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NOVEMBER 2008 VOLUME 117 NUMBER 9

FE ATU R ES

COVER STORY 22 THE CURIOUS, BLOODY LIVES OF VAMPIRE BATS

Some of the most highly specialized mammals on the

planet have adapted in fascinating ways to a blood diet. BY BILL SCHUTT

28 ICE ON THE EDGE

The fate of West Antarctica's ice shelves may determine

how far sea level rises around the world. BY ROBERT BINDSCHAOLER

DEPARTMENTS

4 THE NATURAL MOMENT 36 THIS LAND A Study in Salmon Top of the Gunl

Photograph by Sergey Gorshkov Howard R. Feldman and John Thompson

8 nature.net 40 BOOKSHELF Northern Exposure Laurence A. Marschail Robert Anderson 44 SKYLOG 8 WORD EXCHANGE Joe Rao

10 SAMPLINGS 52 AT THE MUSEUM Neva's from Nature 56 ENDPAPER 16 MEDICAL EXAMINER A Mini Seto Sea Deatti Beds Alexandre Meinesz Dnjin Burch 20 INSTALLATIONS Return of the Knight

Joyce Cloughly and Ian Tattersall ON THE cover: Composite image of white-winged vampire bats ('Diaemus youngij in flight PHOTOGRAPHS BY SCOTT ALTENBACH ^Se^~T

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; November 2008 Travel with Our ^ See preceding two pages Experts to Africa's THE NATURAL EXPLANATION BY ERIN ESPELIE »i*iiii^j|] ons Every bear has its own way of fish- ing. So says photographer Sergey Gorshkov, who has spent hundreds of hours over the course of tour years observing bro\vn bears on the Kamchatka Peninsula, in eastern Russia. For instance, the sohtary bear pictured at right fancied a fish's-eye- view to nab sahnon.The mother bear pictured on the preceding two pages preferred pouncing from the rocks while her cub observed her tech- nique from the shore. The Kamchatka brown bear—one among many subspecies of Ursm arc-

ros, including the grizzly and the Ko- diak bear—depends upon salmon to Manuel Mollinedo is a former director fuel hibernation. Bears hunker down of the Los Angeles Zoo and the San for the winter only when they've Francisco Zoo, a Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund gorged enough to survive the six- Trustee member and holds a B.S. degree month fast. And even though mating of all Kamchatka bear cubs die in in physical anthropology. A photographer Half starva- and trekking enthusiast, he has traveled occurs in May or June, the start ot their first year, usually of extensively in Africa, the Americas, pregnancy is delayed until October or tion. Even adults weighing as much Australia, Europe and Southeast Asia. November; the female's body gauges as three-quarters of a ton struggle to Join Manuel on a ten day private air safari its fat stores before allowing her fer- find enough to eat. Yet Asia's biggest to Botsv\^ana, Zambia and South Africa tilized eggs to implant—the ultimate sockeye salmon spawning ground is startingjuly25, 2009. in planned parenthood. Kuril Lake, in Kamchatka, and one- A mother, along with two or quarter of all wild Pacific salmon Botswana, Zambia three newborn cubs, will usually hatch in the Peninsula's watenvays. and South Africa emerge in April, ravenous. For the Why should there be a shortage? first few months, the family is al- For starters, illegal fishing robs July 25 -August 3, 2009 the bears of about 100,000 tons of September 18 -27, 2009 most exclusively vegetarian. When the salmon start spawning in June, salmon every year. That may begin to The Congo Basin, Gabon however, a fishing frenzy ensues. account for an incident that occurred The cubs begin to learn by watch- late last July: a roving pack ot thirty Island and Sao Tome ing. They need two or three years or so hungry bears killed and ate two Junel -13,2009 of tutelage to become indepen- ininers in Kamchatka, prompting a - October 28 November 9, 2009 dent, since hunting takes a great shutdown of the mine for several days deal of practice. (Unless, of course, for fear of further attacks. With fewer Rwanda and Tanzania by "hunting" you mean paying a salmon to stalk and an encroaching August 11 -22,2009 guide to help you shoot a trophy human population, a new kind ot August 15 -26, 2009 bear—the fate last year of about 900 hunting lesson may be in store tor the of Kamchatka's 12,000 bears.) next generation of cubs.

To learn more about these

one-of-a-kind expeditions, visit: Sergey Gorshkov used to hunt Kamchatka brown bears, www.bushtracks.com/naturalhistory but now only tracks them through the sight scope of salmon-hunting bears is an Or call 1-800-995-8689 a camera. "Photographing inexpressibly more beautiful and difficult task than killing a beast," he says. One of Gorshkov's bear pho- tos garnered him a Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year award in 2007. Visit www.gorshkov-photo.com for more information.

CC^USHTRACKS, NATURAL HISTORY November 2008 P E D I T I O N S Your Journey Begins 18,000 Years Ago AT THE MASHANTUCKET PEQUOT MUSEUM

The world's largest, award-winning Native Annerican nnuseunn,

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WORD EXCHANGE nature.net by robert anderson NORTHERN EXPOSURE mm ViTTORio Maestro Editor in Chief

Steven R. Black Art Director

Erin Espelie Executive Editor

Senior Editors TALES OF ARCTIC EXPLORATION have Rebecca Kessler, Dolly Setton always fascinated me, so I was intrigued Melisa Beveridge Assistant Art Director wlien I heard British adventurer Lewis All Due Credit Annie Gotdieb Copy Chief Pugh was attempting to l

warming. Although he made it farther north Lov/ell. Chartes E. Harris Publisher than any previous kayaker, he fell about The Pompeiian wall painting in Edgar L. Harrison Advertising Director 500 miles short of his goal, blocked by sea "I, Cleopatra" [10/08, page 46] is Maria Volpe Promotion Director ice. For once, an adventurer was happy to from Scala/Art Resource, NY. SoniaW. Paratore National Advertising Manager be thwarted. (Search for expedition journal Adam Cohen ^4rfi'frfi5iH,^ Manager at polardefenseproject.org/blog/.) For my Natural History welcomes correspon- Meredith Miller Production Manager guide to Web sites on the shrinking Arctic Lydia Bell Manager, Publisliing Services dence from readers. Letters shontd be sent via ice pack and the consequent environmental For advertising information e-inail to [email protected] or effects, please visit the magazine online call 646-356-6508 (www.naturalhistorymag.com). byfax to 646-356-6511. All letters should Advcriiiitig Sates Representatives include a daytime telephone number, and all ROBERT ANDERSON is a freelance science writer Detroit—BzvTon Media Sales, LLC, 313-268-3996 who lives in Los Angeles. letters may be editedfor length and clarity. Chicago—Koh^n Purdy &' Associates. 312-726-7800 West Coast—On Course Media Sales, 310-710-7414; Peter Scott & AssociaCes. 415-421-7950 ToroHW—American Publishers Representatives Ltd., 416-363-1388 Hold the whole world in your hand with. . Atlanta and Miami—Rickles and Co., 770-664-4567 S.7»f/(.4»ieriM—Netcorp Media. Ltd., 51-1-222-8038 jomirascope National Direct Response—Smyth Media Group. 9 14-693-8700 ^*^ Market Classijied—Media Options. 800-442-6441 8 X 20 monocular from us only $59^'* why pay more? Todd Happer Vice President, Science Education *But read this ad for an even better deal Educational Advisory Board

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SAMPLINGS

Big Mamma, Little Papa

when a female Cook Strait giant weta, a four-inch-long insect resembling an overstuffed cricket, pairs up with a male —usually half her size—^they surely make an odd couple. Such disparity, or

dimorphism, between sexes is common and fascinates biologists,

who debate whether the cause is generally natural selection acting

on females, males, or both. But how to tell? The trick is to find a

dimorphic species that provides hints about how it got that way

and the giant weta is just the ticket.

Clint D. Kelly, now at Iowa State University in Ames, and two colleagues studied the mating habits of the Cook Strait giant weta, Deinacrida rugose, on Maud Island, New Zealand, by radio tracking sixty insects for several days. A male often walks long distances to find a receptive female— up to 300 feet each night and once he does, he follows her to her refuge. There, the pair males. And along with mobility goes success at insemination. The copulates repeatedly throughout the day, conveniently leaving discovery suggests that in this giant weta, and perhaps in other behind empty sperm capsules that researchers use to estimate the animals with big females, selection for smaller, more mobile males amount of sperm transferred. might have caused the size difference between the sexes. Wheth-

Kelly's team found that small, long-legged males are more er evolutionary forces are simultaneously enlarging the females

mobile than large ones and thus do better in the scramble for fe- remains to be seen. {The American Naturalist) — Grac;e/a Flores

The Ancients' Antiques Bacterial Banquet

Photosynthesis is the hallmark of the do-it-yourself crowd. Or-

ganisms that rely on it need only light, carbon dioxide, and some inorganic nutrients to grow. There are exceptions, of course,

such as carnivorous plants that live in low-nutrient habitats. And Inhaling bowl from Trinidad, here's a new one: microscopic algae that eat free-floating bacte- slightly smaller than actual ria in the open ocean. size, with spouts on the right The smallest of the marine phytoplankton are unicellular algae Inhaling bowls—shallow cal deposits dating from about less than one-tenth the width of a hair. They grow almost exclu- vessels with two adjacent 1000 A.D. And the mineral con- sively by photosynthesis, or so most scientists thought. But working spouts—are artifacts found on tent of the bowls indicates that aboard a research vessel in the North Atlantic, and using isotopes to many Caribbean islands. Early they probably weren't manu- track the fate of nutrients in samples of seawater, Mikhail V. Zubkov Amerindians probably used factured on Carriacou. of the National Oceanography Centre in South- them to snort hallucinogens, So the bowls must have ampton and Glen A. Tarran of the Plymouth Marine Phaeocystis globosa, liquid or powdered, through come from another island —one Laboratory, both in England, have determined that marine algae, the nose. possibility is Puerto Rico, 465 the tiny algae obtain about a quarter of their bio- magnified bacteria. So abundant are the little algae Now ponder this. Three miles away, where other bowls mass from 3,800x inhaling bowls unearthed on of similar antiquity have been that they alone devour between 40 percent and 95

the island of Carriacou, near discovered. And they must have percent of all the bacteria eaten in the top, sunlit

Grenada in the Antilles, were been kept around for at least layer of the ocean —the rest succumb to other

made around 400 B.C., accord- eight, if not fourteen centuries. kinds of unicellular beings. ing to an analysis of radioac- What could account for such That algae should depend to such an

tive isotopes conducted by endurance? The bowls were extent on bacterivory came as a surprise.

Scott M. Fitzpatrick of North not buried in the manner of rit- Perhaps it's more efficient to assimilate nutri-

Carolina State University in ual offerings. Fitzpatrick thinks ents concentrated in bacteria than diffused

Raleigh and several colleagues. they were probably passed on in seawater, Zubkov and Tarran suggest.

Yet Carriacou was first settled from generation to generation Whatever the reason, ecologists will

800 years later, around 400 a.d. as useful or treasured heir- have to revise their models of ma- Moreover, one of the bowls looms. [Journal of Archaeologi- rine food chains to account for — —S.R. was found among archaeologi- cal Science) Stephan Reebs algal appetites. {Nature) ^uMf

10 NATURAL HISTORY November 2008 Natural Resources

DAVID AffCHER The Long Thaw Margaret Mead IHELONGIHM MWBWET How Humans Are Changing the Next wm The Making of an American Icon 100,000 Years of Earth's Climate Nancy C. Lutkehaus David Archer "This is an absorbing, experdy researched,

"This is the book for anyone who wishes to and much-needed treatment of Margaret really understand what cutting-edge science Mead. It is the definitive book about

tells us about the effects we are having, and Mead's fame and her complicities in

### creating it." will have, on our future climate." I Hb IVW^SNb Ur/IN flMcHLflW lujrj —Richard B. Alley, —George E. Marcus, Pennsylvania State University University of California, Irvine WO'CLIjlXBIOllS Cloth S22.95 Cloth $29.95 December

The Princeton Dictionary The Princeton Companion of Ancient Egypt to Mathematics Ian Shaw & Paul Nicholson Edited by Timothy Gowers June Barrow-Green Imre Leader, For more than a decade, Ian Shaw and Paul & associate editors Nicholson's Dictionary ofAncient Egypt

has been the most informative and useful "Every practicing mathematician, everyone dictionary of ancient Egypt available. Now who uses mathematics, and evetyone who fully revised and updated, this new edition is interested in mathematics must have a covers the discoveries most important and copy of this wonderful book." scholarship in the field since 1993- —Simon A. Levin, Princeton University Published in association with the British Museum l\ Main Selection, Scientific American Book Club Cloth 549.50 Cloth 599.00

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Superstition The Faith of Scientists

Belief in the Age of Science In Their Own Words

Robert L. Park Edited by Nancy K. Frankenberry

"Bob Park has done it again. His lucid, "Nancy Frankenberry provides a rare humorous, style—the envy of those of us glimpse into the interior lives of scientists who fancy themselves writers—gets through as they talk about their faith, their views the pervasive nonsense that he finds about God, and spitituality. This book

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intelligent design." vital subject." —James Randi, president of the James Randi —Max Jammer, author of Educational Foundation Einstein and Retiff-on

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The Atom and the Apple T. rex and the

Twelve Tales from Contemporary Physics Crater of Doom With a newforeword by Carl Zimmer Sebastien Balibar Walter Alvarez "Sebastien Balibar offers a refreshing romp

through physics rooted in experimental reality, "[D]eft and readable . . . T. rex and the

.ind even, in everyday reality. As a theorist, I Crater ofDoom gets the facts across in a am enthralled." lighthearted, almost playful manner. But

—A. Zee, author oi Fearful Symmetry it's also solid science. . . . [An] estimable authority Cloth 529.95 December account from the world's leading on death from above."—Timothy Ferris, Neu) York Times Book Review

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PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS 800.777.4726 nathist. press. princeton SAMtilNGS

Whose Poo?

