"^^ Ji\!*"^ ^i r ^ THE GREATEST RISK IS NOT TAKING ONE. for years? What does it take to break through a foundation of thinking that's been accepted all A bold stroke. But, it doesn't mean turning things on their heads without understanding the possible consequences, it takes a complete understanding of what lies on the other side. No one is in a better position to help guide clients than AiG. With operations in 130 countries and jurisdictions throughout the world, we have an unmatched knowledge of local conditions and regulations to help manage risks. So, when you're ready to take on a risky venture, contact AIG. We'll help knock down the barriers that may be holding you back. WORLD LEADERS IN INSURANCE AND FINANCIAL SERVICES AIG Insurance and services provided by members of American International Group. Inc.. 70 Pine Street, Department A, New York. New York 10270. With Bristol-Myers Squibb research, , a tiny pair of chromosomes could make a huge difference to this pair of Armstrongs. W" 4^ ^>i, '•^l ^ii^S^BKmKEt ^^W«» mmm^m^^' ";'*•" mmmmam m;s!J5i-i'iw^.^ "''^''. Three-time Tour de France winner ^i''^v% • Lance Armstrong, with his son Luke. gj^^2 ^'^^^^^^^^'^^-i'^^^S!^iSK jgmLiJmL Five years ago, cyclist Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer. It had already spread to his abdomen, lungs and brain. But with aggressive treatments, including three Bristol-Myers Squibb medicines. Lance conquered his cancer. He has gone on to win the Tour de France three times, and even to have a wonderful son— Luke. Today, there are more miracles in store for little Luke and his generation. At the Bristol-Myers Squibb Center for Applied Genomics, researchers strive to unlock the genetic secrets of breast and colon cancer, Alzheimer's, and diabetes. Someday—perhaps someday soon—mutant cancer genes will be identified, repaired, even "switched off." Imagine the hope this brings to a cancer survivor raising his young son. At Bristol-Myers Squibb, we're leading the way in new frontiers against disease. And little Luke—and all of us—could ultimately benefit. ^'Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Hope, Triumph, and the Miracle of Medicine OCTOBER 2001 VOLUME 110 NUMBER 8 FEATURES - r ^tkfL.~ .:^!^ - ^^^ ^^^ -^—..J*. '^^^Sf^^^^1 SHAPE SHIFTERS > ^^ . _ « As a general rule, lizards run ^1 ... .iA^iSaL^ _ _&?;- around on all fours. Yet legless species W |^j.yr-^*3|^^^ —— W •'-a ~ '^^i^-^^am have evolved again and again. BY JOHN J. WIENS ^^^^HRsl^Ki'^^^^H ^y ^M^^^^ ') JflSSiife m. ^I^^^^H'ifMk GLACIERS W '•'^wf^ ^"'M -^r^^^A THAT SPEAK IN TONGUES , ' y ^^ ^ ^^ '\^^si jj^jjfc<f/APBwKi' ^1 jk %^f^^^t The world's best I rj-I^H^ 1 thennometer may be '^^Or^^ ^ the ice on an Alpine ' SEA HUNTERS OF LAMALERA 3^ . Jfe mountainside. 'l', ^ BY WALLACE S. Then' boats are sacred and, they ^' ^ - 7 ^ BROECKER believe, immortal. STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY FRED BRUEMMER COVER A trianglesheLL pearl ENGINEERING mussel. When Columbus THE APPLE sailed to the New World, If Mendel had started pearls were on the top of his patrons' wish list. out ^^dth fruit trees instead of pea plants, genetics STORY BEGINS ON PAGE 12 might have been set back years. PHOTOGRAPH BY a hundred DENIS FINNIN; AMNH BY SUE HUBBELL DEPARTMENTS 6 UP FRONT Time Travelers 8 LETTERS 10 CONTRIBUTORS 12 AT THE MUSEUM Columbus's Pearls NEIL H. LANDMAN, PAULA M. MIKKELSEN, RUDIGER BIELER, AND BENNET BRONSON 16 MUSEUM EVENTS 18 IN THE FIELD A Squirrel's Glide to a Long Life PETER J. MARCHAND 20 UNIVERSE Between the Planets NEIL deGRASSE TYSON 26 NATURALIST AT LARGE Coming Home BARBARA SMUTS ( 38 THIS LAND Colorado's Flat Tops ROBERT H. MOHLENBROCK 42 IN SUM 76 REVIEW Sing the Song of Evolution FRANS B.M. DE WAAL 77 nature.net Follow a Fossil ROBERT ANDERSON 78 BOOKSHELF 80 CELESTIAL EVENTS Seeing Doubles RICHARD PANEK 82 THE SKY IN OCTOBER JOE RAO 86 BIOMECHANICS A Fish Story ADAM SUMMERS 88 THE NATURAL MOMENT Bat Boy PHOTOGRAPH BY THEO ALLOFS 90 ENDPAPER "Suddenly you know the answer." NATHANIEL C. COMFORT Visit our Web site at nm'w.natiiralhistory.com THE^ I ^ND THE DOOHICKEY, -^c M^ I rr flTiTtifjfcflriirn "II— i tw*•.;;^:«i^^'C^l3£af^'^<v\^^>^;*J^^y'I^,7^Khie*l3ra^ MODERN MARVELS AT 9PM/8C MEN AT WORK WEEK OCT. 15 - 19 - The House Hardware Store - Work Clothes - Earthmovers - The Body Shop - - The Big Dig Hand Tools Assembly Lines WHERE THE PAST COMES ALIVE. — NATURAl HISTORY 10/01 UP FRONT The magazine of the Time Travelers American Museum of Natural History Ellen Goldensohn Editor in Chief "Wliat seest thou else in the dark backward and abysm time?" of Rebecca B. Finnell Maire Crowe —William Shakespeare, The Tempest Executive Editor Klanagiitg Editor Thomas Page Designer As a mid-twentieth-century schoolchild, I thought of the First World War as Board of Editors a distant event. I placed all the historical figures of previous centuries in Jenny Lawrence, Vittorio Maestro, Richard Milner, Judy Rice, Kay