National Museum of Natural History Unearthed

“Charro” and “Cowboy” Hermit Crabs

This post originally appeared on the Department of Invertebrate Zoology’s blog – No Bones - on February 20, 2013. Thank you to the Department of Invertebrate Zoology for allowing us to repost this piece!

The  Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP) is a Smithsonian initiative in the island of Curaçao which began in 2011 with support from the Consortium for Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet.  I have been studying hermit crabs and other crabs that have been filmed or photographed using a manned submersible named Curasub, which can dive down to 300 m in depth. A rich and spectacularly colored  fauna of hermit crabs, never seen before alive in their original habitats, has been discovered.

 

These three hermit crabs, affectionately called “The Three Amigos” (in reference to the movie starring Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short), use tusk shells for housing. The operculate-shaped chelae allows for a tight closure of the shell when the hermit is fully retracted. The scientific name of this species is Pylopagurus discoidalis (A. Milne-Edwards, 1880), a species of the family Paguridae, never before photographed alive [Photo courtesy of Barry Brown]

 

The DROP program is providing an extraordinary and unique opportunity for taxonomists like me to make direct, live observations of many species that have previously been known exclusively from preserved and colorless specimens in museum collections. The study of these samples, such as those of Pylopagurus discoidalis shown here, is serving to expand and complement collaborative studies on hermit crabs systematic from the Caribbean at large. The specimens are being used to obtain molecular data such as barcodes and DNA sequences, which will be useful for biodiversity assessments, long-term faunal monitoring, and evolutionary studies.

 

A specimen of Pylopagurus discoidalis (A. Milne-Edwards, 1880), perhaps playing “cowboy” while riding on top of a sea cucumber Holothuria (Vaneyothuria) lentiginosa enodis Miller & Pawson [Photo courtesy of Barry Brown]

by Rafael Lemaitre

 

The Field Book Project

SIA 2012-1880, Field notes of Martin H. Moynihan, Barro Colorado, Panama, 1958. Image courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives.

Field books are the original records of scientific research and discovery.  Typical field books might include scientific data on species, habitats, and environments.  They can also take the form of journals and diaries which provide a more personal perspective on field work including accounts of travels, people encountered, and daily events.  Some of my personal favorites are ones that talk about the food that was eaten during these travels, some of which even go into detail notes on the ingredients or preparation of local cuisines.

At the Smithsonian, there are more than 6,000 field books covering two centuries of biodiversity field work.  Representing the work of historic expeditions, well-known scientists and key moments in the history of biological research, many of these are inextricably linked to field books in other collections across the country.  Take the United States Exploring Expedition or Wilkes Expedition as it’s commonly called. With field books from that single expedition now housed at more than a dozen institutions across the country and many not yet available online, finding them all can be a laborious task indeed. 

SIA2012-0664, Starfish specimen collected off the coast of Palmer Peninsula, Antarctica, c. 1962. Image courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives.

To help improve access to these types of materials, the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) and the Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA) came together to form the Field Book Project.  Working together with six other leading natural history organizations, the Field Book Project is developing a Field Book Registry which will make it possible to search and locate field book content through one online location.

Over the 18 months that the project has been underway, the Field Book Project has cataloged more than 4,000 of the Smithsonian field books and highlighted many of them on our blog.  You can read stories about collecting adventures, world travels, methods used to create field books and some of the conservation treatments we use to ensure that these field books are preserved for future generations.  Photographs from these collections are also available on Flickr Commons and give a glimpse into field work conducted over the last century.

SIA2011-0403. Portion of field book page with photograph by Edward Chapin, in Guasca, Colombia, 1942. Image courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives.

 

 

 

 

Start exploring these images and stories, and subscribe to our website newsfeed and blog to see what we find next.

Carolyn Sheffield, Project Manager, Field Book Project

You Asked...They Answered! Q&A with the Human Origins Program

Photo of the extended Smithsonian's Human Origins Program team in Kenya. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Question: How do they celebrate an important discovery?

Response: It’s exciting to make new discoveries in the field! Yet each new discovery brings with it a new batch of hard work. For some discoveries, we recognize there may be years of work ahead of us, in fact, and that might include cleaning and preparing specimens, collecting and analyzing data and then preparing publications of our findings. So, though new discoveries do call for celebration, those celebrations may involve getting back into the field or the lab to see what additional information we might uncover!

Question: What’s one important thing about their recent field experiences that they’d like the Smithsonian’s visitors to understand?