With a four-foot wingspan, the Eurasian eagle owl is a big bird ship clearly. In fact, the scientists say the owls may post with a big appetite—and a fecal output to match. Yet the owl's a second form of signage: they lay out the brightest body waste does not always go to waste. New research suggests feathers of their avian prey at plucking sites, something that breeding eagle owls defecate strategically, using their ex- they never do with the dull fur of their most ,„ , crement to erect "No Trespassing" signs within their territories. frequent victims, rabbits. Vincenzo Penteriani and Maria del Mar Delgado of the The reaction of intruders to such

Dofiana Biological Station in Seville, Spain, report that when marks remains to be tested, but breeding eagle owls answer the call of nature, they squirt their Penteriani and Delgado say the white feces onto the vertical faces of dark rocks in exposed evidence suggests that owls use locations, rather than onto more abundant— but less contrast- feces and feathers as visual ing—pale rocks. When not breeding, the owls let go indiffer- supplements to their hooting. ently onto the ground. After the two scientists erased feces Most birds use their voices

on both exposed, dark rocks and more inconspicuous spots alone to stake territorial ^ -^ by spray-painting over them, they noted that the owls only claims. (PloS ONE) —S.R.

dark rocks, usually within a day. .;' re-marked the exposed, Eurasian eagle owl perches -- 1 Among eagle owls, fights between territory owners and in- atop a rock marked, perhaps ' truders are nasty and often fatal, so it pays to advertise owner- territorially, with feces.

Fear Factor r Early Life Lessons

One whiff of an alarm pheromone as certain components of milk—or Some say it's never too late to learn new sends figurative shivers down a alarm pheromones. things, but can it be too early? Apparently not, indication. mouse's little spine. Animals in The researchers soon discov- if the behavior of wood frogs is any distress release suqh pheromones, ered that slices of Grueneberg tis- Those amphibians can learn to identify preda- which serve as warnings to others sue respond to alarm pheromones, tors while still in the egg, according to new of their kind. But just how mice—or but not to mouse milk or mammary research by Alicia Mathis of Missouri State Uni- other mammals—detect the secretions. As a final test, they versity in Springfield and several colleagues. chemicals has been unknown. Now, released the alarm pheromone After hatching, many amphibians and fish

researchers have found that the in cages with normal mice and learn to recognize a predator by associating released mouse's danger detector is a myste- watched as the mice huddled its odor with an alarm pheromone

rious wad of sensory cells at the tip against the back wall. But after by injured conspecifics. Mathis' team won-

of the nose called the Grueneberg they severed the Grueneberg gan- dered whether frogs might have that cogni-

ganglion. The structure was first de- glion's connection to the olfactory tive capacity even earlier, as embryos.

scribed thirty-five years ago, but has system, mice failed to detect the For three hours a day, on six consecutive

been largely ignored ever since. chemical. Still, the researchers say, days, the team exposed wood-frog eggs

In 2005, five research teams inde- the mice had no problem finding to water from a bucket containing crushed with water from a bucket pendently discovered that the Gru- cookies . . . or their mommies. tadpoles mixed eneberg ganglion connects directly {Science) —Brendan Borrell housing fire-belly newts. (The newts, native to the olfactory system, and the race to Asia, are unfamiliar to wood frogs, but eat ganglion cell in was on to determine its function. Mouse Grueneberg \ tadpoles of other species.) A control group 5,000x false color, magnified [ alone. weeks after Some scientists thought it enabled received newt water Two mouse pups to recognize their moth- hatching, only the tadpoles that had expe-

ers, perhaps from chemical cues rienced the combo of crushed-tadpole and

in milk. Then Julien Brechbuhl, his newt water reacted when newt water was graduate adviser Marie-Christine presented by itself; they stopped moving, a

Broillet at the University of Laus- typical anti-predator response.

anne in Switzerland, and a colleague The study complements previous re- noticed that the structure's tiny sen- search showing that frog embryos can distinguish between food flavors sory hairs were sheathed in protec- learn to Wood- tive layers of collagen and keratin, even before they hatch. Classes start early frog permeable only to water-scluble in a frog's life, it seems. {Proceedings of tadpoles hatch. and highly volatile molecules, such the Royal Society B) —S.R. I i I

12 NATURAL HISTORY November 2008 Natural Hist Auction

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Hi^SiSS^ SAMPLINGS THE WARMING EARTH

Big Bird Brains Cooking Up Males?

in laboratory to masculinize Having a big brain can open all kinds of Many reptiles have no sex chromo- only the

is their doors, even evolutionary ones, it seems. somes. Instead, their gender deter- genetic females.

First formulated in the 1980s, the mined by temperature. In crocodiles, But the six genera that do show "behavioral drive" hypothesis posits that for example, males are hot: eggs true TSD, including the Menidia silver- intelligence can influence the course of incubated in sand above a certain sides and the Apistogramma cichlids, their ratios by evolution. The idea is that intelligent ani- "pivotal temperature" almost always could see sex skewed mals can find ways to exploit new foods hatch males. That could spell trouble, global warming. And Ospina-Alvarez and new habitats, thus exposing them- because Earth is warming so fast that and Piferrer found that males were

in all six. researchers calculat- selves to new selection pressures. So, if natural selection may not have time hot The temperature-sensitive the species in a given taxonomic family to adjust pivotal temperatures. Fe- ed that in such have large brains relative to their body male crocodiles may become scarce. fishes—and there might well be many rise of size, they should also have widely diver- Some experts think fish are in the more than just six genera—a

gent body sizes, among other traits, as a same hot water because tempera- 7 Fahrenheit degrees predicted by

result of varied selection pressures. ture-dependent sex determination, some models for the end of the cen-

Daniel Sol of the Autonomous Univer- or TSD, occurs in many species. But tury would yield three males for every litera- female, a ratio unfavorable for main- sity of Barcelona and Trevor D. Price of the a critical analysis of the fish — University of Chicago tested that predic- ture by Natalia Ospina-Alvarez and taining populations. {PloS ONE) S.R.

tion on birds. They extracted data on 7,209 Francesc Piferrer, both of the Marine

bird species from the scientific literature, Science Institute in Barcelona, Spain, and found many examples of bird families casts doubt on that assertion. The Atlantic that are both brainy and quite diversified pair point out that fourteen of the silversides, a in body size, such as the crows, the wood- twenty diverse fish genera previ- species in which peckers, the hornbills, and the parrots. ously reported as having TSD in fact temperature

Comparing all avian families, Sol and have sex chromosomes, and that it determines -^ Price showed statistically that brain takes unnatural temperatures found gender

size explains 12 percent of the variation

in body size. The percentage may be small, but it confirms the theory that in Warmer and Weedier evolution, behavior is more than just the result of selective Crabgrass will get a strong assist from global warming in its campaign to take

pressures; it can over your lawn.

also alter those That's the unexpected finding of a study investigating a very different aspect

pressures. of lawn biology: Neeta S. Bijoor, her graduate advisor Diane E. Pataki of the (The American University of California, Irvine, and two colleagues set out to determine how

Naturalist) warming affects lawns' emission of nitrous oxide (NjO), a greenhouse gas 300 —S.R. times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Lawns are the United States' largest irrigated crop, covering about 2 percent of the nation's surface area, and their effect on climate concerns scientists.

The team established a series of adjacent plots of fescue grass and, to mimic global warming, heated half of them by 6 Fahrenheit degrees. They applied high doses of commercial fertilizer to half of each plot; the other half got low doses. To the researchers' surprise, crabgrass sprouted in the plots after only one

year, and it was 30 percent more prevalent in the heated plots than in the un-

heated ones. (Fertilizer had no effect on it.) In contrast to fescue and most other crop plants, crabgrass and many other weeds photosynthesize with greater

efficiency the warmer it gets, so they have been predicted to proliferate as tem-

peratures rise. Still, such swift confirmation in the field was unexpected. The study also showed that warming, as well as intensive fertilizing and ir- rigating, causes increased NjO emissions. That, in turn, could contribute to the march of crabgrass across your lawn. Southern vhich would reinforce ground hornbill teifert .

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MAKE YOUR RESERVATION TODAY! Call 800-462-8687 orVisit www.amnhexpeditJons org MEDICAL EXAMINER Death Beds

The eighteenth century was a time when a mother,

not her baby, needed to be delivered. By Druin Burch

ave you ever had that stubborn feeling herself along the Norwegian coastline, she wrote of look- that the natural world reflects your mood ing into the sea at the strange jellyfish. "They look like

and your mind? The sun shines when thickened water. . . . Touching them, the cloudy substance you are happy and disappears when you would turn or close, first on one side, then on the other, are glum. Your own vitality—or lack of very gracefully; but when I took one of them up in the it—seems reflected in nature. That form ladle, with which I heaved the water out of the boat, it ap- of thinking is often called the "sympathetic fallacy." peared only a colourless jelly."

"It appears to me impossible that I should cease to During the same period William Godwin, the radical exist, or that this active, restless spirit, equally alive to philosopher and novelist, was clouded with gloom in joy and sorrow, should only be organised dust." the aftermath of the French Revolution. Not only did So wrote the English feminist Mary Wollstonecraft as Britain seem to him a corrupt society—undemocratic, the eighteenth century drew to its politically explosive unfair, and unequal—but he believed that he himself, for end. Defying danger and convention, she was traveling all his wit and worldly success, was a fundamentally cold with her illegitimate child around Scandinavia. Rowing and unlovable man. Yet when Godwin read Wollstone-

16 NATURAL HISTORY November 2008 Micrograph o^ Streptococcus pyogenes, host of different causes: mists, sewage, magnified 800x. Opposite page: Seven- poor ventilation, cold, or vague "pu- engraving of a w/ealthy teenth-century trid tendencies." woman in labor. In 1791, the year Wollstonecraft and Godwin first met, an epidemic of craft's dryly titled Letters Written Dur- puerperal fever was ripping through ing a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway Scotland. Alexander Gordon was Ab- and Denmark, he was ravished: "If ever erdeen's leading obstetrician, and when there was a book calculated to make a puerperal fever came along he studied man in love with its author, this appears to it and wrote down his conclusions. They me to be the book." amounted to what he felt were three great And love was what followed. Theirs was a truths: the disease was spread by doctors and mid- successful marriage of contraries, the fiery and in- wives; it was somehow related to skin infections; and the temperate feminist and the icy philosopher. Suddenly only treatment was bleeding—by the bucketload. A pint there was fertile happiness for both. At the end of and a half was a good initial measure. August 1797, Godwin wrote, Mary "was taken in la- Bleeding was quickly and incorrectly accepted as a bour." Attended at home by a midwife from a nearby cure, but it took almost a century for the contagious na- hospital, she gave birth eighteen hours later to a girl. ture of puerperal fever to be widely recognized. Many The baby, also called Mary, would grow up to marry cases were isolated and sporadic, undermining those who the poet Shelley and write the novel Frankenstein. argued the disease was infectious. At other times its epi- Four days after the birth, however, Wollstonecraft be- demic nature was clear. William Campbell, another Scot, came feverish. A part of her placenta needed to be pulled was a close contemporary of Gordon's. He first denied out by a doctor's hand. She developed puerperal sepsis, the contagiousness of puerperal fever, but personal ex- an infection of the genital tract, which very painfully, perience changed his mind. He dissected the corpse of and over the period of about a week, killed her. a woman killed by the disease, putting her uterus in his

coat pocket so that he could show it to his students. He Today we grow concerned about birth not being felt neither gloves nor hand washing was needed. natural enough, having become too medical. "The same evening," he wrote, "without changing

II Historically it was thoroughly natural, wholly my clothes, I attended the delivery of a poor woman unmedical, and gravely dangerous. Only from the early in the Canongate; she died. Next morning I went with eighteenth century did doctors begin getting seriously the same clothes to assist some of my pupils who were involved, with obstetrics becoming a medically respect- engaged with a woman in Bridewell, whom I delivered able specialty and a rash of new hospitals being built. with forceps; she died." Unfortunately, the impact of both was bad. Puerperal, or Campbell's language, as well his report, is a reminder childbed, fever was a mystery, but both doctors and hos- that no one then spoke of delivering a baby. Obstetri- pitals made it worse. Wherever the medical men went the cians and midwives talked of delivering women—deliv- disease grew more common, and in their hospitals it was ering them from the peril of childbirth. commonest of all. In the first half of the nineteenth century about five Childbed fever killed at the crudest moments. It was European women in a thousand died from childbirth. described as a "desecration," an aspect of the natural Death rates in maternity hospitals were often ten times world that felt almost deliberately evil. What caused it? that; the hospitals stayed open because doctors had an Some thought "a failure of uterine discharge"; others, incurable faith in good intentions, and patients a poor a little later, called it "milk metastasis," noting that the grasp of mortality statistics. The physician and poet internal organs of the women who died seemed covered Oliver Wendell Holmes led the American campaign to in milk. Eventually it was accepted that the fluid was not stop the spread of the disease by getting doctors to wash milk at all. It was pus. their hands. Obstetricians felt slighted. "Doctors are Compound microscopes had been developed in the gentlemen," said Charles Meigs of the Jefferson Medical seventeenth century, opening up the world of miniature College in Philadelphia, arguing that no such care vi^as "animalcules." Inexplicably, an initial flurry of medical needed, "and gentlemen's hands are clean." How could interest quickly died away. Even though the technology the pure of heart possibly be spreading disease? For was now in place to help demonstrate it, germ theory Meigs and many others, noble intentions mentally equated took another two hundred years to arrive. In the mean- to good outcomes. It would be hard to find another exam- time doctors were puzzled, blaming puerperal fever on a ple of the sympathetic fallacy with such far-reaching and

November 2008 natural h:".T( i-', i^ tragic consequences. Yet hand washing slowly grew com- strains possess genetic switches for hypermutation, which moner. Aided by Louis Pasteur's advocacy of germ theory, increase mutation rates over a hundred-fold. We are a long hygiene improved. Giving birth began to get safer. way from fully understanding how all these virulence

mechanisms work. And that makes it even more difficult

few different organisms turned out to be capable to explore the deeper questions about how evolution is of causing puerperal fever, but the vast majority driving them.

I A I of cases were due to just one: Streptococcus pyo- Puerperal fever has never entirely gone away. Sporadic genes. The etymology is revealing. Pyogenes means creator cases still appear—rare, potentially lethal, but now eas- of pus. The bacterium lives only on humans, and consists ily treatable with antibiotics if caught in time. Epidem- of roughly 1,800 genes, a third of which "have no identifi- ics, however, have mysteriously vanished. The last was in able function," according to a 2001 paper reporting one Boston, in 1965, an enigmatic outbreak after an anesthesi- complete genome sequence of the bug. Of the genes we ologist scratched his hand on a rosebush. (S. pyogenes does partially understand, around forty seem directly connected not live on roses.) Hygiene, asepsis, and antibiotics seem

At any given time, between 5 and 20 percent of us are carrying the childbed-fever bacterium.

with the virulence of the organism. S. pyogenes causes a only partly to thank. Some argue that something in the

range of other diseases, including strep throat, scarlet fever, bacterium itself has shifted, that it has evolved to become

rheumatic fever, and skin infections such as mild impetigo more benign. It could be that a less damaging form spreads

and catastrophic necrotizing fasciitis (now commonly called more successfully by virtue of not killing its hosts, or that

the "flesh-eating disease"). Epidemics of puerperal fever it becomes more efficient by not needing to manufacture historically matched those of skin infections, and a person virulence factors. who contracted one was able to pass along the other. Why should it be in a germ's interests to make us ill Today the standards of asepsis in normal births at all? In most cases, the illness is simply a consequence have slipped. Most normal deliveries are clean

of the germ hijacking and disturbing our metabolism in II but not sterile: a step away from the strict stan-

order to reproduce. Other times our misery is an essential dards that would be required of an operating theater. My part of the way our invader spreads, as when a virus causes first child was born during the writing of this essay, and us to sneeze out millions of aerosolised copies of itself. that was exactly the case. Mother and baby did brilliantly.

