Winter 2008

NEWSLETTER Co-Editors: Ingrid Birker Linda Cooper & Anthony Howell

Editorial note visitors were young people who came in By Ingrid Birker pre-arranged groups. There were twice as many French students as English First published in the of Fall 1988 students, and university students as an internal document to keep museum represented 28% of the annual personnel and students aware attendance, which is four times the of events and museum proportion in a general public museum. developments, the Redpath With the dedicated help of 36 News is sent biannually to over student guides from the Redpath 300 external addresses and 50 McGill Museum Club and 14 Welcome Desk subscribers. It is also posted on the volunteers the Museum organized a website. variety of public events and activities The distinctive red Redpath including flashlight tours on Nuit News heading was created in the early Blanche (March 3), Earth Day (April 1990s by Janet MacDonald, a museum 22), 24 hours of Science / 24 heures de designer and educator. Modeled on the science! (May 11), a Mother's Day red signature of products workshop on Cleaning without Cancer created from John Redpath’s handwriting (May 13), and Museums Day in 1830, this signature remains the (May 27). world's oldest logo for a food product. At the start of 2007, the museum In the Fall of 2008, the Redpath News hosted a weekend symposium in will be made into booklet format. We collaboration with the Secretariat of the welcome feedback from our readers. Convention on Biological Diversity: The Editors: Linda Cooper, Saving Biodiversity-- channeling data Ingrid Birker, Anthony Howell. into policy. Attracting over 160 people and contributors from government, industry and the research sector, the Public Program and Science formal outcome of the meeting was a statement presented to the International Outreach Mechanism of Scientific Expertise on By Ingrid Birker Biodiversity (IMoSEB) calling for the urgent need to bridge the gap between At the start of 2008, it’s biodiversity science and conservation appropriate to summarize last year’s policy through increasing access to public milestones. The Museum had a biodiversity data, tools and technical record-breaking number of visitors for a advice. total of 37,000. One-third of these i In late April a giant Origami Science Outreach website at Pteranodon was created by Robert www.mcgill.ca/science/outreach/. Lang, a nuclear physicist and world master of the art. Funded by McGill Biodiversity Division Associates and the McGill community, By Andrew Hendry as well as through public donations, this unique sculpted creature from the As we continue our quest to Cretaceous now hangs above the understand the evolution of biological museum’s dinosaur. diversity, some obstacles are inevitable. During the summer of 2007 the Witness this fall’s Trinidad expedition museum offered McGill Tree tours, by graduate students Amy Schwartz, Stones and Beer bike and walking tours, Jean-Sébastien Moore, Ann McKellar, a live presentation of the Al Gore award and Maryse Boisjoly. winning documentary on climate change, After a successful collecting trip, and eight weeks of REACH!osaurus; a they arrived at the Trinidad airport with bilingual McGill summer day camp 30 2-L bottles of live guppies in their attended by 80 children from all corners luggage. In the past this had not been a of Montreal as well as the south shore, problem, but it certainly was this time. the Ottawa Valley area, France, and Air Canada refused to transport these Lebanon. fish, and no amount of pleading (or even The Science Outreach program logic – guppies are not explosive) could for 2007 was highlighted by Hot Talks/ sway them. So Amy and Ann stayed in Cool Science where McGill scientists Trinidad to solve the problem – which presented talks at local highschools and proved to be ridiculously difficult. Air CEGEPS, by a lively series of Hands-on Canada refused to ship the fish by cargo science in the classroom sessions, and and couriers refused to ship them too. In by a weekly Sunday Afternoon Science the end, they were shipped on Zoom Documentary film series. Science Airlines to Toronto, where they were Outreach Coordinated STARS (Science picked up by researchers at the Talks About Research for Staff), the University of Toronto and looked after popular luncheon series of ‘inreach’ talks until Amy and Ann, flying standby, were for the Faculty’s support staff, and a able to bring them by train to McGill. total of 16 different Freaky Friday Some guppies succumbed to these insults presentations where McGill scientists but most survived – a tribute to Amy and bust myths and clarify popular Ann’s perseverance. misconceptions. The total number of We recently experienced two participants in science outreach programs major transitions. On the one hand, was close to 18,000; almost half the Jean-Sébastien Moore completed his museum’s visitorship for the whole year. MSc degree and has departed for a PhD An exciting roster of outreach at UBC. On the other hand, Maryse and public programs begins with Darwin Boisjoly has joined us for an MSc Day on Sunday Feb. 10. Our guest degree. We also published a number of speaker is Dr. Rees Kassan, a McGill new and exciting scientific papers, which grad who will tell us how he learned are listed below. One that I wish to everything he needed to know about highlight is about ageing in sockeye evolution from a Methodist. salmon as an evolutionary consequences See the front page of the Redpath News of bear predation. Sockeye salmon for a full listing of events, lectures and undergo a dramatic physical decline tours for 2008, or check the Museum (ageing) from when they start breeding website at www.mcgill.ca/redpath, or the

