Pyenson Lab

A Panamanian story: Part 3

Picking up where we left off (Part 1 and Part 2), I wanted to finish the set of posts about the fossil dolphin skull from Piña, on the Caribbean side of Panama.

Recently at NMNH, we've been inspired by the hard work of the laser cowboys (check out this month's Smithsonian magazine), and have started a nascent 3D digitization program in the department of Paleobiology. The goal is to generate high-resolution 3D digital datasets of museum specimens by combining laser surface scanning, photogrammetry and CT imaging -- as close as we can get to a full digital avatar of the real thing. 3D printing is just a small end result of what we hope is a much more accessible final set of products that connect everyone to what we do at the Smithsonian. The video below, featuring the laser cowboys (Adam Metallo and Vince Rossi from the Smithsonian Digitization Program Office's 3D Lab), explains this approach a bit better:

 

Back to the skull: as USNM 546125, the Panamanian dolphin skull. As a future holotype, it will become part of the type series of fossil marine mammals here at NMNH, and it is an excellent candidate to receive the full digital treatment. Holly Little, a recent hire and long-standing co-conspirator with the laser cowboys, has been hard at work on digitizing this specimen, and we plan to share more down the road. But for now, here's a preview:

A 3D point cloud of USNM 546125, made from many hundreds of "laser brushes" using the high-resolution laser arm scanner. The more trippy the better the quality of the dataset -- seriously! (h/t Holly Little).

A Panamanian story: Part 2

After a long delay, I can finally circle back to continue an on-going story.

Previously (see Part 1, and links therein), I mentioned the discovery of a strange fossil toothed whale skull on the Caribbean coast of Panama.

The story continues early last year, when the skull and Dioselina, its discoverer, arrived at NMNH. Dioselina had earned a fellowship from STRI with the specific purpose to learn preparation techniques in vertebrate paleontology in the VP Prep Lab at NMNH, and then apply those skills to assist in the preparation of the skull from Piña.

Dioselina and Jorge open field bags and organize fragmentary bones and teeth associated with the skull from Piña. Note the use of fieldnotes! (Photo NDP)

Dioselina tackled the challenges of a new city, a different language, and a learning a new set of scientific tools with aplomb. When she left last summer, she had finished freeing the final elements from the rock that encased them, and we were left with a shoulder blade, a complete jaw (with a full set of teeth), and more than 1/2 of the skull. The specimen is now USNM 546125.

Dioselina begins preparation on the plaster jacket containing the skull in Paleobiology's VP Prep Lab (Photo Dioselina Vigil)

The plaster jacket, prior to preparation, containing what we thought were jaw bones. They contained a shoulder blade. (Photo Dioselina Vigil)

The same plaster jacket from above, several days later into its preparation. We were still unaware that it contained a shoulder blade. (Photo Dioselina Vigil)

The scapula, now revealed. (Photo Dioselina Vigil)

 An interesting fact we discovered along the way: the Piña skull's not a squalodontid. (Not by a taxonomic mile). The teeth that we saw in the field, and from the original field photos, were somewhat similar, overall, to the classic squalodont teeth that have been known for hundreds of years. But many of the details of the skull revealed during preparation -- especially in the bones underlying the blowhole -- lead us to think that this individual was more closely related to Amazon River dolphins. We hope to say more, and with a stronger scientific basis, when we report on the skeletal material in more detail in the future.

The jaws and skull, now with much of the surrounding rock removed. Compare this image with the picture of Dioselina at work, above. It's quite a beautiful specimen! (Photo Dioselina Vigil)

And the skull (seen from the side from which it was originally found) and the jaws (with teeth), awaiting more delicate preparation in temporary jackets. (Photo Dioselina Vigil)

The story doesn't end there. (And Part 3 will come much sooner than Part 2!). But, while you wait, please go check out Jorge's latest adventures...in Panama! After completing and defending his dissertation last year, Dr. Velez-Juarbe is now a PCP-PIRE postdoctoral fellow for the University of Florida. The majority of his focus will be on collecting and describing fossils from Panama while training the next generation of Panamanian paleontologists. (Including a return to the Piña locality!).

Upcoming public lecture: Calvert Marine Museum, 11 May

I'm happy to share the flyer for my upcoming talk at the Calvert Marine Museum on Saturday May 11th, at 2:30 pm. CMM is a regional jewel for natural and cultural history, and the Smithsonian has had a strong relationship with it for many decades. Their fossil marine mammal collections, in particular, represent a >100 year sample from the nearby Calvert Formation, reflecting the museum's long-standing relationships with citizen scientists and local collectors of all stripes. I am thrilled to be speaking at the invitation of their Fossil Club, and only wish I could stay more than the afternoon and spend a few weeks in their collections. (You can get that signed and notarized, Stephen).

See you there. (Right, Dave?).

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.

 

More about the value of field books...

As I mentioned previously, fieldnotes -- the primary documents for natural history collections -- are key resources in museums, but they usually don't get much love. Hopefully, the Smithsonian's Field Book Project will go towards changing that.

In a guest blog post on the Field Book blog, my long-time colleague, co-author and car doctor Edward Davis from the University of Oregon writes about the effort to recover the hidden legacy of paleontologists at his institution. Read more here.

Preview SVP 2012: Why fieldnotes matter

I'd like to share a quick preview of a poster that will be presented at this year's annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

A glimpse of F.C. Whitmore, Jr.,'s fieldnotes from his trip to the Galapagos Islands, describing cricetid rodent bones that he collected. These specimens were published by Steadman and Ray, 1982. (Smithsonian Institution Archives RU01-245, SIA 2012-12140 through 12150).

Here at the museum, we have an initiative called The Field Book Project. The basic idea behind centers one of the most important, yet under-appreciated aspects of doing natural history: taking notes of what you see, do, and collect while out in the field. Fieldnotes form the underlying legacy that tell researchers the "where, when and how" behind specimens sitting in a museum drawer. But they're rarely archived, indexed and curated. The Field Book Project, which is partnered with Smithsonian Archives, aims to remedy this problem in a big way by revealing the unknown histories, datasets and stories written in generations of field books. Check out the Flickr stream for more.

Sonoe Nakasone, the cataloging coordinator for the project, will be presenting a poster at SVP describing more about how this works. As a case study, we decided to look at the fieldnotes of Frank C. Whitmore, Jr., a founding member of SVP who passed away earlier this year. If you're coming to SVP, stop by the poster to find out more about Frank's work in South America!

Frank in Peru, studying the skull and mandibles of a fossil baleen whale, likely from the Pisco Formation. Specimen and location unknown. (Smithsonian Institution Archives RU01-245, SIA 2012-12140 through 12150).

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)