Streptococcus pyogenes is harder to understand. It might Certain types of 5. pyogenes infections are currently on

be named for causing pus, but that is misrepresentative. the rise, but puerperal fever is not. Unable to fully un-

As far as this bacterium is concerned, Eden is the inside of derstand the way it has behaved till now, we are stumped

our noses. Anywhere between 5 and 20 percent of us are when it comes to facing it in the years to come. Has its harmlessly inhabited by the bug at any time. The nine- virulence really declined? Why might that be? And why

teenth-century head of Paris's main maternity hospital should it be so for puerperal fever but not for other strep- thought Pasteur must be wrong in attributing puerperal tococcal infections? Without firm answers, we cannot un- fever to a bug so common: "It exists everywhere," he ob- derstand how the disease might evolve, or what dangers it

jected, "you can very easily extract it from the common might hold for our future.

water supply, and in consequence there is not a woman Tackling those questions requires us to stop viewing in childbirth who, daily using this water for drinking, the world from our own perspective and see it from that douching, and washing, would escape invasion by the of the bacterium. It is a point of view we are still re- infectious organism." markably ignorant about. We are like Mary Wollstone- We know that Pasteur and the germ theorists were right, craft leaning over her boat, looking into the water—able

but the mysteries that slowed their intellectual victories still to describe what we see, but more with puzzled wonder exist. Why should such a generally harmless bug sometimes than with comprehension. become troublesome? Today we might phrase the question

differently: why should it be in the evolutionary interests of a bacterium to leap from docility into rampaging ferocity? Druin Burch is a medical resident and a tutor at What's in it for the bug? Sporadic cases might be chance, the University' of Oxford. His first book. Dig- trends evolutionary imperative. but suggest an ging Up the Dead (2007). profiles the pioneering

Joseph J. Ferretti, a University of Oklahoma specialist surgeon Astley Cooper; his second, Taking ilic in streptococci, notes that S. pyogenes has some remark- Medicine, is due out in 2009.

able qualities, containing "more virulence-factor genes Web links related to this article can be found at wwv/.natu ralhtstorymag.com than any other bacterial species." Moreover, he says some

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The painting remained on display until

1 966, when the old Hall of the Age of Man FORTY MILLENNIA AGO, in what is now was dismantled and a more up-to-date southwestern France, Neanderthals fash- exhibition was created elsewhere in the ioned stone tools in a rockshelter over- museum. That hall was itself recently re- looking the River Vezere. Their technique placed by an even newer one. Meanwhile, Photographs by Steve Bloom was to carefully shape a stone "core" though. Knight's painting remained out A remarkable, intimate, on both sides until a single blow would of public view. Now, nearly a half century one-of-a-kind visual document detach a sharp flake of desired size and later, it has been unearthed from storage. of the people, places and shape. In the nineteenth century their tools were uncovered, and the name of wildlife of Africa today the site, Le Moustier, became attached $75.00 / 336 pages to similar artifacts wherever they sub- 236 illustrations, 216 in color sequently turned up (in archaeological lingo, they all belong to "the Mousterian tool tradition"). Between 1911 and 1913 the French anatomist Marcellin Boule published the first description of a reasonably complete Neanderthal skel- eton. Those discoveries provided the inspiration and scientific basis for The Neanderthal Flint Workers of the River ;enty Vezere, shown here, one of the master- ^'""^irtlT works of Charles R. Knight, America's REAT leading portrayer of extinct animals dur- repaired and restored by conservator ing the first half of the twentieth century. Felicity Campbell, and installed in a new MYSTERIES in The painting was completed in 1920 for location the museum. OF THE the American Museum of Natural History's Visitors to the American Museum, NATUTIAL Hall of the Age of Man. Prepared under in New York City, might notice some- the guidance of the museum's direc- thing oddly familiar about the painting. WORLD tor, the vertebrate paleontologist Henry Although Osborn had spent some weeks Fairfield Osborn, it reflected the view of in the Vezere Valley in 1912, the landscape Neanderthals current at Knight represented looks

the time. They were, in nothing like the rugged, Knight's words, "short, eroded limestone that stocky, and uncouth in ap- borders the French river. pearance ... a very lowly Knight did not visit the

Michael J. Benton, ed. form of the human ani- region until 1927, and so seems to have painted the What we know and what we mal." Current reconstruc- tions represent them as Hudson River Valley, with can predict about the nature of life altogether less crouched which he was familiar. and the future of life on earth and brutish. Despite the of his time, Joyce Cloughly is a senior $45.00 / 304 pages biases how- ever, Knight managed to principal preparatpr in the 370 illustrations, 350 in color convey the Neanderthals' Exhibition Department and dignity as a "distinct spe- Ian Tattersall is a curator in

. . Division of Anthropology '^^ Thames & Hudson cies . very intelligent the and well fitted to their at the American Museum of thamesandhudsonusa.com time and place." Natural History. Available wherever books are sold

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Amorig the most highly specialized mammals on the planet, vampire bats display a host of fascinating adaptations to their blood diet. '^ BYBILLSCHUTT ILLUSTRATIONS BY PATRICIA WYNNE —

^^t ^V^^H VERY DAY, I and my undergraduate assistant .i AMPIRE BATS FEED SOLELY on blood, and their ^^M ^r ^Hvl^iin Brockmann fed a Snapple bottle full *» adaptations to the peculiar challenges of that diet ^H ^^^^^ of cow's blood to our captive vampire make them among the most highly specialized of all living ^ ^J5^ bats. Our colony consisted oftwenty-two mammals. Only three bat species out of the 1,100 in the animals—eleven common vampire bats (Desmodiis rotnndiis) order Chiroptera qualify as vampires. As I began to take an and eleven white-winged vampires {Diaeuius yoiingi) —and interest in these creatures, I noticed that vampire-bat re-

we maintained them for two years while I was doing my searchers (with a few notable Mexican and South American graduate work at Cornell University. One of the keys to exceptions) hadn't done much with the two rarer vampire our success was giving them the opportunity to feed on a bat species Diaemus youngi, described above, and the live hen once a week. hairy-legged vampire, Dipliylla ecaiidata. Instead, most of

It was on one of the first of those special feeding days their research and nearly everything that had been written

that I noticed two of the white-winged vampires doing about vampire bats dealt solely with the common vampire

something incredible. They crawled across the floor of their bat, Desmodus rotundus. I wondered why. The bat experts I feeding enclosure like a pair of spiders, and then one of the consulted told me confidently that all vampire bats would bats made a bold approach to a rather large hen. The bird act similarly, but how could that could be so? With over- cocked her head to one side, eyeing the bats. Her beak could lapping ranges and a coveted resource (blood), wouldn't

have severely injured or even killed them, so I got ready to the species be competing with one another, and wouldn't

intervene. Sharing my concern, perhaps, one ofthe vampires it be likely that differences in behavior and anatomy had stopped a couple of inches beyond pecking distance. The evolved to reduce that competition?

other bat, however, crept even closer, and then, amazingly, it Perhaps the reason for the near-exclusive focus on D. nuzzled against the hen's feathery breast. Instead rotundus can be found simply in the name

ofbecoming alarmed or aggressive, the bird "common." This species is numerous seemed to relax. The vampire responded across a widespread range that includes

by pushing itself even deeper into what I Mexico and Central and South America;

would later learn was a sensitive section of furthermore, it has been maintained skin called the brood patch: a feather-free successfully in captivity for more than region, densely packed with surface seventy years, with some individuals

blood vessels, where body heat is ef^ surviving for as long as twenty years. ficiently transferred to the hen's eggs The hairy-legged and white-winged

or to her chicks. As I watched, the vampire bats, by contrast, are far hen reacted to the bat by fluffing more difficult to locate and capture her feathers, hunkering down—and within their more limited ranges, closing her eyes. and they long had a reputation for

My God, I thought, these bats being difficult to maintain in cap- have learned to mimic chicks! White-winged vampire bat (Diaemus youngi) snuggles tivity. As a result, even though lo- up to a hen's brood patch, a region rich in surface What was most remarkable to cal scientists in places like Trinidad blood vessels that functions to warm eggs or chicks. By me was that in all likelihood chick and Brazil, where the less common mimicking chick behavior, the bat lulls the bird into a wasn't innate live, mimicry behavior relaxed state, then feeds on the hen's blood. Opposite vampires had been aware of written into the D. ymiiigiDNA over page: Desmodus rotundus differences among the vampire millions ofyears. It had probably de- species for years, it wasn't until veloped in less than a thousand years—since humans brought the very end of the twentieth century that the mainstream domesticated fowl to South America. Were vampire-bat scientific community began looking at each of the three mothers teaching this cuddle-up trick to their young? vampire bats as separate and distinct. Hence, the door

So enthralled was I at this wonderfully diabolical maneu- was wide open for the comparative work I'd proposed to

ver and its implications that I didn't notice that the second undertake, and for new discoveries like the one described vampire had disappeared under the hoodwinked hen's tail above concerning chick mimicry.

feathers—not until several minutes later, that is, when a Ultimately, my colleagues and I found that not only thin trickle ofblood appeared on the floor behind the bird. did significant differences exist between the three vam-

Through the gloom of the darkened enclosure I could see pire bat species, but that most of the variation—including a small puddle forming, glistening like red tinsel. unusual feeding methods and social interactions between

November 2008 natural history j 23 roost-mates—relates to the bats' Wilkinson's in-depth study of Desmodus, this behavior in preference for either mammahan Diaemus and Diphylla has yet to be studied in detail. or avian blood. In other ways, Desmodus exhibits unique traits among the trio of vampire bat species. One of the reasons for the

common vampire's success is its ability to feed from the SIDE FROM THE RELATIVE ground—and thanks to humans, they have developed a ^ ease of studying the com- partiality to cows' blood. This they often obtain while mon vampire bat, its slew of fas- on the ground, from the region behind the cows' hooves, cinating behavioral, anatomical, an area with relatively thin skin and an ample blood sup- and physiological features helped ply flowing close to the surface. Feeding also takes place to sustain the exclusive interest with the bat riding its prey's back, where it's easy for the in the species. And some of those vampire to reach sensitive areas like the ears. "common" features do indeed seem To feed on the ground, Desmodus has evolved the abil- likely to apply to all vampire bats. ity not only to walk and even run on all fours, but to Take, for instance, one ofthe most make spectacular, acrobatic jumps in any direction. A

fascinating of all vampire bat adaptations, which I WIIJ) HA IS SHARE observed only once in the

three years I kept a colony Faces of the three species ofDiaemus at Cornell: blood-meal oi vampire bats: Desmodus sharing between bats. rotundus (top), Diaemus In 1984, zoologist Gerald S. flight-initiating jump off the ground is powered by strong youngi (middle), and Diphylla ecaudata (bottom) Wilkinson, then ofthe University pectoral muscles and fine-tuned by elongated thumbs, ofCalifornia San Diego in Lajolla, which are the last things to leave the ground. The thumbs

first reported that vampire bats in the wild commonly share impart precise direction to jumps that can reach three feet food by regurgitating blood. Wilkinson, who made his in height. That enables the common vampire to escape initial observations on Desmodus, determined that about predators, avoid being crushed by its relatively enormous 70 percent ofblood-sharing incidents occurred between a prey, and initiate flight after a blood meal. This ability to mother and her dependent offspring (until around the age feed efficiently and safely on large mammals, combined domesticated livestock, is ofone) . Blood sharing between mothers and newborn pups with the increasing supply of presumably transfers not only nutrients, but also bacteria the primary reason why Desmodus has been so successful necessary to an infant's digestive tract. in numbers and range. Blood sharing between both related and unrelated vampire bats also occurs on a reciprocal basis; that is, bats that Wilkinson had experimentally starved for one night A^mHILE WORKING WITH white-winged vampire bats, and that then received blood from another individual were \^^I discovered that they move differently from the more likely to donate blood to that individual when it, common vampire, and not only because they have shorter in turn, was starved. That reciprocity almost certainly thumbs. Perhaps Diaemus bats once initiated flight similarly evolved in response to two basic realities: a bat that cannot to their aggressive, spring-loaded cousins, but now their find a blood meal will starve to death in less than three movements are more deliberately paced and show little days, and yet on any given night, as Wilkinson found, sense of urgency. When placed on a force platform—which about one in fourteen adult bats and fully a third ofyoung measures the forces generated by an animal as it moves across vampires-in-training will fail to feed. And so there will the surface—white-winged vampires would give a little hop be numerous occasions over a vampire bat's lifetime both or two, then scuttle off to find a dark corner to hide in. to receive and to share food. Watching Diaemus feed in trees, rather than terrestrially

Therefore, it's remarkable but not surprising that Des- like Desmodus, I learned why the former doesn't need to modus can remember past donors as well as recognize catapult into the air. Approaching a roosting bird from below cheaters—those individuals who try to beat the system its perch on a branch, a white-winged vampire will move by not sharing blood. There's another way in which bats slowly and stealthily, always keeping the branch between discriminate among recipients: adult males will share blood itself and the underside of its intended avian prey. with females and young bats, but rarely with other adult Once situated beneath the feathered lunch wagon, Diaemus males. That makes perfect sense. Why share food with picks a potential bite site, usually on the bird's backward- someone who may be your rival for a mate? pointing big toe, the hallux. Feeding from that particular

There is anecdotal evidence that the white-winged and digit keeps the bat better hidden from above than if it were hairy-legged vampires also share blood, but in contrast to to feed on one of the forward-facing toes. After licking the

