Rose Center for Earth and Space Celebrates 10 Years

Members’ Magazine Summer 2010 Vol. 35 No. 4

Members Walk on the Wild Side

Inside the Museum’s Fossil Prep Lab

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From the With this issue, we are pleased to launch a new, Center commemorates its 10th anniversary this completely re-designed Rotunda, which more year—stay tuned for information about a fall President fully refl ects the dynamic, inspiring, and cutting- celebration of the Rose Center Anniversary! edge nature of the Museum’s work in science, With ongoing efforts to improve the Museum’s Ellen V. Futter education, and exhibition today. We hope it will be facilities to serve our audiences, record-breaking an appealing and effective source of information attendance, and research and education programs about the Museum for our closest friends and most that are aligned with some of the most pressing engaged audience, our Members. and promising issues of our time—from climate The “renovation” of Rotunda is not the only change to the crisis in science education, from change you’ll notice at the Museum this summer. cultural understanding to human health—it seems Scaffolding has gone up along the Central Park only fi tting that the new Rotunda should mirror the West façade and inside the Roosevelt Rotunda, Museum’s expanding role in the 21st century. signaling a major restoration of the Museum’s I hope you enjoy this fi rst issue and accept “front door” together with a refreshed presentation my continued thanks for your support and of Teddy Roosevelt’s legacy. The Museum turns involvement. You, our Members, help provide the to its main entrance following the restoration very foundation upon which the Museum’s work of the 77th Street castle façade last year and the is built. I hope you take pride, as I do, in being part construction of the Frederick Phineas and Sandra of this great institution and sharing in the depth of Priest Rose Center in 2000. Fittingly, the Rose learning and inspiration that it offers.

Table of Contents

News 3 Close-Up 4 6 8 Bone by Bone: The Delicate 6 Art of Fossil Preparation

Skeleton Crew: 8 Fossil Hunting with Barnum Brown

Next 10

Explore 14

Members 16 14 17

Seen 18

American Museum of Natural History ISSN 0194-6110 Chairman Lewis W. Bernard USPS Permit #472-650 President Ellen V. Futter Vol. 35, No. 4, Summer 2010 Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement, Rotunda is published quarterly by the Membership Offi ce of the American Strategic Planning, and Education Lisa J. Gugenheim Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY Chief Philanthropy Offi cer Peter W. Lyden 10024-5192. Phone: 212-769-5606. Website: amnh.org. Museum membership of Director of Membership Louise Adler $70 per year and higher includes a subscription to Rotunda. ©2010 American Museum of Natural History. Periodical postage paid at New York, NY, and Magazine at additional mailing offi ces. Postmaster: please send address changes to Editor Eugenia V. Levenson Rotunda, Membership Offi ce, AMNH, at the above address. Contributors Ashton Applewhite, Joan Kelly Bernard, Cynthia Franks, Kristin Phillips, Jessica Ulrich, Michael Walker Please send questions, ideas, and feedback to [email protected]. Design Hinterland

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President Futter Goes to Washington

Ellen V. Futter, President of the American Museum of Natural History, represented the “informal science education” sector during a Congressional hearing on March 4 in Washington, DC on science education in our nation’s schools. Speaking before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology, she testifi ed that Marking 10 Years of the it is essential that the federal government continue to support and fund museums, Rose Center for Earth and Space zoos, botanical gardens, and other science- related cultural institutions as “powerful Celebrations, Plus Tune-Ups For Decade’s Wear and Tear catalysts” and key players in reforming K-12 science, technology, engineering, and It seems like only yesterday that the Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest math (or STEM) education. Rose Center for Earth and Space opened its doors to the public, increasing “Communities across the country have the Museum’s footprint by 25 percent and establishing a premier center for access to an array of science-based learning about astronomy, astrophysics, and Earth science. The Museum is institutions,” said Futter. “Some large, some commemorating this most ambitious project in its history with a spectacular small, some local, some regional—but nearly year-long celebration to mark the Rose Center’s 10th anniversary and the 75th all housing resources and expertise to help anniversary of the opening of the original Hayden Planetarium. schools improve science education while More than 30 million visitors have stepped inside this “cosmic cathedral,” also advancing the instincts for inquiry as the Rose Center was described by its architect, James Stewart Polshek, since and discovery that are precisely what drive it opened in February 2000. Hundreds of thousands more will participate in a innovation and will fuel our country’s whirlwind year of commemorative events that include a star-themed sleepover, global competitiveness.” screenings of four Space Shows, and lectures by Museum scientists, culminating Futter said that effective partnerships in a day of science programs, family-friendly events, and special presentations should be fostered between schools and on October 10, or 10/10/10. science-based institutions by making both Plans to usher the Rose Center for Earth and Space into its second decade eligible for federal funding and grants and by also include a round of upgrades to many of the exhibits and signage on explicitly recognizing the role of museums, display. Many are already underway: video screens in the Dorothy and Lewis including in the upcoming reauthorization of B. Cullman Hall of the Universe will be replaced with the latest liquid crystal the America COMPETES Act, for which the display (LCD) technology, and interactive touch-screen kiosks in the David committee was hearing testimony. S. and Ruth L. Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth are being updated. Major She also specifi cally mentioned several overhauls still to come include a complete renovation of the Black Hole Theater Museum programs, including its successful in the Cullman Hall of the Universe, a rebuilt AstroBulletin refi tted with next leadership role in the Urban Advantage generation MicroTile LCDs to create a virtually seamless digital screen, and Middle School Science Initiative in New York an updated Big Bang presentation in the lower half of the Hayden Sphere with City, as national models for public-private new imagery and narration. partnerships that boost science literacy.

For additional details about the Rose Center and Hayden Planetarium Anniversary Year To read Ellen Futter’s full written testimony, visit events, including 10/10/10, visit amnh.org or pick up the Museum Calendar. the House Committee on Science and Technology

Photo © AMNH/R. Mickens website science.house.gov and search for "Futter."

Rotunda / Summer 2010 / AMNH.org

ROT1596 3 6/7/10 3:57 PM 4 Close-Up at the Museum

see it now

Members receive free admission to Race to the End of the Earth.

The Polar Spark In an address at the American Museum of Natural History in 1927, Ellsworth confi ded that he was fi rst inspired to become an explorer by the “scenes Polar sledge from the far-away shores of the Polar Sea” in the Museum’s halls. (Generous in sharing credit for his choice of career, he later cited as infl uences, in a paper to the Royal Geographical Society, a “beautiful emperor penguin” he visited at the London Zoo and Scott’s memorial at St. Paul’s Cathedral.)

