weeks! Once they have a chance to share which fossils they found, we'll definitely post about it on this blog.
You may have watched the video we posted earlier of UW grad students Brandon and Adam describing what their journey to the southern-most continent would be like; in the same recording session, they also talked about why they were going to Antarctica to look for fossils. The second half of the video is a short tour of some of the Antarctic specimens currently in the paleontology collection at the museum (Kryostega! Thrinaxodon! Lystrosaurus!). Take a look:
Two weeks ago, a team of paleontologists from the museum began their journey to Antarctica for a two-month fossil hunting expedition. If you missed the video we posted about what the actual trip down to the southern-most continent is like, watch it here.
Well, they made it:
Exiting the plane at McMurdo Station in Antarctica.
The Burke team is joined by scientists from The Field Museum, Augustana College, the University of Alberta, and the Iziko South African Museum. Together, the group is looking for dinosaurs and other fossils in the Transantarctic Mountains.
If you’re curious to know more about what it’s like to conduct field work in such an extreme place as Antarctica, The Field Museum has an excellent expedition website with lots of totally fascinating information about this 2010-11 Antarctic expedition.
I easily got sucked into the site, which includes photos of camp life, dispatches from the field, and more about the fossils that have been found in Antarctica so far. Here are three surprising things I learned from The Field Museum’s expedition site:
• Back in the day (i.e. 250 million years ago), the Earth had no polar ice caps. Antarctica was part of the super-continent Pangaea and was actually temperate in climate, hence the abundance of plant and animal fossils from species that would never survive in polar Antarctica today.
• Of the species found in Antarctica so far, many were wholly new to science, such as the first dinosaur found on the continent, Crylophosaurus.
• Because of the severe cold and altitude, many of the traditional tools used to stabilize fossils (e.g. fossils and glue) don’t work in Antarctica. As a solution, excavators will wrap small fossils in toilet paper to protect them in transit back to the United States.
Before leaving Chicago to meet up with our crew from Seattle in Antarctica, two of the paleontologists from The Field Museum recorded this video about their expedition. Watch it to learn more about what their goals are for this trip:
Think your holiday travel plans are extreme? Can you imagine if you were traveling to Antarctica? That's exactly what Burke Museum curator of vertebrate paleontology Christian Sidor and two UW graduate students, Adam Huttonlocker and Brandon Peecock, are doing this Sunday, as they depart for a two-month trip to search for fossils in Antarctica. Along with an intrpeid group of paleontologists and geologists from across the country, the Burke team will explore the rocks of the central Transantarctic Mountains for evidence of ancient life.
So how does one actually get to Antarctica? Unsurprisngly, it's not quite as simple as just booking a flight. I sat down with Adam and Brandon the week before their trip to talk more about what it takes travel to the world's harshest, coldest continent. In this short video, they discuss what it will be like to arrive in Antarctica for the first time:
Last week, generous Burke Museum supporter and University of Washington professor Estella Leopold was awarded the prestigious International Cosmos Prize, which recognizes "Those who have, through their work, applied and realized the ideals which the Foundation strives to preserve how ... we as human beings can truly respect and live in harmony with nature" (Read a Seattle Times article about the award here).
Estella, 83, has been teaching and conducting research for more than 60 years, 35 of them at the UW. Among many other accomplishments, she pioneered the use of fossilized pollen and spores in North America to understand how plants and ecosystems respond over eons to such things as climate change. In 2005, she helped create an endowment at the UW in support of plant fossil research, the Estella B. Leopold professorship and curator of paleobotany at the Burke Museum, currently held by Dr. Caroline Strömberg, who studies Cenozoic evolution of grasses.
Estella is also famous for pushing the federal government to form the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument to preserve part of a spectacular paleobotanical site in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. This area had been on private land and had been a commercial collecting site since homesteaders opened small quarries in the 1870s – visitors could collect a few meters from the train that brought them up there from Colorado Springs. For over 100 years, fossil leaves, flowers, fruits and a huge variety of insects were collected and sent to university museums, as well the Smithsonian, America Museum, and the Denver Museum of Natural History (The Burke actually holds Estella’s own fossil collection).
In 1968 a real-estate developer planned a subdivision of small holiday homes on top of the fossil beds. Estella, with Vim Wright and Beatrice Willard, formed the Defenders of Florissant and fought in court for legislation to protect these fossil beds. It was a tough fight, but in August 1969 a bill was passed to establish 6,000 acres as the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. The first thing you see when you walk into the one-room visitors’ center at the National Monument is a picture of Estella.
