The Coalition for the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS) is a grassroots network that connects individuals who are passionate about advancing the public understanding of science. In existence since 2006 and responsible for the highly successful Year of Science 2009, COPUS is now focusing on expanding its community for science by promoting dialogue, building connections, and sharing ideas and resources. The Coalition leadership team (the COPUS Core) is holding a science communication and … [Read more...] about COPUS receives a gift of $35,000 from The Whitman Institute
Latest News
A Walk Through California’s National and State Parks
Wednesday, October 12, 2011, was this year's National Fossil Day and if you missed the festivities, you can still celebrate our Earth's natural history by visiting your local, national, or state parks. To learn more about fossils and the UCMP, check out the East Bay Science Cafe next Wednesday, November 2, when UCMP's Dave Lindberg will talk about "The History of Kelp Forests: Global and Local Surprises." You can also hear from UCMP graduate students, Jenna Judge and Rosemary Romero, at … [Read more...] about A Walk Through California’s National and State Parks
Cycads: Not the “living fossils” that we thought
Palm-like cycads have been around since the last dinosaurs munched on them 65.5 million years ago, but those that we see today are really only a few million years old, according to a new study by an international team of scientists. “Cycads are poster-child living fossils, yet the living species are really young,” reports UCMP Director and Professor of Integrative Biology Charles Marshall, co-author of the study appearing online October 20 (in advance of publication) in Science. “So, while the … [Read more...] about Cycads: Not the “living fossils” that we thought
Observing Earth Science Week and National Fossil Day
UCMP and The Paleontology Portal are proud to observe this year's Earth Science Week (October 9-15) and second annual National Fossil Day (October 12) by (1) launching an interactive map of National Park Service (NPS) areas that preserve fossils; (2) presenting an East Bay Science Café talk; and (3) sharing Bay Area fossils with the public in the upcoming Bay Area Science Festival. 1. Launching a new interactive map The mission of National Fossil Day, hosted by the NPS and the American … [Read more...] about Observing Earth Science Week and National Fossil Day
Berkeley Initiative awarded $2.5 million from Moore Foundation
The Berkeley Initiative in Global Change Biology (BiGCB) was recently awarded a $2.5 million dollar grant by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The grant funds seven major projects and involves the participation of faculty members in eight departments and four of the Berkeley Natural History Museums on Berkeley's campus, including UCMP and IB faculty Cindy Looy, Tony Barnosky, and Charles Marshall. Projects focus on using novel methods to understand the past, present, and future of the … [Read more...] about Berkeley Initiative awarded $2.5 million from Moore Foundation
Who Ever Said Turtles Were Slow?
Turtles have been around for hundreds of millions of years, but it turns out most North American turtles we see today are new to the block. Museum scientist Pat Holroyd and retired paleontologist Howard Hutchison have been exploring UCMP's vast collection of fossil turtles from Wyoming in hopes of tackling the little addressed question of how turtles and other aquatic reptiles respond to changing climates. These fossils have managed to tell the story of several ancient takeovers back in the … [Read more...] about Who Ever Said Turtles Were Slow?
Student Spotlight: Jenna Judge travels to Japan in search of deep sea snails
Congratulation to UCMP's Jenna Judge who was awarded a spot in the NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI) last spring. NSF EAPSI provides funding for a graduate student to spend a summer in an East Asian or Pacific country to conduct scientific research as well as engage in societal and cultural practices. Jenna spent her summer in Japan, studying the evolutionary history and ecology of a group of limpets that live in a variety of habitats in the deep sea! Check out her adventures … [Read more...] about Student Spotlight: Jenna Judge travels to Japan in search of deep sea snails
One fossil locality, eight days, 513 rocks, 757 photographs and thousands of plant fossils
This summer we headed to the Italian Alps to work on fossils from a newly discovered Late Permian plant locality in the incredibly scenic Bletterbach gorge. This research is part of a larger project, which tries to quantify the hits that the terrestrial ecosystem took during the end-Permian world-wide biotic crisis. Back in those days Europe and North America were connected and part of one and the same floral realm, not surprisingly called Euramerica. Euramerica was tropical and semi-arid, and … [Read more...] about One fossil locality, eight days, 513 rocks, 757 photographs and thousands of plant fossils
Student Spotlight: Joey Pakes 2010 Diving Expedition for Remipedes in the Yucatan
Imagine what it would be like: swimming in the dark, deep underwater, in an enclosed space, “armed” with only a flashlight and a tank of air. For UCMP graduate student Joey Pakes, that is a typical day of research in the subterranean caves in Mexico. Check out her video which describes her 2010 expedition to the Yucatan Peninsula as part of her ongoing investigations into underwater cave systems. Meet some of the people and animals that make her research so … [Read more...] about Student Spotlight: Joey Pakes 2010 Diving Expedition for Remipedes in the Yucatan
125,000 years of geologic change in SF Bay, not much change in the microfauna
San Francisco Bay has had a dynamic and complex history over the past million years as sea level rose and fell at least four times with alternating warming periods and glaciations. About 13,000 years ago, the first group of humans arriving in the area would have walked through a valley with a river flowing nearly 48 km out toward the ocean. The current bay formed only about 6,000 years ago. In a recent paper published by Quaternary Research, Amy Lesen, former PhD student in UCMP and currently … [Read more...] about 125,000 years of geologic change in SF Bay, not much change in the microfauna
Congratulations to Mark Terry
Mark Terry, a long time Teacher Advisor to UCMP, is the recipient of the 2011 Evolution Education Award, an annual award sponsored by AIBS and BSCS. Mark is a high school Biology teacher at The Northwest School in Seattle. I first met Mark in 2000 when he sent an email inquiring about a conference that we were hosting — The National Conference on the Teaching of Evolution. The conference served to bring together members from professional societies to examine what their roles might be in … [Read more...] about Congratulations to Mark Terry
Pathogenic fungi: Conifer killers?