An Avid Collector In 1926, Ellsworth sent the Museum a block of Algonkian red shale showing algae, an early gift that would be followed by many contributions to the collections. His subsequent gifts included 150 fossil specimens of 28 species, three of which Lincoln Ellsworth: had never before been found in the Antarctic, his diaries, logs, instruments, models of the Norge The Museum’s Own Polar Star and the Polar Star, and 93 minutes of silent fi lm documenting Ellsworth's unsuccessful transpolar A corridor on the Museum’s fi rst fl oor just off the Grand Gallery celebrates a fl ights in 1933 and 1934. relatively unsung hero of polar exploration: the American Lincoln Ellsworth,who was also a Museum Trustee. His bust graces the back wall of the narrow hallway, A Time Before Twitter while the display cases on either side contain artifacts detailing Ellsworth’s efforts In the 1930s, a map of the South Pole installed in to become the fi rst man to fl y across both polar continents, a feat he accomplished the Museum’s Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall in 1935 when he crossed the Antarctic in his plane Polar Star. was used to plot the daily progress of Antarctic Ten years earlier, Ellsworth’s fi rst attempt to fl y over the North Pole teamed expeditions by Ellsworth and Robert E. Byrd, him with Norwegian Roald Amundsen, whose earlier overland competition “a feature which…attracted much interest,” with British Royal Navy Captain Robert Falcon Scott to reach the South according to the Museum’s 1933 Annual Report. Pole is chronicled in the Museum’s new exhibition Race to the End of the Earth. Through the special relationship between Amundsen and Ellsworth, The Field Connection the Museum Library’s Memorabilia Collection came to possess items the Lincoln’s father, James Ellsworth, was a director Norwegian explorer carried with him on his quest to reach the South Pole, of the Chicago Exposition of 1893 and is said to including a sledge, chronometer, binoculars, shotgun, and a tin cup from the have convinced Chicago department store owner ship Fram, which are featured in the new exhibition. Marshall Field to build The Field Museum to Partially underwritten by his father James, a wealthy coal mine owner preserve collections assembled for the world’s fair. and banker, Ellsworth’s 1925 attempt to fl y over the North Pole failed. One year later, he and Amundsen succeeded in a dirigible, the Norge, built and Hometown Heroes piloted by Italian explorer Umberto Nobile. Ellsworth would go on to other James Ellsworth fi nanced a massive renewal expeditions, contributing geological and fossil specimens to the Museum’s of his hometown of Hudson, Ohio, that included collections in the process. He died in 1951 at age 71, but his legacy of support burying telephone and electric wires in return for for the Museum and its mission continues to this day through an annual gift a promise that Hudson would remain “dry” for 50 from The Lincoln Ellsworth Foundation. years. Today, the town’s high school sports teams

are called the Hudson Explorers in honor of Lincoln. For more information on Race to the End of the Earth, visit amnh.org/exhibitions/race. Photo © AMNH/C. Chesek

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A Bug’s Life: Up for Air Even though water bugs live and hunt in ponds Lethocerus cordofanus Mayr and streams, adults cannot breathe underwater and must come up near the surface for air. They Anyone who has encountered a member of the giant water bug family use two tube-like appendages on the tip of their Belostomatidae, perhaps while trying to enjoy a nice summer dip in a pool, will abdomen that resemble tails to pull air from the remember why these aquatic insects are commonly called toe-biters: they’re not surface or from air bubbles. shy about hunting prey, even the human kind. The biggest insects of the order Hemiptera, a broad group that includes Reading Rainfall true bugs, cicadas, and hoppers, these aquatic predators are found in shallow Some species of Abedus water bugs, which occur streams or ponds across the world. When there’s no tasty-looking toe nearby, they in Arizona, have been shown to use rain cues to generally feed on snails, tadpoles, frogs, small fi sh, and even small birds, but they abandon streams and avoid fl ash fl oods—and don’t actually bite: like all true bugs, they lack chewing mouthparts. Instead, their near-certain death. Researchers simulated rainfall method of dining involves grabbing prey with their forelimbs, or raptorial forelegs, and demonstrated that water bugs have learned and injecting it with a powerful proteolytic enzyme, which liquefi es tissue by when to seek shelter on land, lowering their breaking down proteins. Once the prey turns to mush, water bugs feed by sucking mortality rate during rains to just 15 percent. the liquefi ed remains through a proboscis. If that sounds agonizing, it is. Water bug “bites” infl ict pain on a par with the top-ranked insects on the Schmidt Sting Pain Daddy Daycare Index, a four-point scale created by entomologist Justin O. Schmidt to compare Two water bug genera exhibit reversed parental the stings of the order Hymenoptera, which includes bees, wasps, and ants. But care, where the females lay eggs in rows on the though fairly painful, this sting is not actually dangerous to humans. male’s back, which may free up the females to The water bugs’ other nickname—electric light bugs—comes from their continue mating. Males carry the eggs, which attraction to light. Though they are clumsy fl iers, water bugs do take to the air number up to 100 per batch, for several weeks when seeking out new streams and rely on surface light bouncing off water until they hatch. to fi nd their way. When humans bring electric lights to new areas that include water bug habitats, the two species inevitably collide. Hors d’Oeuvres, Anyone? Species of Belostomatidae occur worldwide but this particular specimen Water bugs may be fi erce predators who feast from the Museum’s Department of Entomology, a male Lethocerus cordofanus on aquatic life, but they often become prey, Mayr, was collected in 1911 in Morogoro, Tanzania. Though nearly a century too—sometimes to humans. Lethocerus bugs old, like most insects, its hard body preserves well without any special are considered delicacies and are served both treatment. It’s one of approximately 24 million specimens housed in the fresh and cooked in parts of Asia including Museum’s Division of Invertebrate Zoology. Vietnam and Thailand. They are also used to make a spicy condiment. For more information on this collection, visit research.amnh.org/iz. The Kinsey Connection The largest constituent in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology’s collections is Alfred A. Kinsey’s collection of Cynipidae, or gall wasps. Kinsey, who is best known for his research on human sexuality, began collecting gall wasps for his doctoral thesis at Harvard and even published an article about gall wasp life cycles for the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History in 1920. His extensive collection, which includes some 7.5 million specimens, was donated to the Museum by Kinsey’s widow in 1958.