An exciting new development is now available on the Burke Museum’s Web site: the Burke Museum Publications Database is a new online tool that makes collections-based research at the museum more accessible to all! This new Web page presents the different ways Burke Museum collections are used for published research. Not only do Burke professionals conduct their own research, but the museum also collaborates with other researchers worldwide by providing access to Burke collections; this research often ends up published in scientific journals for others to access in the future.
The Burke’s Genetic Resources Collection (GRC) Manager Sharon Birks worked with our web team to build a search engine of about 260 publications from the GRC division alone! Most publications have a short summary (abstract), and Sharon also wrote more in-depth introductions to three highlighted publications that experts and novices alike can appreciate. These three highlighted publications on the research from Genetic Resources are posted here.
In the future, other Burke collections divisions will add their publications to the websites as well. So check the pages regularly to read about more exciting findings and watch the database grow!
If you follow the Burke Museum’s blog regularly, you probably read the recent blog about my trip to the Burke’s Fisheries collection. Last week, I went on another behind the scenes tour to the Burke’s Herbarium.
The Herbarium has approximately 625,000 specimens that range from vascular plants, lichen, algae, mosses and fungi. The Burke Museum’s Herbarium has a primary focus of the flora of the Pacific Northwest. An average of 700 people from all over the world visit the Herbarium each year to access its unique collections, and the research involving these specimens can help answer important questions that affect us all.
Botany Curator Richard Olmstead holding algae specimens
What are a few of the many ways we can learn from herbia specimens? Burke Curator of Botany Richard Olmstead and Herbarium Collections Manager David Giblin analyze specimens collected over time to compare changes in floral life from natural disasters, human impact and climate change. From 2005 – 2009, David led a series of botanical surveys (i.e. collecting trips) in the San Juan Islands to create a baseline understanding of the plant diversity found on small islands throughout the archipelago. Plant life in coastal areas may be severely impacted under various climate change scenarios, and the findings from these trips can serve as a benchmark against which future changes can be compared.
David’s team of students, volunteers and fellow scientists visited approximately 90 islands in the San Juans, and one of the highlights was the discovering a previously undescribed species of paintbrush. The years of hard work from Burke Museum staff and community members can help future generations address the world’s changing environments."
Photo 2: a map of forays that the Burke Museum Herbarium has conducted since Herbarium staff started the forays in 1996. The Burke Museum partners with many different organizations to conduct these collecting trips. Here is a key to the different colors of thumbtack that represent these different types of forays: -Red: University of Washington forays -White: National Park Service forays -Blue: Cedar River Watershed forays -Green: General collecting trips
Located in the Burke Museum’s lobby, a display currently case holds some important research conducted by Burke vertebrate paleontology curator Dr. Christian Sidor. Specifically, The Sahara before Dinosaurs mini-exhibit displays the objects and research collected by Sidor during expeditions to northern Niger. Research is connected to both science and culture, so the display highlights fieldwork, lab work, and the broader impact of research findings on the public.
During these expeditions, Sidor has been studying the Late Permian period (240—250 million years ago), before dinosaurs roamed the earth. Northern Niger has been the location of his trips because he is specifically examining which plants and animals lived near the equator during this period of time.
Based on information found in the fossils collected, Sidor and his research colleagues concluded that the supercontinent Pangea that existed during the Permian period had a desert-like center. Because of this climatic barrier, the animals in Niger were isolated from the rest of Pangea.
The Sahara before Dinosaurs display will be on view until October 3rd. Come see the display for yourself and view collections that include fossilized remains of Permian reptiles and a giant amphibian!
Posted By: Andrea Barber, Communications
Photos: (Top) The Sahara Before Dinosaurs display case in the Burke Museum lobby; (bottom)Pangea drawing courtesy of USGS
Drilling in construction sites is common practice. But what happens when you unearth something unusual? An exciting predicament happened to construction workers a few weeks ago, and the Burke Museum is helping solve the puzzle.
It all started while drilling in Ridgefield, WA, where construction is underway at the I-5 corridor. When the drill reached 30 feet underground, pieces of wood-like fragments emerged, and Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) inspector Brad Clark took notice. The “wood” had fibers and when pieced together, resembled a tusk. Sure that the discovery required further investigation, Clark called WSDOT archaeologist Roger Kiers, who then brought the pieces to the Burke Museum in mid-February.