24 NATURAL HISTORY November 2008 Common vampire-bat mothers ground locomotion has not been reported in the wild, we share food with their young by regurgitating blood. proposed on the basis of this behavior (and the possession of robust hindlimb bones) that white-winged vampires have chosen site for several minutes, the bat made a relatively recent return to the trees, thus avoiding inflicts a painless bite with razor-sharp competition with their ground-feeding cousins. teeth, which characterize all three vampire During the terrestrial feeding bouts ofour white-winged bat species. The bite is never violent and vampires, we also recorded a parasite—host interaction that very often occurs as the bird shifts position rivaled chick mimicry on the "weird-o-meter." When a slightly. Anticoagulants in the bat's saliva bat leaped or climbed onto a chicken's back to get a meal, will keep blood flowing from the tiny wound a male chicken would quickly grow agitated and dislodge

well after the bat has drunk its fill. the bat with a shake and a peck. A hen mounted in this Still hanging below its completely oblivious prey, Diaemns fashion, however, would immediately assume a crouching

begins feeding, and within five minutes it begins peeing. To posture, giving the bat the opportunity to scuttle forward

meet its energy needs, the vampire must drink close to half and bite the back of the bird's head or its fleshy comb. The

its body weight in blood at each meal, and blood is about hen would maintain this crouch until after the vampire bat 80 percent water. So the had finished feeding and hopped off. With a little research 'M)()n BY bat's digestive and excre- into poultry behavior, we learned that this was the exact tory systems posture taken by a hen while being mounted by a male have evolved bird—for a completely different purpose. rATIIVO to unload the Another way that Diaemus differs from Desmodus and Diphylh is the presence of a pair of cup-shaped oral glands located

at the rear of its mouth. When BLOOD Diaemus gets

excess quickly: the stomach lining is rich in blood vessels upset or engages in bat-

that absorb water and shunt it straight to the kidneys. Di- tles for dominance, these

aemus deftly avoids soiling itself while it eats by extending glands are projected for- one hind limb sideways and downward. After feeding for ward and can be seen quite White-winged vampire bat (Di- fifteen to twenty minutes, the bat releases its thumbs from easily when the bat opens its aemus), above, climbs onto the the branch, hangs briefly by its hind limbs, then drops into mouth. Diaemus simultane- back of a hen, which crouches flight. Initiating flight in this manner means that there is no ously emits a strange hissing as if mounted by a rooster The need for Diaemus to jump in the manner of its terrestrially vocalization and a fine spray of bat will then feed, typically feeding cousin, Desmodus. musky-smelling liquid from from the rear portion of the bird's fleshy Below: The On numerous occasions, my colleagues and I have the oral glands. Although a comb. common vampire bat can run observed Diaemus feeding on birds from the ground. Sup- detailed study remains to be along the ground like a spider porting its body in a low crouch, as compared with the performed, the oral glands and make spectacular jumps, extreme upright stance of Desmodus feeding a cow, the of Diaemus appear to be on em- to initiate flight and to avoid

white-winged vampire is adept at hopping around, rather ployed in self-defense, as well being crushed by its mammal comically, in pursuit of a feathered blood meal. Although as in communicating infor- prey, such as cows.

^^-'W^ mation such as status, mood, and territo- rial boundaries to others of its kind.

CLOSER LOOK at the third ge- ^_^^ nus, Diphylla, the hairy-legged vampire bat, so named for the frill of Diaemus possesses hair that borders the back margin of

a unique feature its hind legs, also revealed unexpected among the three morphological and behavioral adaptations vampire bats, a pair related to feeding. Diphylla is thought of cup-shaped oral to exhibit the most primitive anatomi- glands that project forward when the cal characteristics of its group. In other

bat is agitated or words, scientists believe that Diphylla has during displays of undergone the least evolutionary change dominance. The from ancestral vampire bats—whatever glands emit a fine they were. spray of musky- hairy-legged vampire possesses smelling liquid. The an anatomical characteristic not seen in consider that all three vampires lack its blood-feeding cousins—or in any other animal. It is a No big deal, when you unique variation in a structure found in many bats called a functional tail membrane. story. the calcar, a bony or cartilaginous extension of the heel The calcar of Diphylla was a completely different bone (the calcaneus). Not only was it present in the specimen I examined, Since bat hind limbs are rotated up to 180 degrees from but it protruded like a tiny fmger. I immediately pulled the typical mammalian position—picture your knees facing out several additional specimens to make sure I wasn't backward—the calcar generally points toward the midline simply looking at one extremely odd individual. But in of the body. Its function is to strengthen and straighten each instance, I saw the same fmger-shaped structure. the trailing edge of the tail membrane, or uropatagium, that Next, I hit the literature, looking for any mention of spans the space between a bat's hind limbs. Basically, the Diphylla's calcar. "Small but well developed," ran the calcar increases aerodynamic efficiency by preventing that typical description, but nothing more.

extra lift surface from flapping around during flight. I immediately put together a proposal to examine the As one would expect, the calcar varies in size and shape function of Diphylla's calcar, and I set my sights on a among the 1,100 bat species. It's also no surprise that the visit to central Brazil, where I would be working with

calcar is absent in bats that do not have a tail membrane. Brazilian zoologist Wilson Uieda—a scientist who had for years with At least, that's what I thought until I started examining been studying the hairy-legged vampire preserved specimens oi Diphylla at the American Museum his colleague Ivan Sazima. story panda's ofNatural History, where I was working as a postdoctoral What I'd hypothesized was similar to the ofthe research fellow. thumb, popularized in an in Having determined that dif- essay by Stephen J. Gould ferences in behavior existed be- Natural History ["This View tween Desmodus and Diaemus, of Life," November 1978]. such as jumping versus non- The giant panda feeds on leaves that it strips jumping, I started looking to see bamboo

ifthose differences might be re- off branches, seemingly flected in their anatomy. Com- with the aid of its oppos- paring vampire-bat hindlimbs, able thumb. But anatomists the panda's I noticed that the calcar was who examined absent in Diaemus and reduced forelimb found that things to a flaplike tab in Desmodus. weren't quite as they seemed. The panda's thumb was actu- has co-opted the panda's radial sesamoid bone, Evolution ally a wrist bone—the radial originally a part of its wrist, into the role of opposable "thumb" sesamoid—that had become (inset right). Similarly, Diphylla's calcar, an extension of the heel greatly enlarged, allowing the bone (above and top right), has evolved into an opposable sixth to take a digit that is used to facilitate the bat's grip on branches as well as structure on new

on the body of its avian prey, from which it hangs while feeding. function: grasping bamboo

26 NATURAL HISTORY November 2008 Stalks. Gould cited the pan- another site clearly showed that Diphylla was using its oppos- da's "thumb" as a beautiful able calcar to get a grip on the body ofits avian prey. Unlike example of how evolution the white-winged vampire, which generally hangs from a tinkers with what's already branch and feeds from the toes of perching birds, Diphylla there, modifying structures made many of its bites around the cloaca—the common for a new function rather opening for the digestive, urinary, and genital tracts found than creating new structures in many non-mammalian vertebrates, such as birds. from scratch. Would the same Several days later, we visited a cave that was home to a principle apply to the vampire small colony ofDiphylla. Using the infrared camera again, we bat's calcar? recorded three hairy-legged vampires as they moved across At a ranch outside the the stony ceiling. Not only were the bats walking upside Diaemus feeds capital city ofBrasilia, Uieda down, they were moving backward (not really strange, since

from a wound it and I set up my infrared bat knees face backward) . What was unique was the way has inflicted on a video camera at sunset. We they led with their hind limbs, carefully seeking a secure cl-iicl

Several hours after nightfall, as I stared bleary-eyed hypothesis with observations in the field. What had be- through the camera's viewfmder, a pair of dark shapes gun as a surprising observation back in New York City flew past the sleeping birds. ended with the discovery that, just like the panda's radial

"Wilson, check this out," I whispered. sesamoid bone, the hairy-legged vampire bat's calcar had My friend, who had been dozing on the chair next to been co-opted for a nevk' role as an opposable digit. mine, was instantly alert. Less than a minute later, we performed the aerial recon- naissance a second time. ^^jl AMPIRE BATS HAVE LONG been prime candidates for Uieda whispered a single word: "Diphylla." ^^^r superstition and folklore-based fear. Only relatively After that we saw nothing for several minutes—until recently have they gone from barely glimpsed creatures of a tiny pair of glowing spots appeared beneath one of the the night to subjects of thoroughgoing scientific research

roosting birds. I hit the zoom on the camera, focusing in and increasing open-mindedness. Rather than presuming on the twin points of reflected light. They were eyes! that the three vampire bat genera are similar, researchers

Uieda traced a dark silhouette on the screen, and I could are currently studying these mammals with an eye toward just make out Diphylla's upside-down head peeking out variation. As a result, we are discovering intriguing adap- from the guinea fowl's feathery breast. tations and behaviors related to blood feeding. But we've "Dinnertime," he said. also come to understand that two of the three vampire

"This is different from Diaemus," 1 responded. species (Diaemus and Diphylla) urgently need our help if Rather than feeding from below the branch, Diphylla they are to avoid extinction over the next few decades. was actually hanging from the bird! Even more interesting, The welcome shift in the vampire bat's public image may photographs taken by Wilson Uieda and his colleagues at be comingjust in the nick of time. DARK This article was adapted Bill Schutt earned his Ph.D. in zoology NQUET from Dark Banquet: Blood at Cornell University and worked on and the Curious Lives ofBlood a postdoctoral research fellowship at Feeding Creatures, by Bill 4 the American Museum of Natural Schutt, © 2008. Reprinted 4 History with bat expert Nancy B. with permission from Har- Simmons. He is currently an associate mony Books, a division of 4 professor of biology at the C.W. Post Random House, Inc. All Campus ofLong Island University and rights reserved. On sale in a research associate in Mammalogy at bookstores in October. the American Museum.

Web links related to this article can be found at www.naturalhistorymag.com

November 2008 natural history 27 Ice on the ^P' What's happening beneath West Antarctica's ice shelves? The warmth

and flux of water there may determine

how far sea level rises.

ice shelf, a thick hp of floating ice extending an iceberg drifted majestically into the blue. It didn't look Thebeyond the ice-bound continent beneath us, came anywhere near as large as 150 square miles, its actual size into view through niy window on the Twin Ot- according to the satellite images. Scale will always fool ter plane. Undulating and deeply crevassed, the you in Antarctica. shelf was a welcome sight; months pormg over The ice shelf—the plane's destination—had never before flat satellite imagery had made me impatient to been visited. The nearest trace of civilization, a lonely

see it in vivid, three-dimensional reality, and here it was research outpost, lies 350 miles away. The shelf buttresses

at last. Deep-blue water just beyond the ice caught me off West Antarctica's immense Pine Island Glacier, and it has guard: funny, but after nearly three weeks in Antarctica, been melting alarmingly in recent years. A breakup of the

I was surprised to see a color other than white. Offshore, shelf would hasten the glacier's gradual slide to the sea; if

28 NATURAL HISTORY November 2008 _ !

BY ROBERT BINDSCHADLER

Other local ice shelves follow suit, as they threaten to do, were there smaller ones we couldn't see? To find out, the the glaciers they unleash will contribute substantially to pilot nosed in for a "ski drag": he ran the plane's skis over the rising global sea level. The trip, made last January, was icy surface, attempting to crush any ice bridges that might the first stage of a project to discover the cause of the ice hide crevasses, while maintaining flying speed to prevent us shelf's worrisome melting. Our mission: to scout a safe from falling into one. A-OK. The plane soared up, circled landing site, return later again, and in short or- that day to set up a field der we landed bumpily SOUTH . h60°S-— camp on the shelf, and and skied to a safe stop. ATLANTIC spend a week recon- OCEAN SOUTHERN Finally, the moment I'd noitering and install- OCEAN thought about so often ing some basic scientific in my office and on the instruments that would long trip ANTARCTIC allow us to monitor the I thrust . PENINSULA whooped, site from afar. WEDDEL my fist in the air, and As the Twin Otter SEA clapped my hands for approached the shelf, I the pilots to see. Then, pondered my longjour- BELLINGS- leaping out the plane's HAUSEN SEA ney there. Nearly three door, I the first West Antarctic'^ became • South Pole years to develop the re- Ice Sheet Diyide • ANTARCTICA person ever to stand on camp \>^, search project and plan that desolate ice shelf. > WEST the trip, for starters. The AMUNDSEN )!^ARCTICA My companions quickly actual trip began with a SEA. joined me. Sunny and full day of conimercial windless—ideal condi- flights from the United McMurdo tions. The surface was Station , States to Christchurch, SOUTHERN as hard as a concrete New Zealand. Five . OCEAN sidewalk. That would hours after lifting off turn out to be a big from summery Christ- problem for the rest of SOUTH ^ church I'd arrived on the PACIFIC OCEAN our plans, but for the frozen continent, along moment I felt onlyjoy. with my collaborator, Fifteen hundred feet David M. Holland, a polar oceanographer from New York beneath our boots, warm water was rapidly melting the University. Our first stop was McMurdo Station, the main underbelly of the ice shelf. The shelf, carrying us, was American-run base for Antarctic research [see map above] racing toward the sea at one foot per hour. , where we spent a week testing and packing camp equip- ment. Once prepared, however, we had to sit tight for ten Like grumpy Rip van Winkles,I the world's three landmass- days as flight after flight was cancelled due to high winds covering ice sheets—two on Antarctica, the East Antarctic or poor visibility. Eventually, good weather at McMurdo and West Antarctic ice sheets, and one on Greenland—seem and at an intermediate stopover—the tiny research outpost, to be waking from a long sleep and becoming active, es- called the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide camp—let us pecially around their edges. Rising global temperature, take a 1,000-mile jump toward the ice shelf boosted by humankind's increasing combustion of fossil

After another two-day weather delay at the stopover, I fuel, is the ringing alarm clock. The ice sheets are shedding embarked without Holland on the reconnaissance flight to some of their frozen selves, as they've done each time the the ice shelf, the journey's final 350-mile leg. Two moun- world has warmed in bygone eras. taineering expertsjoined me; their experience with crevasses Experts are astonished at how fast the Antarctic ice helped the two pilots and me assess the safety of the surface sheets, which hold 90 percent of Earth's grounded ice, for a landing. Recent satellite images directed us to a narrow, and the Greenland ice sheet, vvith 9 percent, are changing. five-mile-long strip of smooth ice. Through the windows (Comparatively puny mountain glaciers and snowcaps we could see monstrous crevasses bounding the strip—but around the world hold the remaining 1 percent.) Even

