Pyenson Lab

Economist article, in this week's print edition

There's been a lot of great feedback from the AAAS symposium, but perhaps none more prominent that a great piece by Geoffrey Carr in this week's issue of The Economist. I've always enjoyed their pithy tone; and, as a North American, their house style is downright charming. I also love that the words "fossil cetaceans" earned a sub-heading:

The piece reveals some of the plans we have in the works for display later this year, arising out of our work digitization the fossils from Cerro Ballena. We hope to share more later this year, but enjoy this tidbit for now. (h/t to our new digitization preservation specialist, Holly Little, for the photo).

AAAS 2013 in Boston...

I was in Boston this past weekend for AAAS 2013, where I co-organized a symposium with Jere Lipps of the Cooper Center about the evolution of the Great Whales. We had a great line-up of speakers, including paleontologists, a biomechanist (Jeremy Goldbogen), a bioacoustician (Megan McKenna), an ecologist (Daniel Palacios) and a historian of science (D. Graham Burnett). (Note, the list was dominated by scientists who are US federal employees or funded by federal projects). The Sunday talks were then bookended by a lively discussion. It was a truly integrative, intellectual feast, with many narrative loops.

Plus, I got to spot some science celebrities: Steven Pinker, OSTP Director John Holdren, among others. (Doug Erwin, I'm lookin' at you).

My talk recapitulated the story of what our team has accomplished at Cerro Ballena, including an update about the latest advances we've made with the 3D datasets from the site. This video, made by Carla Schaffer at AAAS, shares some more:

More news stories to follow, I'm sure.

One year since Cerro Ballena

It was roughly a year ago that our team finished digitizing the fossil marine mammal graveyard at Cerro Ballena, in the Atacama of Chile. (It was some crazy times). In the interim, news of the site reached many different news outlets, and it got covered by a terrific piece in Smithsonian magazine. Next year, we will have much more to say about the site, so stay tuned.

Until then, check out this nice mix of time-lapses from the different days at the site, during our November 2011 work. Tip of the hat to the wonderful laser cowboys.

 

PPC 2012: Return to Santiago

After finishing our work in Caldera, we boarded a flight from Copiapo back to Santiago, where we continued our collaborative work at the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural downtown.

NDP and Jorge stand in front of the MNHN in Santiago next to a statue of Alexander von Humboldt, a hero of the age of discovery who spent a considerable part of his prolific career describing the natural history of Latin America. His name graces, among other things, the ocean current system off the Pacific coast of Chile and Peru. (Photo: C. S. Gutstein and J. Velez-Juarbe)

Humboldt worked throughout large parts of what is now Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Cuba and Mexico, but he never actually set foot in Santiago. Darwin did, though, and spent several months in Chile before heading north to Peru and the Galapagos Islands. (Photo: C. S. Gutstein and J. Velez-Juarbe)

The icon of MNHN is a whale skeleton, likely belonging to a fin whale (Balaneoptera physalus). Note the anatomically incorrect placement of the premaxillae; also, the anterior tip of the jaws should be separated about 20 cm to house this thing. Nonetheless, I can't really argue with the glory of a fin whale skeleton inside a cathedral to natural science. (Photo: J. Velez-Juarbe)

We also scope out the lower jaw of an adult sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus). In the foreground stands David Rubilar Rogers, head of paleontology at the museum and longstanding collaborator of our team. His museum has sweet official team gear emblazoned with MNHN's logo. (Photo: J. Velez-Juarbe).

We got lots of great work accomplished at MNHN, which includes an extensive collection of fossils that have historically been collected from the Caldera Basin. I also encourage people to click over to Caribbean Paleobiology, where Jorge has posted some photos from our time in the Stgo.

 

PPC 2012: Anyone can cook

Well, yes, any one can cook -- but why have anyone cook, when you can have Prof. Mario A. Cozzuol cook?  I'd like to introduce a special dispatch from our South American journey: Cooking with Cozzuol.

Feast your eyes. I defy readers to find a better field cook. Some meals we won't soon forget, all fresh from just offshore Caldera. Condé Nast, you shut down Gourmet too soon!

Professor M. A. Cozzuol, original pose. Transverse cut on that steak is just south of 10 cm in anteroposterior thickness. (Photo: J. Velez-Juarbe).

