2019 Annual Report to Donors 2019 Annual Report to Donors 1 The Field Museum fuels a journey of discovery across time to enable Dear Friends, solutions for a brighter future rich in Thank you for making 2019 so memorable at the Field Museum. We are pleased to present this Annual Report chronicling our accomplishments—each fueled by your continuing investment in science and learning. nature and culture. (pg. 2) In the following pages, you will find remarkable stories of the Field’s work: a 42-year longitudinal study connecting shrinking body sizes of migratory birds with climate change; discoveries of new species within our collections; and innovative personalized learning experiences for Chicago Public Schools students, and much more. Research at the Field Museum will be expressed in new ways. The Negaunee Integrative Research Center—recently named to honor the Negaunee Foundation’s generous support over many years— Its global impact—through research, established an all new research focus on the environmental and biological issues behind the alarming decline in pollinator populations worldwide. In addition, the Grainger Bioinformatics Center was created, thanks to a 10-year pilot program funded by The Grainger Foundation. Field scholars will use a variety of novel big-data analysis techniques conservation action, learning programs, to study Museum collections and unlock hidden patterns in nature. The Museum will also award an annual international bioinformatics prize to encourage the application of these new research techniques to some of the most pressing biological and environmental challenges of our time. The Keller Science Action Center celebrated 25 years of conservation programs that have effected and exhibitions—is anchored by a change in collaboration with communities in Chicagoland and around the world. What started as a department of two, is now an interdisciplinary team of 35 scientists and educators whose work is addressing urgent environmental challenges. Your philanthropy bestows a unique responsibility on us—to be guardians and stewards of this priceless collection of 40 million iconic institution. We accept this charge with gratitude. Sincerely, (On the cover) A new mural of SUE the T. rex soon to be installed artifacts and specimens. (pg. 14) in SUE’s gallery in the Griffin Halls of Evolving Planet. SUE the T. rex was found in South Dakota’s Hell Creek Wilbur H. Gantz III Richard W. Lariviere, PhD Formation. From giant dinosaurs Chair, Board of Trustees President and CEO to tiny amphibians, the fossils in these rocks are a window into one of the best-understood ecosystems from the Age of the Dinosaurs. 2 Field Museum 2019 Annual Report to Donors 3 More than 150 scientists work every day in the Field Museum’s labs and around the world, leading scientific research and answering key questions about Earth and its peoples. DISCOVERY Field Museum’s 40 million artifacts and Migratory specimens drive discovery behind the scenes every day. Whether billions of years old or recently collected, Museum Birds are specimens help scientists build a complete picture of evolution and change. Every day since 1978, Museum scientists and Shrinking volunteers started as early as 3:30am to collect birds that collide with buildings, adding more than 100,000 specimens to the Museum’s collection. Dave Willard, PhD, Collections Manager Emeritus, has carefully measured all the birds and recorded data by hand for more than 40 years. The goal was to build a densely sampled time series from both spring and fall migration. Willard and his colleagues analyzed these data and discovered the overall body sizes of more than 52 species of migratory birds are shrinking. One possible cause of this phenomenon is climate change. Animal body sizes are often tied to climate. Within a species, individuals living in colder regions tend to be bigger than their counterparts in warmer regions. And, (Opposite) Bird specimens since temperatures have crept up in the birds’ collected by Dave Willard summer breeding grounds in the last 40 years, and volunteers near the researchers believe the shrinking of birds is Museum Campus. related to the rising temperature of the planet. 4 Field Museum 2019 Annual Report to Donors 5 DISCOVERY new species New Meteorite discovered by Field New Prehistoric Lands in Field Museum scientists Museum Collections Shark Species in 2019 33 On April 23, 2019, a meteorite fall was reported in Aguas Zarcas, Discovered in Costa Rica (for which the meteorite is now named). Hundreds of stones were recovered within the projected strewn-field, several SUE’s Leftovers of which were gifted to the Field Museum by the Boudreaux Family, longtime supporters of the Field’s meteoritics research. The Aguas Zarcas is a carbonaceous chondrite and contains When Field Museum scientists removed the rock organic compounds like amino acids—the building blocks of life. surrounding SUE’s bones 20 years ago, they kept The skull of Crocodylus A proposal by Philipp Heck, PhD, Robert