November 2008 natural history 29 Fast-moving Icebergs

Diagrams show three hypothetical ways in which the warmest water of the Southern Ocean, called the Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW), may be melting the ice shelves of West Antarctica. In each case the CDW flows from the deep ocean onto the continental shelf, whose

valleys steer it toward the glacier's grounding line —where the grounded ice sheet comes afloat to form the floating ice shelf. The Floating CDW melts ice at the grounding line, and the meltwater not only ice shelf cools but freshens—and therefore lightens—the CDW, so it rises before flowing back out to sea. How much cooling and freshening Grounding takes place affects the stability of the ice shelf. The author seeks to line determine which of these three scenarios is occurring, because the ice shelf helps keep land-bound glaciers from slipping into the sea

and raising sea level worldwide. Continental shelf

CDW melts ice at the grounding CircumJDolar line but undergoes little cooling and beep Water freshening; it heads back to sea with- out melting additional ice.

the best models of ice-sheet dynamics failed to predict continue rising as predicted, much of that ice will flow the dramatic developments, so clearly important pro- into the ocean in the next century or two. cesses have been missing from our calculations. Yet the

revelation of inadequate understanding comes just when Fortunately, East Antarctica is at present the coldest of the

the need to predict ice-sheet behavior is most pressing: continent's three regions, and its ice sheet, which holds shrinking ice sheets raise sea level, and elevated sea level roughly 90 percent ofAntarctica's ice, appears to be mostly

will have enormous consequences for coastal popula- stable. West Antarctica, however, is a different story. That

tions and ecosystems and for nations' economies. Most region is changing rapidly in areas like the Pine Island ice experts expect at least a three-foot rise in sea level Glacier, and much vaster expanses of ice are affected than by 2100, and a recent estimate put the global price tag of those on the adjacent Antarctic Peninsula. that eventuality at just under a trillion dollars. The West Antarctic ice sheet, resting on a rocky bed Of Antarctica's three major geographic units—East mostly below sea level, averages nearly a mile in thick- Antarctica, West Antarctica, and the Antarctic Penin- ness. A network of glaciers (called ice streams if they're sula—the last is changing most dramatically. After at least bounded by slower-moving ice on both sides) funnels 10,000 years of relative frozen stability throughout most large volumes of ice from the inland center of the sheet to of the region, ten of the thirty or so ice shelves on the the relatively fast-flowing perimeter, where the ice comes peninsula have receded in recent decades, half of them afloat in immense ice shelves. West Antarctica has three either vanishing entirely or diminishing to less than a subregions of nearly equal size. One feeds the Ross ice quarter oftheir original area. Increasingly warm summers shelf, which calves icebergs into the Ross Sea; another melt snow on the surface of those immense floating plates; feeds the Ronne ice shelf, whose icebergs drift away in

the meltwater fills cracks in the ice and, because water is the Weddell Sea; and a third feeds several smaller ice

denser and heavier than ice, it can drive the cracks all the shelves that calve into the Amundsen and Bellingshausen way down through the 300-foot-thick shelves. Reduced seas. Satellite observations show that the third subregion,

to a series of icy towers teetering in an undulating ocean, with enough ice to raise sea level five feet, is chang- the shelf's remnants tip over and launch a vast armada of ing most dramatically. Two glaciers—both monstrously icebergs that drift away from a suddenly ice-free bay. large—dominate the discharge, the Pine Island Glacier Melting and disintegration of floating ice shelves do and the Thwaites Glacier. Hundreds ofmiles long by tens not, by themselves, change sea level, because the volume of miles wide and nearly a mile thick, they move at a rate of seawater displaced remains the same. But with no ice of more than a mile per year. shelf to block their progress, the flowing glaciers that fed When satellite data began to accumulate in the early the former shelf speed up—by a factor offour or five. And 1990s showing that those two immense glaciers were act- glacial ice entering the ocean from land raises sea level ing up, scientists became deeply concerned. Pine Island

instantaneously. The ice shelves ofthe Antarctic Peninsula Glacier showed the greatest changes. It was thinning and buttress enough grounded glacial ice—roughly equal to all accelerating everywhere, and its "grounding line," where the world's mountain glaciers and ice caps—to raise global ice loses contact with land and comes afloat to form the ice sea level ten inches. If temperatures over the peninsula shelf, was retreating upstream. Calculations of the rate of

30 NATURAL HISTORY November 2008 flow indicted that the bottom of the Pine Island Glacier's Deep Water (CDW), occurs at depths of between 1,600 floating ice shelf was melting at a rate of more than 150 and 3,000 feet and flows eastward, clockwise around Ant- feet per year. Those calculations rocked the glaciological arctica. Surface waters, formed from sea ice melting each community: at the time, basal melt rates ofjust thirty feet Antarctic summer, are less dense, and therefore lighter, per year were considered extreme. Also notable was that than the CDW because they're fresher—less salty. Bottom the rate ofthinning and the acceleration offlow were much waters, below the CDW, are denser because they're very greater near the coast than inland, suggesting that the cold. The CDW usually stays well offshore, in the deep cause lay at the grounding line or offshore on the floating ocean, because its upper boundary lies deeper than the ice shelf—not on the grounded glacier. Then, about five seafloor of Antarctica's continental shelf. years ago, new measurements made with sensors carried To get to the ice, the warm CDW must first get up onto by airplane showed that the rate of thinning had increased the continental shelf. Increased surface wind probably starts throughout most of the ice feeding into and floating on the process by dragging surface vi'ater more rapidly around the Amundsen Sea. Pine Island Glacier again exhibited the Antarctica. The Coriolis force, an effect of Earth's rotation, greatest changes. Thinning ice shelves are vulnerable to nudges that surface water away from the coast. The CDW collapse, of course. Even short ofwholesale disintegration, rises to replace the displaced surface water. The stronger however, thinning almost certainly results in acceleration wind, for its part, could stem from an increase detected of glacial flow, and therefore in sea-level rise. in the temperature difference between the air over the But what's causing the changes in West Antarctica? continent and the air over the surrounding ocean. (Most

Whereas the ice shelves ofthe Antarctic Peninsula are under ofAntarctica is warming more slowly than the rest of the attack from the top down, those of West Antarctica are melt- planet.) Bigger temperature differences cause stronger ing from the bottom up. The region hasn't warmed nearly as pressure gradients, which cause stronger winds. much as the Antarctic Peninsula, so surface snowmelt isn't the Back to the main theory. Once up on the continental shelf, trigger—something else is. Identifying and understanding the salty CDW stays below the comparatively fresh resident the trigger is critical to the urgent task of predicting the ice surface water, hugging the continental shelf's seafloor. But shelf's, and thus the ice sheet's, future. In 2005 it became the continental shelf isn't flat; it slopes down toward the clear that despite agreement on that point by virtually every continent, and it has numerous valleys carved by glaciers scientist working in West Antarctica, nobody had research during past ice ages. The CDW sinks into the valleys, which plans to address the question on the ground. I decided to steer it downslope to the present-day grounding lines of fill the void and, working with a team of colleagues from the glaciers that carved them so long ago. several specialized disciplines, developed a research program Arriving at the glaciers' bases, the relatively warm to understand the West Antarctic changes. CDW melts the ice it contacts. How much melting oc- curs depends on the temperature difference between ice As we crafted our program, other investigators were con- and water. The CDW may be as warm as 5 Fahrenheit sidering hypotheses to explain the melting. Here's how degrees above freezing. In that case, though, the tem- the favored explanation works [see diagmins aboue]: The perature difference would be even larger than 5 degrees, warmest water in the Southern Ocean, called Circumpolar because the freezing point ofice decreases with increasing

November 2008 natural HISTORY 31 pressure. Pine Island Glacier's grounding line lies nearly fresh and cool. It would melt ice as it 4,000 feet below sea level—deep enough to lower the rises, but would actually freeze onto freezing point nearly another 3 degrees. Thus, the total the shallow, seaward underside of the temperature difference near Pine Island would be about 8 ice shelf because the meltwater infusion

degrees. That might not sound like much, but it's enough puts its temperature somewhere between to cause the huge observed melt rates. the freezing points of the ice at depth

The meltwater chills the CDW, making it slightly heavier, and the shallow part of the floating ice

but also dilutes it, making it fresher and so lighter. Freshen- shelf The consequences oftransferring ing wins out, and the CDW rises while flowing back out masses of ice from near the coast to the to sea under the ice. Just how much freshening and chilling offshore shelf are unknown.

occurs is an important question, and one my team seeks to answer. A moderate amount would cause the CDW to rise .0 test whether the CDW IS indeed from the grounding line along the underside of the shelf, responsible for the observed melting, continuing to melt and thin the ice there, before heading we need to simultaneously monitor offshore. Less freshening and chilling, and the CDW would the water beneath the ice shelf and the head out to sea at some intermediate depth below the ice; flow of the overlying ice. Nobody has losing contact with the ice would prevent further melting. ever explored beneath such an active A third possibility is that the CDW becomes extremely ice shelf. Our instruments will have to fit down a 1,500-foot-deep hole only five inches in diameter—that's the widest hole my teammate Martin Truffer, a glaciologist at University of Alaska Fairbanks, can create with a system he developed that heats melted

snow and pumps it through a nozzle to melt the ice. Once we hit seawater, we'll have a look around with a video camera. Whether

the underside of the shelf is rough or smooth affects the exchange of heat between water and ice. We don't expect to see any marine life, but who knows? We'll also measure the temperature, salinity, and cur- rent strength of the water flowing in and out under the shelf. Because the inflow and the outflow move at differ- ent and possibly changing depths, Timothy Stanton, an oceanographic engineer at the Naval Postgraduate School

in Monterey, California, is designing sensors that will rise up and down along a taut steel cable to profile the water column. The sensors will transmit their data through the cable to a receiving station on the surface, which will send the data back to Stanton in California. The ice will seal the sensors permanently within days of deployment, but onboard batteries should keep them running for at least three years. A different team, led by Stanley S.Jacobs, an oceanographer at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, plans to measure water properties at several points seaward of the ice shelf. Their moored in- struments should observe the same water approaching and exiting the ice shelf that we detect beneath the shelf

It was while our teammates were developing the instru-

ments for the project that Holland and I embarked on our journey to see the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf—so far only observed by satellites and from airplanes—up close.

Author's colleagues erect a weather station on the Pine Island Glacier.

32 NATURAL HISTORY November 2008 Montage oi video stills taken in March 2008 shows the disintegra- glaciers feeding the ice shelf change speed over time. And tion of a port/on of the Wilkins ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula. the weather station would fill a huge gap in global weather So far this year, Wilkins has lost a total of 740 square miles, twice data. Once the last instrument was installed, our parkas the area of New York City. Such losses along the peninsula are came off, jokes flew, and cameras snapped. attributed to warming air temperatures. By contrast, the thinning of The equipment we left behind is now transmitting a steady the ice shelves of West Antarctica seems to result from the impact — of warm seawater. stream of data that should continue until our return ^by helicopter instead ofplane—in December 2009. (Hey, who said we were giving up?) I'm more excited about the project Antarctic "Bob, I have some bad news." The words came through than about any other in my twenty-five years of I my headset shortly after hfting off from the Pine Island fieldwork. It's a thrill to study ice misbehaving in ways that

Glacier ice shelf. I was in a state of elation at the success ot five years ago were considered impossible. But it's the press- the reconnaissance mission: we'd landed safely and scouted ing need to anticipate future sea level, a matter critical to the a workable site for the field camp. We were planning to well-being ofpeople around the world, that gives the project return later, with Holland, to set up camp for a week of such urgency. What more could a scientist want? reconnoitering and to install two GPS receivers and an automatic weather station— all in preparation for a return the following year to set up our main instruments. Robert Bindschadler is ChiefScientist "We aren't going to be able to put in your field camp," of the Hydrospheric and Biospheric pilot continued. the pilot of an accompanying the He and Sciences Laboratoty at NASA God- plane, which carried some ofour camp equipment, had de- dard Space FHght Center in Green- termined that the surface was too hard and rough to permit belt, Maryland. He is also a fellow repeated takeoffs without damaging the landing gear when of the American Geophysical Union and a past president of the Interna- the time came to fly us and our gear off the ice shelf tional Glaciological Society. He has Naturally, I was massively disappointed. But the decision led fifteen Antarctic field expeditions, and has worked in Greenland didn't diminish what we'd already accomplished. Decid- and on various glaciers around the world. He has published more ing to make the best of it, we spent the next few days at than 150 scientific papers and numerous review articles. A glacier relatively accommodating sites on a slow-moving area of and an ice stream in Antarctica are named after him. the ice shelf and on the Pine Island Glacier, where we set Web links related to this article can be found at www.naturalhlstorymag.com up our gear. The GPS receivers would still tell us whether

November 2008 natural history 33 —

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THIS LAND

View east over Mohonk Preserve from a pinnacle in Mohonl< Mountain House Resort

sand, gravel, and stream-worn quartz

pebbles. Uniform consistency is not in the Gunks' nature, however, as at- tentive hikers and climbers will dis- cover. Depending on what sediments the streams carried at different times, and how they were sorted according to the flow of water, the largest gran- ules and pebbles were often concen- trated in certain layers and locations. In time, they were bonded together by a silica-rich natural cement to form a type of sedimentary rock known as a conglomerate. Elevated by subsequent mountain building, the Gunks' bedrock— geological unit called the Shawan- gunk Formation—now peaks 2,289 feet above sea level. In New York the formation ranges in thickness from about 1,400 feet near the border with New Jersey to only 10 feet at Binnewater, in the northeast. Beyond

there it finally "pinches out" and disappears, though Silurian deposits extend north to the Albany region.