At the end-Permian extinction event 250 million years ago, 70% of land organisms and 95% of marine organisms went extinct. Forests of conifer relatives were also wiped out … and their demise may have been helped by pathogenic soil fungi suggest UCMP's Cindy Looy and colleagues Henk Visscher, Utrecht University, Netherlands, and Mark Sephton, Imperial College, London. Most researchers accept that extensive volcanism at the end of the period, resulting in major changes in global climate, … [Read more...] about Pathogenic fungi: Conifer killers?
Marine Mammal 2011 short course revisited
Attendees of UCMP short courses always go away with new understandings of the world around them and its history. Rather than presenting simple reviews of the basics, short course speakers present up-to-date overviews of topics and share both their current knowledge and the excitement of their science with the audience. However, those in attendance at last March’s Marine Mammal short course probably did not realize that they were actually getting a sneak preview of forthcoming research … [Read more...] about Marine Mammal 2011 short course revisited
CAL:BLAST at Bodega Bay, June 28-29, 2011
Despite a fluke June rainstorm, grad students managed to keep spirits high during two days of field work at Bodega Bay. Just as the rain began to fall, each of the graduate students — Jenny Jacobs, Misha Leong, Joey Pakes, and Rosemary Romero — welcomed 37 elementary school teachers and took them in groups of ~10 on a preliminary tour of the Bodega Marine Reserve (BMR). This would serve as an initial orientation to the buildings and the different coastal habitats that would be their focus area … [Read more...] about CAL:BLAST at Bodega Bay, June 28-29, 2011
How mammals got their horns (and other headgear)
UCMP's Katherine Brakora and UCMP alums Edward Davis (now at University of Oregon) and Andrew Lee (now at Midwestern University) reviewed the evolution of mammal headgear in the latest edition of Proceedings of the Royal Society B. They examined phylogeny, development and fossil histology to establish a clearer picture of the evolution of these cranial appendages. This work has biomedical implications as well — understanding fast-growing antler bone may help with treating burns, bone cancer, … [Read more...] about How mammals got their horns (and other headgear)
Student Spotlight: Emily Lindsey and the late Pleistocene megafauna in South America
This post's text is also available in Spanish. Congratulations to graduate student Emily Lindsey, this year's recipient of the George D. Louderback Award! Emily has been hard at work the past few years investigating the timing, dynamics, and key players behind the late Pleistocene extinction of megafauna in South America. Like the famous La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California, Emily's excavation site on the Santa Elena Peninsula in Ecuador is an asphalt seep preserving the remains of a … [Read more...] about Student Spotlight: Emily Lindsey and the late Pleistocene megafauna in South America
Gray whales are survivors
UCMP's David Lindberg and the Smithsonian's Nicholas Pyenson determined how many gray whales could be supported by the ocean through periods of global cooling and warming. Their results, published in the latest edition of PLoS ONE, show that in the past 120,000 years gray whales survived periods when their feeding grounds were greatly-reduced due to glaciation. The authors propose that gray whales were able to survive the lean times by diversifying their feeding habits, a behavior that has been … [Read more...] about Gray whales are survivors
KQED Quest features Kaitlin Maguire and Lupe the mammoth!
Considering a visit to the new mammoth exhibition at the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose? UCMP graduate student Kaitlin Maguire provides a sneak preview of the exhibits in this Science on the SPOT video produced by KQED. Listen in as she discusses the 2005 mammoth discovery in San Jose and what the fossils can tell us. … [Read more...] about KQED Quest features Kaitlin Maguire and Lupe the mammoth!
Molly Wright’s Trip to the Smithsonian Collection
DAY 1 (5/17/2011): I work with Professor Roy Caldwell to study the evolution of the behaviors and morphology of mantis shrimps – pugnacious crustaceans that are distant cousins to lobsters, true shrimps, and crabs. Mantis shrimps use fearsome raptorial appendages to smash or spear their prey. Even more surprisingly, some mantis shrimps live in male-female pairs in sandy burrows, with both sexes caring for the young and sharing food. Social monogamy, when a single male and female live as a pair … [Read more...] about Molly Wright’s Trip to the Smithsonian Collection
Joey Pakes – A Chang-Lien Tien Scholar!
Roy Caldwell was delighted to receive word yesterday morning from the Selection Committee of the Chang-Lin Tien Scholars in Environmental Sciences and Biodiversity that they had approved the nomination for Joey Pakes as a Tien Scholars Graduate Fellowship recipient! The amount of $21,000 will be awarded to Joey for tuition, fees and/or stipend for the 2011/2012 academic year. This is a one-year award with the possibility of a 2nd year of funding based on research progress and … [Read more...] about Joey Pakes – A Chang-Lien Tien Scholar!