MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY ANNUAL REPORT HARVARD UNIVERSITY 2010–2011 ANNUAL REPORT 2010–2011 1 DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE Professor Ernst Mayr, arguably the most famous evolutionary biologist of the 20th century, served as MCZ’s director from 1961 to 1970. For him, the MCZ “is not merely a repository of collections but a biological research institute.” According to Mayr, the MCZ has two explicit This past year saw significant improvements tasks: “to study the diversity of living nature to our physical plant. A new cryogenic lab and its evolution—the mere accumulation was installed, which will house a state-of-the- of specimens and the mere description of art, liquid-nitrogen-based collection that will new species is not our primary task”—and come online in November 2011. Build-out of to instruct undergraduate and graduate the MCZ’s new 50,000-square-foot collections students. This past year’s activities and events facility in the Northwest Science Building show that we are doing our best to promote began in spring 2011. Migration of specimens and realize Mayr’s lofty vision and maintain from their current, overcrowded space in the MCZ’s standing as the finest university-based old MCZ will begin in early 2012. natural history museum in the world. With the acquisition of several grants, MCZ Perhaps the most important ongoing activity is able to participate in both national and of any university-based museum is the global efforts to digitize collection records, hiring and retention of outstanding faculty- some of which extend back hundreds curators. Hence, I’m happy to announce of years. The resulting online specimen Catherine Weisel that Dr. Hopi Hoekstra, MCZ’s Curator of databases provide unprecedented and Mammalogy, has accepted Harvard’s offer of immediate access to primary biodiversity a tenured professorship in the departments information by scientists, students, of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology policymakers, conservationists and other and Molecular and Cellular Biology, and data “consumers” anywhere and anytime. appointment as Alexander Agassiz Professor Finally, we were sorry to bid farewell to of Zoology in the MCZ. This is a key Elisabeth Werby, Executive Director of the “acquisition” for MCZ, and one that will help Harvard Museum of Natural History, at the sustain our intellectual leadership in the close of the 2009–2010 academic year. We field of comparative biology. surely will miss Liz, but we also will treasure Teaching continues to be one of our most the magnificent public museum she left valued and rewarding activities, and I am behind. While the University develops plans happy to showcase some of the impressive to recruit her successor, David E. Ellis, accomplishments of our undergraduate former president of both Lafayette College and graduate students within this report. and the Museum of Science, Boston, is Under the supervision of faculty-curators serving as interim executive director. and with financial support from programs The success of the MCZ is only possible such as the Grants-in-Aid of Undergraduate Cover photo credits: because of the earnest commitment and Top, left to right: Luke Mahler; Vlad Research, the MCZ continues to both train dedication of its faculty, researchers, staff Dinca; courtesy of Elaine Vo; Gonzalo new generations of professional zoologists Giribet; Florence On and students. I commend everyone for and educate future doctors, lawyers, poets, Bottom, left to right: Lynn Johnson; Naomi their hard work and congratulate them for engineers, teachers and other leaders of Man in’t Veld; Mark Renczkowski; Anna a job well done. Clark; Jon Sanders tomorrow in the biology of organisms. Opposite page: Hypochrysops digglesii James Hanken (Lycaenidae: Theclinae) from Australia by Director Catherine Weisel ANNUAL REPORT 2010–2011 1 remained relatively small, isolated and brown bears, work that she now is INVESTING IN THE FUTURE docile, and likely do not pose a physical preparing for publication. threat to humans. In December 2011, Larson As both a research and a teaching museum, the MCZ maintains an active “Adam is a natural entomologist who also has will begin a research project, involvement in, and support of, Harvard’s education programs. a deep commitment to applying his research “Decoding Species Complexes to issues of conservation and sustainable of Amphibians and Mammals Through courses, faculty mentoring and Prize in 2008 to reward excellence in her development,” says his advisor, Professor in the Mountains of Tanzania,” Grants-in-Aid of Undergraduate Research work as an undergraduate. Her findings were Brian Farrell. “He is an ideal ambassador for on a Fulbright grant. She will be (GUR), the MCZ nurtures and advances the published in Proceedings of the National Academy the causes of conservation and biodiversity studying small mammal and frog research interests of undergraduate students of Sciences of the USA in April 2011. research, both abroad and domestically.” diversity in the mountains, teaching from the classroom to the lab and field. We in village