THE FIELD MUSEUM 2011 ANNUAL REPORT TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES COLLECTIONS AND RESEARCH Office of Collections and Research, The Field Museum 1400 South Lake Shore Drive Chicago, IL 60605-2496 USA Phone (312) 665-7811 Fax (312) 665-7806 http://www.fieldmuseum.org - This Report Printed on Recycled Paper - 1 CONTENTS 2011 Annual Report ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Collections and Research Committee of the Board of Trustees ................................................................. 8 Encyclopedia of Life Committee and Repatriation Committee of the Board of Trustees ............................ 9 Staff List ...................................................................................................................................................... 10 Publications ................................................................................................................................................. 15 Active Grants .............................................................................................................................................. 39 Conferences, Symposia, Workshops and Invited Lectures ........................................................................ 56 Museum and Public Service ...................................................................................................................... 64 Fieldwork and Research Travel ................................................................................................................ 75 Public Education and Outreach ................................................................................................................ 80 Higher Education ....................................................................................................................................... 93 Training Programs .................................................................................................................................. 103 Collections and Research Interns ............................................................................................................. 108 Resident Graduate Students ..................................................................................................................... 111 Collections and Research Volunteers ...................................................................................................... 112 Honorary Appointments .......................................................................................................................... 114 Collection Statistics .................................................................................................................................. 123 Biodiversity Synthesis Center ................................................................................................................. 128 Fieldiana .................................................................................................................................................. 130 Library ...................................................................................................................................................... 131 The Pritzker Laboratory for Molecular Systematics and Evolution ........................................................... 133 Scanning Electron Microscope ................................................................................................................ 135 Scholarship Committee ............................................................................................................................ 136 In Memoriam ............................................................................................................................................. 137 2 COLLECTIONS AND RESEARCH – 2011 ANNUAL REPORT “Innovation” might not be the first word that springs to mind when people think of research at a natural history museum. With subjects like 60 million-year-old fossils and Bronze Age artifacts, and scientific disciplines traceable back through Darwin to Aristotle, our research might strike some as heavily weighted toward the “history” in natural history. Yet as I look back over a quarter century immersed in the science being conducted at The Field Museum I am struck by a feeling of having witnessed a surge in innovation in our research that is increasing the pace of scientific discovery by leaps and bounds. Much of this innovation has been the result of rapidly changing technologies, but we also see innovation in the application of new methods to approach enduring research questions. Not surprisingly, an area that has seen some of the most dramatic advances is molecular systematics. The Field Museum has had a DNA lab since the 1970s, but the difference between todayʼs techniques and those of even a decade ago are mind-boggling. Twenty years ago, sequencing involved radioactive dyes and x-ray photography to identify the nucleotides, resulting in a “gel” image used to analyze the sequence. It would take a skilled tech several days to generate between 12 and 24 samples and 350 to 400 base pairs per sample. Today, with automated sequencing a researcher in our Pritzker Lab can produce almost 10 times as many samples in about 10 hours. “Next-generation” sequencing technology is leading to a revolution in molecular studies by vastly increasing the amount of DNA information that can be generated—and with vastly reduced turnaround time and costs. Here at the Field, Associate Curator Rick Ree (Botany) and Assistant Curator Corrie Moreau (Zoology/Insects) are both exploiting this massive computational power. Rick is applying next-generation DNA sequencing technology to the study of plants. He just kicked off a $400,000 National Science Foundation project aimed at unraveling the evolutionary history of Pedicularis, one of the largest genera of flowering plants, with 770 species found in mountain ranges across the Northern Hemisphere. Since the mountain ranges where these plants occur are biodiversity hotspots, the documentation of the plantsʼ evolutionary dynamics is critical to conservation planning. Moving from plants to ants, Corrie is using “next gen” sequencing to explore the complex multitude of bacteria and other microbes that live inside ants (“microbiomes”). Corrie and her team have found that, like humans, ants have a diverse gut microbiome, and that these bacteria help the ants exploit low-nutrient food sources such as plant sap and honeydew from sap- feeding insects, and live in virtual “food deserts.” Corrie and her students are also using next- generation sequencing to sequence seven genomes of plant-ants to investigate the evolution of mutualisms in ants. By looking across the genomes of mutualists (ants that live in symbiosis with particular plants and/or other insects), and generalists (those that can live in varied habitats and exploit a variety of resources), Corrie and her team hope to uncover the genes responsible for this complex behavior. DNA barcoding is another rapidly developing trend in molecular systematics. Identification of organisms, especially in groups with subtle physical characteristics, requires highly skilled specialists, and the number of species in mega-diverse groups is so high that no single specialist can know all species in detail. The solution is “DNA barcodes,” short fragments of a gene located in a standard position in the genome that facilitate rapid identification of species. With DNA barcoding, researchers sequence a large number of species to create a DNA barcode library, which can then be used to identify organisms. There is a global push to develop DNA barcodes for a wide variety of biological groups, and Thorsten Lumbsch (Associate Curator and 3 Chair, Botany) is on the forefront of “DNA barcoding” for lichens (composite organisms composed of a fungus and an algae or cyanobacteria). In 2011, with support from the Negaunee Foundation, Thorsten and a colleague from the Complutense University of Madrid developed a lichen barcode that was approved by the International Consortium for Barcode of Life, with results soon to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Just as emerging tools and techniques unlock ever more mysteries at the molecular level, the new technologies are changing the way we analyze specimens at a more macro-level. For example, the use of Computed Tomography (CT) X-ray technology has revolutionized anatomical studies of living and extinct organisms, as well as facilitated unprecedented analysis of cultural objects. A CT scan takes a stack of X-ray “slices” through the thickness of the object under study, yielding very accurate three-dimensional images. This past July, an Anthropology team led by Regenstein Conservator JP Brown and A. Watson Armour III Curator Bob Martin coordinated the scanning of several Egyptian and Peruvian mummies and other large objects. Thanks to Genesis Medical Imaging, a mobile medical CT scanner mounted in a specially adapted truck was brought to the Museum, and used for a pilot study to generate scans of specimens. In all, seven Egyptian mummies, three major Pacific pieces (including a seven foot, 220 lb. temple drum from the Marquesas Islands), and three Peruvian mummies were scanned as well as nine smaller, but nonetheless important, pieces from the Pacific, the Middle East, and Asia. The scans were imaged using two state-of-the-art 3-D rendering computers in