Response: There’s a lot of information that can be learned from field studies. One important thing to know is that field work is a collaborative effort and requires the contributions of many types of scientists. Our team comprises members with varied specialties and this is what allows us to draw conclusions about the lives and environments of our extinct hominin ancestors. To learn more about our field work, please visit our field blog.

Question: How many shots did you have to get for your trip?

Response: That’s a great question! The number and type of vaccinations depend on the countries where we travel. For fieldwork in Kenya, we typically receive vaccinations for diseases including, but not limited to, yellow fever, hepatitis (A and B), and typhoid. Many fieldworkers also take preventative medication for malaria.

Our human family tree. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Question: Has the lost link between human and ape [been] found and understood?

Response:  The term “lost link” or “missing link” is often used to imply that there is one single species that links the great apes (e.g., chimpanzees) and humans. What decades of paleoanthropological research now show is that there are many branches on the human family tree, and no one extinct species or fossil is the link between chimpanzees and modern humans.  In fact, paleoanthropologists have made so many field discoveries that they have uncovered the remains of as many as 20 different fossil hominin species so far. Clearly, a lot has happened since the base of the human family tree split from that of the chimpanzee family tree between 6 and 8 million years ago. And there are many important fossils yet to discover.

Human Origins Program Staff, Smithsonian Institution

 

Dispatches from Olorgesailie

Dr. Rick Potts. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian's Human Origins Program.

(Note: This post originally appeared on the Smithsonian's Human Origins Program website as an introduction to their 2011 field season. Thank you to Dr. Rick Potts for allowing it to be reposted here!)

The study of human evolution is full of exploration, digging, and discovery. This blog tells of our Smithsonian team’s field experiences over the next several weeks as we explore, dig, and discover ancient tools and fossil bones.

This summer we’ll pick up from previous years to tell you about our research and discoveries at the field site in southern Kenya where we’ve worked for many years. Olorgesailie is the name of the site. Pronounced ‘Oh-LORG-eh-SIGH-lee, it’s a Maasai name for an ancient and inactive volcanic mountain on the floor of the East African Rift Valley in southern Kenya. It’s also the name of the surrounding countryside, much of which is a beautiful land of sharp cliffs, eroded hills, and dusty gullies.

Over many, many thousands of years, erosion by wind and rain has cut the ancient layers of sediment that piled up over hundreds of thousands of years. Those layers of dirt preserve lots of stone tools and fossilized remains, which were buried and became embedded in those layers, or strata (as geologists refer to them). From these hardened clues of stones and fossils buried in dirt, our team seeks to piece together an understanding of the lives of early human species and how their lives changed over time. You can think of the clues as an echo of an ancient time. They’re the only things left in the present about who these earlier precursors of our species were, how they lived, and what their surroundings were like.

During the course of this blog, I hope you’ll listen in about how we do this work, and why we think the stone tools and fossils we find are part of a growing understanding of the origin of our species. In fact, I’ll try my best to introduce you to a wide range of topics about our team’s study of human evolution.

As I write this diary from the field, you’ll get a picture of our digs and the people who are part of our research. For now, let me mention Dr. Briana Pobiner, who works with me in the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian. While Briana has her own research in Kenya, she also works with our team back home as our expert in public outreach and education. Briana kindly came over a few weeks ago, before I was able to leave the U.S., to help prepare for the Olorgesailie field season. That involved organizing the Kenya crew and making sure our field vehicles were getting serviced and repaired.

Life outdoors in the dust and sun of the Rift Valley is fun – and also very challenging. It takes us away from our lives back home in the office and classroom, into a world of early ancestors and relatives of our species. It’s no exaggeration to say, I can’t think of anything more rewarding or exciting to do. I hope you enjoy this adventure.   

Click here to read about day one.

- Rick Potts, Director of the Smithsonian's Human Origins Program

Fossil Hunting under the Watchful Eyes of Lions

The Museum’s fossil preparation facility, FossiLab, recently received a shipment of dinosaur fossils from northern Zimbabwe.  They were collected last year by an international team of scientists, including NMNH Dinosaur Curator Matt Carrano.