Burke research associate Bax Barton has been analyzing the pieces and suspects that the tusk fragments belonged to a Columbian Mammoth and are approximately 13,000-15,000 years old. Unfortunately, there are no current methods of micro-analysis on a tusk that can determine its species. Bax suspects that the tusk belonged to a Columbian Mammoth based on its age. Columbian Mammoths were common in Washington State, and roamed the region until 10,000 years ago. Although the Columbian Mammoth is the state fossil, discoveries of mammoth tusks are rare.
Tests to confirm whether the tusk belongs to a mammoth or mastodon and the age of the tusk should be completed this month. The Burke is very excited to take part in this discovery. Keep reading the blog for an update once the results come in!
Posted By: Andrea Barber, Communications Photo: the tusk fragments, photo courtesy of Bax Barton
Here’s some breaking news: dinosaurs may have lived much earlier than previously thought!
Burke Museum curator of vertebrate paleontology Christian Sidor and a team of paleontologists recently discovered that a dinosaur-like creature called Asilisaurus kongwe lived as many as 10 million years earlier than the oldest known dinosaurs.
Asilisaurus is part of a sister group to dinosaurs known as silesaurs. Silesaurs are considered dinosaur-like because they share many dinosaur characteristics but still lack key characteristics all dinosaurs share. The relationship between silesaurs and dinosaurs is analogous to the close relationship of humans and chimpanzees. Sidor and his colleagues concluded that dinosaurs might also have lived at the time of Asilisaurus – bumping back the age of the oldest dinosaurs by 10 million years.
The Asilisaurus fossil bones were recovered from a single bone bed in southern Tanzania, making it possible to reconstruct a nearly entire skeleton. The creature would have stood about 1.5 to 3 feet tall and 3 to 10 feet long, weighing between 22 to 66 pounds. The description of the new species appeared in a paper published March 4 in Nature. The lead author is Sterling Nesbitt, at The University of Texas. Sidor is among the co-authors.
An article in the University Week gives more detail about the new species. Christian Sidor was also recently featured on NPR’s Science Friday, in an interview about the discovery. Click here to listen to his interview.
Posted by: MaryAnn Barron Wagner, Communications Photos: (center) A life recreation of Asilisaurus kongwe. Marlene Hill Donnelly, Field Museum; (right) Christian Sidor excavates a fossil from the Manda beds in Tanzana in 2007, photo by L. Tsuji.
Grass is something we all take for granted; it covers 1/3 of the Earth’s land surface, and provides many different sources of food for humans and other animals as well. But when did grasses first appear on the planet? How do they respond to varying climates? And, who/what ate them? These are just a few of the questions that Caroline Strömberg, Curator of Paleobotany at the Burke, seeks to answer when she travels to Patagonia, Argentina this month.
Why Patagonia? Paleontologists believe open grasslands first appeared in South America 30-million years ago, long before they emerged on other continents, based on evidence of large, herbivorous mammals called “meridiungulates” that appear in the fossil record at that time. These mammals had long legs and high-crowned teeth that seem specialized for grass-eating.
The research conducted by Caroline and her colleagues Matt Kohn (Boise State University), Rick Madden (Duke University), and Alfredo Carlini (Museo de La Plata, Argentina) can help answer other important questions that are currently affecting the world today. By analyzing the relationship between meridiungulates and vegetation, the gaps filled in the fossil record through the Patagonia research can help us better understand why, and how, both vegetation and animals respond to climate change.
So good luck, Caroline! We look forward to your return and learning more from your findings!
While I have interacted with visitors to the collection before, this was the first time that it was my responsibility to make sure they had what they needed, knew where to find the specimens they were looking for, and ensure that all the proper paperwork was filled out. Interacting with these researchers and hearing about their work (not to mention watching them take the data they needed) was definitely one of the most interesting parts of my job.
A budding young researcher uses a special tool to measure the size of a rodent during a behind-the-scenes tours of the mammalogy collection.
The first visitor was Jonathan Calede, a graduate student at the University of Oregon. Jonathan is studying the diet of burrowing rodents that lived during the Miocene. This doesn’t sound difficult until you find out that the only specimens he has to study are tiny fossilized rodent teeth! Luckily, the Burke’s mammal collection provides modern rodents for researchers like Jonathan to study. Since we know what modern mammals eat, their teeth serve as great comparisons.
