March 2014 RESEARCH & FALL 2014 COLLECTIONS Collection News Herpetology In July, Herpetology received approximately 1,200 new specimens to be accessioned into the main research collection. The first group of specimens came from California State University Long Beach. Greg Ichthyology and Neftali, with help from volunteers Heidi Beswick and Stevie Kennedy- Gold, drove to CSU Long Beach to pick up approximately 600 specimens. Several elasmobranchs from scanner. The work is part of Most of these specimens were lizards Ichthyology were recently the Chondrichthyan Tree of from California and the desert scanned by Callie Crawford Life project, funded by the at the Medical University National Science Foundation of South Carolina on their (DEB Award- 1132229) to Gavin T: Neftali with two UCLA student volunteers. Heidi new Somatom Force CT Naylor and John Maisey. Beswick and Stevie Kennedy-Gold checking out the CSULB teaching collection while Greg is off photocopying old field notebooks. FALL 2014 T: Some of the ca. 600 reptile and amphibian specimens from Dr. Robert Fisher of the United States Geological Survey that were deposited with Herpetology. southwest that were collected by Dr. Jim Archie of CSULB. Thanks to the help of our amazing UCLA student volunteers, Stevie, Heidi, Nick, and Danielle, almost 95% of this collection History has been incorporated into the NHM research collection. Later in July, Greg picked up another Len Goodman, celebrity judge on TV’s Seated is Goodman along with John collection of approximately 600 Cahoon, Collections Manager in the History “Dancing with the Stars,” examines Department. reptile and amphibian specimens the tap shoes from the film Top that had been collected by Dr. Robert Hat (1935) for a British television closing of the museum this October Fisher of the United States Geological documentary on the legendary film for a major renovation, which will Survey. These specimens were all star Fred Astaire. The shoes are part include new exhibit designs. As a from southern California and were of the History Department’s extensive result, History collections will be collected as part of surveys over the collection of artifacts and documents returned to NHM for future exhibit past decade to examine the impacts on the early days of the motion and research programs. NHM items of habitat fragmentation of species picture industry in Los Angeles. currently on display range from rare ranges. Seated is Goodman along with John automobiles, colorful gas pumps, Cahoon, Collections Manager in the tools, oil cans, exhibit props, and History Department. movie lights. Pictured (at left) is Kristen Hayashi examining one of numerous tools in the Breer Blacksmith Shop. On September 5 the History Department received a donation of two archival boxes of assorted materials (late 19th and early 20th century) excavated from below the Hammel Building by Roberta S. Greenwood, President of Greenwood & Associates, a Los Angeles-based firm specializing in prehistoric archaeology, historical archaeology, The Petersen Automotive Museum architectural history, historical was built and run by the NHM in its research, and public interpretation. early years. Many artifacts from the The historic 1909 Hammel Building History Department have been on is located at El Pueblo de Los display in the popular ground floor Angeles Historical Monument, the Streetscape galleries since 1994 when birthplace of the city, where Dr. the museum opened. This summer, William Estrada previously served NHM’s History staff Beth Werling, as curator of history and has had a Kristen Hayashi, Ayesha Salatore, and long association with Greenwood & Betty Uyeda have been inventorying Associates. the collection in preparation for the 2 FALL 2014 Dinosaur Institute The Dinosaur Institute is in the process of accessioning material collected during fieldwork in the Augusta Mountains of Nevada during August. The German crew, led by Dr. Martin Sander of the University of Bonn, returned with ichthyosaurs from the Tobin and Favert formations of the Rancho La Brea Middle Triassic. These formations Fossil Lab manager Shelley Cox herbivores and carnivores during the contain the oldest marine reptiles worked on the conservation of the end of the Pleistocene. She also gave in North America, and they will fill a fossil deposit in the Observation Pit an evening public lecture at the Page critical gap in the Mesozoic collection. at the west end of Hancock Park. Museum and an R&C seminar on her DI staff included Jose Soler for the With the help of volunteer Mary work. entire expedition with a weekend visit Simun, they cleaned and repaired by Dr. Luis Chiappe. Two specimens the real bones that are embedded were collected, and the group will in stained concrete to simulate a return next year in what we hope typical Rancho La Brea deposit. The will become an integral part of the Observation Pit was designed by Dinosaur Institute’s international Harry Sims Bent and opened in 1952. collaborative field programs. It was the first museum in Hancock Park and has always been a popular spot