Zakariasen (Pictures) more or less the same category, the remote past, which included everyone Michel DeMatteis, Avis Lang Associate Managing Editors from Moses to Abraham Lincoln. My perceptions changed as I aged, of Thomas Rosinski Assistant Designer course. At my fiftieth birthday, I reahzed that the entire history of the Flora Rodriguez Picture Coordinator United States had occurred within a span that amounted to Httle more than Carol Barnette Editorial Coordinator four of Hfetimes. nineteenth century was a temporal stone's throw my The Merle Okada Assistant to the Editor from my parents' childhood and, therefore, from my own Hfe. From the Kirsten L. Weir, Heather Van Doren, Kate Hamill, Maria Ribaudo Interns vantage point of my middle age, certainly Abraham Lincoln and maybe even Louis XIV had become my contemporaries. Mark A. Furlong Publisher Working at Natural History has altered my perspective far more radically. Gale Page Consumer Marketing Director Scientists' tales of fossils and shifting tectonic plates have taught me a new Judy Lee-Buller General Manager kind of history. Bacteria were the ancients, dinosaurs a late development, Denise Clappi Director of Manufacturing mastodons born yesterday. Lincoln's birthplace in Kentucky Edgar L. Harrison National Advertising Manager once lay under a shallow tropical Sonia W. Paratore Senior Account Manager sea filled with brachiopods and Donna M. Lemmon Advertising Production Manager trilobites; the Des Moines area Ramon E. Alvarez Circulation Manager emerged quite recently from Michael Shectman Fulfillment Manager Kathleen Frawley Johnson Promotion Director beneath a glacier. Gladys Rivera Assistatn to the Publisher More than other scientists, Monique Berkley Advertising Coordinator natural historians—the geologists, Suzanne Kato Circulation Assistant paleontologists, evolutionary Advertising Sales Representatives biologists, and others who write New Yorl.'—Metrocorp Marketing (212) 972-1157 Oiicogo—Jerry Greco & Assoc. (847) 925-9300 for these pages—are time travelers. DEmiir—John Kennedy & Assoc. (313) 886-4399 West Com/—Aucrbach Media (818) 716-9613 Switzerland's Grindelwald Glacier, 1794 And more than other people, they Toronto—American Publishers Representatives Ltd. (416) 363-1388 are aware that present reality Alhmla and Maim—Rickles and Co. (770) 664-4567 National Direct Response—Smyth .Media Group (646) 638-4985 represents a mere moment, a freeze-frame in a long drama of upheaval and For subscription information, call (800) 234-5252 transformation. This month, in "Glaciers That Speak in Tongues" (page (within U.S.) or (515) 247-7631 (fiom outside U.S.). For advertising information, call (212) 769-5555. 60), geochemist Wallace Broecker addresses the question of humanity's contribution to global warming. Scientists cannot yet identify this contribution with precision, he explains, because to do so requires that they American Museum first establish the dynamics and natural baseline of Earth's recent OF Natural History An institution dedicated to understanding and preserving temperature variations. By "recent," Broecker means the Holocene biological and cultural diversity Epoch—-just the past 11,000 years or so. Lately, he tells us, his colleagues Lewis W. Bernard Chairman, Board of Trustees have been finding a record of these climate patterns in surprisingly simple Ellen V Putter President things—reddish grains of sand, bits of wood washed out from under Natural History (ISSN 0028-0712) is published monthly, except for combined issues in mountain ice. Janus-hke visionaries, these climatologists look backward to July/August and December/January, by the American Museum of Namral History', Cemial Pari; West at 79th Street, New York. NY 10024, E-mail: [email protected]. Subscripbons: help us predict the future. Ellen Goldensohn S30,00 3 year; for Canada and all other countnes: S-10,00 a year. Periodicals postDge paid n New Yorit, N.Y, and at additiona] mailing offices. Copyright (0 2001 D>- American Mu- seum of Naiuial History'. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced wthout ivritten consent of Naiiinil Hiiior): Send subscription orders and undelivcrable copies to the address below. For subscription information, call (800) 234-5252 or, Irom out- side US,, (5!5) 247-7631, Postmaster: Send address changes lo Naiimil History. P. O. Box 5000, Harian. [A 51537-5000. Cinadian GST Registration #128426574. Canadian Publications Agreement #40030827, Printed in the U.S.A. nmff, T ^^ m t-*u-W '."ia IT HAS A 'ri:.Ni)i:.\( ^• Ri(;ii|- TIIK MOST KxcriiNc; MOET 8. CHANaON CHAM PA G >,(«-L(; A EPERNAY FRANCE www.moetcom FONDE EN 743 6LA80RE PAR CHAMPAGNE MOfT X C H A N D O N . EPERNAY. FR*NC5 • 8 NATURAL HISTORY 10/01 LETTERS Osage (Orange) a belief that putting the orange was probably Color Question Can You See? fruits in your kitchen will restricted to the Red River In "The Proof Is in the I was surprised to see the keep roaches away.