The fossils, still largely encased in rock, are of two types of dinosaur.  One, a small, primitive meat eater closely related to Coelophysis, was a member of the dinosaur group that eventually gave rise to huge predators like T. rex.  These fossils were found in a “bone bed,” a place where the fossil remains of many individuals are mixed together.  Coelophysis fossils have been found in other bone beds, most famously at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, and the new discovery may help scientists answer questions such as whether Coelophysis and related species lived in groups, and what events led to the death and burial of so many animals at once.  The other Zimbabwean dinosaur is a prosauropod, a medium-sized plant eater that had a large claw on its thumb, a long neck, and leaf-shaped teeth for chopping plant matter.  They seem to have been quite common at a time when the local environment was desert, and researchers wonder why.

The scientists discovered the fossils in a river canyon.  During the rainy season, water courses through the canyon eroding its rock walls and uncovering fossils.  Then, when the rains stop, the riverbed dries up and becomes a convenient path for scientists prospecting for newly exposed fossils – and for lions and elephants traveling through the bush.

Paleontologists are friendly, as a rule, but prospecting can be solitary work.  Team members often spread out to cover as much territory as possible, and as they walk slowly along searching for fossils, they sometimes become oblivious to everything around them.  Obviously, this is not the smartest behavior when large, possibly dangerous animals are nearby, so the team hired a local wildlife guide to keep them out of trouble.  He coached them on what not to do when charged by lions (run), or elephants (stand still) and kept them bunched together in the relative safety of a “herd” as they prospected in the canyon.

The scientists found the tracks of several big cats as they worked in the riverbed, but, to their relief, they came face to face with only one group of predators -- dinosaurs, all safely fossilized.

 Abby Telfer, FossiLab Manager, Paleobiology Department

Image captions and credits (top to bottom): At the Museum, a plaster and burlap field jacket holds a jumble of dinosaur fossils from the bone bed, including a jaw fragment with teeth (center). Photo by A. Telfer; Removing fossils from the canyon wall in Zimbabwe.  Photo by M. Carrano;  Leopard tracks in the dry riverbed. Photo by M. Carrano.

PIG 311 – the Smithsonian and Operation Crossroads

The Washington Post announces the arrival of Pig 311 in DC, September 25, 1946. Image courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.

In 1946, under Operation Crossroads, the U.S. government exploded two atomic bombs at the Bikini Atoll, the beginning of a nuclear testing program that continued into the 1950s. Two Smithsonian scientists traveled to Bikini to participate in a biological survey of the area both prior to and after the tests. Smithsonian scientists also returned one year later, as part of the Bikini Resurvey, to continue their collecting in order to provide data for future researchers on the environmental impact of the atomic bomb tests. The specimens they amassed became part of the National Museum of Natural History’s vast collections.

This work did not mark the end of the Smithsonian’s involvement in Operation Crossroads. One of the planes that recorded radiation levels after the second, "Baker," blast, came to the institution and is on display at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center. And the National Zoological Park became home to Pig 311, one of the few test animals to survive the first atomic bomb or “Able” test.

For the first bomb test, some 3030 rats, 109, mice, 57 guinea pigs, 176 goats and 147 pigs were placed in various locations on the target ships that were anchored at the blast site. These animals were used, in the words of one 1946 Joint Army-Navy Taskforce press release, in order “to provide much needed information on protection, early diagnosis and treatment of personnel who may hereafter be exposed to atomic energy and explosion, either in war or peace.” Uniforms were made for the pigs to see what protection various types of fabric would afford. The hair on some animals was cut to typical human lengths and a variety of skin lotions were tested to see if radiation burns could be minimized. Drone planes and boats recorded a variety of data during and after the blast. Many of the animals died immediately and most others died within two weeks as the effects of radiation poisoning took their toll.

One exception was a pig that survived the sinking of her ship and, to everyone’s surprise, was found swimming for shore in one of the lagoons. Pig 311 was recovered and sent to the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, for observation. Three years later, on April 4, 1949, Pig 311 was given to the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park, where she was put on display. Despite several attempts at breeding, she produced no offspring, leading scientists to speculate that she had been sterilized by the radiation. She died at the zoo in 1950. Read Time Magazine’s 1949 story about Pig 311: “This Little Pig Came Home.”

The National Zoo also held Goat 315, one of the other rare survivors of the Able blast, as well as three coconut crabs captured on Bikini by Frederick Bayer in 1947 during the Scientific Resurvey. They were three of five crabs and one dog found alive on the island—the only animals discovered—when the scientists returned for further fieldwork one year after the blasts. The dog was adopted by sailors on the U.S.S. Chilton, and the two other crabs were deposited at an aquarium in San Francisco. For more information on the use of animals in atomic tests, see the National Library of Medicine online exhibit, “Animals as Cold Warriors: Missiles, Medicine, and Man's Best Friend.”