Lethocerus cordofanus Mayr Photo © AMNH/D. Finnin

ROT1596 5 6/1/10 3:59 PM Bone by The Delicate Art of Fossil Bone Preparation

wo decades ago, a chunk of sand containing a nearly Fossil preparation requires an uncommon degree of perfect 80-million-year-old lizard fossil—just pulled adaptability and patience. Museum preparators bring to the task loose from the red desert fl oor and resting on the hood diverse sets of skills from such backgrounds as art, paleontology, of a Jeep—exploded into dust when touched by a member and archaeology. They generally learn their craft on the job, ofT the Museum’s annual summer expedition to the Gobi desert. drawing from related fi elds such as object conservation to adapt A preparator knows why: paleontology depends on glue. modern glues, solvents, and other archival materials to stabilize “Some of the fossils from Ukhaa Tolgod, this massive fragile areas or repair damage. dinosaur graveyard found in 1993, survive only because they But the basic approach remains the same. Davidson, for are so tightly packed in sand,” says Amy Davidson, one of the example, removes her frameless glasses to face a fossil through Museum’s senior fossil preparators, who happened to be on that her microscope, resting her wrists on a black velvet sandbag, expedition. In a cavernous room perched over several stories securing a fi ne needle between her thumb and index fi nger, and of meticulously labeled fossils, she darts to a beautifully fragile using her third and fourth fi ngers to lightly touch the specimen. and nearly complete dinosaur skull. She moves almost imperceptibly, for minutes on end, carefully “This fossil was also turning into crumbs,” she continues. excavating a jaw from the soft sand. At the ready, laid out on “We need to know our adhesives. I stabilized the porous a cutting board, are her preferred tools of the trade: brushes bone and sandy matrix (any material in which fossils are and droppers for dispensing glue, needles of different sizes and embedded) with just the right strength and solubility to shapes for excavating, an air pedal for removing scraps of matrix, be able to sculpt out the fossil, just like a magician pulls a and glass jars of carefully labeled adhesives. tablecloth from under the table setting.” In another part of the lab, the newest preparator, Justy Alicea, Last year, this delicate carnivorous cousin to Tyrannosaurus sits similarly immobile. A black curve of a tattoo peeks above

rex was described and named Alioramus altai. his crew-neck shirt, and headphones help him block out the Photo © AMNH/D. Finnin

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distraction of visitors and scientists shifting around him. Alicea’s A Tale of Two Specimens workbench is lined with projects and paraphernalia—a detailed schematic plan for liberating a Velociraptor’s jumble of limb No. SGOPV3692 bones to reconstruct its skeleton, the upper jaw of a duck-billed dinosaur encased in mudstone that had been partially prepared in 1913, dental drills and glues, and an original scientifi c illustration from 1931 that came with his lab space. He points to his proudest achievement—a delicate Protoceratops skull with a frill the width of cardstock and internal fl ying buttresses built of excess matrix and glue. Although the matrix was “falling off the bone,” Alicea says he stabilized it to uncover detail like the new teeth awaiting eruption in the jaw’s resorption pits. While some Museum paleontologists head to the Gobi each year, another group of scientists have been traversing the high Andes in search of mammals that evolved in isolation in South No. MGI 100/975 America’s ancient forests and on the world’s fi rst grasslands. Now under Alicea’s microscope is what he calls “a whole class of diffi cult”—a Chilean mammal entombed in volcanic ash that has compacted into something that requires carbide needles on airscribes, or pneumatic drills, to remove. And while the volcanic layers make radiometric dating feasible, the removal of fossils is a painstaking process that Alicea is learning and one in which preparator Ana Balcarcel is already an expert. Under Balcarcel’s microscope is a row of high-cusped teeth no taller than a half centimeter. She is exposing the teeth out of a dark gray slab of rock where they have been entombed for more than 30 million years, working in short intervals because No. SGOPV3692, probably No. MGI 100/975, Santiagorothia chiliensis Shuvuuia deserti Fossil preparation requires Found: On a joint Chilean-U.S. Found: Curator Mark Norell expedition, Curator John Flynn spied partially eroded white an uncommon degree of and team found this skull in bone on the AMNH-Mongolian March 1998, after it rolled off Academy of Sciences expedition adaptability and patience. a giant cliff in a slab the size of a to Ukhaa Tolgod in the Gobi small pizza. One side of the skull in 1994. The block was cut, the amount of silica in the matrix’s dust requires removal with was exposed and weathered; stabilized with glue, and a steady vacuum that chills her nearly static hands. Her fi rst that surface was coated with wrapped in plaster and burlap. step in preparing this fossil—the upper jaw of a notoungulate, an epoxy so the complete side or an extinct hoofed plant-eater native to South America—was could be preserved. Prepared: Amy Davidson to cut the excess matrix with a diamond-bladed rock saw. She excavated the skull from the estimates that she has spent about two months of often intense Prepared: Chicago preparator Bob sandy matrix. The porous fossil concentration using different pneumatic drills and other tools Masek worked on the unexposed required about four to fi ve that withstand the pressure of volcanic rock. side to reveal skull bones and high different adhesives. Under the “The tools vary,” says Balcarcel, sitting cross-legged and cusps on teeth. It took 140 hours microscope, Davidson saw zipping her yin-yang pendant along its chain. “Each specimen is of careful excavating down to the linear fi bers and paused for different, and you have to get to know each one—how soft, surface of the fossil through the analysis. The fossil continues how well preserved.” Even so, the inevitable break occurs. Tooth very hard volcanic rock. to be excavated in stages. enamel is often so thin and brittle that the needle’s pressure chips it. At that point, matrix removal stops so that she can Published: Not yet described in Published: The skull led to a repair the break, often gluing with compounds that don’t set a scientifi c paper, the fossil may paper in Nature in 1998, making immediately so that she can position the minute chip perfectly. be the same species that Flynn this one of the many new “I used to be very stressed preparing a fossil—it took a long and colleagues collected 100 species found at Ukhaa Tolgod. time to get comfortable with breakage,” Balcarcel continues. miles away in the Tinguiririca The linear fi bers were found “But part of our job is learning how to put things back together, River valley and described in to contain a type of beta- and my time under the microscope has changed from stressful 2000. The specimen could carotene unique to feathers. to almost zen-like relaxation.” correlate ages of rocks between Results were published in 1999. the two different locations and For more information about the Division of Paleontology, is one of dozens of new species

Top photoTop © AMNH/D. Finnin. Bottom photo © M. Ellison visit research.amnh.org/paleontology. from central Chile.