2 until they die, a scant two weeks later. During this period, some populations are 5. DiBattista, J.D., K.A. Feldheim, S.H. subject to intense predation by bears. We Gruber, and A.P. Hendry. In press. showed that the rate of ageing in salmon Are indirect genetic benefits depended on the predation history of the associated with polyandry? Testing population. In particular, populations predictions in a natural population of subject to predation that targeted older lemon sharks. Molecular Ecology. individuals were the populations that aged most slowly. Perhaps if we humans 6. Foster, D., J. Podos, and A.P. are to attain the fountain of youth, we Hendry. 2008. A geometric need to bring back the predation. morphometric appraisal of beak shape in Darwin’s finches. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 21:263-275.

7. Hendry, A.P., T. Farrugia, and M.T. Kinnison. 2008. Human influences on rates of phenotypic change in wild animal populations. Molecular Ecology 17:20-29.

8. Moore, J.-S., J.L. Gow, E.B. Taylor, and A.P. Hendry. 2007. Quantifying An Alaskan bear polishes off a sockeye the constraining influence of gene salmon (by Andrew Hendry) flow on adaptive divergence in the lake-stream threespine stickleback Some new publications (Biodiversity system. Evolution 61:2015-2026. Division members are underlined)

1. Carlson, S. M., A. P. Hendry, and B. Invertebrate Zoology & H. Letcher. 2007. Growth rate Biological Invasions Division differences between resident native By Anthony Ricciardi brook trout and non-native brown trout. Journal of Fish Biology The American Museum of 71:1430-1447. Natural History has produced a short documentary film called Invasive 2. Carlson, S.M., R. Hilborn, A.P. Species, which features research by Hendry, and T.P. Quinn. 2007. graduate students in Prof. Ricciardi's lab. Predation by bears drives senescence The filmmakers followed a team of in natural populations of salmon. divers led by Lisa Jones and Åsa PLoS ONE Issue 12, e1286. Kestrup to the field sites where the students conduct their studies of zebra 3. Correa, C., and M. Gross. In press. mussels, quagga mussels, round gobies Chinook salmon invade southern and European crustaceans. The film is South America. Biological Invasions. one of the "Bio Features" that can be viewed on the AMNH website 4. Crispo, E. 2007. The Baldwin effect (www.amnh.org/sciencebulletins/) and genetic assimilation: revisiting Lisa Jones was recently awarded two mechanisms of evolutionary a two-year research scholarship from the change mediated by phenotypic Department of Fisheries and Oceans. plasticity. Evolution 61:2469-2479. This will fund a major component of her

3 doctoral research on predicting the By Virginie Millien & Anthony Howell invasion success and impact of aquatic animals based on their life history traits. General Two new MSc students have joined the Ricciardi lab. Kathleen The curatorial division and its Church will investigate how aquatic staff have temporarily been relocated to invaders modify each other's success and the basement due to major construction impact through facilitative and work. A large part of the mammal competitive interactions. Her research is collections are currently unavailable and funded through the Canadian Aquatic we will be unable to process loans or Invasive Species Network – a federally- requests for specimens. We are unable to funded group of university and anticipate when things will be back to government researchers that study the normal, and we thank you for your problem of invasions in Canadian inland patience in that matter. waters. Rebekah Kipp, a recipient of a Policy regarding access to the Canada Graduate Scholarship, was collections: Please, make sure to contact previously working in the lab as a in advance either Anthony research assistant under contract with the ([email protected]) or U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Virginie ([email protected]) if Administration to develop a database for you need access to the collections. We invasive species in the Great Lakes. In will issue loan forms, even for museum January, she began her MSc research on staff and students. This is a necessary environmental factors affecting the procedure to keep the collections distribution and abundance of organized and to keep track of the use of invertebrate communities in the St. the collections. We appreciate your Lawrence River. Rebekah and Prof. collaboration. Ricciardi have recently co-authored a paper examining the occurrence of Donations ecologically harmful invaders in aquatic systems. It will appear in an upcoming In mid October, a collection of issue of the journal Diversity and shells from the East Indian Ocean, was Distributions. donated by Ms. Krystina Cienska. An Jess Ward and Åsa Kestrup extensive collection of rare wildlife presented the findings of their doctoral stamps, consisting of 26 volumes, has research at the International Conference been donated by David M. Lank, co- on Aquatic Invasive Species, held in director of the Dobson center for Nijmegen, the Netherlands, in September entrepreneurial studies, McGill 2007. They gave excellent presentations. University. Lastly, Mr. Alexandre Jean, Åsa spoke about predatory interactions a student from the department of Earth between invasive and native crustaceans and Planetary Sciences has generously in the St. Lawrence River and how they donated a small polished section of the vary along environmental gradients. Jess Porpoise Cove banded iron formation, spoke about zebra mussels as being situated near Inukjuak, . The "ecological engineers" that have sample is estimated to date back some predictable effects on freshwater 3.8 billion years. communities. Use of collections Zoology & Paleontology News: Curatorial Division The Redpath Museum has been busy sharing the wealth of research