To read more about the Smithsonian and Operation Crossroads, visit the centennial website.

Heather Ewing, Research Associate, Smithsonian Institution Archives

Tiny Fossils, Big Excitement

FossiLab volunteer Suzy McIntire projects the magnified image from her microscope as she hunts through matrix at the Museum. Image courtesy of A. Telfer.

Visitors to FossiLab, the fossil preparation laboratory in the ancient life halls of the Museum, see work that normally goes on behind the scenes at museums.  They watch specially trained volunteers prepare fossils for scientific study, display, or storage in our enormous collections, and sometimes they witness exciting discoveries.

Most of the fossils we work on in FossiLab were found and excavated by Smithsonian paleobiologists (scientists who study ancient life), whose research takes them to remote places around the world.  When the packing crates containing their discoveries arrive in FossiLab, we pull out our tools and get to work.  Right now, we are cleaning T. rex foot bones, the skull of a brontothere (an extinct relative of horses and rhinos) embedded in a massive block of rock, and a couple of whale skulls.  Removing all the rock from these behemoths is interesting and fun, but we often wish we’d been there when the fossils were discovered -- wouldn’t it be cool to be the first person to see something that had been buried in the earth for millions of years!  That’s why we get so excited when we open a crate and find bags containing loose bits of broken-up rock, not “just another” T. rex bone.   The lumps of sedimentary rock, or “matrix,” offer a chance to make fossil discoveries right here at the Museum!

When scientists go out prospecting for fossils, erosion is their best friend.  Most of the “life” of a fossil is spent deep underground, encased in rock, and it is only after erosion slowly breaks apart the rock matrix covering it that a fossil can be discovered.  Scientists searching for the fossil remains of big animals walk along eroding hillsides and look for bones protruding from the earth or for telltale bone fragments at the bottom of a slope.  If they spot something that looks interesting, they remove the loose matrix and carefully trace the remains back into the hill, hoping to find more bone entombed in the rock.

Petrified Forest Expedition team member Amelia Villaseñor searches the ground for small fossils. Image courtesy of A.K. Behrensmeyer.

But paleobiologists don’t always go for the big stuff.  All fossils provide important evidence about the history of life, ancient ecosystems and environments, and for some research, finding the fossils of tiny creatures becomes Job #1.  Prospecting for small fossils requires enormous patience and keen observation, and some people are really good at spotting bits of tiny bones and teeth eroding from the same outcrops that hold the fossils of larger animals. That is when shovels fill canvas bags with as much broken-up matrix as the scientists can carry, and crates full of matrix make their way to back to the Museum.

In FossiLab, we have time to do a more thorough search of the crumbling matrix.  We use a microscope so that we can see even the tiniest bones and teeth, and we don’t have to contend with the dripping sweat, too-bright sunshine, blowing dust, and cramped muscles that make it so difficult to spot small fossils out in the field.

A minute tooth fragment discovered in FossiLab. Image courtesy of S. McIntire.

Lately, we have been looking through matrix from Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, finding the pencil tip-sized teeth of very small reptiles, and even fragments of dinosaur teeth.  This matrix was collected last spring by Museum paleobiologist Dr. Kay Behrensmeyer and her colleagues. The goal of their expedition was to find fossils of mouse-sized early mammals and evidence of the environments where they lived during the Late Triassic Period, more than 200 million years ago. Although the area was once wet and green, there is no water there today.  The eroded badlands are so rugged, and the fossil-bearing rock outcrops so far from the road, that they had never been explored by paleontologists.  Kay’s team solved the challenge of setting up camp near the outcrops by hiring Navajo wranglers from a nearby ranch to transport their gear and water on pack horses and mules. The scientists prospected and collected on the outcrop for nearly a week, and when the wranglers returned to help them pack out, bags of matrix began the journey to FossiLab tied to the saddle of a strong black mustang.

Now, new bits of interesting teeth and bones turn up regularly under the FossiLab microscope, while Museum visitors follow the fossil search in real time on a large TV screen.  So far we’ve found no mammal fossils, but the other tiny teeth are providing lots of clues about life in Arizona during the Triassic – and the thrill of discovery at FossiLab.

Abby Telfer, FossiLab Manager, Paleobiology Department

Crowdsourcing Via Social Media Allows Rapid Remote Taxonomic Identification

Fish identified as Hypostomus taphorni. Image courtesy of Whit Bronaugh, a graduate student at Oregon State University.