Resistant to erosion because of its quartz content, the Shavi'angunk rock

is nevertheless heavily faulted and Top of the Gunks jointed, probably from the tectonic and gravitational stresses endured as Rocky ridges in tlie Empire State draw a result of mountain building. Small cracks further widen as trees push climbers, falcons, and highland rushes. down their roots, and as water freezes and expands (a process called frost by Howard R. Feldman and John Thompson wedging, which is also responsible for New York City's notorious potholes). New York State's Shawangunk horseback riding. The public can Through such mechanical pro- Mountains—locally pronounced access the region principally at Min- cesses, huge blocks of rock are gradu- SHONG-gum, and often called "the newaska State Park Preserve, Mo- ally spUt apart, and deep fissures and Gunks"—are the northeastern exten- honk Preserve (whose visitors can narrow canyons are formed. Some sion of an Appalachian ridge that, un- also roam the outdoor property of crevices, often with overhanging der other names, runs south through the Mohonk Mountain House re- rock, are known as ice caves because

New Jei'sey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, sort), and Sam's Point Preserve. they accumulate snow and ice in the West Virginia, and Virginia. A rug- Responsible for much of the winter that persists through the sum-

ged topography lures more than fifty Gunks' appeal is their characteristic mer. They are a notable feature in

thousand rock climbers a year, eager bedrock, laid down during the Siluri- Sam's Point Preserve. Elsewhere, cliffs to practice their craft. Other visitors an period, approximately 444 miUion have been carved out as softer rock to the Shawangunks are attracted by to 416 million years ago, by shallow, surrounding the conglomerate has the opportunities for hiking, biking, braided rivers and streams. Although weathered away. They jut out of the cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, rapid-flowing, those waters shed large landscape Uke white scars. hang ghding, birding, hunting, and quantities of their sediments—mud. Other scars mark the face of the

36 NATURAL HISTORY November 2008 ments. Among them are the cUfl^tops has lived since 2005. On average each and faces and the rocky areas beneath parr fledges only one chick each year,

the cliffs, called talus slopes, which which is a poor success rate, less than have buUt up from fallen rock frag- half the rate statewide. Predators, such ments. Historically, those Knked zones as great horned owls, have likely been have suffered the least from human preying on the young. Such discourag- disturbance, owing to their relative ing outcomes may explain why these inaccessibility. Some of the oldest trees two pairs usually choose new ledges in New York State—more than 300 every year, whereas a peregrine pafr years old—survive on the talus slopes. normally nests in the exact same place. The cliffs, as well as talus areas with Another hindrance to cliff dwell- Httle tree cover, discourage the growth of many common plant species but VISITOR INFORMATION harbor others well adapted to those State Park Preserve Witch hazel blossoms Minnewaska zones. Quite a few of those species are 5281 Route 44-55 Gunks. Beginning about 100,000 years designated by the NewYork State De- Kerhonkson, NY 12446 845-256-0579 ago, a glacier plowed through the en- partment of Environmental Conserva- nysparks. state. ny.us/parks/info. tire Hudson Valley. The ice retreated tion as endangered or threatened. One asp?parklD=78 from the Shawangunk Mountains is broom crowberry, which grows on about 18,000 years ago, but one can Shawangunk cUff tops but nowhere Mohonk Preserve find polished outcroppings of bed- else in the state, and whose normal P.O. Box 715 New Paltz, NY 12561 rock with scratches and grooves left habitat is in sandy coastal soils. 845-255-0919 by boulders that traveled beneath the The diSs are also home to peregrine www.mohonkpreserve.org huge mass of ice. The direction of the falcons, still classified as endangered in striations changes according to how New York State, although their recent Sam's Point Preserve the glacier moved. For example, on the population growth is encouraging. The Nature Conservancy north side of Mohonk Lake, the stria- The species often nests on buildings P.O. Box 86 Cragsmoor, NY 12420 tions run from northeast to southwest and bridges. Two natural cliff sites that 845-647-7989 at an angle of about 10 degrees, but the birds have taken to are Millbrook www.nature.org/wherewework/ on the south side of the lake, at the Mountain, where one pair has nested northamerica/states/newyork/preserves/ top ot a cre\dce known as the Lemon each year since 1998, and theTrapps, in art12207.html Squeeze, the striations angle 20 de- Mohonk Preserve, where another pair grees to the southeast. That is because the glacier s\\'ung around a high clifi" now kno\\Ti as Sky Top. In some places, closely-spaced, curved scars called chattermarks are evident. The pressure from rock frag- ments dragged along beneath the gla- cier flaked oft" bits of brittle bedrock, creating those small, crescent-shaped indentations. Each chattermark hes roughly at a right angle to the direc- tion of ice movement, the ends of its crescent commonly pointing in the direction the glacier moved.

From a distance, the landscape of the

I Shawangunks appears to comprise a fairly uniform hardwood forest interrupted by bare clifis and rock outcroppings. In fact, as a result of in- consistent weathering and variations in topography, the mountains embrace Cragsmoor numerous habitats and microenviron-

November 2008 N.^TURAL HISTOR.^ ; 37 Habitats THIS LAND

Chestnut oak forest Chestnut oak and ers—both plants and animals—may northern red oak dominate the canopy, be rock climbers and those who hike but a combination of drought and defoliation moths has killed along cHfF-edge trails. Treading along by gypsy mature oaks in some areas. The gaps a cliff edge tramples plants, compacts are being filled by red maple and such soil, and causes erosion. Less obvi- associated species as black gum and ously, it may disturb the animals even sassafras. The most common shrubs some distance below. Startled while are lowbush blueberry, mountain laurel, brooding, a bird may accidentally and witch hazel. Wildflowers include In- dian cucumber-root, northern starflow- kick an egg off the ledge when it er, trailing arbutus, white snakeroot, flies out to defend its territory; a and wintergreen. nestling may jump off a ledge before

it can fly. At the Mohonk Preserve, Hemlock-northern hardwood forest rock climbs or trails near a breeding Eastern hemlock, an evergreen, and area are temporarily closed to help Climber scales the Trapps, a cliff in such hardwoods as red maple, sugar maple, and yellow birch predominate in protect the falcons. Mohonk Preserve. ravines. Typically the canopy is dense, creating deep shade that limits the also subject to such as serviceberry, Cliff flora and fauna are common growrth of understory vegetation. Dur- global climate change. The Smiley mountain laurel, red-berried elder, ing the winter deer often congregate in family the owners of Mohonk Moun- and small bluets are blooming ear- this habitat. tain House, began making daily weath- her.The eastern phoebe arrives ear- Dwarf pine ridge Flat-topped summits er records at Mohonk Lake on January lier in the spring, the turkey vulture of the Shawangunk Mountains host a 1, 1896. The tradition was maintained is now a year-round resident instead rare type of shrubland dominated by for winter, from 1937 to 1988 by Daniel Smiley of migrating south the dwarf-size pitch pine trees and black who devoted his life to the collec- and the black vulture has expanded huckleberry. Other woody species tion of scientific data on Shawangunk its range to the north—with its first include black chokeberry, gray birch, laurel, and weather, landscape change, and species. New York State nesting site situated lowbush blueberry, sheep withe-rod (also known as possumhaw). Since 1989, Paul C. Huth, Mohonk in the Mohonk Preserve in 1997. Among the wildflowers are bunchberry, Preserve Director of Research, has Canada mayflower, cow-wheat, pink continued to supply the data to the lady's slipper, and wintergreen. HoiVARD R. FEU3MAN is a pwfessor of National Weather Service. biology atTouro College in NewYork City Cliff top, cliff face, and talus slope Records show that at Mohonk and a research associate in the Department Black birch is common in talus-slope Lake the average daily temperature of Invertebrates, Division of Paleontology, at woodland. Rarities for New York State has risen 2.7 Fahrenheit degrees since the American Museum of Natural History. that are found on cliff tops and cliff animals are respond- Thompson is a natural resources 1896. Plants and John faces include broom crowberry, high- ing accordingly. Some cliff plants, specialist at the Mohonk Preserve. land rush, and mountain spleenwort. Others are common serviceberry (also Female peregrine falcon guards her three nestlings on a ledge of the Trapps. known as shadbush), mountain laurel, red-berried elder, and small bluets (also known as Quaker ladies).

Hemlock-hardwood swamp Dominant trees include hemlock, red maple, red spruce, and yellow birch, while a char-

acteristic shrub is highbush blueberry. Such ferns as cinnamon fern and sensi- tive fern abound. This swamp supports plant species normally found farther north, such as goldthread, hobblebush, and painted trillium.

Ice cave The cold microclimate favors northern species such as black spruce, mountain ash, and creeping snow- berry, along with gbldthread, spoon- leaved sundew, and starflower. Numer- ous mosses, lichens, and liverworts occur here.

38 NATURAL HISTORY November 2008 One day, "alternative" energy will just be energy.

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permits with third-world bureau- effacing and understated, but the

crats, as Jackson spins it, sounds like chapter left me breathless. an adventure. There are probably only a few spe-

And what an adventure it all was! cialists who can fully appreciate the Scarcely out of graduate school, professional journal articles on the Jackson single-handedly mounted biodiversity of the Congo forest that two scientific expeditions to one of resulted from Jackson's expeditions. the world's most underdeveloped na- And only a few adventurous readers tions, handling a variety of difficulties may share her "irrational longing to with admirable aplomb. The obstacles return" to the Lac Tele forest, which, . Mean and Lowly she faced, not surprisingly, were hu- judging from her online blog, she ' -^ ;. Things: ; W man as well as natural. Because she did in the summer of 2008. But we Survival Snakes, Science, and had limited funding, and also because can all hope that she will continue in ttie Congo she wanted to avoid appearing to be writing, and that we won't have to •1 by Kate Jackson a foreign exploiter, she hired local wait too long for the next installment Harvard University Press, 2008; people to help as guides, cooks, and of Kate Jackson's Excellent Adventures, apprentice naturalists. Although she wherever they may lead. spoke French, the colonial tongue, As a travel book, Kate Jackson's ac- she struggled to learn the native lan- count of snake collecting in the guage, Lingala, in order to negotiate

tropics is both humorous and dra- the subtleties of village life.

matic . . . but it is not likely to attract In spite of her best intentions, cul- tourists to the Republic of Congo. tures clashed: local villagers viewed On expeditions to that nation's Lac her as a wealthy foreigner; pestered Tele Wildlife Reserve, Jackson slept her to give away knives, flashlights, on damp mats at night, picked ter- and other necessities of her work; and mites from her bed and ants from her frequently balked at working condi- larder and her underwear, and, sev- tions or pay. Graduate school had eral weeks into one jungle sojourn, trained her in taxonomy, anatomy, forcibly evicted fly larvae encamped and physiology, but practical field These Parts: under her skin. Her accommodations research tested her skills in diplomacy A Natural History of Boston featured shared bath facilities (the and crisis management. surrounding flooded forest) and dis- Jackson's resourcefulness served by John Hanson Mitchell tinctive local cuisine (fish-skeleton her well on numerous occasions. Beacon Press, 2008; soup with manioc). Dinner often In one of the book's most chilling $24.95 smelted bad, and sometimes came passages, she pulls what she thinks sprinkled with maggots. After five is a harmless snake from a pile of To stroll dow/n the streets of any of weeks on bush cooking, she had lost bricks, only to find she is holding the great cities of the world is to ten pounds. a forest cobra. As she fumbles for a journey back through human history, As an account of biological field- more secure grip, the cobra strikes, well commemorated by plaques on work under trying conditions, how- whereupon, not quite sure whether walls and monuments in squares, and

ever, Jackson's book is both elegant it has actually injected her with in detailed guidebooks that tell us and appealing. She's a born herpe- venom, Jackson calmly walks back who built what and who lived where. tologist, one of those rare people to camp, mentally counting off the But a city walk, as John Hanson who have been attracted to slithery time and anticipating the onset of Mitchell reminds us in this ami-

and scaly things since childhood, symptoms. What follows is a hastily able book of essays, is also a journey and her enthusiasm for her subject improvised emergency-room proce- through natural history. The urban passes bedrock laid down is infectious. She is also a natural dure—Jackson acting as both presid- walker over storyteller, whether rhapsodizing ing physician and patient—that cul- by ancient seas, along waterfronts over the biodiversity of equatorial minates in an action sequence with and banksides which bear the marks jungles or explaining the intricacies the cinematic impact of Quentin of time as well as design, and past

of preserving specimens in a primi- Tarentino's Pulp Fiction. The writing all sorts of vegetation and wildlife,

tive camp. Even the negotiation of here, as in most of the book, is self- some indigenous, some exotic. Yet,

40 NATURAL HISTORY November 2008 We Cover the Earth

though a city owes as much to the

as it does to the character of its place Sand people who built it, governments sel- The Never-Ending Story dom erect monuments to their rivers, MICHAEL WELLAND trees, and birds. Mitchell, therefore, has provided an uncommon and "A masterful, entertaining and accessible treatise on the complex world of common exemplary book, a guide of sorts to sand." —Bruce M. Pavlik, author of the natural history of one great city, The Caiifornia Deserts Boston, Massachusetts. $24.95 hardcover Don't look to Mitchell for a street- by-street breakdown of Beantown's Dirt parks and wildlife. This is, rather, a The Erosion of Civilizations series of six rambles, each taking a DAVID R. MONTGOMERY different route in a different month (September, October, December, New (n paperbacl(—"A story which we can- not afford to ignore.... Well and eloquently January, March, and June), with the told. "—Financ/a/ Times author acting as a knowledgeable and The Encyclopedia of Earth $16.95 paperback opinionated guide, pointing out spe- A Complete Visual Guide cial sights that tie the urban scene to MICHAEL ALLABY, ROBERT COENRAADS, island World its natural environment. Where most STEPHEN HUTCHINSON, KAREN of us might notice only the blaring of McGHEE, JOHN O'BYRNE and A History of Hawai'i and the United States auto horns and the bustle of office- KEN RUBIN GARYY. OKIHIRO bound commuters, Mitchell hears Here is the most up-to-date information "Okihiro relates Hawai'i's past by profiling a the screams of red-tailed hawks, sees about planet Earth. With thousands of illus- diverse cast of characters whose guidance trations and maps and a text by interna- forever altered the way the spiders spinning webs in overhanging and direction tional experts, it presents an impressive world would view these geographically trees, and contemplates the transient overview—beginning with the history of remote islands." —Book/fet populations of migrating songbirds. the universe and ending with today's California World History Library Mitchell Not just a raconteur, conservation issues. $27.50 hardcover wants us to understand how geog- $39.95 hardcover raphy affects urban destiny, even Also Available Dead Pool in a day when rapid development Lake Pov/ell, Global Warming, and threatens to turn every cityscape The Encyclopedia of Animals the Future of Water in the West into a set of cookie-cutter districts A Complete Visual Guide JAMES LAWRENCE POWELL and filled with Starbucks, Borders, GEORGE McKAY, FRED COOKE, "Carefully researched and cogently argued, Staples storefronts. On blocks where STEPHEN HUTCHINSON, RICHARD it shows how the self-serving promoters of all that can be seen is artifice and VOGT, and HUGH DINGLE the Colorado River's dams have consistently architecture, the author waves away Foreword 6y Harry W. Greer^e Ignored natural limits." pavement and imag- $39.95 hardcover the brick and —Jacques Leslie, author of Deep Water ines the land on which this all was $27.50 hardcover built, the land as it was in the past, Watching Giants contemplating what it was that made The Secret Lives of Whales Between Earth and Sky this place so special and what still ELIN KELSEY Our Intimate Connections to Trees colors its growth and its culture. Photographs by Doc White NALINI M. NADKARNI The geography of Boston, an "A wonderful book.... I learned a lot from "Presents a wealth of entertaining arboreal elongated peninsula marked by traveling with Elin Kelsey in a habitat that's facts and figures, but her personal anec- three hills, has long attracted hu- difficult to negotiate and will share this dotes are the book's most compelling and man settlement. The first English book widely." —Marc Bekoff, author of inimitable feature."—Pob/tehers IVeek/y The Emotional Lives of Animais colonists, of course, were drawn by $24.95 hardcover $24.95 hardcover the excellent harbor, but even before that, Native Americans, who called the place Shawmut, were drawn by the ample freshwater springs, the At bookstores or wvvw.ucpress.edu abundance of game and berries, and

I LI F R N I A P R ES S U N I V E R S O F C A O PPI "l^y BOOKSHELF

the vast numbers offish that came Nobel Prize-winning theoretical jects, you have to keep a measure into its rivers to spawn. In the early physicist Frank Wilczek 's latest of faith that Wilczek's invocations 1900s, construction workers uncov- contribution to the literature of pop- of Granny Smith apples and canta- ered over 65,000 stakes driven into ular science deals, not surprisingly, loupes are apt metaphors for what

the ground in what is now down- with the "deep structure of reality," particle physicists are really getting

town Boston, evidence of an ex- the mathematical regularity that un- at. If you can do that, you'll come to tensive network offish weirs dating derlies the complex and changeable understand that the mysterious mass back five thousand years. Even then, face of the universe. Surprisingly, that particles pick up when smashed

it seems, it would have been hard to however, its point of departure is a together comes from the energy im- walk around the area without seeing simple question: why do things have parted to them by the particle accel- signs of human development. mass? If you remember even a shred erator that accelerated them to close

Still, it is difficult to see the of high-school science, the answer to the speed of light. The extra mass

Boston of 3000 B.C., and even the seems obvious; things have mass is a manifestation of an equation ev-

Boston of 1620, in the geography because everything, from atoms to erybody knows: E=mc^, where E is

of the town today. River mouths galaxies, is made of matter, and mass the energy of the particles' interac-

have been dammed, shorelines ex- is a fundamental property of matter. tion, c the speed of light, and in the tended, and the original landmark To question any further would be as resulting gain in mass.

hills trimmed down to provide fill futile as asking why a circle is round Now, since particles have mass on which an expanding popula- or why a square has four sides. You even when they're at rest in a tion could stake a claim. Forests and just can't separate the property from vacuum, and since that implies

fields have been transformed into the object itself the manifestation of energy, it is

housing developments and high- Or can you? As physicists in re- possible to infer that space is not ways, and green spaces have been cent decades have probed the atomic an empty void, but rather a rich recreated in deliberately landscaped nucleus, a regime that Wilczek calls quantum playground of interacting parks. But throughout, local geog- the "micronanocosm," they have fields whose "embodied energy" raphy—the rolling, sandy land, the found that matter can pick up mass (Wilczek's term) is what we call salt marshes, the ocean winds, the as easily as a wool sweater picks up mass. This nonempty vacuum is New England climate—have made lint (unlike a circle, which can't Wilczek's "deep reality," an un- it a distinctively Bostonian place. somehow pick up roundness). When derlying quantum universe that he You don't have to know Boston to two particles are smashed together refers to as The Grid.

appreciate the stories Mitchell is re- in a giant accelerator, for instance, Read Wilczek's book, however, lating, for despite his local slant, his they often disintegrate, but not into not for the details—that would approach has global implications. It smaller component parts. Instead, require more mathematical sophis-

is easy to view London, or Shanghai, they produce showers of particles tication than most of us can com- or Dubai as remarkable (or damna- far heavier than the total mass of the mand—but to share some of the ex- ble) human constructions, but if you particles that produced them. "It's as citement and enlightenment that he

understood them as Mitchell under- if," writes Wilczek, "you smashed and fellow particle physicists experi- stands Boston, you would see them together two Granny Smith apples, ence as the Large Hadron Collider also as works of nature. and got three Granny Smiths, a Red (LHC) goes into operation in Delicious, a cantaloupe, a dozen Switzerland. The mammoth accel- cherries, and a pair of zucchini!" erator, 16.8 miles in circumference,

Where does that extra mass come is expected to produce an as-yet-

from, and how is it added to the undiscovered resident of The Grid original particles to create new called the Higgs particle, and put the

ones? Wilczek's answer is a non- physicists' vision of a deeper real- mathematical primer on the current ity to the test. "Unless our ideas are The Lightness of state of particle theory, beginning somehow very wrong," says Wilczek, Being with the basics of quantum mechan- "the LHC should be up to the job." Mass, Ether, and the Unification ics and proceeding through the well-established theory of quantum of Forces Laurence A. M4rsch.4ix is H'K.T. to chromodynamics more specula- at Gettysbiirji; Col- by Frank Wilczek Sdlini Professor of Physics tive ideas such as supersymmetry. lege ill Pennsylvania, and director of Project Basic Books, 2008; As with most nonmathematical CLEA, which produces widely used simula- $26.95 books on highly mathematical sub- tion software for education in astronomy.

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"The Taurid meteors, sometimes the point in its orbit that is farthest NOVEMBER NIGHTS OUT I called the "Halloween fireballs," from the Sun, it is not as far away

show up between mid-October and froin the Sun as Jupiter is; at peri- 1 Mercury rises in tine southeast, shortly after the beginning of morning twilight. mid-November, but the night of helion, when it swings closest to the

November 5 is likely to be the best Sun, it is about as close as Mercury 2 "Fall back!" Daylight saving time

time to look for them this year, tak- is. Comets generally have much gives way to standard time. At 2:00 a.m., clocks need to be set back one hour. ing into account both their peak of more elongated orbits, and usually activity and the effect of moonlight return after a lapse of many years, if 3 A six-day-old Moon hovers below and on viewing conditions. Beginning af- they return to the inner solar system to the left of Jupiter, in the southwest.

ter the Moon sets (around midnight), at all. (Halley's comet, for instance, 5 The Moon waxes to first quarter at a dozen meteors may appear per hour. turns up roughly every seventy-six 11 :03 P.M. eastern standard time (EST). As meteors go, they will be unusually years.) On an approach around the The Taurid meteor shower is ripe for slow, and consequently often yellow- Sun perhaps twenty millennia ago, viewing (see story at left).

ish-orange. Their name comes from however, Encke's (or its bigger par- 13 The Moon becomes full at the way they seem to radiate from the ent comet) apparently was deflected 1:17 a.m. est

constellation Taurus, the Bull. by the gravity ofJupiter and other 19 The Moon wanes to last quarter at Meteors—so-called shooting planets, which sent it into a tighter 4:31 P.M. EST stars— are generated when debris orbit. Since then, its trail of debris 27 The Moon becomes new at has been spread 11:55 a.m. EST

out by the gravita- 30 Venus and Jupiter, just 2 degrees tional tugs of apart, are low in the southwest at the planets. sundown and remain visible until they The Taurids set, around 7:30 p.m. Jupiter, the one above and to the right, is more dimly are actually di- lit because it is much farther from vided into the the Sun. Northern Taurids and the Southern Taurids, depend- ing on whether the meteors ap-

Debris stream of Encke's comet is so spread out that some of it pear to emanate crosses the plane of Earth's orbit from above and some from below from the north or (that difference is schematically represented here by two separate south regions in The Better to Eat You With loops). From mid-October to mid-November, Earth sweeps through Taurus. That divi- Fear in the Animal World the debris, and observers see the Northern and Southern Taurid arises meteor showers. Earth intercepts the debris stream again later in sion because

the year, but then the meteors appear in daytime. some of the debris Joel Bcrger intersects Earth's enters and burns up in Earth's orbit from above the ecliptic (the atmosphere. The Taurids are at- plane on which the planets orbit the

tributed to debris left behind by Sun) and some from below it. Earth Encke's comet, or perhaps by a passes through the debris trail in late much larger comet that disinte- June and early July as well, giving grated, leaving behind Encke and rise to two raore meteor showers, The Better to Eat You With a lot of rubble. Indeed, the Taurid known as the beta Taurids and the Fear in the Animal World debris stream contains large frag- zeta Perseids. At that time of year, Joel Berger ments that in certain years—2008 however, our planet's position in is predicted to be one — create relation to the Sun is such that the 'In The Better to Eat You With Joel some of those unusually bright debris Earth's me- burns up on daytime Berger conveys the mysteries and teors known as "fu-eballs." side, so the meteors do not form a wonder of wildlife behavior in a visible spectacle. fast-paced narrative that both Informs and Inspires." Encke's has the shortest known or- Joe Rao (hometown. aol.com/skywayinc^ bital period a for comet, taking is a broadcast meteorologist and an associate -BILL WEBER, author of In the Kingdom of Gorillas only 3.3 years to make one complete and lecturer at the Haydeii Planetarium in trip around the Sun. At aphelion, New York City. Cloth $29.00

The University of Chicago Press www.press.uchicago.edu 44 NATURAL HISTORY November 2008 MAMMALS OF INDIANA

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From the various physical remains of long-gone places, Classical Classical Archaeology of Ancient Greece and Rome archaeologists create a window through which to view the richness Taught by Professor John R. Hale, University of Louisville of the worlds of ancient Greece and Rome. It is through Classical Lecture Titles archaeology that these civilizations are resurrected in all their glory, 1. Archaeology's Big Bang 20. Rome—Foundation Myths 2. "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and Archaeology affording us a better grasp of cultures which have greatly influenced 3. A Quest for the Trojan War 21. Caesarea Maritima—A Roman City our own. 4. How to Dig in Judea 5. First Find Your Site 22. Teutoburg— Battlefield Archaeology In the 36 lectures of Classical Archaeology of Ancient Greece 6. Taking the Search Underwater 23. Bath —Healing Waters at Aquae Sulis 7. Cracking the Codes 24. Torre de Raima—A Farm in the and Rome, you explore this fascinating field of study and journey 8. Techniques for Successful Dating Far West through dozens of ancient sites including Delphi, a Bronze-Age 9. Reconstructing Vanished 25. Roots of Classical Culture Environments 26. The Texture of Everyday Life shipwreck, a country estate, Roman and Vesuvius. With the skill 10. "Not Artifacts but People" 27. Their Daily Bread of a bom storyteller, expert archaeologist and award-winning 1 1 Archaeology by Experiment 28. Voyaging on a Dark Sea of Wine 12. Return to Vesuvius 29. Shows and Circuses—Rome's Professor John R. Hale the Louisville of University of provides 13. Gournia— Harriet Boyd and "Virtual Reality" the Mother Goddess 30. Engineering and Technology you with a detailed look at Classical archaeology and the insights it 14. Thera—A Bronze Age Atlantis? 31. Slaves—A Silent Majority? offers into us ancient Greek and Roman life. Mixing exotic 15. Olympia—Games and Cods 32. Women of Greece and Rome adventures, unexpected discoveries, and abiding mysteries of 16. Athens's Agora 33. Hadrian—Mark of the Individual Where Socrates Walked 34. Crucible of New Faiths the discipline's history with his own extensive field experience. 17. Delphi—Questioning the Oracle 35. The End of the World— 18. Kyrenia Lost Ship of the A Coroner's Report Professor Hale creates a fascinating narrative that gives you a new — Hellenistic Age 36. A Bridge across the Torrent perspective from which to view the ancient world. 1 9. Riace—Warriors from the Sea

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SOURCE CODE 60118 South Daytona, Florida 32119 CODE 60118 At the Museum American Museum S Natural History q[J www.amnh.org Picturing History

dinosaur tail hauled past exhibits, a diorama A of nesting flamingoes no longer on display, a teeth-cleaning job for a Killer Whale replica: it's all just part of the rich photographic history of education and exhibition at the American Mu- seum of Natural History, now online in Picturing the Museum. "Anyone who loves the Museum will be com- pletely entranced by this new website. My father used to bring me to the Museum when I was a kid, and this is where I discovered the joy of intel- lectual discovery," says Barbara Mathe, Museum Archivist and Head of Library Special Collections at the Museum's Research Library. "I'm not the only one—several people have already told me they've spent hours poring over the images." children gather for story hour near the The jaws of a fossil shark, or Carchar- Picturing the Museum is an exhibit of nearly a gemsbok diorama in the Akeley Hall of odon megalodon, undergo restoration, thousand images for those interested in Museum African Mammals, 1944. 1927. history, looking for artful inspiration, or curious about natural history. The Museum has a long the current website, there are another 12,000 photographs tradition of and mandate for public education that began at scanned and online capacity for 186,000 more. Within two the Museum's inception: founder Albert Bickmore gave lec- years, look for images from the famed Jesup expedition to tures illustrated with lantern slides to expose the public and the Pacific Northwest and Siberia between 1897 and 1902; teachers to the wonders of the natural world. The Research the donated collection of Julian Dimock's portraits of life in Library began this current project after receiving a digitiza- the southern United States; and photos from Carl Lumholtz' tion grant from the Metropolitan New York Library Council. expeditions to Mexico, documenting the Huichol and Tara- They are now continuing the work by engaging many vol- humara cultures. unteers to scan photographs. "We have three machines and "Every time I look, I find a new favorite," says Tom hope to keep them operating all day, every day," says Mathe. Baione, Acting Director of the Library. "Right now, it's the The ultimate goal is to create a comprehensive online da- image of 'story hour' in front of a diorama—the gemsboks tabase of over half a million images documenting the work appear to be listening in." Visit images.library.amnh.org to of the Museum world-wide. In addition to the images on find your favorite.