Rotunda / Summer 2010 / AMNH.org

ROT1596 7 6/7/10 3:57 PM Skeleton Crew Fossil Hunting with Barnum Brown

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Known as the greatest dinosaur collector of all time, Barnum Brown helped the Museum establish its world-class fossil collection. A new book, Barnum Brown: The Man Who Discovered Tyrannosaurus Rex, co-authored by Museum Research Associate Lowell Dingus and Chair of the Division of Paleontology Mark Norell, traces Brown’s Q&A extraordinary career. The excerpt below focuses on two of his most famous fi nds: specimens of the Tyrannosaurus rex. You write that Brown was “well-built” to Back in New York [after a successful expedition that unearthed the most become a great dinosaur collector. How so? complete specimen to date], [Museum President Henry] Osborn and [Barnum] Lowell Dingus: Collecting dinosaurs requires Brown contemplated how best to mount the two most complete specimens a good deal of physical capability in terms of of Tyrannosaurus, AMNH 973 and 5027, for exhibition. Osborn instructed a digging, lifting, and carrying large casts. Through departmental artist, E. S. Christman, to sculpt a scale model of every bone in his upbringing on the family farm in Kansas, he the animal’s skeleton connected with fl exible joints, to facilitate the evaluation honed those physical abilities. of various possible poses and postures. Raymond L. Ditmars, the Bronx Zoo’s Mark Norell: He was well-adapted to harsh curator of reptiles, won the contest with his proposal for the poses. Brown set the conditions in the fi eld, and he was very much a scene thus: “It is early morning along the shores of a Cretaceous lake four million resourceful pragmatist who always found a way years ago.” (We now know, thanks to radioisotopic dating techniques unavailable to get the job accomplished. He was also well- in Brown’s time, that 65 million years ago is more accurate.) organized and incredibly loyal to the institution where he worked. A herbivorous dinosaur Trachodon [a duckbill] venturing from the What surprised you most during your research? water for a breakfast of succulent vegetation has been caught and partly MN: To read his sparse accounts, you would devoured by a giant fl esh eating Tyrannosaurus. As this monster crouches think that his life, with a few exceptions, was over the carcass, busy dismembering it, another Tyrannosaurus is fairly mundane. He seemed to downplay attracted to the scene. Approaching, it rises nearly to its full height to almost everything. grapple the more fortunate hunter and dispute the prey. The crouching How would you sum up Brown’s legacy? fi gure reluctantly stops eating and accepts the challenge, partly rising to MN: His legacy is obvious when you walk spring on its adversary. The psychological moment of tense inertia before through our halls and collections, not just for the the combat was chosen to best show positions of the limbs and bodies, as amount that he collected but also for the skill in well as to picture an incident in the life history of these giant reptiles. collecting it. He also wrote some very insightful papers for his generation. Unfortunately, the skeletons were too large to fi t both in the existing LD: I was struck when we renovated those halls exhibition hall, so in 1915 a single skeleton (AMNH 5027) was mounted in the by how many of the key specimens were his—not now-famous erect or “Godzilla” posture, a portrayal that would wow visitors just Tyrannosaurus rex, but 56 others. And we still from around the world for the next eighty years and fi re the curiosity of go back to many of the same fi eld areas where he numerous future paleontologists. worked to answer the scientifi c questions raised Yet the perils surrounding these Tyrannosaurus specimens were not over. by the specimens he found. So in those very real At the outbreak of World War II, the American Museum of Natural History ways, his legacy still looms over all of us. sold the 1902 skeleton to the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh for $7,000 (about $96,000 in today’s dollars)…. Brown noted the sale in a memoir...: “Sold to Save the Date: See page 12 for an upcoming Carnegie Museum in 1941… after we had made casts of the limb bones. The event with Dingus and Norell. transaction was accomplished because the American Museum was afraid that German airships might bomb this [the American] Museum and destroy the second Tyrannosaurus skeleton now mounted here [AMNH 5027] and that at least one specimen might be preserved.” Fortunately, both skeletons survived. During the renovation of the fossil halls in the 1990s, we remounted the 1908 T. rex skeleton to refl ect a more anatomically accurate posture. It was a daunting assignment, since each bone had to be removed from the old upright mount, conserved, and remounted in the new, more animated posture prescribed by recent research. It took two years to accomplish, a period replete with unremitting worries over the welfare of this priceless specimen. But our crew did a spectacular job and today Brown’s save skeleton stands ready to pounce on prey. 10%

Reprinted with permission from Barnum Brown: The Man Who Discovered Tyrannosaurus Barnum Brown is available Rex © 2010 by Lowell Dingus and Mark A. Norell, University of California Press. from the Museum Shop. Members receive a 10% discount. Photo on previous page © AMNH. Photo on this page © AMNH/D. Finnin

Rotunda / Summer 2010 / AMNH.org

ROT1596 9 6/7/10 3:57 PM 10 Next at the Museum

Programs and Events Great Gull Island Evening Walk to the Little The Oddball Innermost Planet: Red Lighthouse Exploring Mercury with the July MO071510, Thursday, July 15 MESSENGER Spacecraft 8 am–6 pm MW072010, Tuesday, July 20 Virtual Universe: The Explosive $120 (Includes transportation by MW083110, Tuesday, August 31 Monday, July 26 Universe with Jackie Faherty private coach and chartered boat) 6:30–8 pm 7 pm Bring your lunch $30 Free with Museum admission HM070610, Tuesday, July 6 Members only; limited to 25 Members only Registration required; 6:30 pm Led by Museum ornithologist Join Sidney Horenstein for call 212-769-5200 $13.50 Members Helen Hays, watch hatching a stroll to this Manhattan Join Sean Solomon, Tour the Milky Way to observe chicks, track nests, analyze landmark through Fort Principal Investigator of the where stars are born and die colonies, and explore the Washington Park. MESSENGER mission, as he and see everything energetic battlements of an old fort. discusses this innermost planet. in between. Geology and History of Evening Bat Walks in the Thimble Islands Celestial Highlights: Summer Wild, Wild World: Live Penguins Central Park Streakers with Joe Rao MO072110, Wednesday, July 21 EL071010A, 11 am–noon EW071610, Friday, July 16 9 am–5 pm HM072710, Tuesday, July 27 EL071010B, 1–2 pm EW072310, Friday, July 23 $95 (Includes transportation 6:30 pm Saturday, July 10 EW073010, Friday, July 30 by private coach) $13.50 Members Members’ tickets are 8:30 pm Bring your lunch Observe a number of summer $8 children; $10 adults $30 Register early; limited space Members only constellations, the Milky Join TV host Jarod Miller and Join Brad Klein, Danielle Visit the Thimble Islands Way, and the annual Perseid live penguins to learn about Gustafson, and other members with Sidney Horenstein for meteor shower. animals that live in extreme of the New York City Bat Group a 45-minute narrated tour environments. for a walk through Central and a visit to Stony Creek Pequest Trout Hatchery Park in search of bats. Rain Classic Granite Quarry with Adventures in the Global date is Saturday, July 31. the foreman. MO072910, Thursday, July 29 Kitchen: Planet Barbecue 8 am–6 pm Sail on the Clearwater Science Sense Tour: Rose $95 (Includes transportation by EL071410, Wednesday, July 14 Center for Earth and Space private coach) 6:30 pm MO071710, Saturday, July 17 Members only $25 2–5 pm Saturday, July 24 Hike along the Pequest River Enter at 77th Street $75 10 am while observing its ecology and “Master Griller” Steven Register early; limited space Free with Museum admission learn why it is a good home for Raichlen leads this talk and Members only Registration required; call trout. Then visit the hatchery, barbecue tasting. Board the historic Clearwater 212-313-7565 where more than 700,000 trout sloop to enjoy the views and Explore astrophysics and are raised each year. learn about the ecology of the geology on this program Hudson River. for blind or partially sighted visitors.