Different fish, same fate -- our bellies. Note the cilantro and garlic garnishes. (Photo: J. Velez-Juarbe)

Not quite into all that fish? Why not try some shrimp? Fresh camarones. (Photo: J. Velez-Juarbe)

Chlamys cooked on the grill. After 10 minutes, they popped open, got a sprinkle of parmesan and cilantro. Done. (Photo: J. Velez-Juarbe)

Fiesta de limon. Key ingredients. Reminds me that we also had some killer lemon pie at Casa Tornini with Tuareg (Photo: J. Velez-Juarbe)

Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. Big up to my kid for letting me take his IKEA Italian espresso maker. That's now its second trip to Caldera. Eat your heart out, laser cowboys (Photo: J. Velez-Juarbe).

PPC 2012: More on Jorge's blog

Another post from our fieldwork near Caldera, now up over at Caribbean Paleobiology. Go check it out!

End of the day, driving back from a field locality near Caldera. (Photo: J. Velez-Juarbe)

PPC 2012: Dispatch 3

We're alternating our time out in the field with many hours in the Museo Paleontologico Caldera, housed in the old train station at the harbor of Caldera. Inside, the museum currently holds the entirety of Cerro Ballena fossils that were excavated in 2010 and 2011; we also added a few more on this trip, from some transect surveys we conducted on the west side of the road cut.

David Rubilar Rogers, from the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural in Santiago, excavates a billfish snout from Cerro Ballena that we discovered along our transect. (Photo: Jorge Velez-Juarbe).

A typical afternoon in MPC's collections. MPC curator Mario E. Suarez (in green) laughs as Mario Cozzuol, a professor at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil, shares a funny story. Note students and David Rubilar Rogers preparing fossil material at the bench. (Photo: Jorge Velez-Juarbe)

NDP excavates a mammalian vertebrae discovered along our transect. (Photo: Jorge Velez-Juarbe)

NDP photographing specimens in the MPC collections. (Photo: Jorge Velez-Juarbe)

PPC 2012: Go read Jorge's posts

Over at Caribbean Palaeobiology, NMNH resesarch student and Howard University Ph.D. candidate Jorge Velez-Juarbe is posting about his experiences here on the expedition to Chile.

Go check it out (Post 1, Post 2 and Post 3), and watch for updates. 

PPC 2012: Dispatch 2

We've spent the weekend out and about, revisiting a few localities, finding a new one, and then returning to the cabañas to discuss and write manuscripts. Today was a special blend of fieldwork at Cerro Ballena, twinned with museum work at Museo Paleontologico Caldera, in town. 

Historically, Caldera has staked its claim on being the port of call for major mining operations in the region, especially around the nearby city of Copiapo. Long-distance sea freight has made Caldera even more important, and many companies continue to set up shop in the vincity. Late afternoon, near our beach house, or home base. (Photo NDP)

A freighter anchored in Bahia Caldera, likely from India, loaded in ore, just as it was even 100 years ago in this small desert town. Cerro Ballena is in the center view of the backdrop, cut by the Pan-American Highway now running on strips both north and south. The entire 2011 quarry is now gone, but many questions remain to be answered about the locality. (Photo NDP).

The skeletons of Cerro Ballena, in their current state, at the Museo Paleontologico Caldera. Several dozen jackets -- many the size of a small boat -- along with many more dozen crates. Here, Chilean graduate students help label, triage and examine the material. Hard to believe that all of these fossils once covered the entire 2011 quarry locality, but, thankfully, they're all in a museum now. (Photo NDP)

PPC 2012: Dispatch 1

First post from Caldera, in the Atacama Region of Chile. We arrived in the early evening a few days ago, just as the sun set over the South Pacific. Jorge and I traveled overnight from the Northern Hemisphere (passing almost directly over our Panamanian fossil dolphin locality), and then met with the rest of the team in Santiago, before taking an afternoon flight to Copiapo. 

PPC refers to Proyecto Palaeontologico Caldera, a collaborative effort between multiple Chilean institutions and the Smithsonian's NMNH that focuses on the paleontology of the Caldera Basin. Cerro Ballena, for example, is just one locality in the basin; other localities, mentioned in previous posts, have produced abundant fossil marine vertebrate material. (We are happy to note that the group's first peer-reviewed publication, Valenzuela-Toro et al., is based on material collected in October 2011).

Here some quick shots as we get settled for some serious work in Caldera:

First thing's first: start the morning right. This is Jorge's first trip to Chile, and I think it is going pretty well. (Photo: Jorge Velez-Juarbe)


Eduardo Yury Yáñez, Mario Cozzuol and David Rubilar Rogers at the grill. This is Mario's second trip to Caldera, but first as a co-investigator with PPC (Photo: Jorge Velez-Juarbe)