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
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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!
“Dinosaurs Unearthed” at the Lawrence Hall of Science
Looking for a fun summer activity? Interested in learning about dinosaurs? Well you’re in luck! Now through January 1st, the Lawrence Hall of Science is featuring a new exhibit titled “Dinosaurs unearthed.” The exhibit includes life-size replicas of some of the most well known dinosaurs including T. rex, Triceratops, and Stegosaurus. You also get to dig for your own fossils while looking at the bones of dinosaurs discovered by UCMP scientists. The younger folk, ages 2-7, will also have fun … [Read more...] about “Dinosaurs Unearthed” at the Lawrence Hall of Science
Paleontologist and sustainability advocate Bill Berry dies at 79
Paleontologist William B. N. Berry was a world expert on extinct, 400 million-year-old sea creatures, but he will be perhaps best remembered in the Bay Area as a champion of sustainability and for instilling in his students a concern for the local ecology. A former director of UC Berkeley’s Museum of Paleontology and a professor of earth and planetary science who served the campus for 53 years, Berry died May 20 of skin cancer and related complications. He was 79. Berry encouraged his students … [Read more...] about Paleontologist and sustainability advocate Bill Berry dies at 79
“Field Notes”: Devonian liverworts and Permian conifers
On a cold Berkeley morning late in March paleobotanist Cindy Looy and grad student Susan Tremblay hopped on a plane to Washington DC. Their goal was not to enjoy the gorgeous spring weather and peaking cherry blossoms, but instead to search for clues to the early evolution of plants in the collections of the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). Devonian liverworts and Permian conifers were on the menu. Pallaviciniites devonicus, described by Francis Hueber in 1961, is one of the oldest … [Read more...] about “Field Notes”: Devonian liverworts and Permian conifers
UCMP associate Harley Garbani dies at 88
We are sad to report the death of longtime UCMP associate Harley Garbani. Garbani collected T. rex and Triceratops specimens and many others. Read his complete Los Angeles Times obituary to find out more about his wonderful career and association with UCMP. … [Read more...] about UCMP associate Harley Garbani dies at 88
UCMP’s award-winning students
David Hurt, who is co-advised by Jonathan Stillman and David R. Lindberg, has been awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. David started as a Ph.D. student Berkeley in 2010, and is examining potential effects of ocean acidification on the physiology and behavior of porcelain crabs during their development. For more about David, enjoy his audio slide show. Allison Stegner, who is advised by Tony Barnosky, has also been awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate … [Read more...] about UCMP’s award-winning students
Cal Day 2011 is here!
It's that time of year we've all been waiting for: Cal Day! This Saturday marks the one day a year UCMP opens its doors to the public and plays host to a number of events aimed to expose all those who are interested to the fascinating world of fossils. Stop by the Valley Life Sciences Building for festivities that range from digging for bones to learning about climate change. Found a fossil you need identified? Our experts have set up shop to help you out with just that. Don't forget to … [Read more...] about Cal Day 2011 is here!
UCMP’s Spring Break in the Bay Area
It's a spring break tradition here at UCMP to organize a trip exploring the geology and paleontology of a particular region. In the past, students and faculty have traveled to places like Oregon and Baja. But why run off when there's so much to see in our own backyards? In a series of trips to nearby parks, Integrative Biology graduates, undergraduates, faculty, and affiliates literally got their feet wet trekking across the product of the Bay Area's complex geologic history. From UC … [Read more...] about UCMP’s Spring Break in the Bay Area
UCMP authors write about extinction in Nature
The latest edition of the journal Nature includes a paper authored by Tony Barnosky entitled "Has the Earth's sixth mass extinction already arrived?" Co-authors include UCMP's Susumu Tomiya, Brian Swartz, Tiago Quental, Charles Marshall, Jenny McGuire, Emily Lindsey, Kaitlin Maguire, Elizabeth Ferrer and the Integrative Biology department's Nicholas Matzke, Guinevere Wogan and Ben Mersey. They used new paleontological information to make an apples-to-apples comparison between current … [Read more...] about UCMP authors write about extinction in Nature
The Opportunistic T. rex
Looks like the tyrant lizard wasn't so scary after all. UCMP's Mark Goodwin and Jack Horner, curator of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies, have been working in the late Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation of Eastern Montana for decades, an area famous for its impressive fossil assemblages including fish, mammals, and dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex. Based on a census of predator and prey found at several of the time intervals represented in the Hell Creek Formation, Goodwin and Horner … [Read more...] about The Opportunistic T. rex
Happy Valentine’s Day from the Caldwell Lab
Love is in the water, and UCMP's Roy Caldwell has the photos to prove it! The cephalopod resource website TONMO has posted a sequence of Roy's crystal-clear photos depicting a pair of mating Abdopus aculeatus octopuses. Readers can follow this relationship from the first, tentative moments of courtship through to a brood of adorable octopus eggs. Click through to TONMO for the photo essay and accompanying commentary. … [Read more...] about Happy Valentine’s Day from the Caldwell Lab
Happy Birthday, Darwin!
Our old buddy Charles Darwin turns 202 this Saturday and the Berkeley Natural History Museums aren't letting him forget it. In addition to a Darwin-inspired photo contest, the Essig Museum of Entomology, on behalf of the Entomology Student Organization, will be giving several tours of their new museum space on Friday before a birthday party complete with photo judging and, you guessed it, cake! To find out more about how people across the world are celebrating Darwin Day, check out the … [Read more...] about Happy Birthday, Darwin!
Mastodons in the Caldecott?
Yes! And that's not all! Construction of the new fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel on Highway 24 is cutting through fossiliferous rocks in the East Bay Hills deposited some nine to ten million years ago. Rocks of this age have produced fossils of mastodons, several kinds of horses and camels, and carnivores including a hyena-like dog and a saber-tooth cat – so those involved in the drilling process are keeping an eye out for any such finds. To illustrate what has been found in earlier … [Read more...] about Mastodons in the Caldecott?