Exhibitions and Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Lizards & Snakes: Alive! IMAX Movie Attractions Pathway to the Modern World Admission is by timed entry only. Through Monday, September 6 Hubble Through Sunday, August 15 Members’ tickets are $12 adults; Opens Saturday, July 3 Race to the End of the Earth Free for Members $7.50 children Members’ tickets are $12 adults; Step 1,000 years back in time to Meet more than 60 live lizards and $7.50 children Through Sunday, January 2 experience the sights, sounds, and snakes from ﬁ ve continents and This ﬁ lm lets viewers blast off Free for Members stories of the greatest trading see their remarkable adaptations. alongside the Atlantis STS- This exhibition recounts one of route in history. 125 crew, witness challenging the most stirring tales of Antarctic spacewalks, and experience exploration: the race to reach the Hubble’s striking images of South Pole in 1911–1912. the universe.

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August Wildfl owers of Westchester Fun with Fossils Celestial Highlights: Surfi ng the Galactic Plane Virtual Universe: Tiny MO080710, Saturday, August 7 MO082110, Saturday, August 21 with Ted Williams Objects in the Universe 9 am–6 pm 9 am–4 pm with Emily Rice $95 (Includes transportation by $85 (Includes transportation by HM083110,Tuesday, August 31 private coach) private coach) 6:30 pm HM080310, Tuesday, August 3 Members only, limited to 36 Members only $13.50 Members 6:30 pm Explore an 834-acre Fossil Collections Manager, Recommended for kids ages $13.50 Members nature preserve and take Carl Mehling leads this 5 and up This program in the Hayden an intimate guided tour of expedition to Big Brook, New Learn how to visualize Planetarium Space Theater Wildfl ower Island. Jersey, where plentiful fossils the galactic, ecliptic, and will showcase some of the and diverse fauna can be found. equatorial planes in the night most miniscule objects in the Evening Walk in sky to locate constellations. local universe. Fort Tryon Park Science Sense Tour: Dioramas September What Dinosaurs Ate MW081710, Tuesday, August 17 Sunday, August 22 in Central Park 6:30–8 pm 10 am Behind the Scenes $30 Free with Museum admission in Paleontology MW080410, Wednesday, August 4 Members only Registration required; call 6–7:30 pm Join Sidney Horenstein for a 212-313-7565 MB090810A, 6:30 $50 per adult with child geological introduction to Learn about the art of creating MB090810B, 7 Recommended for kids ages New York City. Museum dioramas on this MB090810C, 7:30 pm 10 and up program for blind or partially Wednesday, September 8 This walking tour in Central Geology of Inwood Hill Park sighted visitors. $35 Park will focus on the diet of Members only, kids ages 7 and up herbivore dinosaurs and the MW081910, Thursday, August 19 A Day of Geology and Beauty Take a tour with Fossil evolution of plants. 6:30–8 pm of Northern Manhattan: Collections Manager Carl $30 Inwood Hill and Fort Tryon Mehling and other scientists to Last Look at the Silk Road Members only learn how fossils are prepared. Join Sidney Horenstein on an MW082510A Thursday, August 5 evening stroll through one Wednesday, August 25 Birding in Prospect Park Wednesday, August 11 of the last remaining natural Inwood Hill Park 6:30–8 pm woodlands in Manhattan. 10:30 am–noon MO091210, Sunday, September 12 Members only MW082510B 10 am–2 pm Free; reservation required Fort Tryon Park $35 Join Museum docent Eileen 1–2:30 pm Members only Flood for a special tour of $30 each or $60 for both Join ornithologist Paul Sweet to Traveling the Silk Road, which Members only explore Prospect Park’s birding closes on August 15. Walk along the Hudson hot spots, including Lookout River with geologist Sidney Hill, the Peninsula, Lullwater, Horenstein to discover Inwood Pagoda Pond, and more. Hill and Fort Tryon Parks.

Hayden Planetarium Credits Additional support has been provided Art Exhibitions Australia; and the Space Show Race to the End of the Earth is by the British Consulate-General National Museum of Natural Science, organized by the American Museum New York and the National Science Taichung, Taiwan and United Daily Journey to the Stars of Natural History, New York (www. Foundation under Grant No. News, Taipei, Taiwan. Members’ tickets are $12 adults, amnh.org), in collaboration with the ANT 0636639. $7.50 children Musée des Conﬂ uences, Lyon, France The Presenting Sponsor of Traveling Journey to the Stars launches and Royal BC Museum, Victoria, Traveling the Silk Road is organized the Silk Road is MetLife Foundation. visitors through time and space British Columbia, Canada. by the American Museum of Natural to experience the life and death of History, New York, (www.amnh. Additional support has been provided the stars in our night sky. Generous support for Race to the End org), in collaboration with Azienda by Mary and David Solomon. of the Earth has been provided by Speciale Palaexpo, Roma, Italy and the Eileen P. Bernard Exhibition Fund, Codice. Idee per la cultura srl, Torino, The Silk Road Project residency Marshall P. and Rachael Levine, and Italy; the National Museum of is generously supported by Drs. Harlan B. and Natasha Levine. Australia, Canberra, Australia and Rosalind P. Walter.

Rotunda / Summer 2010 / AMNH.org

ROT1596 11 6/7/10 3:59 PM 12 Next at the Museum

An Evening with Geology of Northern Barnum Brown: The Man Who Credits Ross MacPhee Central Park Discovered Tyrannosaurus Rex: Public programs are made An Evening with Mark Norell possible, in part, by the Rita and ML092110, Tuesday, September 21 Sunday, September 26 and Lowell Dingus Frits Markus Fund for the Public 7–8:30 pm MW092610A Understanding of Science. $12 10 am–noon ML102110, Thursday, October 21 Members only MW092610B 7–8:30 pm Virtual Universe and Celestial Curator Ross MacPhee, who 1–3 pm Free for Members Highlights programs are curated the exhibition The $30 Register early, limited space supported, in part, by the Race to the End of the Earth, Members only Division of Paleontology Chair Schaffner Family. will speak about his book Recommended for kids ages Mark Norell and Research Race to the End: Amundsen, 7 and up. Associate Lowell Dingus will The Oddball Innermost Planet is Scott, and the Attainment of Geologist Sidney Horenstein discuss their new book about the Barringer Invitational Lecture the South Pole and about his will focus on geological the famous fossil hunter. Books of the 73rd Annual Meeting of the research in Antarctica. Book features of Central Park. purchased at amnhshop.com Meteoritical Society, held in New signing will follow. will be available for pick-up; York from July 26 to July 30. October signing will follow. Garlic Festival and Kaaterskill Falls Birding at the Barrier Beaches Plan Ahead

MO092510, Saturday, September 25 MO100210, Saturday, October 2 Montauk Winter Wildlife 8:30 am–6:30 pm 9 am–5 pm Weekend $90 (Includes transportation by $90 (Includes transportatio private coach) by private coach) MO020511, Saturday, February 5– Bring lunch or purchase at festival Bring your lunch; recommended Sunday, February 6 Members only for kids ages 7 and up $300 per person double occupancy; Museum scientist Paul Members only $400 single occupancy Nascimbene leads this tour Don’t forget your binoculars (Includes transportation by to the Hudson Valley Garlic to spot a variety of raptors, private coach, one-night stay in Festival and Kaaterskill Falls, waterbirds, and songbirds. the Born Free Motel, and dinner the highest waterfall in New on Saturday night) York State. Ten Years of Space Shows Register early at the Rose Center Join ornithologist Paul Sweet on this two-day birding and ME101210, Tuesday, October 12 wildlife expedition to look ME101310, Wednesday, October 13 for sea ducks, auks, seals, 6–8 pm and more. $12 adults, $7.50 kids Members only Celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Rose Center with four Space Shows, screened in one evening.

Lizards & Snakes: Alive! is organized Journey to the Stars was developed support and partnership of of Texas at Austin, through the by the American Museum of Natural by the American Museum of Natural NASA, Science Mission Directorate, TeraGrid, a project of the National History, New York (www.amnh.org), History, New York (www.amnh.org), Heliophysics Division. Science Foundation. in collaboration with the Fernbank in collaboration with the California Museum of Natural History, Atlanta, Academy of Sciences, San Francisco; Made possible through the and the San Diego Natural History GOTO INC, Tokyo, Japan; Papalote • generous sponsorship of Lockheed Museum, with appreciation to Clyde Museo del Niño, Mexico City, Mexico; Martin Corporation. Peeling’s Reptiland. and Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C. And proudly sponsored by Accenture. Journey to the Stars was produced by the American Museum of Natural Journey to the Stars was created Supercomputing resources provided History, the Rose Center for Earth and by the American Museum of by The Texas Advanced Computing Space, and the Hayden Planetarium. Natural History, with the major Center (TACC) at The University

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July 06 16 23 27 Tuesday Friday Friday Tuesday Virtual Universe: Evening Bat Walk in Evening Bat Walk in Celestial Highlights: The Explosive Universe Central Park Central Park Summer Streakers 10 17 24 29 Saturday Saturday Saturday Thursday Wild, Wild World: Sail on the Clearwater Science Sense Tour: Pequest Trout Hatchery Live Penguins Rose Center 20 A Night at the 30 14 Tuesday Museum Sleepover Friday Wednesday Evening Walk to the Evening Bat Walk in Adventures in the Global Kitchen: Little Red Lighthouse Central Park Planet Barbecue 26 Monday 21 The Oddball Innermost Planet: 15 Wednesday Exploring Mercury with the Thursday Geology and History of MESSENGER Spacecraft Great Gull Island the Thimble Islands

August 03 07 19 22 Tuesday Saturday Thursday Sunday Virtual Universe: Tiny Wildﬂ owers of Westchester Geology of Inwood Hill Park Science Sense Tour: Objects in the Universe 11 20 Dioramas 04 Wednesday Friday 25 Wednesday Last Look at the Silk Road A Night at the Museum Wednesday What Dinosaurs Ate Sleepover Inwood Hill and Fort Tryon Parks in Central Park 15 Sunday 21 31 05 Traveling the Silk Road closes Saturday Tuesday Thursday Fun with Fossils Celestial Highlights: Last Look at the Silk Road 17 Surﬁ ng the Galactic Plane Tuesday Evening Walk to the Evening Walk in Fort Tryon Park Little Red Lighthouse

September and beyond 06 21 October 21 Monday Tuesday 02 Thursday Lizards & Snakes: Alive! closes An Evening with Ross MacPhee Saturday An Evening with Mark Norell 08 24 Birding the Barrier Beaches and Lowell Dingus Wednesday Friday 08 February Behind the Scenes in A Night at the Museum Friday Paleontology Sleepover Supernova Sleepover 5–6 Saturday and Sunday 12 25 12 Montauk Winter Wildlife Sunday Saturday Tuesday Weekend Birding in Prospect Park Garlic Festival and Ten Years of Space Shows Kaaterskill Falls 13 26 Wednesday Sunday Ten Years of Space Shows Geology of Northern Central Park

Rotunda / Summer 2010 / AMNH.org

ROT1596 13 6/7/10 3:59 PM 14 Explore at the Museum

Hayden Sphere: Out of This World

Imposing by day and luminous by night, the Hayden Sphere inside its 120-foot-high, clear glass enclosure at the Frederick Phineas On the Webb and Sandra Priest Rose Center has lived up in every way to its predicted status as an A wafer-thin titanium disk— architectural icon when it was unveiled 10 conceived in the labs on the years ago. But equally fulfi lled has been sixth fl oor of the Museum’s the promise of education and enchantment Rose Center for Earth and offered within—the Big Bang simulation, Space—will launch into space dazzling space projections in the Dome, and in 2014 with the James Webb lastly, the ever-popular Space Shows. Space Telescope. This disk, Four distinct Space Shows, created by the known as a non-redundant Museum with private and public support mask, will dramatically and in collaboration with the National improve the telescope’s Aeronautics and Space Administration resolution for fainter objects (NASA) and various scientifi c institutions Whoopi Goldberg and described by Dennis by fi ltering light coming from around the world, have been shown since Overbye of The New York Times as “the most very bright objects. the Rose Center for Earth and Space opened beautiful planetarium show I have ever seen.” “This technique was in 2000: Passport to the Universe, narrated invented for radio astronomy by Tom Hanks; The Search for Life: Are We Save the date: Members can see all four Space in the late 1950s and revised Alone?, narrated by Harrison Ford; Cosmic Shows in one evening to celebrate the 10th for ground-based astronomy Collisions, narrated by Robert Redford; and anniversary of the opening of the Rose Center for in the late 1990s,” says the latest, Journey to the Stars, narrated by Earth and Space. See page 12. Anand Sivaramakrishnan, chief instrumentation scientist in the Museum’s NASA Administrator Charles Bolden at the Museum Department of Astrophysics. “But this is the fi rst time it will be used in space.” 1 2 Sivaramakrishnan and his team designed non- redundant masks for ground- based telescopes like that used by Project 1640 on the 200-inch telescope at Palomar. On the ground, the mask enables the imaging of objects about 100 times fainter than a bright star and was recently instrumental in discovering a new star in the Big Dipper. But in space, this same tool should be able to detect objects 10,000 times fainter than the nearby bright object or star, helping the Hubble’s sucessor directly 3 image extrasolar planets.