with visitors as they walk down circular stairs to view the fossils. From July 7th–11th, Dr. William Anyonge, Department chair of Biology from Xavier College in Ohio, visited the Page Museum to continue his long association with Research Associate Dr. Benjamin the Rancho La Brea collections. His Fuller visited the collections in mid- aim is to reconstruct the locomotor August to continue his collaboration and dietary habits of wolves that with RLB staff on stable isotope coexisted with saber-tooth cats in the analysis. The latest work has late Pleistocene. included many specimens from Research Associate Larisa DeSantis of Project 23, but future work will Vanderbilt University worked in the address dietary preferences and Rancho La Brea collections from July their changes around the end of 16th–25th. During this summer’s visit the Pleistocene. Dr. Fuller also gave Larisa sampled over 80 isolated teeth a lunchtime R&C seminar on this of Canis dirus, Smilodon fatalis, Equus collaborative work. occidentalis, Camelops hesternus and Bison antiquus from several different TL: Shelley Cox (left) and Mary Simun conserving pits. Her work is a combination the fossils in the Observation Pit analysis of tooth microwear and TR: Research Associate Larisa DeSantis of stable isotopes to examine the Vanderbilt University changing dietary ecology of the B: Research Associate Dr. Benjamin Fuller 3 FALL 2014 Field Work Asphalt impregnated specimens of the burrowing bivalve Tresus nuttalli (Conrad, 1837) from MetroRail borehole near Hancock Park Malacology / Invertebrate Paleontology Invertebrate Paleontology (via Malacology) has acquired a suite of Dinosaur Institute: Dinosaur Hunting late Pleistocene marine invertebrate fossils from a MetroRail exploratory borehole at Wilshire Blvd. and The Haaga 2014 Utah Dinosaur 1, a Dinosaur Institute crew of 12 Ogden Ave., Hancock Park. Most Expedition took place from July 14 people returned to excavate the of the asphalt-impregnated fossil to August 11, and included a crew two sauropod sites discovered last specimens are living today and are of more than 20 people. Working in year, one of them of enormous size. indicative of an environment very the Morrison Formation “Gnatalie” Working in the Late Cretaceous similar to that of Santa Monica Bay. quarry, the team collected 22 jackets Kirtland Formation (ca. 68 million The fauna is dominated by shallow, containing the fossils of at least three years ago) can be grueling: the calm water species, in particular the sauropod dinosaurs. This year, the sediments consist of both hard, large burrowing bivalve Tresus nuttalli quarry was expanded another 5 sq. concreted sandstone and a more (Conrad, 1837) [Pacific gaper clam]. meters, plans were put in place to weathered and friable sandstone. coordinate ongoing taphonomic and paleoenvironmental studies with researchers from The Museum of Moab, and prospecting for potential new sites took place further north, near Fruita, Colorado, while highlighting it all on the NHM’s social media sites. The expedition included a number of Natural History Museum staff (R&C, The expedition was led by Ph.D. E&E, and M&C departments), trustees, Student-in-Residence Justin Hall Mineral Sciences returning and new volunteers, and NHM staff members Jose Soler domestic and international students, and Karl Urhausen (preparators), along with representatives from The volunteers Doyle Trankina and In January of 2014, a 29.6 carat blue Bureau of Land Management and the Jessica Uglesich, Research diamond was found at the Cullinan Museum of Moab. Associate Dr. Mike Habib (USC), and mine near Pretoria, South Africa. international visitor Pedro Mocho The rough was purchased by New The 2014 Augustyn Dinosaur (Doctoral Student, UAM, Madrid). York diamond manufacturer Cora Expedition to the badlands of New International LLC. After nearly six Mexico was also very successful. For months of cutting and polishing, three weeks from July 9 to August the rough diamond has become T: Doyle Trankina and Justin Hall excavate the cervical vertebrae of a sauropod the 12 carat “Blue Moon.“ Cora dinosaur in New Mexico. has generously lent the diamond B: Argentine Jonatan Kaluza works on a to NHMLAC for both research and giant block containing a pelvis, vertabrae exhibition. The diamond will be on and the femur of a sauropod dinosaur. display in the Gem and Mineral Hall until January 6, 2015. 4 FALL 2014 Herpetology Greg Pauly traveled to San Clemente collaborator on the research project, Island 22–24 July as part of a Herpetology summer volunteer joint collecting trip with U.S. Navy Amber Suto, and four students biologists. The goal of the trip was from Greg’s UCLA course: Stevie to collect lizards from the island, Kennedy-Gold, Haley Glass, Helen especially the Island Night Lizard, Sung, and Heidi Beswick. The goal Xantusia riversiana. The Island Night of the trip was to map the range Lizard is an “island giant,” meaning limits of this nonnative species, and that this island species is much the group was very successful in larger than closely related species doing so.