Last month, a Smithsonian (NMNH)-sponsored team of ichthyologists performed the first survey of the fish diversity in the Cuyuni River of Guyana.  Upon their return, they needed to identify over 5,000 specimens in less than a week’s time in order to obtain an export permit.  Faced with insufficient time and inadequate library resources to tackle the problem on their own, they instead posted a catalog of specimen images to Facebook and turned to their network of colleagues for help. 

Fish identified as Guianacara cuyunii. Image courtesy of Whit Bronaugh, a graduate student at Oregon State University.

In less than 24 hours, this approach identified approximately 90% of the posted specimens to at least the level of genus, revealed the presence of at least two likely undescribed species, indicated two new records for Guyana and generated several loan requests. The majority of commenters held a Ph.D. in ichthyology or a related field, and hailed from a great diversity of countries including the USA, Canada, France, Switzerland, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Guyana and Brazil. 

By quickly tapping the collective expertise of their social network to help with the preliminary identification process, the expedition members were able to sort, pack and export the specimens to Washington DC in a timely manner. The identifications will also speed the cataloging process and help make the material available for loan and study as quickly as possible.  Such crowdsourcing of identifications would not have been possible five years ago, but increased internet access across South America and the massive recent growth of social networks have made tapping the world’s collective knowledge easier than ever.  Based on this experience, Facebook offers a remarkably efficient free tool that can accelerate taxonomic identification substantially.

Brian Sidlauskas, expedition leader and Research Collaborator of Dr. Richard Vari, in the National Museum of Natural History, Department of Vertebrate Zoology

*The expedition was funded by the NMNH Biological Diversity of the Guiana Shield Program and the Department of Vertebrate Zoology.

Teddy Roosevelt and His Connection to the Smithsonian

Teddy Roosevelt, c. 1909. Image courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives.

President Theodore Roosevelt had a lifelong connection to the Smithsonian. He played a critical role in the acquisition of the Freer Gallery of Art, encouraged research and study of the Panama Canal Zone (now celebrating 100 years of Smithsonian involvement in 2010), and was a staunch supporter of the U.S. National Museum. He signed the bill authorizing the construction of a new building for the Museum (today the National Museum of Natural History), which opened its doors to the public 100 years ago. While on a post-presidency expedition to East Africa, jointly sponsored by the Smithsonian, he collected many animals for the Museum. These specimens formed the basis of one of the Museum's most popular exhibits for much of its first century.

When Roosevelt was only in his twenties, he offered the National Museum his childhood natural history cabinet, which he had begun at the age of nine and playfully called the “Roosevelt Museum of Natural History.” The collection featured insects and nearly 250 carefully labeled specimens of birds and mammals, including a number of Egyptian birds he had collected in the Nile Valley at age fourteen, while traveling with his father. The Museum accepted these donations and Roosevelt's continued patronage in the years to come, even when he was in the White House ...

... read the rest of the story on the Centennial website!

Text courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

"Waterway Will Alter Life" - the Biological Survey of Panama, 1910-1912

Headline announcing the Biological Survey, from The Washington Post, April 9, 1911.

Between 1910 and 1912, in what could be considered one of the first significant environmental impact studies, the Smithsonian conducted a comprehensive Biological Survey of Panama, to document the native flora and fauna of the isthmus prior to the completion of the Panama Canal. Naturalists across the United States had expressed concerns that the opening of the Canal would irrevocably alter the natural conditions of the land-bridge between North and South America. The Smithsonian took the lead, writing to President Theodore Roosevelt for support for a biological survey before the opening of the Canal.

Secretary of the Smithsonian Charles Doolittle Walcott declared, “When the canal is completed the organisms of the various watersheds [of the Isthmus of Panama, some of which emptied into the Pacific and others of which emptied into the Atlantic] will be offered a ready means of mingling together, the natural distinctions now existing will be obliterated, and the data for a true understanding of the fauna and flora placed forever out of reach.”

Museums and universities, notably the Field Museum and the University of Chicago, supported the project. The original aim of the survey was to make an inventory of the flora and fauna of the Panama Canal Zone, but thanks to an invitation from the Republic of Panama the survey was extended to all the national territory. The resulting research would provide a baseline of data for the entire region prior to the completion of the Canal in 1914 ...

... read the rest of the story on the Centennial website!

Text courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution