yale environmental n e w s Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies fall 2011 · vol. 17, no. 1

Shedding Light on Ancient Marine Life

page 16 from the director faculty news

“On July 1 of this year, I was given the honor Expert in Energy and Transportation Joins Tenure-Track Faculty of becoming Director of the Yale Institute for at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Biospheric Studies.” An expert in energy research delves into the effects of different poli- research on the economics and policy of and transportation cies on reducing greenhouse gas emissions solar energy technologies in that country. He goal of developing and testing new compu- that advanced stage doctoral students can has joined the tenure- from transportation.“We’re very pleased to have holds a PhD from Stanford University, and Michael Marsland, Yale University Michael Marsland, Yale tational platforms to assist in the analysis of have the opportunity to spend a year focused track faculty at the Ken join us,” said Dean Peter Crane. “He’s done taught “Economics of the Environment,” a complex systems. Many of the insights and on enhancing the scientific quality of their Yale School of Forestry important work on how consumers respond foundations course with an enrollment of tools that emerged from this activity have now dissertations through the exploration of their & Environmental to changing gasoline prices, which has critical approximately 100 students during the fall been embedded as core parts of research into innovative discoveries. I have asked anthropol- Studies (F&ES). implications for a variety of policies aimed at semester. biological and physical processes that shape ogy professor Rick Bribiescas to oversee this Kenneth Gillingham, reducing emissions from transportation.” “I am most impressed by F&ES’s energy the diversity of life. YIBS is now going through grant program. assistant professor Prior to joining Yale, Gillingham worked and excitement about making a difference,” he the exercise of closing down other Centers that A key part of YIBS is the Gaylord of environmental and at the California Air Resources Board, White said. “With the resources that F&ES and Yale have fulfilled their strategic goals, and at the Donnelley Environmental Postdoctoral energy economics, uses the tools of economics House Council of Economic Advisers, Stanford have to offer, I am in the perfect place to build same time, I have put out a call for faculty to Fellowship program. This program provides and statistics, along with expertise in energy Energy Modeling Forum, Joint Global Change my research career, while having the pleasure of gather and formulate proposals for the next the opportunity to bring exciting young schol- and systems engineering, to analyze policies Research Institute of Pacific Northwest teaching and guiding some fantastic students.” round of innovative and exciting research ars to Yale for two years so that they may addressing the world’s energy challenges. National Laboratory and Resources for the ideas. enhance their scholarship in preparation for His recent publications have focused on the Future. He grew up in White Plains, N.Y., For more information about Gillingham’s research, visit environment.yale.edu/profile/kenneth- In many ways, graduate students are the future professional careers in the environment. adoption of solar photovoltaic technology, mar- where his parents still live. gillingham/. threads that hold together the YIBS fabric. It Postdoctoral fellowships normally are intended ket failures in household energy efficiency and He also received a Fulbright Fellowship to is through their efforts that faculty from dif- strictly to support research, however many alternative fuels for transportation. Ongoing study in New Zealand, where he conducted ferent departments are often drawn together postdocs hope to secure faculty positions that to explore integrative research questions. I require teaching. Recognizing the need for such added training, YIBS is now facilitating oswald schmitz, director am committed to strengthening graduate student support for research in the environ- the opportunity for Donnelley Fellows to teach a seminar course in their area of expertise. Swedish Research Council Announces Appointment The Yale Institute of Biospheric Studies (YIBS), ment in two important directions. First, YIBS This will provide upper level undergradu- like the rest of Yale University, has undergone has now established a permanent competitive ate students the opportunity for intense and of Geology & Geophysics Professor John Wettlaufer a three-year period of constraint because of small grant program—the YIBS Field Ecology focused study on particular aspects of environ- the effects of the economic downturn on the Research Grants—to support pilot research by mental science. John S. Wettlaufer, “I am humbled, enthusiastic, honored, Wettlaufer spent the summer of 2010 in endowment. I am deeply appreciative of my beginning graduate students. This is a critical There are many other exciting initiatives Yale scientist and and surprised,” said Wettlaufer, an Alan M. England, where a Guggenheim Fellowship sup- predecessor, Jeffrey Park, for stabilizing YIBS time for these students because it offers them that are being planned, and I will be sure to professor in the Bateman Professor at Yale. “Humbled by the ported his work at the University of Oxford’s both programmatically and financially to ride a chance to develop their own proofs-of-con- report on them in the future as they come to departments of company of former Tage Erlander professors Mathematical Institute. There he worked on out this period. Because of these measures, cept for ideas that will eventually become the fruition. However, succeeding with any of these Physics and Geology who are an extremely accomplished group. several projects related to climate change, we are now in a great position to pursue new core of their thesis or dissertation. Experience initiatives is impossible without the gracious & Geophysics, has Enthusiastic because of the opportunity pro- including the construction of “physically real- and exciting opportunities as the endowment has shown that this kind of funding poises support, encouragement and advice that I been named the Tage vided to expand and develop my research istic but mathematically solvable stochastic recovers. graduate students to be highly competitive for receive from members of the YIBS commu- Erlander visiting pro- program both by the time allowed to focus theories of abrupt climate change.” I was a junior faculty when YIBS was external funding in subsequent years. I have nity at Yale, as well as members of the YIBS fessor at Stockholm’s and by the cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary At NORDITA Wettlaufer will extend this first created, and later served for a time asked ecology and evolutionary biology profes- External Advisory Board. I deeply appreciate Nordic Institute for opportunities afforded by it. Honored because climate research and pursue problems in plan- as a director of the former YIBS Center for sors David Post and Tom Near to oversee this all of that support as I “learn the ropes” in my Theoretical Physics Tage Erlander was the longest-serving prime etary accretion and in lattice Boltzmann meth- Computational Ecology (CCE). CCE no longer grant program. Second, an inevitable conse- new role at Yale. (NORDITA) for the year 2012. minister of Sweden, and was largely respon- ods for electromagnetism and turbulent flows. exists, not from lack of success, but rather quence of conducting research is that we often The Swedish Research Council announced sible for the building of the compassionate NORDITA is hosted jointly by Stockholm because it fulfilled a strategic goal of YIBS. make fascinating discoveries that unfortunately Wettlaufer’s appointment, which provides society that it is today. Surprised to have been University and the Royal Institute of YIBS has an entrepreneurial mission and pro- cannot be pursued given the terms and condi- $350,000 to support graduate students, selected, given that a physicist is chosen only Technology. The core research areas are astro- vides funding to catalyze innovative and often tions of existing grant support. For doctoral postdoctoral associates and visitors, and will about once every five years.” physics, condensed matter, statistical and bio- highly risky environmental research ventures students, pursuing these newly discovered Os Schmitz underpin Wettlaufer’s work on projects related A condensed matter theorist, Wettlaufer logical physics, high-energy and nuclear phys- so that scholars can develop the necessary avenues has the potential to enhance their dis- to climate change, planetary accretion and has research interests spanning statistical ics, and complex systems. Wettlaufer spent a proofs-of-concept to become competitive sertations by leaps and bounds. Recognizing fluid dynamics. physics, applied mathematics, and astrophys- previous sabbatical at NORDITA in 2008. for external funding from public and private again the entrepreneurial potential, YIBS will ics, biophysics and geophysics. He teaches in research foundations. CCE accomplished its create a highly competitive large grant Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant program so the Applied Mathematics program at Yale.

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Forcing, and Feedbacks: Modern and Ancient Perspectives.” The following are the speakers and their seminar topics: Jeffrey J. Park, Professor, Yale University, Department of Geology & Geophysics: Ice Sheets, the Carbon Cycle and Climate Sensitivity: The View from Deep Time n Robert Pincus, Research Scientist, University of Colorado, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory: What Ensembles of Climate Models Might symposium honors (and Might Not) Be Able to Tell Us about g. evelyn hutchinson, Yale Climate & Energy Institute Uncertainty in Climate Projections n Alexey “father of modern ecologists” Fedorov, Professor, Yale University, Department Forms an External Advisory Board On October 4, 2011, Professor of Biology of Geology & Geophysics: Beyond Traditional By Rajendra Kumar Pachuari, Director of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology: The Emerita Nancy Slack, ecologist and historian yibs/esc and ycei Climate Sensitivity: Understanding and Modeling Evolution of Gene Expression Underlying Sexual of science at The Sage Colleges, presented an friday noon seminars the Early Pliocene Climate n Brian Soden, Development in Fungi. Edward P. Bass Distinguished Lecture entitled On September 27, 2011 the Yale Climate & A large set of suggestions and recom- Professor, University of Miami, Rosenstiel The Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (YIBS) “G. Evelyn Hutchinson and the Invention of Energy Institute (YCEI) held the first meet- mendations were provided by board members School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences: and the Yale Climate & Energy Institute (YCEI) the ycei friday noon seminars: Modern Ecology,” based on her recent book of ing of its external Advisory Board, which was to the leadership of YCEI on new areas for Recent Advances in Constraining Climate combined to present a Friday noontime semi- Daniel Schrag, Sturgis Hooper Professor of the same name (Yale University Press, 2011). established earlier this year. The Board is the Institute to consider initiating activities Feedbacks from Clouds and Aerosols n Andrew nar series during the fall 2011 semester. The Geology at Harvard University, Professor of Professor Slack offered a historical view of chaired by Chad Holliday, former chairman in. It was also emphasized that given the Scott, Professor, Royal Holloway University following are the speakers and their topics: Environmental Science and Engineering, and Hutchinson’s life, noting in her presentation of DuPont and currently chairman of Bank of current challenges faced by human society in of London: Evidence of Fire Regimes in the Director of the Harvard University Center for that “although Hutchinson is best known as America. It consists of 15 distinguished leaders the areas of climate change and energy, YCEI the yibs/esc friday noon seminars: Pleistocene of the California Islands n Peter the Environment: A Path Forward on Climate the father of modern ecology, he himself felt drawn from business, civil society and aca- should consider enhancing its outreach efforts Jeffrey J. Park, Professor,Yale Department n Cox, Professor, University of Exeter, College and Energy? Daniel Lashof, Climate Center that the term ‘father of modern ecologists’ was demia. It is noteworthy that almost all those to inform the public on critical issues based of Geology & Geophysics: Carbon-Cycle of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Director at the Natural Resources Defense more true and fitting.” invited to join this Board accepted the invita- on work being pursued on campus. Another Feedbacks with Global Temperature: Warm Cola Sciences: Using Climate Model Spread to Council and Edward P. Bass Distinguished Slack’s talk was followed by reminiscences tion to be part of this body and that, except for important suggestion put forward emphatically Versus Big Leaves n Gil Rosenthal, Associate Our Advantage: Constraints on Tropical Forest Visiting Environmental Scholar, Yale School of Hutchinson by Thomas E. Lovejoy, biodi- two members, all were able to participate in by the Board was for YCEI to hire four to five Professor, Department of Biology, Texas Dieback from Interannual Variability in CO2 n of Forestry & Environmental Studies: Climate versity chair at the H. John Heinz III Center the first meeting. distinguished individuals as YCEI core staff so A&M University: Mate Choice, Environmental n Eelco Rohling, Professor, University of South Change–Where Do We Go From Here? David for Science, Economics and the Environment, Yale President Richard C. Levin opened the they could lead research and training on spe- Gradients and Hybrid Zone Dynamics in Hampton, National Oceanography Centre: Sandalow, Assistant Secretary for Policy & and Professor Leo W. Buss, Yale departments meeting by welcoming the chair and members. cific fields of importance under YCEI’s charter, a Neotropical Freshwater Fish n Berat Temperature Sensitivity to Radiative Forcing International Affairs, Energy Department: of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Geology He highlighted the rationale behind the estab- and also help to project work that it does for Haznedaroglu, YCEI/YIBS Environmental n of Climate over Several Glacial Cycles n Trude Government’s Role in Innovation Robert & Geophysics, who as students at Yale both lishment of the YCEI as an umbrella organiza- the benefit of society and for raising the visibil- Postdoctoral Associate, Yale Department of Storelvmo, Assistant Professor, Yale University, Crabtree, Professor, Yale Department of knew Hutchinson personally. The program tion to coordinate and provide broad direction ity of YCEI as an institution. Chemical and Environmental Engineering: Department of Geology & Geophysics: Aerosols Chemistry: Solar Fuel: Formation and Storages concluded with insights from Professor of to work being done across campus in the fields The YCEI Advisory Board is scheduled to Next Generation Transcriptiome Sequencing of n and Their Relation to Global Climate and Brice Lalonde, Founder of the Ecology Ecology David Skelly, Yale School of Forestry of climate and energy, and to create university- meet once a year while the Directorate of the Lipid Producing Microalgae n Ryan Garrick, Climate Sensitivity n Dan Lunt, Senior Research Generation Party: From Stockholm 72 to Rio+12, & Environmental Studies, on how papers wide linkages between various components YCEI would stay regularly in touch with the Postdoctoral Associate, Yale Department of Fellow, University of Bristol, School of Who has Spoken for Planet Earth Over the Last were chosen for the Hutchinson compen- of research and teaching in these areas. To chairman and members to seek advice, guid- Ecology & Evolutionary Biology: Understanding Geographical Sciences: Earth System Sensitivity 40 years? dium The Art of Ecology (Yale University Press, acquaint the members of the Advisory Board ance and assistance from time to time. The the Past to Predict and Manage for the Future: through Geological Time: A Modeling Perspective 2011), edited by Skelly, Professor David Post with the nature and functioning of YCEI, brief next meeting of the Board is due to be held Applications of Genetics to Galapagos Tortoise For the spring 2012 schedule of YIBS and YCEI n Ted Shepherd, Professor, University of presentations were made on projects currently during the fall semester of 2012. Seminars, please visit www.yale.edu/yibs/events_ and Associate Professor Melinda Smith, Yale Conservation n Pincelli Hull, Postdoctoral Toronto, Department of Physics: Coupling in hand that are financed both by various exter- yibsesc.html Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. Associate, Yale Department of Geology & between Stratospheric Ozone Depletion/Recovery nal sources as well as through seed funding Geophysics: Too Long for Ecology and Too and Climate Change n Drew Shindell, NASA A link to the video of this lecture is available at and postdoctoral fellowships granted by YCEI Short for Geology: Understanding Ocean yibs center for the study of Goddard Institute for Space Studies: Uses and www.yale.edu/yibs/events_past.html. itself over the past two years. The projects cov- Ecosystem Dynamics on Time Scales Relevant global change weekly seminars Limitations of Radiative Forcing for Evaluating ered a range of activities, including research to Modern Global Change n Nadine Unger, Climate Impacts related to energy use in buildings, mineral car- The YIBS Program for the Study of Global Assistant Professor, Yale School of Forestry bon sequestration, “fracking” for production Change’s new director, Professor Mark Pagani, & Environmental Studies: The Atmospheric For a list of spring 2012 seminar offerings and of shale gas and its impacts on drinking water, Yale Department of Geology & Geophysics, upcoming Program events visit the Program’s Web Chemistry of Forestry for Climate Protection n site at www.yale.edu/yibs/research/CSGC.html. and dengue fever and climate change. Nina Lehr, Gaylord Donnelley Environmental presented the Topics in Global Change Postdoctoral Associate, Yale Department Seminar Series during the fall 2011 semester with a focus on “Climate Sensitivity, Radiative

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events

dinosaur days Week of February 20, 2012 Join us during the February school holidays for our yearly celebration of paleontology and everything dinosaurs.

skeletons in the closet: it’s id day at the peabody April 16, 2012 A L. Jones (5) Have you found something interesting that you’d like to have identified? Come to the Watching Butterflies Great Hall! Our experts will be on hand to identify your finds or give you their best at West Campus guess. Or come to see what others bring. By Lynn Jones, Museum Assistant Living creatures must be safely secured in big food: health, culture breathable containers and promptly returned and the evolution of eating Butterflies are some of the most charis- to their native environment. On view February 11 through November 30, matic, beautiful and well-known insects from 2012 around the world. Staff from the Yale Peabody earth day Museum of Natural History (YPM) have been This wide-ranging exhibition on the food April 20, 2012 making Yale’s West Campus butterfly friendly challenges of the 21st century also looks at our The first national Earth Day celebration and also keeping track of what species are changing eating habits and alarming levels of on April 22, 1970 raised environmental around. In the early 1990s, staff at Bayer obesity. Using an engaging multimedia and awareness and encouraged citizens of our Pharmaceutical, the previous owner of the family-friendly approach, visitors will explore planet to strive for healthy, sustainable property, set up a wildlife management team topics as diverse as the neuroscience of surroundings. Learn from local organizations to create a trail system, install bird nest boxes C D E appetite, human origins as hunter-gatherers, about simple actions that can protect and establish a butterfly garden on campus. By media influences on food preferences, and the B the planet. Marion Stoddart: The Work of the time that Coordinator Tom Parlapiano of serious health consequences associated with The butterflies seen at West Campus New Haven County, including one sighting in 1000, a 30-minute film about one woman’s the YPM Education Department began work- obesity. belong to five families with worldwide distribu- the West Campus A-21 courtyard. Another spe- unwavering resolve to save a dying river, will ing at West Campus, the butterfly garden was tions. The adult butterflies are nectar feeders cies seen is a sachem (Atalopedes campestris), a This exhibition is presented by the Yale screen at 2:00 pm. overgrown and underpopulated. Parlapiano that visit flowers for a meal and pollinate the small orange skipper. Scientists believe that its Peabody Museum in collaboration with has spent the last two years clearing out the plants at the same time. Adults lay their eggs distribution has extended northward because CARE (Community Alliance for Research weeds, allowing flowers to flourish and plant- on a variety of host plants, many of which are of climatic temperature rises. After hurricane and Engagement) and the Rudd Center for Information and updates at (203) 432-5050 and ing enticing new plants. This hard work has found on campus. One species visiting the Irene, there have been a significant number of Food Policy and Obesity. The presenting peabody.yale.edu paid off and butterflies are enjoying the results garden is the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexip- these butterflies on campus. sponsor is Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of these efforts. pus). These bright orange and black butterflies In total, staff have positively identified Foundation. The plants that have been added not only have been seen cruising the edge habitats, approximately 24 species of these “scaly- attract butterflies, but also combat the invasive quickly alighting on their host plant, milkweed. winged” insects. Butterflies were identified by martin luther king, jr.’s legacy weeds that thrive in the area. “The shallow dry The monarch is a migratory species and travels observation this year, meaning staff have relied of environmental and social soils…have made most introductions a chal- 2,500 miles south to its Mexican overwintering solely on quick glimpses through binoculars justice lenge,” Parlapiano explained. He has incorpo- January 15 & 16, 2012 site in the fall. and the occasional picture. Next year there rated plants like sweet pepper bush, Joe Pye The giant swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes), could be quite a few additional species as staff The Yale Peabody Museum’s renowned two- weed, black-eyed Susan and purple coneflower, A Monarch (Danaus plexippus) a southern species, has been seen through- plan on netting butterflies to allow for closer day festival in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, all in the hope of attracting butterflies, wildlife, B Pearl Crescent (Phycoides tharos) out the state this year in record numbers. In observation. Some of the butterflies that will be Jr., and his efforts to ensure environmental and and Yale faculty and staff. Says Parlapiano, the past, this butterfly was rare and possibly netted could be added to the YPM research col- C Sachem (Atalopedes campestris) social justice among all people. “The butterfly garden attracts people as well a vagrant. Last year a small population in lection, creating a reference sample to enable as butterflies, and its location at the top of the D Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia) Fairfield County was the only reliable sighting. future researchers to study which butterflies staircase encourages them to further explore Records this year include many locations in have visited West Campus. E Wild Indigo Duskywing (Erynnis baptisiae) The Age of Reptiles, a mural by Rudolph F. Zallinger. Copyright 1966, 1975, 1985, 1989 Peabody Museum the Oyster River corridor on campus.” of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA; peabody.yale.edu. All rights reserved.

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directly connected to many of the Division’s historical accounts and biographies. These Peabody Museum Receives “Hidden Collections” Grant invertebrate specimens. Notably, through personal archives provide insight into their

By Daniel Drew, Museum Assistant, Division of Invertebrate Zoology, and Lawrence Gall, Informatics Manager, Division of Entomology the many letters sent to Verrill, it is possible lives and research and are of great interest to A to determine the origin of specimens now those interested in the history of science. The housed in the Division, as well as gain a better CLIR grant awarded to YPM will make possible The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History of White, YPM Senior Conservator Catherine of the Museum. The various archival special understanding of which specimens were sent appropriate storage and organization for the (YPM) has received a $409,000 grant from the Sease, Head of the Computer Systems Office collections include, among other items, in exchange. In one case, specimens of fairy archives and ensure their accessibility for years Council for Library and Information Resources Lawrence Gall, Project Registrar Annette Van correspondence, field notebooks, maps and shrimp, part of invertebrate zoology collections to come. As these archives are catalogued, (CLIR) and the A.W. Mellon Foundation to Aken and Museum Assistant Daniel Drew, manuscript drafts of early curators such as since the 1880s and long suspected to be type they will become available through Yale’s find- electronically catalog its archives and special was charged with developing a plan for the O.C. Marsh and Addison E. Verrill, as well specimens (specimens used for the original ing aid database to a wide range of researchers collections, and was one of 17 institutions to handling, storage and digital cataloguing of as documentation related to the day-to- species description), were confirmed as such and historians. As the project progresses, Van receive an award from CLIR and the Mellon archival collections. Sease developed protocols day operations of YPM’s divisions. These by a letter sent to Verrill. Aken, Drew, Museum Assistant Nathan Utrup Foundation. Beginning in early 2011 and under for appropriate handling and storage, while archives and special collections are an The importance of archival collections and other staff will document interesting dis- the direction of YPM’s Assistant Director Gall and Drew began to plan for digitally integral part of each division’s traditional extends beyond YPM and its divisions. Much coveries among the archives on the blog “From for Collections and Operations Tim White, a cataloguing using YPM’s enterprise collections B research holdings. For example, the Division of these materials originate from Yale fac- DNA to Dinosaurs” (http://fromdnatodinosaurs. committee was formed to survey the archival management system, KE EMu. of Invertebrate Zoology has catalogued much A Examples of original correspondence sent to Yale’s first pro- ulty and staff, many of them experts in their blogspot.com). fessor of zoology, Addison E. Verrill. Photograph courtesy of Eric holdings in YPM’s Archives division and 12 The YPM’s archives are diverse and correspondence and many field notebooks respective fields who are often the subject of Lazo-Wasem. curatorial divisions. The committee, composed eclectic, covering the entire 145-year history as part of its ongoing work, which can be B A sampling of historical photographs from the archives of the YPM Division of Anthropology. Photograph courtesy of Jessica Slawski.

and observations to respond to what he or she of concentric circles of color on the margin of Art and Science Collaborate to Create “Ecological Symmetries” is seeing. And everyone sees something indi- the wings of many nymphalid butterflies. Dr. vidualized and different. Monteiro offered the use of digital photographs The idea for the latest exhibition of natural digital images of exotic butterfly specimens at ity”—that is, compositional elements readily The digital images of specimens used from her research team’s work and granted history themed art on view at Yale’s Class of the YPM to create Arabolos’s signature com- identifiable as the same, yet different in size by Arabolos to create these works are taken Arabolos access to a Web site of 14,853 images, 1954 Environmental Science Center—“The plex patterned artwork. For the artist, the con- and scale and existing randomly within space from a research project of Monteiro and YPM from which Arabolos’s first selection of 21 dif- Fabric of Life—Ecological Symmetries” by cept was an exciting, yet daunting, opportunity at any given moment. He uses symmetry as Informatics Director William Piel. The project, ferent butterflies was quickly reduced to 14 spe- John Arabolos—began in October 2010 when for a collaboration of art and science resulting a tool to bring order out of randomness. The funded by the National Science Foundation, cies. The final seven photographs used to create Arabolos was approached by Yale Peabody in a new interpretive aesthetic in exploring and resulting patterns, created electronically from aims to explore the evolution of color patterns the artwork on exhibit were selected according Museum of Natural History (YPM) Assistant investigating both the natural environment digital imagery, though organic in origin, are on the wings of butterflies from the family to aesthetic attributes, including color, contrast, Curator of Entomology Antónia Monteiro, and, in this case, specific species. abstractions manipulated from nature that defy Nymphalidae and focuses primarily on the pattern, form outline, size and scale. Four to Associate Professor, Yale Department of Arabolos’s artwork investigates the “cha- identification. The artwork forces the viewer to origin and evolution of eyespots, the patterns six artworks were created from each image to Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, about using otic” patterns in nature that have “self-similar- rely on subliminal past empirical experiences provide a variety of interpretive representational images specific to each butterfly. A Chlosynejanais, DMPR-1x1, 42 in. by 42 in. © 2011 John Arabolos John Arabolos is a Professional Designer and Artist-in-Residence in the Department B Chlosyne janais (Drury) (YPM ENT 413426) from Hondo, of Art and Design at the University of New Medina County, Texas, USA. The ventral (underside) pattern of the butterfly, shown here, was used for the Arabolos artwork. Haven. He creates his work from materials Photo: A Monteiro/Yale that come out of the natural environment. “Art for me has always been about the investigation “The Fabric of Life — Ecological Symmetries” was C Melitaeaphoebe, VMPR-1x1-CC, 30 in. by 30 in. © 2011 John on view through December 5, 2011. Four of the art- Arabolos of our natural world and the way we perceive works from this exhibition have been selected this D This specimen of Melitaea phoebe (YPM ENT.412850) is and relate to it,” says Arabolos. “It not only year for the covers of the July, August, October and from Vallombrosa, Italy. The ventral (underside) pattern of the has to do with the process of conceiving ideas November issues of the journal Nature Genetics. butterfly, shown here, was used for the Arabolos artwork.Photo: Arabolos is the author of Chaotic Symmetries: The A Monteiro/Yale and creating, but is also about the metaphysi- cal act of experiencing and becoming. As an Artwork of John Arabolos (Herlin/GIST Press, March 2005) and is working on a second book based on E Charaxes_anticlea, DMPR-2x2, 42 in. by 42 in. This artwork artist, I want to bring the observer to the phe- was chosen for the cover of the July 2011 issue of Nature his The Fabric of Life Series. You can see additional Genetics. © 2011 John Arabolos nomenological brink or edge where abstraction art by John Arabolos at http://arabolosart.com and becomes subjective and identifiable.” http://artfolionow.com. F This specimen of Charaxes anticlea (Drury) (YPM ENT.814546) used for this artwork is from Monianku, Kisii, A C E Kenya. A Monteiro/Yale

B D F

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his discussion of unique forms of ancient Dean’s Graduate Student Symposium Fund, Egyptian urbanism. Speakers on this first day YPM, the Easton Country Day School and the of talks were Elizabeth Hart (University of Yale Department of Anthropology, as well as Virginia), Douglas Post Park (Yale University), anonymous donors. In particular, the organiz- Peter Coutros (Yale University), Jamie Inwood ers thank the Easton Country Day School for (Yale University), Andrea Zerboni (Università its support and for the attendance of several degli Studi di Milano), Lucia Mori (Università high school students on the first day of the E di Roma), Maria Gatto (Yale University) and colloquium. We would also like to express our Matthew Pawlowicz (University of Virginia). gratitude to the keynote speakers, Professor Several talks incorporated advanced technology John Darnell and Professor Roderick McIntosh. such as remote sensing and GIS (Geographic A Information Systems) models. Colloquium proceedings will be submitted for publication to the Yale University Publications On the second day of the colloquium lec- in Anthropology series (published by the Yale Colloquium on Urbanization in Ancient turers focused on the implications of special- Department of Anthropology and YPM, and ization on urban development, including the distributed by Yale University Press). Africa Brings Together New Scholars appearance and frequency of elite and non-elite For information contact organizers Lauren Lippiello objects. These talks discussed new contribut- ([email protected]) and Douglas P. Park ([email protected]). F By Lauren Lippiello, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and Douglas P. Park, ing factors to urban centers, such as trade rela- Department of Anthropology and Co-Director, Saharan Archaeological Research Association tionships and the role of canonized religion. A At Ghueita Temple in Egypt extensive mud-brick structures E A late Stone Age (Neolithic) hilltop settlement in the Tichitt Keynote speaker Professor Roderick McIntosh, dating to the Graeco–Roman Period (under later medieval and region of Mauritania. Similar sites are found across the south- Graduate and post-graduate students gathered at the Yale Peabody Yale Department of Anthropology, began the early modern structures) surround the earlier sandstone temple, western Sahara, from the Tichitt Cliff region in Mauritania to the which is ascribed primarily to the reigns of Darius I and Ptolemy lakes region in Mali. Photo: Peter Coutros Museum of Natural History (YPM) on April 8–9, 2011, for the Urbanization day’s events by discussing the urbanism in the III. Evidence of earlier occupation at Gebel Ghueita and its adja- Niger Delta. Speakers on the second day were cent environs, particularly the remains of what seems to have F This aerial view of the modern city of Jenne in Mali shows in Ancient Africa Colloquium, which brought together new scholars from been an extensive industrial complex in the late Middle Kingdom the unique form of West African urbanism that can be docu- Brian Clark (Rice University), Lauren Lippiello (not pictured), suggests the region was a center for intensive mented in archaeological contexts. The Iron Age occupation of around the world to explore the conception, appearance and function (Yale University), Nikolas Gestrich, Kevin specialized production (see www.yale.edu/egyptology/ae_gebel. Jenne Jeno, about one kilometer to the southeast, is similar in htm). Photo: J.C. Darnell size and layout to the modern city, and has evidence of intense of different forms of urbanity on the African continent. Presentations MacDonald and Jane Humphris (University specialization in craft and subsistence production. Photo: B Prehistoric urban settlement clusters dating from 500 BC to College London), Jack Stoetzel (University of Roderick J. McIntosh included material on urban communities from Senegal to Egypt, Libya to AD 1000 situated around modern Timbuktu in Mali, West Africa Virginia) and Annalisa Christie (University of may represent a seasonal urbanism affected by the high and Tanzania, and spanned the period from 4000 BC to AD 1700. low floods. During the high flood season populations coalesced York). At the end of the colloquium, discussion onto natural rises, creating settlements as large as 100 hect- sections led by discussant Jason Nesbitt (Yale ares. During the low flood season people moved out onto the landscape to take advantage of natural resources. Photo: Doug Although the study areas are separated by First, lecturers presented material on the University) focused on adapting definitions of P. Park B urbanism to include the relational dichotomy, thousands of miles and roughly five millen- spatial distribution of people, architecture and C This small Garamantian compound built at the fringes of nia, cultural comparisons encouraged lively materials across the landscape and considered as well as the interdependence, between urban the oasis of Fewet (in southwestern Fezzan, Libya) has been centers and their associated hinterland. excavated and conserved by the Archaeological Mission in the discussion and prodded individual speakers to the centrality and human response to envi- Acacus and Messak. Photo: Andrea Zerboni consider intervening variables that otherwise ronmental and climatic stressors. The day’s The Urbanization in Ancient Africa may not have been realized. Colloquium top- lectures began with keynote speaker Professor Colloquium was generously sponsored by D A view of the Ghat Oasis in Libya and, in the background, ics were grouped into two distinctive, yet not John C. Darnell, Chair, Yale Department of donations from the William K. and Marilyn the Tadrart Acacus. Photo: Andrea Zerboni

mutually exclusive, sessions. Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, and M. Simpson Endowment for Egyptology, the

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Park Service and the Institute of Museum and environmental conditions in the room. The Library Services, are intended to preserve the Save the America’s Treasures Grant will enable physical fabric of American history, supporting YPM to move the Marsh dinosaur collection the restoration of nationally significant historic to a refurbished space with new environmental C sites and special collections across the country. controls and state-of-the art compactorized While it is more usual to think of the dinosaur storage, securing its long-term safety and collection in terms of its scientific value, it has stability. The level of conservation and care also played a critical role in the history of sci- that results will ensure greater access to this ence. Prior to the 1870s, dinosaur specimens historically and scientifically important collec- were rare. The wealth of specimens obtained tion and the information it holds, making these by Marsh helped to raise the profile of the materials available to researchers, educators, group and lay the foundations of today’s public students and the public. fascination with dinosaurs. This fascination The fossil collections at Yale are the most continues today; since 2005, the YPM Division tangible part of Marsh’s immense and ongo- of Vertebrate Paleontology has welcomed more ing legacy to the nation and a vital resource for than 1,800 members of the public on behind- scientific research, education, and outreach. the-scenes tours of the collection. The funding from the Save America’s Treasures D Unfortunately, the room that currently program will ensure that they continue to houses the largest dinosaur specimens con- amaze and inspire future generations. forms in all too many ways to the caricature of a museum storeroom: it is a dark, damp, and To learn more about the YPM Division of Vertebrate Paleontology and its collections, visit http://peabody. dirty basement room. The specimens are sub- yale.edu/collections/vertebrate-paleontology. ject to damaging relative humidity that ranges from nearly 70% in summer to almost 20% in the winter, and which can vary by up to 20% in A Arthur Lakes, one of the early collectors for O.C. Marsh, is known for his watercolors of collectors digging dinosaurs, such 24 hours. This lack of climate control causes a as this painting, “Kennedy and Reed with Dinosaur Bones. multitude of problems. Most of these dinosaur Como Bluff, Wyoming, 1879.” Many of the specimens that will be moved with the support of the Save America’s Treasures specimens were prepared in the late 1800s Grant were collected by these men. Photo: YPM Archives and early 1900s; the preparators working on them used adhesives made from animal hides B Yale’s Othniel Charles Marsh described many of the most famous American dinosaurs. Collectors working for Marsh exca- and other organic glues. These glues become vated thousands of fossil bones. Photo: YPM Archives unstable when exposed to the high relative humidity in the YPM basement, causing the C Marsh’s dinosaurs in their current storage. Photo: M Fox glue to fail and specimens to disintegrate. D Overcrowded vertebrae are hard to handle, increasing the Handling even the smallest bones can result in risk of breakage. Credit: M Fox A disaster as old adhesives fail. The specimens are currently kept on open racks. These were E An earlier NSF grant enabled the YPM Division of Vertebrate Paleontology to stabilize and make support bases for all the fos- Moving Marsh’s Dinosaurs into the 21st Century state-of-the-art in 1927, when the fossils were sil bones. Old glues had disintegrated and many bones were in E moved to the basement, but today the rusting pieces. Photo: M Fox By Christopher Norris, Senior Collections Manager, Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, and Marilyn Fox, Chief Preparator, metal-grated shelves are warped and difficult Division of Vertebrate Paleontology F One of the reconstructed specimens with its illustration from to move without causing damage to the fos- Marsh’s Dinosaurs, a 1966 publication by John Ostrom and John B McIntosh that republished Marsh’s original lithographic draw- sils. The fossilized bones, some over four feet ings of fossils from the collection. Photo: M Fox/Yale University Othniel Charles Marsh, the nation’s first pro- greatest legacy is the massive collection of his career Marsh accumulated 769 dinosaur (more than a meter) in length and weighing Press fessor of paleontology, served at Yale from 1866 dinosaur fossils that are the core of the Yale specimens and named 344 new species and several hundred pounds, present formidable until his death in 1899. He is widely recognized Peabody Museum of Natural History (YPM) 161 new genera of fossil vertebrates. challenges for handling, a problem magnified as one of the founding fathers of the science fossil vertebrate collections. Dating back to The status of these fossils as a significant by overcrowding. of paleontology and his obituary in The New the 1870s, these fossils are some of the first cultural treasure of the United States has been A previous National Science Foundation York Times cited his “marvelous achievements dinosaur specimens collected in the American recognized through the award of a $450,000 funded project enabled the Division to clean, in paleontology” and ranked him among the West and include such familiar names as Save America’s Treasures Grant to YPM to re-glue and create support bases for all of “greatest scholars and investigators” and Apatosaurus (Brontosaurus), Allosaurus, secure their long-term preservation. These these specimens, but could not address the “distinguished naturalists” of the age. Marsh’s Stegosaurus and Triceratops. Over the course of grants, which are funded through the National F

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The great diversity of dinosaurs living alongside one another at the end of the Cretaceous period adds support to the asteroid B impact theory as the explanation for the

demise of the dinosaurs. D

The scientific value of the study site lies not only in the many fossils found, but also in the significant periods the fossil-bearing sediments represent. The area captures information not only on the last of the Cretaceous biota and its C A demise, but also about post-impact ecological Diversity, Extinction and Response — recovery—a time interval not well sampled. In the earliest Paleocene, a river ran through this Prospecting for Fossils Near the K–T Boundary area, depositing the remains of plants, fish, crocodiles, champsosaurs, turtles, lizards and By Jessamy Doman, Yale Department of Anthropology Graduate Program, and Tyler Lyson, Yale Department of Geology & Geophysics Graduate Program archaic mammals. Members of the Yale team spent hours on hands and knees meticulously The discovery in 2010 of a ceratopsian brow ecological effects of the meteorite impact, a A crucial aspect of the fieldwork was to scouring the ground for fossils—a grueling horn that could be the youngest dinosaur fossil Yale team of scientists returned to the area determine the exact position of the K–T bound- but necessary task, for some of the smallest E yet found and the subsequent paper about it in Fallon County, Montana, where the brow ary and the vertical placement of the recovered mammal teeth recovered are no more than a (“Dinosaur Extinction: Closing the ‘3 m Gap’” horn ceratopsian dinosaur (the same group fossils relative to this boundary. Unfortunately, few millimeters in size. This effort resulted in A Paleobotanist Antoine Bercovici collects pollen samples near fossil has the potential to better flesh out what a Triceratops skull (foreground). Photo: Jessamy Doman by T.R. Lyson, A. Bercovici, S.G.B. Chester, E.J. that includes the well-known Triceratops) was the K–T boundary cannot be seen in the field, the recovery of many exciting plant and animal Sargis, D. Pearson and W.G. Joyce in Biology found. Fieldwork by YPM Curator of Vertebrate but instead must be identified by relatively we know survived into, and what was living at fossils, including several well-preserved mam- the beginning of, the “Age of Mammals.” B Jessamy Doman (left), Tyler Lyson (middle) and Antoine Letters) garnered considerable media atten- Zoology Eric Sargis, a professor in the Yale complex laboratory analyses. One of the easi- Bercovici (right) sitting on the K–T boundary in Montana. Photo: mal jaws. The locality also provided a means Antoine Bercovici tion and response from the scientific com- departments of Anthropology and Ecology est ways to find it is by analyzing microscopic The team of Yale scientists will build on to test a new device kindly designed and built these past several years of research and con- munity. The authors argued that the presence & Evolutionary Biology, graduate students fossil pollen, which is ubiquitous in the sedi- by Lyson’s father, Ranse Lyson. Affectionately C Yale graduate students Jessamy Doman (left) and Tyler Lyson of these dinosaur fossils so close to the K–T Stephen Chester (Anthropology), Jessamy ments of this geologic period. The boundary is tinue to visit this fossil-rich area. The interest (right)—and “The Bubbler.” Photo: Erik Freeman known as “The Bubbler,” this device uses a and controversy surrounding dinosaur extinc- (Cretaceous–Tertiary) boundary gives greater Doman (Anthropology) and Tyler Lyson marked by an extinction of Cretaceous plants, more efficient and environmentally friendly D The Yale team scours the Cretaceous surface in search of support to the theory that a meteorite impact (Geology & Geophysics), and Yale undergradu- followed by a spike in the pioneering ferns, tion re-ignited by this discovery highlights the small fossils. Photo: Erik Freeman method than traditional techniques to screen- importance of Yale’s research on this critical approximately 65.5 million years ago ultimately ates Rae Ellen Bichell (’12, Anthropology), which are the first plants to re-inhabit a post- wash the buckets of sediments collected at the E Antoine Bercovici (left) and Yale undergraduates Greg Mittl caused the mass extinction of a range of biota, Greg Mittl (’12, Molecular Biophysics & disaster area (such as landscapes altered by time period and the site’s potential for further (middle) and Natasha Vitek (right) collect pollen samples near a site: air, rather than water pressure (usually dinosaur locality. Photo: Erik Freeman including the non-avian dinosaurs. An alterna- Biochemistry) and Natasha Vitek (’11, Geology a volcanic eruption or meteorite impact). The significant finds. With the pollen analysis and from a garden hose) agitates the sediment, more detailed fossil identification now under- tive theory is that the extinction was gradual & Geophysics) yielded abundant dinosaur team, which collaborated with pollen expert the finer particles are washed away, and the and the dinosaurs were already dwindling, or remains, including the articulated skeletons of Dr. Antoine Bercovici of the China University way, expect more exciting results to follow coarser rock with the fossils are left behind, soon. even extinct, before the impact. several different species. The great diversity of of Geosciences, collected sediment samples saving hundreds of gallons of water and many With the goal of finding more complete dinosaurs living alongside one another at the near each dinosaur skeleton. Pollen from each hours of labor. The Bubbler worked tirelessly specimens to further establish the position of end of the Cretaceous period adds support to sample, currently being processed, will provide throughout the field season, producing buckets these specimens relative to the K–T bound- the asteroid impact theory as the explanation data that will pinpoint exactly how far each of washed fossils that are yet to be sorted. Each ary and gain a better understanding of the for the demise of the dinosaurs. skeleton is below the K–T boundary.

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The Fezouata animals inhabited normal, Exceptionally Preserved Fossils from Morocco open marine settings that supported a high biodiversity. During a National Geographic- sponsored field season in 2009, we discov- Shed Light on Ancient Marine Life ered that the Fezouata biota includes virtually By Peter Van Roy, Postdoctoral Associate, Research Unit Paleontology, Department of Geology and Soil Science, Ghent University, Belgium all types of animals present in the famous Cambrian Burgess Shale deposits, alongside more derived forms. Burgess Shale-type faunas consist of basal, stem group organisms that look bizarre to our modern eyes. The quintes- sential examples of these are the spectacular giant predatory anomalocaridids, with their

D E Patrick J. Orr pair of raptorial appendages, circlet of toothed plates surrounding the mouth and elongated, Under normal circumstances, only the hard or only a handful of Ordovician soft-bodied biotas segmented bodies with lateral flaps used for shelly parts of animals are preserved as fossils. were known, all dating to the Middle and Late swimming. Most Burgess Shale-type animals This means that our knowledge of the biodi- Ordovician. Those sites represented unusual were thought to have disappeared after the versity of ancient seas is incomplete because environments, and the faunas they yield are Middle Cambrian, but our discoveries indicate most animals are soft bodied and normal not representative of normal, open marine that they had an important influence on the “shelly” preservation provides a biased view Ordovician communities. diversity and ecological structure of much of past life. Fortunately this is not always the The contribution of exceptionally preserved younger marine communities. case. In exceptional circumstances, soft-bodied fossils to unraveling the GOBE was rather lim- The exceptionally preserved fossils seem organisms are preserved in minute detail, and ited until now because of their scarcity. This is to tell a different story to the more common sometimes down to the subcellular level. Such where the Fezouata fossils, known from doz- shelly forms that show a dramatic turnover sites of exceptional preservation are of primary ens of excavations mostly north of Zagora in between Cambrian and later faunas. At the scientific importance and provide a much more southeastern Morocco, come in. Exceptionally same time, the presence of a significant num- complete picture of the composition, ecology preserved fossils were first discovered in the ber of more advanced, typically post-Cambrian and evolution of organisms through time. Fezouata rocks some time during 2002 by a taxa alongside forms familiar from the Burgess The fossil record is particularly incom- local fossil collector named Mohammed Ou Shale is evidence that the GOBE was far more plete during the 25-million-year interval of Said Ben Moula. Moula is a highly skilled col- rapid, at least among soft-bodied animals, the Ordovician when the so-called Great lector with an uncanny ability to locate excep- than has been appreciated. Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) tionally preserved fossils in the vast expanses With an international team of researchers, took place and the GOBE is one of the pivotal of the desert north of Zagora. Over the years, including YPM Director Derek Briggs, the G. events in the history of life in the oceans. While I have developed a close working relationship Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Geology and A P Van Roy (4) nearly all animal phyla appear in the fossil with Moula, who graciously keeps all exception- Geophysics, and Yale alumnus Jakob Vinther A Anomalocaridids used these spinose grasping head appendages (YPM IP.227644) to record during the Cambrian explosion, during ally preserved specimens he finds for review by capture their prey. (Ph.D. ’11, now at the University of Texas the succeeding Ordovician period, about twice the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History at Austin), we continue to study the ever- B The prize beast: a giant anomalocaridid (YPM IP.226637) from the Fezouata rocks. as many new orders of animals were added, (YPM). expanding cache of fossils collected from the The specimen is missing most of its head. When complete, the animal would have been at least 4 feet (120 centimeters) long, larger than any of the examples among Cambrian the number of families tripled, and genera Some 480 to 470 million years ago, the Fezouata rocks (now funded by a grant from Burgess Shale-type fossils. increased nearly four-fold. This massive hike in Fezouata animals inhabited the muddy sea the National Science Foundation). Every year biodiversity, at a rate faster than at any other floor on the outer shelf off the ancient conti- C A marrellomorph arthropod, probably belonging to the genus Furca. Marrellomorphs hundreds of new specimens and many new are also typical of the Cambrian. This specimen is from the Museum of Toulouse, France. time before or since, went hand in hand with nent of Gondwana, in an area that was then taxa are added to the thousands of Fezouata greatly increased complexity in behavior and almost directly at the South Pole. The animals fossils already in the YPM collections. We are D The oldest known horseshoe crab (YPM IP.227586). With the exception of a few rela- tively minor differences, this example is already very similar in structure to modern horse- community structure. The GOBE was generally were buried by clouds of fine sediment, which assured of many more years of exciting discov- shoe crabs, showing that advanced forms are present in the Fezouata rocks alongside believed to have resulted in the replacement of may have been set in motion by massive eries, allowing us to gain a much better under- animals typical of the Cambrian. the animals typical of the Cambrian. storms. The soft parts were replaced by the standing of one of the most dramatic events in E From left to right: Jakob Vinther, Peter Van Roy and Derek Briggs in the field in Exceptionally preserved faunas are not mineral pyrite (an iron sulfide, FeS2), but this the history of marine life. Morocco. evenly distributed through time, and while they was converted into a mix of iron oxides and are relatively common during the Cambrian hydroxides by weathering. This lends the fos- (542 to 488 million years ago) and Jurassic sils their attractive vivid yellow, orange, red and (200–146 Mya), they are extremely rare during brown colors. B C the Ordovician (488–444 Mya). Until recently

16 yale environmental news / 17:1 yale environmental news / 17:1 17 A Peabody Museum Hosts 60th Annual New from the Yale University Publications in Anthropology Series

Meeting of The Lepidopterists’ Society ments of nobility, but quotidian possessions of interpretive tools to bear on the quotidian met- By Lawrence Gall, Informatics Manager, Division of Entomology, and Head, Computer Systems Office the retainers who staffed the royal estate. als found at sites throughout the Andes. The The innovative research contributed here maps, illustrated metals typology, and extensive This summer the Yale Peabody Museum of Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology by Robert B. Gordon, senior research scientist tables provide a baseline for interpretations at Natural History (YPM) hosted the 60th Annual and assistant curator in the YPM Division of and Professor Emeritus of Geophysics and other sites that will help the quotidian metal Meeting of The Lepidopterists’ Society, an Entomology, and eight of her Yale students and Applied Mechanics, in the Yale Department of artifacts of the Andes speak to us in new and international organization dedicated to the colleagues, were featured prominently among Geology & Geophysics, and Bruce D. Owen, interesting ways. Clearly presented, yet technical study of butterflies and moths (the order the presentations. lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, and descriptive, this book, the most thorough Lepidoptera). From June 22–27, 2011, approxi- The Society holds competitions at its annu- Sonoma State University, examines material effort so far at a synthesis of the metalwork of mately one hundred attendees from six coun- al meetings to recognize excellence in research that has barely been available in the literature the central Andes, is a significant contribution tries participated in the meeting activities. by young lepidopterists. The 2011 co-winners and provides new patterns and interpretations to foundation work in this area. Larry Gall, head of YPM’s Computer Systems of the Harry Kendon Clench Award for best revealed by an impressive array of new artifact Office and informatics manager in the YPM student presentation were Virginia Tilden from and analytical data, making this work a strong The Yale University Publications in Anthropology Division of Entomology, served as chair for the Pennsylvania State University (“Grassland addition to the knowledge of Andean prehis- series embodies the results of research in the general field of anthropology directly conducted or sponsored meeting. restoration and management for the reintro- tory, and the Inca in particular. The 1912 Yale Peruvian Scientific Expedition by the Yale University Department of Anthropology Conference paper and poster sessions duction of the Regal Fritillary, Speyeria idalia”) Laboratory study of these artifacts shows and the YPM Division of Anthropology. The series, Collections from Machu Picchu: Metal Artifacts were held both in the main lecture hall at and Erica Westerman from Yale University the result of a path of metal technology that published by the Yale Department of Anthropology Yale’s Osborn Memorial Laboratory in New (“Premating experience changes mating pat- Edited by Richard L. Burger and Lucy C. Salazar developed independently of the better-known and the YPM, is supported by the Theodore and Ruth Haven and the B-25 auditorium at Yale’s West terns in a butterfly”). The 2011 winner of and widely studied evolution of metallurgy in Wilmanns Lidz Endowment Fund for Excellence in With contributions by Robert B. Gordon Scholarly Publications, dedicated to the dissemina- the Alexander Klots Award for best student Campus. Other meeting activities included a and Bruce D. Owen the Old World. This research shows the metal tion of scholarly research and study of the world and collections tour and barbecue at West Campus, poster was Caroline Polgar from Boston sources, the smelting technique, and the meth- its cultures. Available titles in the Yale University Yale University Publications in Anthropology 91 open houses in the Entomology Division col- University (“The effect of climate change ods that Peruvian artisans used to fabricate Publications in Anthropology series are distributed by ISBN 978-0-913516-27-0 lections at the Class of 1954 Environmental on the flight times of lycaenid butterflies in tools, household and personal items, weapons Yale University Press. To order call (800) 405-1619 or Science Center, and a banquet in the YPM Massachusetts”). and symbols of prestige and power. These visit http://yalebooks.com. Great Hall. The variety of field trips available to On a historical note, The Lepidopterists’ American artisans mastered the techniques of the meeting attendees included visits to butter- Society has long had a Yale connection. The This book is the second in the Yale University making bronze alloys that they cast into tools fly watching “hot spots” at New Haven’s West Society was co-founded by the late Charles Publications in Anthropology series dedi- such as axes and chisels, or forged into finely Rock Ridge State Park, at Killingly, Connecticut, Remington, who served for four decades cated to the materials recovered early in the finished, delicate products such as tweezers. and at Westchester County’s Ward Pound as a professor in the Yale Department of 20th century by Hiram Bingham III and the They learned the technique of depletion silver- Ridge Reservation in New York; moth hunting Biology and as YPM Curator of Entomology. Yale Peruvian Scientific Expeditions. Edited ing to form a silver surface on copper-base at night at Hamden’s Brooksvale Park; and a Remington and his close friend Harry Clench by Richard L. Burger, Charles J. MacCurdy alloys containing as little as 25% silver, a tech- butterfly census of Redding, Connecticut, part started the Society at Harvard University Professor of Anthropology, director of nique also developed independently in both of the annual Fourth of July Butterfly Counts in 1947 when Remington was finishing his graduate studies, chair of the Yale Council Anatolia and Japan. program held across North America by the doctoral studies, and it grew and developed on Archaeological Studies, and curator of The book also includes an extensive illus- North American Butterfly Association. rapidly after he joined the faculty at Yale (in anthropology at the Yale Peabody Museum of trated typological comparison of artifacts from The Lepidopterists’ Society meetings offer 1948). Charles and his wife Jeanne edited Natural History (YPM), and Lucy C. Salazar, various Inca sites. More than 120 maps plotted a combination of technical and nontechnical the Society’s publications during its forma- research associate in the Yale Department of from a database of over 10,000 metal artifacts presentations from lepidopterists both inside tive years and were instrumental in shaping Anthropology, this volume focuses on the rich outline the geographic distributions of many and outside academia. The 2011 meeting con- the Society’s primary goal and purpose: to assemblage of metal artifacts from Machu metal artifact types across the Andes. Rather tinued that tradition with a synergistic mix of “promote the scientifically sound and progres- B Picchu and evidence of metallurgy at the site. than identifying an imperial style of quotidian presentations on topics as diverse as range sive study of Lepidoptera by…facilitating the At Machu Picchu the Inca resettled multi-eth- metals, these maps suggest that some metal declines and conservation of Lepidoptera, the exchange of specimens and ideas by both nic retainers from remote provinces to operate objects at Machu Picchu were generically A The logo for the 60th Annual Meeting of The Lepidopterists’ their estate and gathered those skilled in met- genetics of speciation in swallowtail butterflies, the professional worker and the interested Society designed by Antónia Monteiro, features the African Andean, others were recognizably exotic, refer- photographic safaris in South America, cat- amateur in the field” (from the March 24, satyrid butterfly Bicyclus anynana (Butler). allurgy to supply their people with metal prod- ring to known or unknown distant places, and ucts fabricated from copper, tin and silver. The erpillar crypsis and crowding, sexual coyness 1947 letter announcing the establishment of B A montage of lepidopterists visiting and conducting still others referred to Cuzqeño or Inca identity in satyrine butterflies, and the original colors the Lepidopterists’ Union, as the Society was research in the collections of the YPM Entomology Division culmination of nearly two thousand years of at a folk rather than imperial level. These analy- in the Class of 1954 Environmental Science Center at the 2011 independently developed indigenous American of fossil moths. The research activities of briefly initially known). annual meeting. Photos: L Gall ses bring a new range of low-tech, accessible Antónia Monteiro, assistant professor in Yale’s metal technology, these were not accoutre-

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Bear-palooza By Greg Watkins-Colwell, Collections Manager, Division of Vertebrate Zoology

In autumn 2008, the Yale Peabody Museum It is estimated that there are now of Natural History (YPM) received three black hundreds of black bears living wild bear specimens donated by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental in Connecticut, and in a state as Protection (CT DEEP). Since then, these speci- densely populated with humans as mens have been stored in a freezer. On April Connecticut, interactions between 27, 2011, they were thawed for a massive group people and bears are inevitable. effort to prepare them as skeletal specimens and tissue samples for the YPM Division of Vertebrate Zoology research collection. Preparation of a specimen for a museum The American black bear (Ursus ameri- collection involves removal of the skin and canus) is a species that is rebounding in organs, removal of major muscle groups, the Northeast. It is estimated that there are and collection of samples of tissue for DNA now hundreds of black bears living wild in extraction and analysis. Once the specimens Connecticut, and in a state as densely popu- were skinned and the major muscle groups lated with humans as Connecticut, interactions removed, they were packaged and refrozen between people and bears are inevitable. The for further preparation at a later date. In CT DEEP frequently receives calls about nui- September 2011 the specimen prepara- sance bears during the year, and while most tion resumed and additional muscles were interactions are benign, some require inter- removed and the specimens were dried and vention. CT DEEP personnel may attempt to placed in the dermestid beetle colony in YPM’s haze bears away from problem sites, or may A Osteology Preparation Lab, a common method capture and relocate bears short distances. used for cleaning skeletal material. Occasionally, an individual bear will repeatedly There are relatively few specimens of cause problems, even after being hazed, and black bear in collections and this is especially must be euthanized by wildlife officers. As the true of collections representing New England bear population has grown, the number of sites, where the species had been nearly extir- A Assisting in the specimen preparation were (from left to bears struck and killed by vehicles has risen, right) Vertebrate Zoology Museum Assistant Susan Hochgraf, pated. The YPM Division of Vertebrate Zoology and vehicle-killed and euthanized bears are volunteer Brian Roach, and Vertebrate Zoology Collections houses a mammal collection of 14,284 speci- Manager Greg Watkins-Colwell. Photo: Susan Hochgraf stored by the CT DEEP and may be made avail- mens, of which 44 are black bears. Of these, 12 able to researchers and educators. B Nuisance bears raiding birdfeeders, like this black bear in a are from New England. The three specimens New Hartford backyard, is an increasingly common problem in On June 2, 2011, after several days of prepared during Bear-palooza, including tissue Connecticut. Photo: Melissa Ruszczyk thawing, specimen preparation on the bears samples, are catalogued within YPM’s mam- began. The project, nicknamed “Bear-palooza,” mal collection, bringing the total number of involved YPM staff, a curator from the Division Connecticut black bears in the collection to of Vertebrate Zoology, a curatorial affiliate, Yale four. These specimens are made available to undergraduate and graduate students, and researchers from around the world and could YPM volunteers, who all became preparators prove useful for studies of systematics and for the day. The project required coordination population genetics, as well as many other of all 15 participants, as well as oversight by research projects. the Yale Office of Environmental Health and Safety, whose West Campus space was used not only to thaw the specimens, but also for the preparation. B

20 yale environmental news / 17:1 yaleyale environmentalenvironmental newsnews // 16:217:1 21 yale peabody museum of natural history profile profile Undergraduate Summer Internships at the Yale Peabody Museum: Student Reports

A B The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History (YPM) was pleased to Peter Flynn once again award research internships to Yale University undergraduates A B C for the summer of 2011. These interns worked on research projects A Peter Flynn at work in the Class of 1954 Environmental William Gearty A Will Gearty points to a silicified fossil in the Invertebrate Paleontology collection. Photo: Susan Butts under the guidance of Yale scientists who they selected from an Science Center. Photo: Near Lab expanded list of potential mentors in several Science Hill departments. B Silicified bryozoa with rock matrix completely dissolved (Permian of west Texas, USA). Photo: Susan Butts B A longear sunfish Lepomis( megalotis) from Coosa River, Projects were either of a student’s own design, or part of an ongoing near Wetumpka, Alabama, USA. Photo: © 2007 Mike Cline/ C Silicified gastropods weathering out of limestone (Ordovician, North America). Photo: Susan Butts program in a laboratory or research collection. Additionally, students CC BY-SA 2.5 were encouraged to pursue fieldwork to augment their study and, in some cases, add material to YPM divisional collections. As part of the fulfillment of their internships, the students submitted essays about their research experience.

The following students received a 2011 summer internship: Peter Flynn Peter Flynn (Yale ’14) By the end of the summer, I had generated a substantial dataset for been acquired over at least 150 years and include irreplaceable speci- (Yale ’14) worked with Associate Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary For 10 weeks this summer I worked in the lab of Associate Professor of the two nuclear genes (Rag and S7) and the mitochondrial gene (ND2). mens from localities now lost or inaccessible. In testing the fossils for Biology and YPM Curator of Vertebrate Zoology (Ichthyology) Thomas Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and YPM Curator of Vertebrate Zoology During the rest of the school year, using this data, I will determine the silicification, I used acid to determine whether the fossils still contained Near to analyze the molecular phylogeography of longear sunfish. (Ichthyology) Thomas Near looking at the molecular phylogeography of exact genetic divergence of the Lepomis megalotis with L. peltastes and the original calcium carbonate material or had been silicified. Also, William Gearty (Yale ’14) worked with YPM Division of Invertebrate Lepomis megalotis (longear sunfish), with the additional support of the hopefully produce a paper on the systematics of this species group. because silica is harder than metal, the fossils were tested by scratch- Paleontology Senior Collections Manager Susan Butts to investigate Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History (YPM) Phylogeography is The lab work and analysis of DNA sequences that I learned from ing them with metal. Finally, because silica is also more resistant to historical patterns of silicification, a type of fossilization in which original . the historical processes that are responsible for the current geographic this research are broadly applicable to any study incorporating DNA weathering, the fossils often stand out in relief. When the testing was shell material is replaced with silica, using the Division’s Stratigraphic distribution of individuals. My research was achieved by comparing the sequence data and phylogenetic analysis. completed, I was able to record my data across multiple individual time Collection and published occurrences to connect silicification geographic distribution of individuals with the patterns associated with periods and show the changes in the prevalence of silicification across with changes in ocean chemistry. Aspen Reese (Yale ’12) studied William Gearty (Yale ’14) their gene genealogy. the Paleozoic. morphological variation in a small mammal, the pika, with Professor of Lepomis megalotis is a widespread inhabitant of eastern North This summer, I worked with Senior Collections Manager Susan Butts of Additionally, I reviewed articles published in the Journal of Anthropology and YPM Curator of Vertebrate Zoology (Mammalogy) Eric American waters. The relationships of the geographic variants of L. the Division Invertebrate Paleontology at the Yale Peabody Museum of Paleontology. This literature search, like the physical testing, was Sargis and conducted her fieldwork in Mongolia and Alaska. Mia Yabut megalotis have been misunderstood for many years and the systematics Natural History (YPM), and Richard Krause, a postdoctoral associate extremely valuable in increasing the number of data points and widen- (Yale ’12) studied the taxonomy of shrimp-like crustaceans with YPM of this species were unclear. One specific problem is whether the gener- in the Yale Department of Geology & Geophysics, on a research project ing our field of study. Each paper represented an additional specimen, Division of Invertebrate Zoology Senior Collections Manager Eric Lazo- ally recognized subspecies of L. megalotis—the central longear sunfish that involved the analysis of the prevalence of silicification across the and the literature search produced very similar data to the physical Wasem and conducted her fieldwork in Bermuda and the Bahamas. (L. megalotis megalotis) and the northern longear sunfish (L. megalotis Paleozoic Era. Silicification is the process by which the original shell specimens. peltastes)—should be classified as separate species. My research, in material of a fossil dissolves in an acidic environment and is replaced By the end of the summer, patterns began to emerge and our results by the precipitation of silica into the resulting cavity in the fossil. Like showed that silicification was most prevalent in the Middle to Late internship program expands which I compared the geographic distribution of the L. megalotis sam- ples collected with their respective specific DNA sequences, eventually all forms of taphonomy (the process of fossilization), silicification is Ordovician, the Late Silurian and the Middle Permian. Possible explana- Although for several years YPM has offered research internships to helped determine the status of L. megalotis megalotis affected by different factors in the environment where it is takes place, tions for these ranges include global climate changes and mass extinc- Yale undergraduates, there is continual interest from students at other . I used DNA sequences to infer phylogenies and determine the evo- such as climate and global ocean chemistry. Also, the formation of silica tions, and in fact, modern hypotheses of prehistoric global climate seem institutions for opportunities to work in the Museum collections and the lutionary processes that are congruent with the observed patterns. The fossils is mediated by the composition and structure of the original shell to correlate very well with our data. Additionally, a drastic decrease in Museum is now working with several Connecticut institutions to provide sampling was already complete and I used previously collected fish DNA material, as well as depositional factors such as permeability, porosity, silicification near the end of the Permian period correlated with the larg- working internships for their students. Rather than receiving an intern- samples from the collections in the YPM Division of Vertebrate Zoology. lithology and stratigraphy. The occurrence of silicified fossils is much est mass extinction of Earth’s history. There are also other possible cor- ship with a financial incentive, the students work during the school year For this analysis I used Qiagen DNAeasy kits (Valencia, CA, USA) to iso- more prevalent in the Paleozoic, disappearing in the fossil record as relations, however, the true reasons for these changes are still unknown. and obtain academic course credit from their home institution. YPM late nucleic acids and worked with specific primers according to the genes you move through the younger strata and more recent time periods. Dr. Butts and Dr. Krause plan to pursue this research and publish a benefits by having highly motivated students assist divisional staff on I was amplifying with PCR (polymerase chain reaction). For sequencing, This may have something to do either with the abundance of carbon- paper on this material. I have finished my portion of the project, and I projects that otherwise might not be accomplished. This year intern- I used a mitochondrial gene (ND2) and two nuclear genes (S7 and Rag). ate shelly fossils or the abundance of available silica mineral during the hope to see great results from my efforts. Hopefully, this will lead to a ships were offered to students from Quinnipiac University and Southern The Science Hill DNA sequencing facility and the WM Keck Foundation Paleozoic. However, there is no agreement on the exact reason(s) for better understanding of relationships between the climate and environ- Connecticut State University. Sacred Heart University and Western Biotechnology Resource Laboratory, both at Yale University, completed the the many silicified fossils from the Paleozoic, but not afterward. ments in the past. Connecticut State University will soon become participating institutions. DNA sequencing. The sequence data was analyzed with standard phyloge- The YPM Division of Invertebrate Paleontology Stratigraphic netic software programs (MrBayes and Garli). Collection contains invertebrate fossils organized by age. These have

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A B

Mia Yabut A Mia Yabut collecting amphipods near the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences. Photo: Lourdes Rojas A B B The amphipod Parhyale hawaiiensis (YPM IZ.053809) from Bermuda. Photo: Lourdes Rojas Aspen Reese A Aspen Reese conducting fieldwork, Eldridge Mountain, Alaska. Photo: Kyndall Hildebrandt

B A pika among the rocks at Eldridge Mountain, near Eagle, Alaska. Photo: Aspen Reese

Aspen Reese (Yale ’12) ing a useable data set, but the experience taught me much about the residential college, Silliman. My research focuses on a family (Hyalidae) in fieldwork and practice collecting techniques I learned in Bermuda. In I spent my summer researching the pika (Ochotona) in preparation for difficulties of fieldwork. of amphipods and its component genera, several of which are in need addition, I snorkeled throughout the island and explored gorgeous coral my senior thesis later this year. Pikas are small lagomorphs, related to In August I spent three weeks in interior Alaska studying the collared of revision. With my advisor Eric Lazo-Wasem, YPM Senior Collections reefs while I searched for amphipods! rabbits and hares, that come in two ecological varieties: one that lives pika (Ochotona collaris), research that was much more fruitful. The trip Manager, I spent part of my internship in New Haven learning new The last leg of my summer research was a trip to the Museum für in rocky, high alpine environments and one that lives in grassy steppe. was a collaboration organized by the University of Alaska Museum and photography and permanent slide-making techniques and preparing for Naturkunde in Berlin to visit Dr. Oliver Coleman, who is a pioneer of Both consume grass and prepare hay piles, which they live off during the Smithsonian Institution to re-survey a site that naturalists had vis- work in the field. In addition, I learned all aspects of writing a species electronic illustration techniques—specifically of amphipods. Although the winter when they are active below snow. Pikas in alpine habitats ited more than a hundred years ago. I assisted in the collection of small diagnosis and complete taxonomic description. These lessons were very I had read his articles and practiced his published techniques, the time live in the crevices between boulders near grassy areas, while those mammals, including collared pika, hoary marmots (Marmota caligata), useful as my work progressed, and I am certain to use these methods I spent working with Dr. Coleman proved invaluable to planned digital in the steppe create their own burrows. My project was to investigate ermine (Mustela erminea) and hundreds of northern red-backed voles as I prepare my senior thesis during this academic year. illustrations I will make in the upcoming year. This fall I will continue my whether there are morphological and behavioral differences in these (Myodes rutilus). In addition, we saw many of the large mammals Alaska To continue this taxonomic research and strengthen YPM’s hold- work on amphipods for my senior undergraduate research, implement- species that correlate with their ecological type. To do this I studied is known for, including wolves (Canis lupus) and grizzly bears (Ursus arc- ings of hyalid amphipods, it was important to obtain fresh material, ing the many techniques I learned this summer into my current research both museum specimens and live, wild pika with the support of the Yale tos), and observed both adults and cubs. especially for any molecular analyses to be done later. A review of as I review and revise some of the hyalid genera. Peabody Museum of Natural History (YPM) internship, the Yale College When not collecting specimens or battling the Alaskan elements, I YPM holdings of amphipods identified targeted genera in Bermuda Dean’s Research Fellowship in the Sciences, and the Yale Environmental scored pika locomotive behavior in the field and also produced video and possibly the Bahamas. For the first leg of my fieldwork, I stayed Summer Fellowship. footage, which I will use for more detailed analysis to quantify the loco- at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), where, with the The museum work in the mammalogy collections of the YPM motor regime of Ochotona collaris. I hope to be able to use this data help of Lourdes Rojas, YPM Invertebrate Zoology Museum Assistant, Division of Vertebrate Zoology was guided and overseen by Eric Sargis, to show the importance of leaping in the pika’s locomotor repertoire. I collected amphipods and other invertebrates in the adjacent shal- professor of anthropology and YPM curator of mammalogy and verte- Should hindlimb adaptations known to correlate with leaping motions low waters. After three days of collecting, we returned to New Haven brate paleontology. My research involved a series of 23 measurements be observed in the skeletal analyses, this data will prove useful in illus- with more than a dozen samples containing hundreds of specimens. of postcranial elements intended to highlight areas where ecological trating evolutionary themes. Afterward I spent several weeks photographing, dissecting and sorting adaptations would be expected, including forelimbs for digging and My work will continue through the school year as I finish collecting my samples, and I plan to continue illustrating and describing these hindlimbs for leaping. In addition to the YPM collections, I measured data and begin to analyze it under the supervision of Dr. Sargis. I plan specimens for my senior project. pika specimens borrowed from other natural history museums, and I to write my senior thesis for submission to a peer-reviewed journal in The second half of my fieldwork was done at San Salvador Island also visited the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural the spring and to continue to use the lessons I learned this summer in the eastern Bahamas. I stayed at the Gerace Research Center and History in Washington, DC, the American Museum of Natural History about field- and specimen-based morphological research as I continue collected throughout the island for five days. The initial goal in visiting in New York City and the Natural History Museum in London to access my science education in graduate school. San Salvador was to collect hyalid amphipods and determine whether one genus in particular, Parhyale, occurs on the island. We believed that other specimens that could not be taken on loan. Mia Yabut (Yale ’12) To supplement the morphological analysis, I designed observational given the broad worldwide distribution of this genus, it should be found research to quantify the behavioral differences between the ecotypes I have spent the past year studying amphipod taxonomy and systemat- in the Bahamas. However, I did not find specimens of Parhyale on San and conducted field research in the steppe of central Mongolia, where ics in the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History’s (YPM)Division of Salvador Island, which is interesting in light of its occurrence in the Pallas’s pika (Ochotona pallasi) and Daurian pika (O. dauurica) are Invertebrate Zoology. This summer I was able to experience fieldwork neighboring Florida Keys and Bermuda. I was primarily working alone known to occur. Unseasonably late blizzards prevented me from collect- firsthand during my six-week internship, sponsored by YPM and my for the five days in San Salvador, so I was really able to immerse myself

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(about 40 million years ago). Results from this study also support the hypothesis that hybrid- $5.5 Million for Yale Reforestation ization has been a more common feature in darter evolution than previously realized, with Program Environmental Leadership approximately 12% of darter species carrying mitochondrial genomes that were transferred & Training Initiative from other species as a result of hybridization. The authors identified both recent and ancient A Yale program that aims to restore tropical sequestration and climate mitigation, open instances of hybridization in darters. forests and the livelihoods that depend on space and recreation, food and shelter. The study represents a collaboration them has received a six-year, $5.5 million grant The program also will restore and conserve between Near and several graduate students, from the Arcadia Fund to continue its work in thousands of hectares of remnant natural and YPM collections staff, and researchers at other Latin America and Southeast Asia. secondary forests in the Philippines, Panama, The October 2011 issue of the journal Systematic Biology institutions. Undergraduate students from Yale The Environmental Leadership & Training Indonesia and Brazil, rehabilitate marginal featured a graphic representation of Associate Professor and other institutions participated in the proj- Initiative (ELTI) for Biodiversity Conservation agricultural lands with native tree species, Tom Near’s phylogeny of darters. R.C. Harrington/T.J. Near. Used by permission of Oxford University Press and ect via supervised research and as YPM cura- in Tropical Forest Regions trains environmen- and implement sustainable land uses, such the Society of Systematic Biologists. torial assistants sorting and cataloguing the tal managers and local decision-makers to as agroforestry and silvopastoral systems, in large collection created during the study, which support conservation efforts where forests agricultural and cattle-ranching areas of the R.C. Harrington/T.J. Near added more than 1,767 lots of darter species have been cleared and exploited in Borneo, Philippines, Colombia, Brazil and Panama. (totaling over 14,700 individual specimens) to Brazil, Colombia, Panama, the Philippines and “These restored areas will be used to the holdings of the YPM Division of Vertebrate Sumatra. improve the connectivity between remaining Zoology. Before Near’s arrival in 2006, YPM’s “With Arcadia’s renewed support, ELTI will patches of natural and secondary-growth for- Collaboration Produces Notable Study darter collection consisted of only 67 specimen continue to empower and inspire conservation ests and create riparian corridors that protect lots (350 individual specimens). Additionally, leaders in the tropics to restore and conserve waterways and resources,” said Ashton. of the Origins of the Diversity of Freshwater Darters the study created an impressive tissue col- forests and biodiversity in transformed land- ELTI will also launch an online training By Richard Harrington, Yale Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Graduate Program, and Greg Watkins-Colwell, Collections Manager, lection representing the diversity of species scapes,” said Mark Ashton, ELTI’s principal program that will significantly expand the Yale Peabody Museum Division of Vertebrate Zoology and populations within the darters, as well as investigator and a professor of forest ecology program’s audience of university students outgroups and other fish taxa that previously at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental and professionals worldwide on tropical forest With more than 1,000 species of freshwater hummingbirds are in our avifauna, the ‘darters’ ral diversification of darters (Percidae: did not exist at Yale. It is now arguably one of Studies (F&ES). restoration and conservation on transformed fishes, North America is home to the most are among our fresh water fishes.” Etheostomatinae),” by Thomas J. Near, the most complete tissue collections of dart- Yale has directed the program in col- lands. Web-based training is increasingly being diverse assemblage of temperate freshwater Phylogenies are hypotheses of how spe- Christen M. Bossu, Gideon S. Bradburd, Rose ers in the United States. Specimens and tissue laboration with the Smithsonian Tropical used to reach people who are unable to take fish in the world. Recently, Thomas Near, an cies are evolutionarily related to each other, L. Carlson, Richard C. Harrington, Phillip R. samples from this project are catalogued as Research Institute and the National University part in formal academic programs or who are associate professor in the Yale Department of and are an integral tool used to understand Hollingsworth, Jr., Benjamin P. Keck and David part of the YPM collections and are available to of Singapore since 2006. The Arcadia Fund better served by programs that provide greater Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and an associ- aspects of biological diversity, such as behavior, A. Etnier, Systematic Biology 60(5):565–595). researchers across the world. grant will extend the life of the program flexibility. ate curator at the Yale Peabody Museum of morphology and the geographic distributions This study is notable for its nearly complete Beyond giving us an advanced understand- to 2018. Since its launch, ELTI has trained Beginning next April, the program will add Natural History (YPM), led a collaboration of species. Traditionally, biologists relied on species sampling of multiple genes for such ing of the relationships at the tips of the darter 2,293 people in the neotropical countries of more than 40 courses, workshops and con- that has made a significant contribution to our morphological data to decipher relationships a large evolutionary radiation. Of the 248 “tree of life” and among the major darter Brazil, Honduras, Panama and Peru, and in ferences in the Neotropics and tropical Asia, understanding of the origins of the spectacular among species. Today a rapidly growing field species of darters, this study was only miss- lineages, this type of phylogenetic study can the Southeast Asian countries of Singapore, reaching 2,500 more decision-makers and diversity of North American fishes—the publi- of research that does this uses DNA sequence ing three—two are distributed in Mexico and provide a starting point for future research on Thailand and the Philippines. practitioners. ELTI will also support more than cation of a molecular phylogeny of the darters data to construct phylogenies. An advantage the other species was endemic to Maryland basic biological and evolutionary questions. Although the global rate of deforestation 50 alumni of the program to put into practice (Percidae: Etheostomatinae). of DNA sequences over morphological charac- (and likely was extinct by the dawn of the 21st Darters are broadly diverse in ecological habi- has slowed over the past decade, the trop- forest restoration and conservation initiatives. Darters are an evolutionary radiation of ters is that they can provide a large amount of century). With nearly complete sampling, this tat use, feeding behaviors, mating systems and ics have been transformed by the industrial “We’re grateful for the Arcadia Fund’s sup- nearly 250 species endemic to eastern North data for which we can mathematically model study represents the most thorough multi-gene geographic distributions. With knowledge of farming of soy, oil palm, tea, sugar cane and port, because it will allow ELTI to rehabilitate America. Most darters inhabit rivers and evolutionary change (such as mutation rates) phylogeny for an evolutionary radiation this their relationships, we are better equipped to beef cattle, unsustainable logging, oil explora- lands that are critical to the health of the streams in fast-flowing riffles and shoal habitats, through time. However, because of the high large. Using the multi-gene data and tech- identify and study the mechanisms that gener- tion, mining, infrastructure development, land planet and whole societies,” said Peter Crane, and are primarily benthic, meaning that they cost of obtaining sequence data, phyloge- niques that calibrate DNA sequence evolution ate this diversity. cleared for subsistence farming and coloniza- F&ES dean. spend most of their time in the bottom layer netic studies of large groups of organisms are rates with fossil data, Near and his co-authors tion, and forest fires caused by these activities. of water among rocks and substrate. These often limited in their scope, relying either on produced estimates of divergence times and The grant will train government ministers, Arcadia is the charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. Since its inception in 2001 Arcadia relatively small species of fish (most are only sequences from a single gene or only from a relationships for all of the major groups of indigenous peoples, farmers and representa- has awarded grants in excess of $200 million. tives of international conservation nongovern- two to three inches in length) have surprisingly subset of all organisms in the group. darters. They found that most of the major Arcadia works to protect endangered culture and diverse color patterns, inspiring the 19th century The darter phylogeny was published darter lineages had diverged by the late Eocene mental organizations to rejuvenate forests, nature. For more information about ELTI, visit their naturalist Stephen Forbes to say that “what the in October 2011 (“Phylogeny and tempo- which provide water, wildlife habitat, carbon Web site environment.yale.edu/elti.

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U.S. Rivers and Streams Saturated with Carbon By David DeFusco, Director of Media Relations and Outreach, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Rivers and streams in the United States are They analyzed samples taken by the United releasing enough carbon into the atmosphere States Geological Survey from over 4,000 riv- to fuel 3.4 million car trips to the moon, ers and streams throughout the United States, according to Yale researchers in Nature and incorporated highly detailed geospatial Geoscience. Their findings could change the data to model the flux of carbon dioxide from way scientists model the movement of carbon water. This release of carbon, said Butman, is between land, water and the atmosphere. the same as a car burning 40 billion gallons of “These rivers breathe a lot of carbon,” gasoline. said David Butman, a doctoral student and The paper, titled “Significant Efflux of co-author of a study with Pete Raymond, pro- Carbon Dioxide from Streams and Rivers in fessor of ecosystem ecology, both at the Yale the United States,” also indicates that as the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. climate heats up there will be more rain and A “They are a source of CO2, just like we breathe snow, and that an increase in precipitation will CO2 and like smokestacks emit CO2, and this result in even more terrestrial carbon flowing has never been systematically estimated from a into rivers and streams and being released into region as large as the United States.” the atmosphere. The researchers assert that a significant “This would mean that any estimate amount of carbon contained in land, which between carbon uptake in the biosphere and first is absorbed by plants and forests through carbon being released through respiration in the air, is leaking into streams and rivers and the biosphere will be even less likely to balance then released into the atmosphere before and must include the carbon in streams and reaching coastal waterways. rivers,” he said. “What we are able to show is that there is The researchers note in the paper that cur- a source of atmospheric CO2 from streams rently it is impossible to determine exactly how B and rivers, and that it is significant enough for to include this flux in regional carbon budgets, terrestrial modelers to take note of it,” said because the influence of human activity on the Butman. release of CO2 into streams and rivers is still unknown.

The research was funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation, the United States Geological A NASA Landsat Satellite image of the Mississippi (NASA) Survey and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. B Stream lines from the NHDPlus Dataset colored by stream order (David Butman, Yale University)

C Titanium dioxide tracer addition to small stream (Diana Karwan, Stroud Water Research Center) G C Titanium dioxide tracer addition to small stream (Diana Karwan, Stroud Water Research Center)

D Small stream at the Harvard Forest LTER (David Butman, Yale University)

E Early Spring on the Connecticut River (David Butman, Yale University)

F Weir installed at Harvard Forest (William Sobzak, College of the Holy Cross)

G Ice out on the Yukon River, Pilot Station Alaska (David Butman, Yale University)

C D E F

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research and program highlights

ist and advocate and spent three years as an Deforestation Causes Cooling in Northern U.S. and Canada agriculture volunteer with the Peace Corps in By David DeFusco, Director of Media Relations and Outreach Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Kroon Hall Honduras. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Deforestation, considered by scientists to David Hollinger, a scientist with the United not accurately represent the state of climate for Service, a certificate in permaculture design contribute significantly to global warming, has States Department of Agriculture Forest 30 percent of the terrestrial surface covered by from Merritt College and a certificate in eco- been shown by a Yale-led team to actually cool Service, and study co-author, said, “Another forests,” the study says. logical horticulture from the U.C. Santa Cruz the local climate in northern latitudes, accord- way to look at the results is that the climate The study, “Observed Increase in Local Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food ing to a paper published in Nature. cooling benefits of planting forests is com- Cooling Effect of Deforestation at Higher Systems. “If you cut trees in the boreal region, north pounded as you move toward the tropics.” Latitudes,” can be viewed at www.nature.com/ Sharon Smith is an organizer and trainer in of 45 degrees latitude, you have a net cooling The researchers call for new climate-mon- nature/journal/v479/n7373/full/nature10588. movements for global justice, human rights effect,” said Xuhui Lee, the study’s principal itoring strategies. “Because surface station html. The study was supported, in part, by and environmental sustainability. As a program investigator and professor of meteorology at observations are made in grassy fields with grants from the U.S. Department of Energy advisor for the Brower Youth Awards at Earth the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental biophysical properties of cleared land, they do and the Yale Climate & Energy Institute. Island Institute, she co-produced an Emmy Studies. “You release carbon into the atmo- Award-winning series of short films, called sphere by cutting down trees, but you increase Natural Heroes, which featured the inspiring the albedo effect—the reflection of sunlight.” From left: Sharon Smith, Shereen stories of people committed to the environ- D’Souza, Sarah Uhl and Laura Lee and a team of researchers from 20 Yale Journal Tempers Concerns about Bozzi. © Matthew Garrett ment. The series has been shown on PBS and other institutions found that surface tempera- the Sundance Channel, reaching an estimated tures in open areas were cooler because snow Availability of Lithium and Rare Earth Metals 90 million viewers. She is the author of the cover reflected the sun’s rays back into outer F&ES Students Named Switzer Fellows book, The Young Activist’s Guide to Building a space, while nearby forested areas absorbed Yale’s Journal of Industrial Ecology recently magnets were first manufactured, to 2007, Green Movement and Changing the World, pub- the sun’s heat. At night, without the albedo published articles addressing concerns about when the market for permanent magnets was Four School of Forestry & Environmental Studies students were named Switzer Fellows. lished by Ten Speed Press. She holds a bach- effect, open land continued to cool faster than the availability of key resources for clean tech- well developed. While rare earth metals are The students, doctoral candidate Laura Bozzi and master’s students Shereen D’Souza, elor’s degree from U.C. Berkeley in anthropol- forests, which force warm turbulent air from nology. The adequacy of supplies of lithium, indispensible in modern technology, very little Sharon Smith and Sarah Uhl, are among 20 Switzer Environmental Fellows who will ogy and in conservation and resource studies. aloft to the ground. a crucial component of lithium-ion batteries, quantitative information is available on their each receive $15,000 from the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation, which recognizes Sarah Uhl is studying the health effects of toxic “People are debating whether afforesta- expected to be widely used in electric vehicles, use in permanent magnets. Drawing on histor- emerging environmental leaders. chemicals, particularly endocrine disruptors. tion is a good idea in high latitudes,” said has been debated in the press as electric ical data on permanent magnets from China, Her research explores the degree to which Lee. “If you plant trees you sequester carbon, Jen Sokolove, chair of the board of the Switzer Foundation said, “The heart of the cars grow in popularity. In “Global Lithium Japan, the United States, and Europe, Du and factors, such as an individual’s age, race and which is a benefit to the climate system. At Switzer Foundation is about supporting environmental leaders who are able to think Availability,” researchers from the University of Graedel provide the first estimates of global socioeconomic status, are associated with a the same time, if you plant trees you warm the across traditional disciplinary boundaries and shape the future of environmental sci- Michigan and the Ford Motor Company com- in-use stocks for four rare earth elements— susceptibility to the metabolic and reproductive landscape because trees are darker compared prehensively analyzed global lithium resources praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), terbium ence, policy and study.” health effects of phthalates and bisphenol-A. to other vegetation types. So they absorb solar and compared them to global lithium demand. (Tb), and dysprosium (Dy)—in NdFeB mag- She spent four years working for the nonprofit radiation.” They concluded that even with a rapid and nets. They find that these stocks, if efficiently Clean Water Action, where she spearheaded the The researchers calculated that north of widespread adoption of electric vehicles, recycled, could provide a valuable supplement Laura Bozzi’s research addresses mountain- Yale for her Ph.D., Laura was a groundfish Coalition for a Safe & Healthy Connecticut, an Minnesota, or 45 degrees latitude, the temper- lithium resources are sufficient to support to geological stocks as they are almost four top removal mining for coal in Appalachia. fishery policy analyst at the Pacific Fishery alliance of citizens, health professionals, work- ature decreased by an average of 1.5 degrees demand until at least the end of this century. times the 2007 annual extraction rate of the She has investigated the legal, regulatory, Management Council. She also was a Knauss ers, environmental justice leaders, educators, Fahrenheit. On the other hand, deforestation The findings were discussed in The New York individual elements. economic and technological factors that have Marine Policy Fellow for the National Oceanic scientists and faith communities committed to south of North Carolina, or 35 degrees latitude, Times electronic edition and a prominent envi- combined to make mountaintop removal one and Atmospheric Administration’s Science replacing toxic chemicals with safer alternatives appeared to cause warming. In addition, Lee ronmental news service and then picked up by The Journal of Industrial Ecology can be found online of the most contentious environmental issues Advisory Board. in everyday products and in industry. She holds said that “statistically insignificant” cooling investment, research and development, and at jie.yale.edu/articles. in the United States. She’s interested in how a bachelor’s degree in environmental and evo- occurred between these two latitudes. Shereen D’Souza works to support justice and environmental blogs and news services. policies on surface mining have shaped how lutionary biology and in environmental studies The researchers collected temperature equity in global and local food and farming In a related vein, an article by Thomas and where mining takes place, as well as from Dartmouth College. data from a network of weather stations in for- systems. Her research focuses on how best to Graedel, Clifton R. Musser Professor of how local citizens, environmental groups and ests from Florida to Manitoba and compared support poor farming communities participat- Industrial Ecology at the School of Forestry & industry have responded to those policies over results with nearby stations situated in open ing in carbon-finance initiatives in the Global Environmental Studies (F&ES), and doctoral time. She graduated from Yale College with grassy areas that were used as a proxy for South. This summer she conducted research student Xiaoyue Du in F&ES, quantifies the a degree in ecology and evolutionary biology deforested land. in Kitale, Kenya. Before graduate school, rare earth metals contained in neodymium- and holds a master of environmental manage- “The cooling effect is linear with latitude, she spent 10 years as a food-justice activ- iron-boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets— ment degree from F&ES. Before returning to so the farther north you go the cooler you get used in wind turbines, computers, and with deforestation,” said Lee. automobiles— from 1983 when permanent

30 yale environmental news / 17:1 yale environmental news / 17:1 31 student news

A Environmental Studies Students Pursue Exciting Summer Research

Every year, the Yale Environmental Studies (EVST) program supports summer fellowships for students interested in conducting research or exploring new training opportunities around the world. This year’s group of exceptional EVST students were engaged with a wide variety of topical areas, from green building design in London, to giant panda conservation in Sichuan, China, to urban river restoration at the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum in Washington, DC. Here we provide three brief summaries of student fellowships. Visit the EVST Web site (www.yale.edu/evst) and explore the exciting array of work all EVST students are doing.

B

A Bang Hed (left) and Ma Deh (right) sift through sea grass seedlings that Bang Hed has cultivated in his make-shift platform at the entrance of the mangroves. We later planted them in exposed mud areas to serve as food for dugongs.

B Interviewing Pu Yai Nom, the leader of a very successful community mangrove forest in a neighboring village called Tong Tasae. We are sitting in a sala (an open-pavilion) in the middle of the restoration zone of their community forest, dis- cussing the history and challenges that Pu Yai Nom faced in fighting for the establishment of the community forest.

C Ma Deh and I comb Had Yao Beach for mangrove propagules to plant, storing them in used rice bags. These propagules are dropped by trees and, pushed by the currents and tides, washed up onto the beach. We collected over 200 that day. C

32 yale environmental news / 17:1 yale environmental news / 17:1 33 student news

B A

A C

A Sheep waiting to be scanned for pregnancy on Hilton Reeve’s sheep farm outside of Taupo, New Zealand. A The Noatak River, just south of Noatak village. B That’s me, wearing the protective gear that Regional Council members are required to have on when monitoring B Park Service ranger station near the mouth of the Kelly logging sites. This particularly site was a few minutes outside River, about 10 miles downstream from Ashby’s home. the town of Taupo, New Zealand. I’m standing in front of logs that are most likely bound for China. C The boat Ashby built pulled up on the bank in front of his home.

C Lower Tama Lake with Mt. Ruapehu in the background. Viewed from the Tama Lakes trail in the Tongariro National Park on the North Island of New Zealand. C B

Holly Butler spent five weeks in Taupo, New that Alex Richardson is worried will destroy his as the village naturalists and were her guides incredible access to all types of resources, and employees in both locations, local leaders and Reid was able to document subsistence Zealand, working with the Waikato Regional winter crop. I see a farm that Hilton Reeve won in her visits into the mangrove forests. They that people are much more willing to speak to subsistence users in Kotzebue, and residents, living in Noatak. The influence of the subsis- Council to learn about the work they do to in a government ballot and has improved with traveled to the mangroves in a small boat and you. I realize that some of the best learning is elders and leaders of Noatak, an Iñupiaq tence way of life was in evidence in nearly every prevent nitrogen runoff, promote sustainable dedication ever since. Thanks to the support of walked through deep mud to reach their des- through participating and following the people Eskimo village where he spent two days. house he visited. At one stop, he was served forestry and manage riparian zones. Her study this fellowship, Taupo, New Zealand, is not just tination, where they gently pressed mangrove around you, not simply conducting interviews. Perhaps the most exciting experience caribou stew with a side of black meat (seal). was focused around Lake Taupo, the largest a page in the Lonely Planet guidebook for me propagules and sea grass seedlings into the And most important of all, I learned how to of Reid’s summer research was arranging Other families cleaned berries or made jam freshwater lake in New Zealand, located at the anymore—it is full of people and ideas that I ground to restore the degraded forests. She step outside of my comfort zone and simply to meet with an Iñupiaq man named Ricky while he chatted with them. And despite their center of the North Island. know I will revisit.” also interviewed community members, which connect with people on a human level—an Ashby, who lives on an inholding in a national proximity to one of America’s most highly Holly learned about management policy For Alyssa Cheung, the idea for her summer underscored how complex this management invaluable experience that really makes me preserve near Noatak. Ashby has lived there touted wilderness areas, he learned that many through conversations with council staff in the fellowship application grew from her study system for mangrove restoration truly is. look at the issue that I am studying in a very year-round since 1997 and has a long history Noatak residents paid it little attention, telling Taupo office and by reading policy documents. abroad experience in Thailand. She knew that In writing about her experience in the real and tangible light, and reminding me of with the US National Park Service. Reid visited him things such as “Park Service? I don’t know She traveled with the staff on field visits to she had a passion for coastal zone manage- field Alyssa explained: “Although I learned a why these problems need to be examined and in hope of learning about Ashby’s history with much about Park Service…I think they have logging and riparian sites, and also traveled to ment, and it became clear that Thailand would great deal about mangroves and community understood.” the Park Service, in particular his efforts to that place by Kelly [a ranger station].” Or, “I speak to farmers throughout the Lake Taupo be a prime location to explore the concept of forests, I think the biggest lesson for me was Exploring the management of traditional secure a permit to construct a small, seasonal don’t know where the border is. I hunt where catchment and surrounding area. In these community-based mangrove management. gaining experience in performing indepen- consumptive uses of national parklands cabin at his fish camp a few miles downstream the caribou are.” Thinking about his goals for farm stays, she heard firsthand accounts of During the summer she lived in a small fish- dent research. I spent weeks reading about established by the Alaska National Interest from the inholding where he lives. Ashby gen- this research, Reid wrote, “It is my deepest what farmers in New Zealand thought about ing village called Ban Chao Mai in the Trang field research techniques and speaking to my Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) has been erously shared both his food and his knowl- belief that the National Park Service should new environmental protection policies and the Province on the western coast of Thailand. Her adviser, but nothing could have prepared me a longtime passion for Reid Magdanz. With edge, and throughout Reid’s visit repeated his be doing all it can to protect and promote the stresses they face in dealing with them. goal was to develop a better understanding of for the experience of living on my own in a the help of the Environmental Studies fel- desire to see more of the younger generation sort of life he [Ricky Ashby] lives. I hope the Reflecting on her experience, Holly writes: how these community management models foreign country and trying to learn from the lowship he was able to spend the summer on the land. research I conducted last summer and the “When I look back on my experience, I don’t worked, how effective the management struc- environment around me. It is exhausting try- of 2011 researching these issues in both the paper that I will write this year will help ensure just see pictures and remember what it looked ture was, and what obstacles villagers faced in ing to process new things and trying to make city of Anchorage and the small community that there will always be a Ricky Ashby on the like—I see beef cows that Mike and Sharon this management. meaning of everything I observed, both on of Kotzebue, Alaska. In addition to library Noatak River.” Barton are getting ready to send for processing. Alyssa’s host grandmother, Ma Deh, and a personal level as well as for research pur- research, Reid interviewed nearly twenty I see a pasture covered with an invasive weed her grandmother’s brother, Bang Hed, acted poses. I learned that being a student gives you National Park Service and other federal agency

34 yale environmental news / 17:1 yale environmental news / 17:1 35 donnelley and yibs postdoctoral news

astrophysics in 2010 from the University of Catania in Italy, where he developed a numeri- cal model of the angular momentum transport in the solar interior mediated by magnetic fields. At Yale, his main goal in his work with Professor Sofia is to constrain the effect of the solar variability on climate change. The interior

ghilardi haznedaroglu kruta lehr longrich niemiller rosauer spada zarnetske of the Sun undergoes structural variations on time scales of years or longer, which affect the total amount of radiation received by Earth. Adrian Ghilardi, PhD, is serving as aquatic systems. His work, published in top-tier Yale, Dr. Kruta will work on the role and impor- Nicholas Longrich, PhD, has recently served clades of subterranean vertebrates (salaman- Modeling these variations is currently beyond a Gaylord Donnelley Environmental environmental engineering journals, was the tance of this fossil group in the Mesozoic food as a Gaylord Donnelley Environmental ders and cavefishes) and investigating patterns the capabilities of standard stellar codes. Dr. Postdoctoral Associate in the Yale School of first comprehensive study onSalmonella’s fate web and also how the feeding habits affected Postdoctoral Associate in the Yale Department of eye and pigment loss in subterranean organ- Spada is developing a new two-dimensional Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) and and transport, one of the most important out- the radiation and extinction of ammonites. of Geology & Geophysics with Professor isms. As a Donnelley EEB postdoctoral associ- version of the Yale Rotating Stellar Evolution is working with F&ES Professor Robert Bailis. break causing pathogens. Dr. Haznedaroglu’s Finally, she will try to correlate ammonoid evolu- Jacques Gauthier. As a Donnelley postdoc- ate, Dr. Niemiller will investigate the evolution Code that will be capable of treating rotation, Dr. Ghilardi received his doctorate from the research at Yale addresses today’s high tionary history with the radiation and extinction toral associate, he published papers on a of troglomorphy (the suite of morphological, magnetic fields and turbulence with a relative Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. energy demands by exploring the possibilities of other groups such as plankton and plankton range of subjects. Dr. Longrich has named physiological and behavior changes associated accuracy of one part per million or better. This His research has been directed toward under- of enhanced biofuel production from lipid- feeding fishes. several new dinosaurs, including the dome- with living in subterranean environs) in cave- tool will be necessary to interpret the data, to which Professor Sofia has privileged access. standing the spatial patterns of both wood fuel enriched microalgal species. He focuses on Nina Lehr, PhD, is serving as a Gaylord headed Texacephale, the giant horned dinosaur fishes in a multidisciplinary framework using availability and harvesting within the broader two fundamental aspects of microalgae biofuel Donnelley Environmental Postdoctoral Associate Titanoceratops and the ornate Mojoceratops, morphological, physiological, phylogenetic and Jay Zarnetske, PhD, is serving as a Gaylord areas of energy poverty and forest degrada- production—functional genomics and popula- in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary and has also described evidence of cannibal- genomic approaches to examine the ecological Donnelley Environmental Postdoctoral tion. His current research at F&ES focuses on tion dynamics—using next generation DNA Biology (EEB) with Assistant Professor Jeffrey ism in Tyrannosaurus rex. However, the main context of this repeated phenomena in subter- Associate at the Yale School of Forestry & completing ground truthing and calibrating an sequencing technologies such as 454 pyrose- Townsend. Dr. Lehr has studied fungal bio- focus of his work has been understanding the ranean organisms. Environmental Studies (F&ES), where he is innovative GIS-based tool for modeling wood quencing and Illumina-Solexa sequencing. He technology at the University of Kaiserslautern, diversity of Cretaceous ecosystems and how Dan Rosauer, PhD, is serving as a Gaylord working jointly with professors Peter Raymond fuel extraction dynamics and the expected is specialized in describing the transcriptome Germany, and received her doctoral degree they were affected by the asteroid impact that Donnelley Environmental Postdoctoral and James Saiers. Dr. Zarnetske, who received vegetation response to projected disturbances. of microalgae toward optimized expression of in plant-microbe interactions from the wiped out the dinosaurs at the end of that Associate in the Yale Department of Ecology & his doctorate in water resource science and In parallel with this, Dr. Ghilardi is exploring key genes of lipid synthesis. The outcome of Dr. University of Tuebingen. Her work has been period. In a recent paper Dr. Longrich and his Evolutionary Biology (EEB). Dr. Rosauer received ecosystem informatics from Oregon State cost-effective geostatistical approaches to relate Haznedaroglu’s research should mark a signifi- directed toward understanding the interactions colleagues examined how birds were affected his doctorate in biological science from the University, is an ecohydrologist interested in the remotely sensed data to ground-based forest cant advancement in biofuel research by provid- among Norway spruce, the root rot fungus by the mass extinction, showing that instead University of New South Wales, Australia, and hydrogeomorphic template of catchment eco- inventory data, with a view to mapping the ing the necessary tools to explore functional Heterobasidion spp. and soil bacteria, with the of becoming extinct gradually, archaic birds is working with EEB Associate Professor Walter systems—how hydrology and geomorphology spatial distribution of forest degradation driven genetics in lipid-enriched microalgae. goal of discovering potential biocontrol agents, remained diverse during the final million years Jetz. Dr. Rosauer’s research in the fields of bio- control ecosystem structure and function. For by wood fuel. Previous results have caught the Isabelle Kruta, PhD, is serving as a Gaylord work that has resulted in various publications of the Cretaceous period and then vanished geography and biodiversity informatics includes example, his previous research showed how arc- attention of several government and nongovern- Donnelley Environmental Postdoctoral and is successfully continued in Germany. Dr. completely when the asteroid hit. Because new methods to account for the evolutionary tic tundra stream hydrology and biogeochem- ment institutions as well as nongovernmental Associate in the Department of Geology Lehr continued her work on the Heterobasidion only a handful of bird lineages seem to have relationships between species in analyses of the istry are responding to climate change. Further, organizations, as this approach may provide the & Geophysics with G. Evelyn Hutchinson pathosystem as a postdoctoral researcher in survived, this study suggests that the aster- spatial structure of biodiversity, particularly to his theoretical work shows how physical hydro- missing input for carbon offset projects involv- Professor of Geology & Geophysics Derek Professor Fred Asiegbu’s laboratory at the oid almost wiped out the birds as well as the inform conservation priorities. These include logic transport and biogeochemical transforma- ing fuelwood and charcoal-efficient devices and Briggs. Dr. Kruta is a graduate of the Universita University of Helsinki, Finland. Awarded a dinosaurs and had a profound effect on the techniques to model the degree of relatedness tions are fundamentally linked in stream ecosys- sustainable forest management strategies. degli studi di Modena and Geggio Emilia in research fellowship from the German Research evolution of the group. Dr. Longrich’s current between the species assemblages found in dif- tems, and that the coupling can control the net Berat Z. Haznedaroglu, PhD, is serving as a Yale Italy, where she earned a Bachelor of Science Foundation (DFG), Dr. Lehr moved on to the research has shifted to lizards, and he and his ferent areas, and to map centers of phylogenetic transformation and export rates of key nutrients Institute for Biospheric Studies Environmental degree, and received her doctorate in pale- laboratory of Professor Gero Steinberg at the colleagues are trying to determine whether the endemism. He is currently studying phylogenet- and pollutants in streams. The objective of Dr. Postdoctoral Associate in the Yale Department ontology at the Museum National d’Histoire University of Exeter, UK, where she focused on extinction might have had a similar effect on ic endemism in the world’s terrestrial mammals Zarnetske’s postdoctoral research is to elucidate of Chemical & Environmental Engineering Naturelle in Paris, France. Dr. Kruta is also molecular fungal cell biology by investigating their evolution. to identify those places where a large portion of how river flow regimes (timing, magnitude and (CEE), and is jointly supported by the Yale affiliated with the American Museum of the importance of endocytosis and recycling in Matthew Niemiller, PhD, is serving as a mammal diversity is restricted to a small region, frequency) control catchment nitrogen and dis- Climate & Energy Institute. Dr. Haznedaroglu Natural History (Lerner Gray Post Doctoral the corn smut fungus Ustilago maydis. As an Gaylord Donnelley Environmental Postdoctoral applying current and prehistoric environmental solved organic carbon exports of major river received his doctorate from the University of Fellowship), working with Neil Landman. EEB Donnelley postdoctoral associate Dr. Lehr Associate in the Yale Department of Ecology data to identify the key drivers of endemism in networks in the United States under past, pres- California, Riverside, and is working with CEE Dr. Kruta works on cephalopods paleobiol- will investigate the evolution of gene expression & Evolutionary Biology (EEB) with Associate terrestrial mammals. ent and predicted climate regimes. This project will help develop ecological-flow relationships Associate Professor Jordan Peccia. His previous ogy and paleoecology and more precisely on underlying the sexual development in fungi. Professor Thomas Near. Dr. Niemiller received Federico Spada, PhD, is serving as a Yale at multiple scales that will inform global nitro- work was on the fate and transport behavior ammonites. Her main interest is on feeding Understanding the transcriptional basis of fun- his doctoral degree in ecology and evolution- Institute for Biospheric Studies Environmental gen and carbon cycles as well as water quality of several important zoonotic pathogens, par- structures (buccal mass elements), their func- gal development and differentiation and what ary biology from the University of Tennessee, Postdoctoral Associate in the Yale Department conservation measures, which in turn conserve ticularly Salmonella typhimurium, one of the tion and their use for reconstructing ammonite drives evolution of this process provides a key Knoxville. His work has been directed toward of Astronomy with Professor Sabatino Sofia. freshwater and marine biodiversity. most important outbreak causing pathogens, in feeding habits as well as phylogenies. While at framework for understanding how organisms species delimitation in morphologically cryptic Dr. Spada received his graduate degree in function in their environment. taxa, resolving phylogenetic relationships for 36 yale environmental news / 17:1 yale environmental news / 17:1 37 bass distinguished visiting scholars donnelley and yibs postdoctoral news

gist, or a record of a nest from a century-old males on territory, there are no displays. This The Challenge of Hunting Tropical paper. Once I know when to look, the next most often occurs because the weather is bad, question is where. The rugged mountains of as was true on that day on Cucuruchu. The Hummingbirds Central and South America are full of wonder- males don’t display much in the rain. By Christopher J. Clark, Ph.D. ful, diverse habitats, but this means there are a Fortunately they breed at the end of the lot of places to check. Males usually have very rainy season, and after a week of dry weather, For the second day in a row, it rained all day. part of the “bee” hummingbirds, a group of specific types of habitat where they prefer to we returned to Cucuruchu on a gorgeous day. Two assistants and I were in Guatemala, having about 35 species that range from Alaska down set up their courtship territories. They some- Instead of grey clouds and blowing wind greet- driven to a small town called Magdalena Milpas through northern Chile and Argentina. They times even lek, meaning that all of the males ing us at the summit, a spectacular vista of Altas, high in the mountains. From the town are called “bee” hummingbirds because that’s gather in one small spot (the lek) to display. the countryside below awaited and the Wine- mooers wing we slogged up a steep, muddy trail to the sum- what they sound like when they fly, and most The females of each species all know where throated Hummingbirds were back, singing mit of a mountain, Cucuruchu. Had we been are scarcely larger, the smallest birds in the the local lek is, but I don’t. The only way to every few minutes through the day. I was able unladen, the hike would take a bit over an hour. world. When I’m searching for woodstars and find a lek is to look, persistently. On my recent to get a large sample of sound recordings in a With the high-speed camera, sound recorder catch a fleeting glimpse of something that trip to Guatemala, I chose one morning to few hours, and interestingly this species is an edward p. bass distinguished and other heavy gear weighing us down, it took turns out to not be a woodstar, it’s usually bushwhack my way up the side of a long, steep exception: unlike its sister species, it does not visiting environmental scholars appointed a large beetle or bee buzzing by, and not a over two hours to ascend. Our target was the hill. It was covered in thick grass and bushes, sing with its tail feathers, but rather, vocally. Director of the Yale Institute for Biospheric look forward to having Professor Mooers as a bird—birds are too big. Tiny size and relative Wine-throated Hummingbird (Atthis ellioti), a and so steep that I had to scramble on hands My postdoctoral supervisor Richard Prum, Studies, Os Schmitz, is pleased to announce Bass Distinguished Scholar during the spring scarcity means that for most of the woodstars, hummingbird that lives only above the trees on and knees in places. As I paused to rest part- Yale’s William Robertson Coe Professor of the appointment of two Edward P. Bass 2012 semester. no one has ever sought them out or studied mountain ridges and summits of the mountains way up the hill, I wondered why I had wasted Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, and I recently Distinguished Visiting Environmental Scholars them in particular. In fact, a famous orni- Dr. Scott L. Wing, in the Department of of the Guatemalan highlands. We were wet, the morning on this useless struggle, getting published a paper in Science describing some to serve during the spring 2012 semester. muddy, and exhausted, and thanks to the rain, thologist, Van Remsen, once told me “only a scratched, dirty, and bug-bit. But when I arrived of the aerodynamics of how woodstar tail- Paleobiology at the Smithsonian Institution, there were no displaying hummingbirds. fool would study the woodstars.” Here I was, at the top of the hill, covered in sweat, legs feathers generate sound. The next big analysis Arne Mooers, Professor of Biodiversity at is joining the Yale Department of Geology & For the past two years as a Yale Institute standing in the rain, Van Remsen’s fool. trembling from exhaustion, I found a small will examine how display behaviors and tail Simon Fraser University, is joining the Yale Geophysics (G&G) during the spring of 2012 for Biospheric Studies (YIBS) Environmental From my Ph.D. research on North lek of the Slender Sheartail (Doricha enicura), morphology together co-evolve on the evolu- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary as an Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Postdoctoral Associate, I have pursued some American species, I knew that woodstars prob- the species I was after! Even better, I found a tionary tree of these species. Before that, I’m Biology (EEB) during the spring of 2012 as Environmental Scholar working with Professor of the world’s most poorly known humming- ably made loud sounds with their tails. These farmer’s trail that would make the return far hoping to squeeze in a few more trips. Field- an Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Leo Hickey. birds through the deserts, scrub, and moun- are not the ‘humming’ sounds for which hum- easier than my initial, ill-advised route. But that work has its many miseries: mud and rain, Environmental Scholar. Professor Mooers, a Dr. Wing is an internationally recognized tains of Central and South America. The spe- mingbirds are named. Rather, during a court- rainy morning on Cucuruchu, finding the Wine- or too much sun; getting eaten by chiggers, leading authority in phylogenetic inference and paleobotanist who specializes in paleoecology cies I’m after in particular are the woodstars, ship display, the male dives for the female, throated Hummingbird wasn’t the problem, it mosquitoes, flies; dirty, sweaty, stung and cut, the use of phylogenies for conservation, was and paleoclimates. With over 70 papers and spreading and shutting the tail while making was getting them to display. car problems, and above all, the uncertainty of nominated by EEB professors Thomas Near two co-authored books, he has long been a distinctive sounds with vibrating tail-feathers Getting displays is sometimes easy, and whether the birds can be found, or will display. and Walter Jetz, and will collaborate with them leader in the study of terrestrial paleoecology during each tail-spread. These displays were sometimes not. Endangered species I’ve tried But to be the first person to ever see the court- and with professors Michael Donoghue and and climates of the early Cenozoic. About already described for the North American spe- have actually been easier than some suppos- ship display of an exotic species makes them Jeffrey Townsend from EEB, Professor Jacques eight years ago, he became the first to find and cies, including what time of year they breed edly common ones. The Chilean Woodstar all worth it. Gauthier in the Department of Geology & explicate the terrestrial record of the Paleocene- (early summer), and what habitat to find them (Eulidia yarrellii) is critically endangered, with a Geophysics, and William Piel, Cryo Collections Eocene Climatic Maximum (PETM), a short- in. Because these basic aspects of their biology worldwide population that is now probably less See a video that includes some of the sounds I study Manager at the Peabody Museum of Natural term and extreme warming event, and its effect were already known, these species were mostly than 250 birds, and shrinking fast. It lives in at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPaVjhUsdAw. History, among others. on the biota and soils of the northwestern easy for me to study. And, each species has a tiny oases in the Atacama Desert of far north- Professor Mooers has an intriguing per- United States. He is a highly collaborative unique display. ern Chile, and is threatened by habitat loss as spective on “Conserving the Tree of Life” and researcher who can bring resources from For my postdoc, I chose to try a harder farmers cut down its favorite bushes to grow his contributions range from classic work on numerous fields to bear on complex problems extinctions and phylogenetic tree shape to such as the PETM. While at Yale, he will A project: recording the courtship displays of tomatoes. For me, one big reason to do this woodstars. Setting up the trips requires detec- research now is that there may never again be the use of phylogenies in conservation and have the opportunity to interact with a broad tive work. In many cases I didn’t even know an opportunity to record the natural history of language evolution, combining complex evo- cross-section of ecologists, geochemists and what time of year they breed, other than from this and many other vanishing species before lutionary theory and methods in molecular paleontologists from Yale to help him develop an offhand comment from another ornitholo- they are lost due to habitat loss or other risks. evolution with a large array of questions in ideas for the book that he is writing on PETM. Appreciating biodiversity comes from learn- evolutionary and ecological biology. He stud- One of the areas that he wishes to explore is ies organisms from fruit flies and butterflies to how to get society to react to crises, such as sea A Male Chilean Woodstar (Eulidia yarrellii), Photo: Anand ing about it. The Chilean Woodstar divulged Varma. its mating habits particularly easily. One lek lemurs and birds, and he has addressed con- level rise, that occur on a scale of hundreds to thousands of years. We are happy to have Dr. B View from Mt. Cucuruchu in good weather, Photo: Jacob had five males that spent the better part of the cepts and themes such as metapopulations, Berv. day displaying, so getting sound recordings phylogenetic tree balance, macroevolution, Wing serving as a Bass Distinguished Scholar C Male Wine-throated Hummingbird (Atthis ellioti). Photo: and video was easy. Many others were not so ecological speciation, sexual selection, bioge- during the spring 2012 semester. Anand Varma, varmaphoto.com. C ography, and evolutionary distinctiveness. We B simple, and so even after I have found some

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