A. Pritzker Associate the leftover rock, or matrix. It’s fairly uncommon halli, the new species Curator, to study the Aguas Zarcas meteorite was selected by for museums to keep matrix from the fossils from the southern the Museum’s Science and Scholarship Funding Committee to they find, but SUE was so unique that McCarter rivers in Papua New receive the 2020 Science Innovation Award. This competitive Collections Manager Bill Simpson thought there Guinea, discovered grant, made possible by an anonymous donor, is awarded each may be clues about SUE’s environment hidden in Museum year to an innovative science project in any area of study at the in the leftovers. For almost a decade, the matrix collections. Field Museum. Philipp and collaborator Yongsong Huang, PhD, sat in underground storage at the Museum, (Brown University) are using the Aguas Zarcas to study some of until a team of scientists and volunteers began the least-altered presolar and early solar system materials yet meticulously picking through it and found discovered, and hope it will yield unprecedented insights into the tiny fossilized teeth of a freshwater shark the origins of our Solar System. suspected to have lived in a river close to where SUE roamed. Led by Terry Gates (North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences), the team named (Below) Philipp Heck, Head of the Robert A. Pritzker Center for the shark Galagadon nordquistae—a nod to its Meteoritics and Polar Studies, presents the Aguas Zarcas meteorite spaceship-shaped teeth and to Karen Nordquist, with donor Terry Boudreaux and his son Evan Boudreaux. Field Museum volunteer and benefactor who discovered the fossil. From studying the teeth, scientists determined Galagadon was likely The Field’s specimens are studied by less than two feet long. But while the shark scientists around the world. With a didn’t break any size records, it reshaped what collection as vast and old as this, there are scientists thought about SUE’s environment. new discoveries hiding in the Museum’s drawers and cabinets waiting for someone to pick them up. Collections Manager Caleb McMahan, PhD, and his colleagues The fossilized tooth of Galagadon did just that when they synthesized new nordquistae found in SUE’s matrix. and old data on 90-year-old crocodile The shape of the tooth—which New Species skulls in the collection and discovered a resembles the spaceship from new species of New Guinea crocodile. the video game Galaga— This study shows that not all new species inspired the name of of Crocodile Right are discovered through fieldwork— the new genus. A rendering of Galagadon highlighting the need for referential nordquistae as it would have Under Our Snouts specimens and taxonomists in museums. looked in the Cretaceous by scientific illustrator Velizar Simeonovski. 6 Field Museum 2019 Annual Report to Donors 7 DISCOVERY In 2019, Field Museum scientists published The past decade has seen an alarming reduction in pollinator populations worldwide. Among the most important 268 species on Earth, pollinators are crucial new journal articles to the life cycles of many plants on which both ecosystems and humans depend. and 6 books. The Field Museum established a new program to look into this issue. Its goal is to apply modern evolutionary biology theories to solve the root causes of pollinator decline. Underwritten by The Negaunee Foundation—a long-term donor to science at the Field—this work complements the Museum’s recent investments in genomics The published works of and bioinformatics. The program also has Field Museum scientists broad, long-term implications for agriculture, human health, and conservation. were cited more than In recognition of the Foundation’s extraordinary support, the Field renamed its research division the Negaunee Integrative Negaunee Research Center in December 2019. “The Negaunee Foundation is a quiet giant,” said Integrative President and CEO Richard W. Lariviere, PhD. “They have funded core research programs for 16,000 many years, pushing the Field to new levels of Research achievement. We are honored to recognize times by scholars from their contribution through the newly named The most commonly reported Center Negaunee Integrative Research Center.” around the world. issue affecting pollinators is “colony collapse disorder”— when worker bees abandon their queen and a hive fails. However, this is not the only issue affecting the long-term health of bees and other pollinators. 8 Field Museum 2019 Annual Report to Donors 9 DISCOVERY The Amazon Basin reaches Dry-environment plants like these Yuccas were its western limits along the Piecing Together tended to and provided both food and fiber for Andean Mountain chain. the prehispanic inhabitants of El Palmillo. This is one of the most species-rich landscapes in the Ancient Amazon the world and a long-term focus of Field Museum A longstanding mission of Field Museum research is to research and conservation study the patterns and processes of biodiversity across efforts.