schools about local “Elaine is a very dedicated worker, and with are proud to highlight some of the research biodiversity and her research, and her background in biochemistry and biology, of recent undergraduates who have been improving her fluency in Kiswahili, she had a breadth of knowledge that is rare supervised by MCZ faculty-curators. Joanna Larson among undergraduates,” explained Prof. which she studied for two years at Harvard. Adam Clark Edwards. “Her research elegantly combines Alexander Kim, Class of 2013, is so fascinated seabird ecology, ecotoxicology, stable isotopes by freshwater prawns that he seriously studied and the value of museum specimens to reveal them even before his undergraduate career. conditions in the world in which they lived.” According to his advisor, Professor Gonzalo Vo is currently a graduate student at the Giribet, “Alex has a true passion for learning University of California, Berkeley, where and is, by far, the most driven she is pursuing research at the interface undergraduate I have ever met. He was conducting field research of ecological immunology and avian host- Adam Clark parasite ecology. on freshwater crustaceans in high school and is already participating Elaine Vo Recent graduate Joanna Larson, Class of Adam Clark, Class of 2011, is 2011, has diverse research interests in both in advanced coursework.” The achievements of Anh-Thu Elaine Vo, especially interested in ants: amphibians and mammals that have led to Class of 2008, provide an excellent example the distribution of species A member of the Giribet lab, Kim’s fieldwork around the world, from Florida of the combined power of scientific curiosity across landscapes and how new fieldwork has been funded in part to Bulgaria to Africa. The MCZ supported and initiative, financial support and faculty species establish themselves into by two GUR grants. In 2010, he Larson with two GUR grants. mentorship. Vo’s research, funded in part by existing communities. For the traveled to Lake Corpus Christi, a GUR in Winter 2007, measured mercury last three years, his research has focused on the “Joanna began her relationship with MCZ Texas, to investigate how a species levels in the endangered Black-footed ant communities of the Boston Harbor Islands, as a freshman, when she enrolled in the of prawns that live in saltwater when Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes), a wide-ranging including sampling and insect identification herpetology course that I teach with Jonathan young but spend their adult lives in Scott Edwards aquatic predator in the Pacific region. Guided for the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory run Losos,” explained Professor James Hanken, freshwater seem to migrate between by Professor Scott Edwards, Vo examined by the Farrell lab. His work was supported her advisor. “The course included a spring- these environments where a man- 120 years of feathers (1880–2002) held by by a GUR in Spring 2009 and his paper “Ant break trip to Costa Rica, and by the end of that made dam should block their path. MCZ and a second museum to correlate communities of the Boston Harbor Islands week, she was hooked on comparative zoology, In 2011, Kim traveled to the the amount of mercury accumulated in the National Recreation Area” was recognized with natural history and fieldwork. She went on to Panama Canal area to investigate a Alexander Kim feathers with increased levels of human- a Hoopes Prize in 2011. His paper, “The effects accomplish great things as an undergraduate.” novel cluster of Pacific/Caribbean generated atmospheric pollution, especially of biogeography on ant diversity and activity Larson’s 2010 summer internship with the sister species—closely related prawn since WWII and the more recent doubling of on the Boston Harbor Islands, Massachusetts, Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural species that were separated by land until Rose Lincoln emissions due to Asian industrialization. U.S.A.,” is in press at PLoS ONE. History enabled her to conduct a taxonomic the construction of the Canal. Because Black-footed Albatross in flight and Vo’s work is the first to confirm the rise of Clark investigated an invasive ant species, revision of Petrodromus, African elephant both of these species can tolerate both in the MCZ collections mercury levels in the Pacific Ocean and Paratrechina longicornis, in the Dominican shrews, and she is currently investigating the saline and freshwater segments points to the need for further research on Republic in 2011. Contrary to earlier local the genetics of this genus with additional of the Canal, they have the potential the reproductive effects of increased levels of news reports of the danger and devastation funding from the Smithsonian. During for invasions far beyond their current mercury in endangered species such as the this species would wreak, Clark found that, this internship, Larson also investigated habitats, with possible hemisphere-wide Alexander Kim albatross. Vo’s project garnered a Hoopes even though widespread, the colonies have hybridization between polar bears and ecological repercussions.