Jonathan has taken some specimens back to Oregon with him, but most of his work was done in the mammal collection itself. First he chose which specimens to study and cleaned the teeth with ethanol. He then made molds of the teeth using the same blue molding compound that dentists use. When the mold is dry it can be peeled off and later filled with epoxy to make a cast of the teeth.
The second researcher was Casey Self, a University of Washington biology graduate student. Casey is also studying teeth and their relationship to diet, but in modern bats rather than rodents. She uses the Small Animal Tomographic Analysis facility (SANTA) in the Department of Pediatrics to micro-CT scan the bat skulls and measure the volume and surface area of the tooth roots. Because Casey cannot remove the teeth from the skulls (as that could compromise the specimens in the collection), this is a non-destructive, highly accurate alternative. Casey has used the collection many times before and will definitely be back to complete more research in the future.
The final visitor was Jacob Fisher, an archaeology PhD candidate at the University of Washington. Jacob uses the mammal collection to identify prehistoric faunal skeleton remains from Five Finger Ridge, an archaeological site occupied during the Fremont-period (AD 450-1350) in central Utah.
During his most recent visit to the mammal collection Jacob focused on identifying rodents, which provide important data on the past environmental conditions at the site. There are larger questions that Jacob is trying to answer with his research. In his words: “the goal of my research is to understand how people impacted the environment, and in particular how underlying motivations for hunting by men may result in resource depletion of some game animals.”
All of the Burke Museum’s collections, not just mammalogy, support interesting research. I am glad I had the opportunity to help a few of those researchers in my time filling in for our regular mammalogy collections manager.
One of our own Burke Museum researchers has been offered a prestigious award in order to contribute to a major scientific collaboration: building the “Encyclopedia of Life.”
Burke doctoral candidate Chris Kenaley, who works with Curator of Fishes, Ted Pietsch, has been offered two awards from the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL). Specifically, Chris will be working on cataloging the diversity of fish in the largest and least-studied biome on Earth, the deep sea. The work Chris and his colleagues contribute to the EOL’s goal to document all 1.8 million species known to science will answer important, unanswered questions, such as how many times fishes have invaded the deep sea.
Chris received funding to lead an international team of scientists in May at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University in order to work on documenting all of the known fishes that live 200-meters-deep and below. He has also been awarded an EOL Rubenstein Fellowship, where he will be contributing to the international effort to create a webpage for each known organism on Earth.
Much of the work Chris will be conducting has never been done before, and there is no doubt that the contributions Chris makes to the EOL project will be used for generations to come. Congratulations!
A new species that is a distant relative of mammals has been identified by Christian A. Sidor, Burke Museum curator of vertebrate paleontology, along with Jörg Fröbisch and Kenneth D. Angielczyk of the Field Museum. Kombuisia antarctica, a plant eater about the size of housecat, is part of a group of extinct mammal relatives called anomodonts. The Kombuisia antarctica’s name is tribute to where the pre-mammal lived, and by inhabiting Antarctica, the species was able to survive one of the most treacherous times on Earth.
The illustration shows the geographic location of Kombuisia antarctica in Antarctica with a reconstruction of how the animal probably looked like in life. (Credit: Jörg Fröbisch, Kenneth D. Angielczyk, and Christian A. Sidor)
About 252 million years ago, at the end of the Permian Period, the world went through the largest known mass extinction in history. Scientists are debating what exactly caused the mass extinction to occur, but one of the likely causes is global warming as a result of major volcanic activity in Siberia. During this tumultuous time for the Earth’s living creatures, Antarctica was actually one of the safest places to be.
It may seem odd to think of Antarctica as a good place to live, but during the Permian Period, the continent was vastly different from the way it is today. The continent was further north, and therefore was warmer and did not have glaciers.
Although Antarctica may have been an inhabitable place for Kombuisia antarctica millions of years ago, scientists today face extreme weather conditions. However, scientific findings and discoveries like Kombuisia antarctica are well worth the expeditions. Sidor’s discovery fills gaps in the fossil record and gives us a better understanding of vertebrate survival throughout Earth’s history.
To learn more about Kombuisia antarctica, click here.
During these expeditions, Sidor has been studying the Late Permian period (240—250 million years ago), before dinosaurs roamed the earth. Northern Niger has been the location of his trips because he is specifically examining which plants and animals lived near the equator during this period of time.