1. Director of the Hayden Planetarium Neil deGrasse Tyson 3. Tyson and Bolden circled the Scales of the Universe, toured the Rose Center for Earth and Space with NASA a 400-foot-long walkway that illustrates the vast range Administrator Charles Bolden, a former astronaut. of size in the universe. 2. During his visit, Bolden spoke to a group of students in the Hayden Planetarium Space Theater. Photos, except for non-redundant mask © AMNH/D. Finnin

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brought people into contact with one another, Silk Road Surprises they borrowed and adapted each other’s ideas and skills. For example, as goods traveled, There was no single “Silk Road.” so did the ways they were made. Key among It was a complicated network of these technologies was silk-making, or trade routes. sericulture, which had already been practiced in China for thousands of years and was a People often traveled at night to zealously guarded secret. Other technologies avoid scorching desert heat. included glassmaking, an art developed in the Mediterranean; papermaking, a Chinese It takes about 2,500 silkworms invention that spread the written word; and to produce one pound of silk, metalworking, which originated in the central enough for one robe. The thread Middle East. Many contemporary inventions, was so coveted that foreigners like grape winemaking and paper money, are would unravel Chinese silks and still in use today. reweave new garments. Artifacts found along the Silk Road show that as they did business, travelers also exchanged Merchants sometimes packed The Legacy of music, cuisines, and beliefs. Pilgrims and melons and other fruit in lead merchants carried their religions (including containers fi lled with snow the Silk Road Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and and ice from the mountains Zoroastrianism) to distant lands. Scientifi c before sending them along Long before airplanes or computers, this knowledge of subjects such as astronomy the Silk Road. network of trails, sea routes, oases and and mathematics also made its way along marketplaces connected East Asia to the trade routes, as did visual styles and motifs. Both one-humped and two- Mediterranean. The complex network linked These exchanges profoundly affected many of humped camels hauled goods empires, giving many people, including Greeks, the civilizations that came into contact with along the Silk Road. Camel Indians, Persians, Arabs, and Han Chinese, each other. Crossing rugged mountains and humps don't store water. They their fi rst contact with distant civilizations. At scorching deserts, braving hunger, sandstorms store fat, which provides energy. inns called caravanserai, travelers mingled and and robbers, the camel caravans of the Silk traded all kinds of raw materials and fi nished Road were the harbingers of globalization. products, from furs and feathers to ceramics The fi rst international highway, the Silk Road Credits and gems and, of course, silk. helped lay foundations for the modern world. Traveling the Silk Road is organized Much more than tangible goods traveled by the American Museum of Natural along the Silk Road. So did technology and Last chance! Members receive free admission to History, New York, (www.amnh. culture, both objects and ideas. As trade Traveling the Silk Road, which closes August 15. org), in collaboration with Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, Roma, Italy and Codice. Idee per la cultura srl, Torino, Italy; the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, Australia young man. In “Sounds of the Silk Road” and Art Exhibitions Australia; and (amnh.org/ology/silkroadmusic), an engaging the National Museum of Natural interactive on the Museum’s OLogy site for kids, Science, Taichung, Taiwan and you can hear the song played on six traditional United Daily News, Taipei, Taiwan. instruments from Xi’an, China. Musicians from east and west gathered in this Tang Dynasty The Presenting Sponsor capital, where rhythms and melodies blended of Traveling the Silk Road is

Moon lute over the centuries. MetLife Foundation. Explore the instruments: the pipa; moon lute; the two-stringed erhu and its Additional support has For Kids: Sounds of bamboo-and-horsehair bow; the sheng, a wind been provided by instrument made of a circle of bamboo pipes Mary and David Solomon. the Silk Road that represent the folded wings of the mythical phoenix; drums; and cymbals. Click on each The Silk Road Project residency All along the Silk Road, from desert inns to to hear the sound it makes and the role each is generously supported grand palaces, travelers heard music playing. plays in the song. Then use this ancient Chinese by Rosalind P. Walter. It was a way to share ideas and tell stories, like orchestra to compose your own Silk Road song. “The Battle in the Water”—an ancient Chinese You can make changes as you go, and save and

Photo courtesy of the Division of Anthropology, AMNH folktale about a snake-spirit who marries a share the composition when you’re done.

Rotunda / Summer 2010 / AMNH.org

ROT1596 15 6/8/10 8:14 PM 16 Members at the Museum

Many popular attractions and programs World and Dr. Nebula began offering More from Your have special Members-only prices. Space Members discounted prices of $10 for Shows, IMAX ﬁ lms, and live-animal adults and $8 for children. Membership exhibitions such as Lizards & Snakes: Other advantages include 10% Alive! are discounted to $12 for adults and discounts in Museum gift shops, with Museum Members enjoy many valuable $7.50 for children. For a family of four a 20% discount during Member Extra beneﬁ ts, including one that begins at seeing a special exhibition and a Space Discount Days in the fall. Members also the door: express entry to avoid long lines Show without a membership, the total receive a 15% discount in the Museum on crowded days. comes to $76. With a membership, they Food Court and cafés. With free general admission, would pay $39, or nearly 50% less. To receive the latest information programs such as Global Weekends or Members pay reduced admission to about Museum programs and discounts, Milstein Science Series for families are public lectures and Hayden Planetarium make sure you are receiving the monthly complimentary. Special exhibitions— programs, as well as to the annual eNotes for Members. Simply send us an such as Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival. email from your preferred account to Pathway to the Modern World and Race A Night at the Museum Sleepovers, for [email protected] with your name and to the End of the Earth—are also free for ages 7 to 13, are discounted for Members membership number. The Museum does Members with timed tickets from any to $119 per person. Recently, popular not trade or rent its Member email list. of the membership desks. children’s programs such as Wild,Wild

Gila monster from Lizards & Snakes: Alive!

Museum Food Court Kids’ Birthdays Earns Green Distinction at the Museum! Linda Kaye’s Partymakers Going green has put the American Museum will throw an unforgettable of Natural History in a league of its own. In birthday bash for kids ages four 2009, the Museum became the only cultural and up. Choose from Dinosaur institution in the U.S. with a 3-Star Certifi ed Discoveries, Safari Adventure, Green Restaurant designation, a distinction Underwater Treasures, and awarded to the Museum’s food court by the Cosmic Blast-Off, which includes Green Restaurant Association (GRA) for an option to see Journey to the environmentally-responsible practices. Stars. Parties are an exclusive The Museum Food Court is now one benefi t for Contributor and of only 25 foodservice establishments in higher-level Members. For more the U.S. at the 3-Star level, which requires information, visit partymakers. restaurants to earn a minimum of 175 points com or call 212-288-7112. within GRA’s certifi cation program. No restaurant has earned the 4-Star status, the highest distinction in the program. full-scale recycling program, the Museum Enter at 81st Street The Museum Food Court, which is Food Court’s environmentally responsible managed by Restaurant Associates, earned efforts include installing compact fl uorescent During the renovation of points in seven environmental categories lighting, sourcing local and organic foods, the Central Park West façade including water effi ciency, waste reduction and using non-toxic cleaning products. and Roosevelt Rotunda, please and recycling, and sustainable furnishings Members receive a 15% discount at the use the Museum entrance