4 material with others outside the university. The Musee du Fjord has borrowed a specimen of amber from the Oligocene, with a fossilized insect trapped inside. The production company Le Nouveau Theatre Experimental has borrowed a number of mammal and bird specimens to be featured in a live production play, which will run from mid December 2007 to February 2008. But most of the activity came The Chrysococcyx cupreus (African Emerald from inside the Museum. In total, over Cuckoo) photographed by Loren Williams. 800 specimens left the collection area and were used for research, teaching and outreach activities (see table below). Elia Collection use for the months of Malka (supervisor Hans Larsson) October-December 2007 conducted a project on fish fins, and Kanako Hasegawa is still working on her project on deer mice from Mont Division # Specimens Total Saint-Hilaire (supervisor: Virginie Teaching 311 Millien). Herpetology 222 The digitization of the zoology Mammalogy 44 collection is on its way. Loren Williams Invert. 25 produced some astonishing photograph Zoology images of over 120 birds in the Redpath Ichthyology 14 Museum collections (see image), and Ornithology 6 Claire Renwick, a dedicated volunteer Research and keen photographer, nearly completed Herpetology 12 158 the insectivores (e.g. shrews). Ichthyology 79 Mineralogy 7 Mammalogy 60 Outreach 41 Mineralogy 14 Mammalogy 14 Ichthyology 13 Collections (digitization) Ornithology 124 267 Mammalogy 143

The skull and jaw from a Blarina brevicauda Exhibit (Northern short-tailed Shrew) photographed Paleontology 10 11 by Claire Renwick. Mineralogy 1 Other (rental) Ornithology 6 17 Mammalogy 11 TOTAL 805

5 Paleontology News of transitional changes between major By Bob Carroll groups of vertebrates, including the ancestry of amniotes and the modern Paleontology amphibian orders. The book, edited by two of his former students, Hans-Dieter A very busy year for amphibian Sues and Jason Anderson, includes paleontologists: Catherine Boisvert, analyses of other transitions, from the now finishing up her PhD in Uppsala, ancestry of jawed vertebrates to the has just submitted a summary of her origin of placental mammals and birds. MSc thesis on vertebral development in Hans Larsson also contributed a chapter salamanders to the Journal of on the integration of changes at the level Experimental Research, Trond of the genome with those seen in the Sigurdsen has a paper on the otic region evolution of feathers in birds and the of Doleserpeton and its significance to limbs of tetrapods. the ancestry of frogs under review by the We all contributed papers to th Zoological Journal of the Linnean both the 8 International Congress of Society, and Nadia Fröbisch is Vertebrate Morphology, Paris for the completing a paper on an advanced symposium “The Ancestry of Modern dissorophoid. She expects to submit her Amphibians”, and either talks or posters PhD thesis in the spring. at the annual meeting of the Society of After a 14 - year collaborative Vertebrate Paleontology, Austin, Texas. study, Bob Carroll, with Denis Walsh (University of Toronto) and Farish Please note my new email address is: Jenkins (Harvard) have written a [email protected] monographic description of the oldest known caecilian (from the Lower Ethnology Collections Jurassic): Anatomy of Eocaecilia By Barbara Lawson micropodia, a Limbed Caecilian of the Early Jurassic published by Harvard Donations University. Together with Robert Holmes, Bob also contributed a chapter on the Evolution of the Appendicular Skeleton of Amphibians in Brian Hall’s book, Fins into Limbs, University of Chicago Press. and Johns Hopkins Press has just accepted for publication a semi- popular book that Bob has written, The Rise of Amphibians, complete with 247 line drawings and 16 color plates. This is the first book ever written on the entire evolutionary history of fossil and modern amphibians, together with extensive Mask from Kenya, Hills donation, RM discussion of their adaptive radiation and 2007.01.002 interrelationships. In addition, Bob was honored Mrs. Sarah Jane Hills has this year by the publication of a book by donated several objects from Guyana, the University of Indiana Press: Major Brazil, and Africa, collected by her late Transitions in Vertebrate Evolution to husband, Professor Theo Hills (McGill recognize his contributions to Geography) to the Redpath Museum’s evolutionary studies through the analyses Ethnology Collections. The donated 6 material (RM 2007.01.01- .07) includes sleeping sickness in January as part of masks, musical instruments, a model McGill’s Department of Microbiology bow and arrow, and gourd container and and Immunology seminar series. This was acquired by Hills when he was in the will be a joint presentation with Pam field in Rupununi (Guyana) and Kenya Miller who will talk about Todd’s in the 1960s and 1970s. medical career and his association with McGill. Barbara Lawson participated in Internships and Work Study Projects the Image as Embodiment symposium sponsored by the University of East Kristen Dobbin, a U4 student Anglia and the Sainsbury research unit with a double major in Anthropology and for the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Art History, will intern with the Americas in November 2007. She gave Ethnology Collection during the winter a presentation to students from the term 2008. Her project will involve Université de Montréal maîtrise en photo-documentation of the African muséologie programme, who visited the collections. Lindsay Rowe, a U3 Art Redpath for their course Histoire et History student will work as a curatorial fonction des musée and also a assistant during the winter term as part of presentation on the Redpath Egyptian McGill’s Work Study Program. In and Mesopotamian artefacts to students addition to general collections work, she in McGill’s Religions of the Ancient will assist with the development of an Near East course. exhibit on Colombian/Ecuadorian pottery and body ornamentation, using Congratulations to Ethnology selections from the Brian Rooney volunteer Sara Pimpaneau and her Collection. husband Richard Shearmur on the birth of their daughter Elizabeth this past Collections and Research October

