Museum of Comparative Zoology Harvard University Annual Report 2019. 2020 About the MCZ The Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University is a global center for research and education focused on the comparative relationships and evolution of animal life. The MCZ collections comprise approximately 21 million extant and fossil invertebrate and vertebrate specimens, which are a focus of research and teaching for the MCZ, Harvard, and outside students and researchers. Contents Feature Story 2 Faculty-Curator Profiles 3 In Memoriam: James J. McCarthy 6 Emeritus Profiles 7 Courses Led by Faculty-Curators 8 Research Making Headlines 12 Highlights from the Collections 15 Projects & Initiatives 18 Awards & Recognition 20 Grant Recipients 22 Publications in 2019 26 Financial Data 29 Personnel 30 Director’s Message Put on your mask, wash your hands, stay six feet apart, and what on Earth is Zoom? As spring semester began last has come at great cost. Yet, we had January, none of us had any idea of already experienced sadness and how dramatically—and, for some, loss last fall following the passing tragically—our world was about to of two key members of the MCZ change. Just two months later, as we community, Prof. James J. McCarthy were administering midterm exams, and Mr. Robert G. Goelet. Jim finalizing plans for spring break McCarthy was an internationally course field trips, awarding summer recognized biological oceanographer travel grants, and dozens of us were and the MCZ’s eighth director planning field and conference trips, but, as described elsewhere in this Harvard responded to the COVID-19 report, he was perhaps best known pandemic by closing the Cambridge for his accomplishments in the area campus and cancelling all domestic of public policy and for bringing and international travel. With only a the world’s attention to the drastic few days to prepare, curatorial staff consequences of climate change. were instructed to work from home Bobby Goelet was a longtime Jennifer Berglund and all courses—lectures, labs and member of the Museum’s governing James Hanken final exams—were moved online. I board, the MCZ Faculty. To say that Director am intensely proud of the many ways Bobby led a very full life doesn’t come the MCZ community responded close to capturing all that he did and to these challenges—developing experienced. After graduating from innovative software to adapt to online Harvard in 1945 with an AB in history, teaching, transitioning undergraduate Bobby successfully managed his family’s Contents summer projects to remote research investment firm. At the same time, opportunities, and seizing the he was a passionate believer in the Feature Story 2 opportunity to complete collection value of natural history collections and management tasks compatible with collections-based research, and in that Faculty-Curator Profiles 3 home offices. Whether it was embarking capacity he held many distinguished on that cross-country bike ride they’d appointments, including Chair of the In Memoriam: James J. McCarthy 6 always dreamed of, developing skills Board of Trustees of the American Emeritus Profiles 7 as a birder and nature photographer, Museum of Natural History. At MCZ, or creating learning opportunities for Bobby contributed a series of gifts that Courses Led by Faculty-Curators 8 students living thousands of miles enriched our programs, from faculty- Research Making Headlines 12 from campus, MCZ’s faculty-curators curator salaries to the purchase of found ways to fill the void left when specimen cabinets to grants for student Highlights from the Collections 15 research field trips weren’t possible. projects. The Harvard Museums of Science & Projects & Initiatives 18 More so than in any of my previous Culture also successfully migrated 19 years as director, MCZ’s About the cover: Osprey, Pandion Awards & Recognition 20 its public programs online and, in so accomplishments over the past year haliaetus, landing in nest in Cape Cod. doing, expanded its global reach and Photo by Gonzalo Giribet. Grant Recipients 22 are the result of the tremendous “visitations” well beyond what it had Opposite page: Insect eggs come in energy, commitment, hard work and Publications in 2019 26 experienced previously. all shapes, sizes and ornamentation. resilience of our dedicated students, Clockwise from top: Hawaiian fly, Drosophila mimica; two-spotted cricket, Financial Data 29 Responding to the pandemic has staff and faculty-curators. To them I Gryllus bimaculatus; milkweed bug, been MCZ’s preoccupation for most say, thanks for a job well done. I hope Oncopeltus fasciatus; and imperial Personnel 30 hairstreak butterfly,Jalmenus evagoras. of 2020, and while we have been able you enjoy reading about them on the Images by Samuel Church and Seth to manage it successfully, our success following pages. Donoughe. Annual Report 2019 . 2020 1 Significant Progress and Unexpected Benefits During early 2020, the world faced a pandemic that was rapidly evolving. When the decision was made to close Harvard's campus in mid-March, the MCZ had only a week’s notice before the shutdown. According to Linda Ford, director for research that seeks to analyze species of collection operations, “The distribution over time and space. mood was urgent due to the While much of this work has been seriousness of the situation, and all voluminous but routine, some collections staff dedicated their limited time efforts required more creative solutions. The on campus to getting what they majority of specimen data in the Entomology needed so they could effectively collection, for example, is recorded on transition to working from home.” slips of paper pinned beneath the insects. Many curatorial associates quickly These tiny bits of information—many more gathered files and scanned than a century old, handwritten in myriad materials that would be useful languages—often provide the only data for for remote projects for their an insect specimen. During remote work, staff. The way forward was clear: Entomology staff transcribed thousands focus on ongoing data entry and of photographed specimen labels for cleanup efforts forMCZbase , Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths). But the museum-wide collections when labels had challenging handwriting, database containing more than 2.2 million records for over 21 Mark Omura million specimens in 9 research Thanks to focused database efforts and a Japanese visiting collections. These records include species researcher's translation assistance, information, images, geographical data and this record for Lutra lutra whiteleyi in MCZbase is enriched with 3D models. valuable information. Data enhancement and standardization have been tasks for collections staff for many years, but the shutdown provided the unexpected benefit of time to concentrate on the effort. “Typically, curatorial staff only spend a portion of their days were written in non-Latin alphabets or attending to the database,” says James had translations of long-outdated names, Hanken, director of the MCZ, “but curatorial staff enlisted the help of the because of the campus closure, they have global Twitter community, posting the labels been able to dedicate an unprecedented for interpretation by entomologists and amount of time to it.” transcription enthusiasts, often with success. Significant progress has been made during “On one hand, remote work has been difficult the extended period of remote work. Staff because we can’t physically access the across the various collections undertook specimens we use for research and teaching,” numerous projects to improve data Hanken says. “On the other hand, because so At right, challenging labels for Papilio phorcas, above, were quality, with a special emphasis on many of our past activities have emphasized deciphered via an appeal on georeferencing, which assigns GPS coordinates digital data and digital representations Twitter. to locality information described in words in of these specimens, we’ve been able to the database, information especially critical successfully make this transition.” 2 Museum of Comparative Zoology Faculty-Curator Profiles Andrew A. Biewener Charles P. Lyman Professor of Biology Director, Concord Field Station Prof. Biewener studies the biomechanics and neuromuscular control of animal movement on land and in the air. His goal is to understand general principles that govern the biomechanical and physiological design of vertebrate animals related to movement in natural environments, work with engineers to develop bio-inspired robotic designs and develop improved neuromuscular models for treating human movement disorders. Scott V. Edwards Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology Curator of Ornithology Prof. Edwards' research focuses on the evolutionary biology of birds and related species, combining field, museum and genomics approaches to understand the basis of avian diversity, evolution and behavior. Current projects use genomics technologies to study the evolution of flightlessness and other traits in birds; phylogeography and speciation in Neotropical and Australasian birds; and the genomics of host–parasite coevolution between house finches and a recently acquired bacterial pathogen, Mycoplasma. Snibbe/HarvardKris University Brian D. Farrell Monique & Philip Lehner Professor for the Study of Latin America Professor of Organismic & Evolutionary Biology Curator of Entomology Director, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Faculty Dean, Leverett House Prof.