I Museum staff move the colossal tail of the Apatosaurus, Artists put the finishing touches on a Killer Whale model in t formerly known as Brontosaurus, 1938. the Hall of Ocean Life, 1967. Museum in Miniature

When the Origami Holiday Tree is unveiled this month, it will not only kick off the holiday season but also serve as a unique celebration of the Museum itself FoUowdng the chosen theme, "Folding the Museum," the 13-foot tiee will be covered with colorful paper models representing denizens of the habitat dioramas, per- manent halls, and special exhibitions. Art and Anthropology at the 2008 Mead Festival This year, visitors can expect to

see paper shaped, as if by magic, Edward S. Curtis, an artistand eth- hasten indigenous peoples' assimila- into a marvelous parade of creatures nographer, was one of America's tion into Canadian society. (past, present, and prehistoric) and best known photographers of Native Complementing the dynamic cam- recognizable elements of cultural ex- American culture. In his lifetime, he era work and beautiful color tinting of hibition halls. The tiee will feature a produced more than 40,000 photo- this experdy restored film is an ambi- variety of reptiles, amphibians, mam- graphs of different tribes. His passion tious musical score performed by a live mals, birds, sea creatures, and insects. for performance and commitment to orchestia. Curtis most likely supplied Origami is the traditional art of pa- documentation are deeply evident in John J. Braham, the composer, with per-folding and has been part of Japa- the spectacular silent film In the Land his own wax cylinder recordings of nese culture since the sixth century. ofthe Head Hunters. The New York pre- Kwakwaka'wakw songs, though the final (In Japanese, "ori" means "folding," miere of the newly restored version of results fuse the popular sounds of the and "kami" means "paper.") Today, the film will be held on Friday, Novem- time with the "familiar thrum of the origami is considered a worldwide art ber 14, in the LeFrak Imax Theater at 'tom-toms.'" The original sheet music form. Every summer, local, national, the American Museum of Natural His- has been recovered and restored for the and international volunteers from tory, marking the start of the Margaret current presentation of the film in a OrigamiUSA begin folding their

Mead Film & Video Festival. series of North American cities, its first contributions to complete the 500 or Curtis created this melodramatic public appearance since 1914. Blending more models displayed during the account of love and war among the American cinematic ideals with the his- holiday season. In previous years, the Kwakwaka'wakw communities in torically rich Kwakwaka'wakw culture, holiday tree has been decorated with British Columbia in 1914, capturing a this film broke the boundaries of stereo- such other compelling themes as visually rich culture before European typical "Indian films" to become a truly Fantastic Creatures: Mythic and Real; contact. The hero, Motana, embarks on innovative and artistic feat. Origami in Flight; and Under the Sea. a quest to win over the Proud Princess Now in its 31st year, the Margaret The 2008 Origami Holiday Tree Naida, "the maiden of his dreams," Mead Film & Video Festival, which runs will be on view from "Thanksgiving and praying, dancing, hunting, and through Sunday, November 16, is the week through New Year's Day, in the celebrating ensue in the first feature- longest-running documentary film fes- "Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall length film to star members of the tival in the United States. The Festival on the first floor. During that time, Kwakwaka'wakw communities. was founded in 1977 by the Museum in volunteers will be on hand to teach Though the film has been largely honor of pioneering anthropologist Mar- visitors of all ages the art of origami. treated as a documentary, it displays garet Mead's 75th birthday and to mark Curtis's embellishments (like whaling her 5ofh year at the Museum. practices borrowed from neighboring The Mead Festival is made possible with public funds tribes, depicted with a rented dead from the New Yorl< State Council on the Arts, a state agency; The Experimental Television Center's Presen- whale!) alongside culturally authentic tation Funds Program, which is supported by the New elements. Curtis has been praised for York State Council on the Arts; the Goethe-lnstitut, including—and preserving—many ac- New York; Arts and Culture Network Program, Open Society Institute, Budapest; PocketVisions/London tual Kwakwaka'wakw rituals that were International Documentary Festival; the Netherlands banned at the time under the federal Consulate-General, New York; and the Shelley and Potlach Provision, which intended to Donald Rubin Foundation.

The contents of these paces are provided to Natural History by the American Museum of Natural History. At the Museum American Museum S Natural History ^ www.amnh.org

I® On Feathered Wings ' Through May 2^, zoog This exhibition brings together the work of renowned wildlife

photographers whose artistry showcases the majesty of

birds in flight.

The presentation of both Saturn and On feathered Wings at the American Museum

of Natural History is made possible by the generosity of the Arthur Ross Foundation.

origins of the horse family, which extends back more than 50 million years.

The Horse is organized by the American EXHIBITIONS Museum of Natural History, New York (www.amnh.org}, in collaboration with Qimate Change: Threat to Additional support for Climate Change The the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and its related educational programming Heritage; Canadian Museum of Life and A New Energy Future has been provided by & Civilization, Gatineau-Ottawa;The Field Through August 16, loog Mary and David Solomon. Museum, Chicago; and the San Diego the Betsy and Jesse Fink Foundation, This timely new exhibition Natural History Museum. the Linden Trust for Conservation, and explores the science, history, the Red Crane Foundation. The Horse at the American Museum of and impact of climate Natural History is made possible, in part, by the generosity of Rosalind P. Walter change a global scale, on and the Eileen P. Bernard Exhibition Fund. providing context for today's Additional support has been provided by an anonymous donor. most urgent headlines. Two eagles in flight compete for Realistic dioramas, dynamic Lizards ei Snakes: Alive! the day's catch.

animations, and interactive Through January 5, 20og

stations allow visitors to Meet over 60 live lizards and Unknown Auduhons: witness potential effects, snakes, and discover some of Mammals ofNorth America such as the flooding of their remarkable adaptations. Through January 18, 20og

lower Manhattan as a result Lizards e[ Snakes: Alivel is organized The stately Audubon by the American Museum of Natural of melting ice and ocean Gallery showcases the last History, New York (www.amnh.org), in This exhibition warming. lays collaboration with the Fernbank Museum great works of John James the groundwork for potential of Natural History, Atlanta, and the San Audubon. Diego Natural History Museum, with solutions, empowering and Major funding for this exhibition has been appreciation to Clyde Peeling's Reptiland. provided by the Lila Wallace-Reader's inspiring visitors of all ages. The Butterfly Conservatory Digest Endowment Fund.

climate Change is organized by the Through May 2^, 20og Saturn: Imagesfrom the Public programs are made possible, in American Museum of Natural Mingle with up to 500 live, Cassini-Huygens Mission part, by the Rita and Frits Markus Fund History, New York {www.amnh.org), free-flying tropical butterflies Through March 2g, 20og for Public Understanding of Science. in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture Sl Heritage, United in an enclosed habitat that This stunning exhibition reveals Arab Emirates; The Cleveland Museum approximates their natural details of Saturn's rings, GLOBAL WEEKEND of Natural History; The Field Museum, Chicago; environment. Learn about the moons, and atmosphere with Native American Storytelling

Institute Sangari, Sao Paulo, Brazil; butterfly life cycle, defense images sent over half a billion with Herb Rice Junta de Castilla y Le6n. Spain; mechanisms, evolution, and miles by the Cassini spacecraft. Saturday, 11/8, 1 and^pm Korea Green Foundation, Seoul; Natural History Museum of Denmark, conservation. The support of the National Aeronautics In recognition of Native Copenhagen; Papalote Museo del Nino, and Space Administration is appreciated. American Heritage Month, Mexico City, Mexico; and Special thanks to the Cassini imaging Saint Louis Science Center The Horse renowned Northwest Coast team, especially those scientists at Cornell

Climate Change is proudly presented by Through January 4, 20og LJniversity's Department of Astronomy, artist and lecturer Herb Rice Bank of America. This exhibition reveals the along with the staff of Cornell University will present two sessions of photography The Eastman Kodak enduring bond between horses interactive storytelling for Additional support has been provided by Company of Rochester. New York, printed The Rockefeller Foundation. and humans, and explores the the images. families. c signing will follow. Visit LECTURES once covered what is now the K www.amnh.org/mead for a Thirteen Things That Don't middle of North America.

Funded in part by the National Science J complete list of guests. Make Sense Foundation, Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric S Co-presented with Barnard Center for Monday, 11/10, y.^opm Adventure was produced by National n. Research on Women. Michael Brooks, physics Geographic Cinema Ventures. This program is supported, in part, by Sara Lee Schupf. consultant to New Scientist magazine, explains how the Margaret Mead Film & Video most baffling mysteries have Festival led to our most significant Friday-SundaY, 11/14-11/16 scientific breakthroughs.

Experience the best in

international documentary film Cosmic Collisions Herb Rice, a renowned mask with screenings, premieres, journey into deep space carver, draws from traditional both and panel and post-screening to explore the hypersonic and modern forms in his designs. discussions. See page 53 for impacts that drive the more information. formation of our universe. Global Weekends are made possible, in part, by the City of New York, Visit www.amnh.org/mead for Narrated by Robert Redford. the New York City Council, and the New complete schedule. Cosmic Collisions was developed in York City Department of Cultural Affairs. collaboration with the Denver Museum Additional support has been provided This festival is made possible with of Nature & Science; GOTO, Inc., Tokyo, by the May and Samuel Rudin Family public funds from the New York State Japan; and the Shanghai Science and Foundation, Inc., the Tolan Family, and Council on the Arts, a state agency. Technology Museum. the family of Frederick H. Leonhardt. HAYDEN PLANETARIUM Made possible through the generous support of CIT SCIENCE & SOCIETY PROGRAMS Margaret Mead: TUESDAYS IN THE DOME Cosmic Collisions was created by the American Museum of Natural History American Icon Virtual Universe with the major support and partnership Thursday, n/ij, 6:}o pm The Grand Tour of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Science Mission Special guests present Tuesday, 11/4, 6:}o pm Directorate, Heliophysics Division, memories and images of These programs are supported, in IVIargaret IVIead. A book part, by Val and Min-Myn Schaffner. IMAX MOVIES LATE NIGHT DANCE Sea Monsters: PARTY INFORMATION A Prehistoric Adventure One Step Beyond Travel back 82 million years Friday, 11/21, pm-i am Call 212-769-5100 or visit www.amnh.org. g to a time when strange Visit www.amnh.org/ TICKETS AND REGISTRATION creatures filled the seas that onestepbeyond for details.

Call 212-769-5200, Monday-Friday, 9 am-5 pm, or visit -i^wSs^'.

www.amnh.org. A service charge may apply. All programs are subject to change. Holiday Bonus

AMNH eNotes delivers the latest information on Museum programs and events monthly via email. Visit www.amnh.org to sign up today!

idorable "dino-bite" tin FREE when you ^y our Dinosaur Become a Member of the loliday CD, American Museum of Natural History eaturing classic unes with amusing linosaur-inspired You'll enjoy many valuable benefits, including unlimited free

general admission, discounts on programs and in shops, subscriptions to Natural History magazine and Rotunda, our Members' newsletter, and much more!

For further information, call 212-769-5606

or visit www.amnh.org/join. www.amnhshop.com or 1-800-671-7035

The CONTENTS OF THESE PACES ARE PROVIDED TO NATURAL HiSTORY 8V THE AMERICAN MuSEUM OF NATURAL HiSTORY, ^^^v^\ >^

ENDPAPER

A Mini Seto Sea

By Alexandre Meinesz Large-scale model of the Seto Inland Sea, which IS pictured below

ECOlogistS must often compress the On my first visit, Ueshima and Kansai International Airport, a scales of space to better under- I jumped from island to island monumental project built offshore stand the impact of humans on above the sea, like Gargantua and as an artificial island, will never be nature. I experienced a beautitul Pantagruel, spanning whole regions torn down to save subtidal life. ilkistration of this method a decade with each step. It was easy to see ago in Japan, when I was invited from there how much land had The nriodel of the inland sea is the to give a lecture in Hiroshima been modified by people. most vivid demonstration I have Prefecture, a place reverberat- seen of human dominance over ing with the destructive power ot n the past twenty years, more than 150 nature. On my most recent visit to humanity. My host was Hideki square miles of seashore have been Hiroshima I met Ueshima again. Ueshima, a marine ecologist who sacrificed along the Seto Inland Sea Despite the dismal vision that con- for twenty years has overseen an so cities can expand. Ports, subdivi- fronts him daily, he has never given immense model of the interior sea sions, and factories have all been up; he has never accepted that ofJapan, the Seto Inland Sea. built, from Osaka to Hiroshima, reclamation and construction will Built and run by Japan's National where land was taken from the sea be the fate of the entire coast of the Institute of Advanced Industrial and attached to concrete. Seto Inland Sea. Patiently, and with Science and Technology, the model That construction has destroyed great diplomacy, he has tried with fills an airplane hangar nearly 1,000 subtidal ecosystems: shallow zones growing success to convince the feet long and 500 feet wide. Giant of marine life that form narrow various authorities of his country pumps faithfully reproduce the cur- belts parallel to the shoreline. to think more carefully about what rents and tides of the Pacific Ocean Those that are biologically richest can still be preserved. and the Sea ofJapan. Experiments are near the surface, where ample I encouraged Ueshima to paint are conducted to evaluate the light penetrates and allows for pho- parts of his model green, to represent impact of further development tosynthesis. But such zones are lost coasts that have been saved. planned for the sea's already built- when walls are erected to protect up shoreline. How will the currents the land won from the sea. The y4i.EX4.VDRE Meinesz, ail ecolooist special- change? Where will pollutants ac- marine life never reconstitutes itself izing ill algae, is a professor at the University France. This cumulate? To answer those ques- in the face of the concrete. of h'ice-Sophia Antipolis in essay was adaptedfrom his book, How tions, thousands of little floats can Ueshima's role was limited to Life Began: Evolutions Three be liberated simultaneously, to be advising builders so that construc- Geneses (University of Chicago moved by the currents, and dyes tion would modify the currents as Press, 2008). injected into the water can show little as possible. But he had coine dilution patterns. Everything is to understand that the environment,

filmed and analyzed to stan- little by little, was dardize the calculations being irrevers- derived from ibly degraded. For the model. instance, Osaka's

HisrORY November 2008 Hidden Caves From the Dordogne to the Pyrenees Junes- 17,2009

Join AMNH Expeditions for a rare opportunity to visit several renowned

prehistoric sites of soutliern France, including Rouffignac and the seldom-

visited Bernifal. Explore Pech Merle and Niaux, where one of the most

iconographic animal figures of prehistoric cave art is found. En route, enjoy

excursions to medieval Sarlat, the Gallo-Roman Cahors, and the lovely

Perigueux, capital of the Perigord. In addition to cave visits, explore some

of the world's most important Paleolithic objects at the Musee de la

Prehistoire at Les Eyzies. Dr Ken Mowbray, a paleoanthropologist from the

Museum's Division of Anthropology, accompanies as study leader

i^r"'°KT^-

'^^^'T

h^^Y^mJiavel With Makes A World Of Difference J

Along the IncaTrail: A Journey from Cusco to Machu Picchu

June 27 -July 5, 2009

Be immersed in the myths, legends, and history of the Incas on this 9-day

expedition. Spend a day in Cusco, explore the Sacred Valley of the Incas

and the archaeological complex of Ollantaytambo, and visit the ruins of

Pisaq. Hike the IncaTrail or take the train to Machu Picchu, arriving at the

perfectly preserved Inca citadel that was lost in the dense jungle for hun-

dreds of years. Other stops along the way include the Andean village of

Chinchero and the historical sites of Moray and Maras. Dr Alan Covey Assistant Professor of Anthropology and the Director of Latin American

and Iberian Studies at Southern Methodist University joins as study leader to guide the expedition.

/Ti; Make a reservation today! Natural History American Museum o gp caii 800-462-8687 or Expeditions visit www.amnhexpeditions.org A billion fa www.iiicredibleindia.oig 1-800-953-9399 ny@itoiiy^com