Barbara Lawson continues with T-PULSE/TLS Project News her work on the Dr. John Todd collection By David Syncox of artefacts (approximately 500) and images (approximately 130) from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Gambia. The cataloguing of glass slides, negatives and photographs from Todd’s 1903-5 and 1911 Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine expeditions has begun and this material has been stored in January marks the second term of archival containers. Todd’s field maps of the implementation of the Student the Congo have been scanned to assure Response System (Clickers) in McGill their preservation. Lawson made a classrooms -- a major pedagogical preliminary visit to the Wellcome change! The T-PULSE/TLS Science Institute and the British Library to (Re)Design Project is in full swing with examine material related to the Todd 5000 clickers in circulation. The Faculty holdings. A grant has been submitted to of Science is the biggest consumer with the Hannah foundation for the history of over 50% of 100- and 200-level large medicine to purse this endeavour. She science courses, with 26 professors has been invited to present this material participating in the project. Fall and in the context of Todd’s work on winter combined represents 8400

7 enrollments in science courses with ur. In addition, we were able to clickers including the first ever full term videoconference with Macdonald REDM course (REDM 400). Campus where 50 people participated in The project has a large amount of both the lecture and clicker session research data collected. Some of the afterwards. more general preliminary results being 75% of students (approximately 1500) MUSEUM COMMITTEES: thought that when clicker questions were The following Museum Committees used in lectures, they felt more involved. were struck in December 2006. And over 73% of students found using a Safety Committee:Tony Ricciardi clicker in the classroom was worthwhile. (Chair), Joan Kaylor & Marie La Ricca The online assessment, faculty Curriculum Committee: All academics interviews, and student focus groups except Hans Larsson. have produced an overwhelmingly Space Committee: Everyone positive response, which means that the except Brian Alters & Ingrid Birker project will continue. The project will be Exhibit Committee: Ingrid Birker, expanded to smaller 100 & 200 level Claire de Mazancourt (Chair), Barbara courses and 300 & 400 level courses in Lawson & Anthony Howell. September 2008. Collections Committee: Virginie Another activity that directly Millien (Chair), Barbara Lawson (Co- affected science students was the T- Chair) & Hans Larsson. PULSE workshop. In the second week of Outreach: Ingrid Birker January, the Tomlinson Teaching Promotion & Tenure Committee: Fellows hosted 50 science graduate Brian Alters, Robert Carroll, David students at the Graduate Teaching Green, Graham Bell & Don Kramer Workshops. In addition, there was a Publications Committee: Ingrid Birker, concerted effort to “Go Green”. Through Linda Cooper & Anthony Howell. the guidance of Kathleen Ng (Environmental Officer) and Denis VIRTUAL MUSEUM sites: Fortune (Sustainability Officer), the Museum website address and links to initiative included workshop binders biodiversity, minerals and ethnology: printed on 100% recycled paper, corn http://www.mcgill.ca/redpath starch cutlery, paper plates, bulk juices http://www.redpath-museum.mcgill.ca and water, and students were asked to http://www.canadianbiodiversity.mcgill. bring their own mugs. The result was ca less waste and a 20% cost savings per http://collections.ic.gc.ca/minerals/marve participant. ls/will T-PULSE co-sponsored a McGill speaker series event with the Department of Physics and TLS featuring renowned Harvard physicist Eric Mazur. The event was held in the Redpath Museum Auditorium, which was filled to capacity, and was streamed live to Faculty of Science Alumni across the nation. Over 45,000 science alumni were emailed and invited to watch the event live or from the comfort of their homes. The video archive is available here: http://www.mcgill.ca/science/tpulse/maz

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