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available for anyone who might have Members on diffi culty with the stairs. A Museum the Move guard follows behind to direct stragglers. “I crack a sweat every now and then,” says guard Eli Torres. It is hours before the Museum will The fi nal cool-downs in the open and the sun is streaming across Rotunda allow the docent to share the towering Barosaurus in the more information about science and Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda. Some the Museum, followed by a healthy 30 people in sweatpants and tees are breakfast buffet in the Akeley Hall of doing shoulder rolls and arm stretches African Mammals. while Museum docent Kathleen Kinne explains the latest research on “What better or more the prehistoric megalodon, or “big- amazing way could there toothed” shark, they will see upstairs. So begins another Walk on the Wild be to stimulate your mind Side, an hour-long combination of and your body?” exercise and education made possible —Susan Rudin by Jack and Susan Rudin. “What better or more amazing “I go to the gym a couple of days, way could there be to stimulate your but this is different, very special,” mind and your body,” says Susan says Stephen Rosen, a career-change Rudin, “than a walk through a great consultant for doctors, lawyers, museum accompanied by only guards and other professionals who joined and other race walkers?” the group recently, inspired by the The program, once called Jurassic participation of his wife and business Gym by The New York Times, is a partner, Celia Paul, who adds, benefi t for Contributor-level Members “It’s a wonderful use of the Museum. and above offered every Wednesday And it’s fun.” in January, February, and March. It “Being here when it’s not open to the is led by a professional trainer and public has a kind of charm,” says Anita includes a bracing one- to two-mile Rich, a retired teacher who has been walk with stops for conditioning in the program for more than a decade. exercises throughout. Elevators are “It’s a New York experience!”

A Tribute to Camille and Michael Pantuliano have a charitable gift annuity with the been volunteers at the Museum for Museum. Although they are entitled Special Supporters more than 10 years. They recently to an income-tax charitable deduction shared their reasons for making a gift and will receive payments that are Camille and Michael Pantuliano to the Museum of the most precious partially tax-free for the rest of their commodity of all—their time: “The lives, the Pantulianos say that they are Museum is very important to us. We not motivated by the tax benefi ts. are volunteer explainers and tour Instead, they say, “With science a guides because we are fascinated key foundation for the technological by the scientifi c subject matter, innovations that create jobs in today’s love meeting visitors from all over world, the Museum has become an the world, and enjoy the friendship agent that promotes economic growth of many other volunteers. It’s also as well as scientifi c knowledge. We fun. And it contributes to one of the want to be part of that effort now and Museum’s prime missions: to educate in the future.” the public about science and to get youngsters interested in science. For more information about We care deeply about this.” charitable gift annuities, call The Pantulianos recently funded Planned Giving at 212-769-5119.

Rotunda / Summer 2010 / AMNH.org

ROT1596 17 6/7/10 4:00 PM 18 Seen at the Museum

6 5

1. Children enjoy the Discovery Room during the 4. A Member checks out a telescope on the Members Open House in March. Arthur Ross Terrace during the April Stars Party. 2. Members explore the video kiosks in the fossil 5. Two young Members watch Alka-Seltzer rockets halls during the Open House. during the April Stars Party. 3. Members mingle in the Rose Center for Earth 6. Ornithologist Paul Sweet answers Members'

and Space at the April Stars Party. questions during the spring Open House. Photos 1,2, and 6 © AMNH/R. Mickens; 3,4 and 5 © AMNH/C. Chesek

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Save the Date! Upcoming Events at the Museum

October 10/10 Celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Rose Center for Earth and Space. The full day of events on 10/10/10 will include family-friendly activities, science programs, special presentations, and more! Free.

4 1

10/19 Join us for the 17th Annual Family Party, a chance for guests to take over the Museum’s halls while enjoying activities that include a dinosaur fossil dig, simulated space travel, demonstrations with live animals, and live performances. For more information and to purchase tickets to this event, visit amnh.org/familyparty.

November 11/11-11/14 The annual Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival, the longest-running showcase for international documentaries in the U.S., returns 2 with an exciting slate of ﬁ lms. Members receive a discount on festival tickets.

Late November; date forthcoming. Be the ﬁ rst to see the exciting new exhibition Brain: The Inside Story at this after-hours Members-only preview. A reception in the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Rotunda will follow.

11/22 The Origami Tree, a beloved holiday tradition, returns to the Museum decked with amazing paper creations. Free.

3 December 12/12 The annual Holiday Party for Members is 1. Jared and Ivanka Kushner, 2010 Museum Dance 3. Museum Trustee Roberto Mignone and his wife Leadership Chair, enjoy the festivities on April 15. Allison with Museum Chairman Lewis W. Bernard at back at the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life with 2. Museum Dance Leadership Chairs Dana Wallach the Museum Dance. an afternoon of activities and live entertainment. Jones and Andrew Right with Museum President 4. Blair Hussain, Veronica Webb, and Sarah Peters came Free and open for Family and higher-level Ellen V. Futter at the dance. dressed for the Museum Dance's theme, Spring Safari.

Rotunda / Summer 2010 / AMNH.org

ROT1596 19 6/7/10 4:00 PM Membership

Central Park West at 79th Street New York, New York 10024-5192 amnh.org

30%

Hours Phone numbers Museum: Open daily, 10 am–5:45 pm; closed Central Reservations 212-769-5200 on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Membership Ofﬁ ce 212-769-5606 Museum Information 212-769-5100 Entrances Development 212-769-5151 During Museum hours, Members may enter at Central Park West at 79th Street (second ﬂ oor), Transportation and parking the Rose Center/81st Street, and through the Subway: B(weekdays) or C to 81st Street; subway (lower level). 1 to 79th Street, walk east to Museum Bus: M7, M10, M11, or M104 to 79th Street; Restaurants M79 to Central Park West Museum Food Court, Café on One, Starlight Parking Garage: Open daily, 8 am–11 pm; enter Café, and Café on 4 offer Members a 15% from West 81st Street. Members receive a discount. Hours are subject to change. discounted rate of $10 if entering after 4 pm. To receive this rate, you must show your Museum shops membership card or event ticket when The Museum Shop, DinoStore, The Shop for exiting the garage. Earth & Space, Cosmic Shop, Silk Road Shop, The Antarctic Shop, and amnhshop.com offer Members a 10% discount. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center for Earth and Space and the 75th anniversary of the opening of the original Hayden Planetarium, the Museum will be hosting a day of science programs, family-friendly events, and special presentations on 10/10/10.

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