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!
Latest News
“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?
UCMP awarded three-year grant to catalog our archives
We are pleased to announce the receipt of a grant of $236,200 from the Mellon Foundation to catalog our archives The funds are administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) through their "Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives: Building a New Research Environment" program. In recognition that "libraries, archives, and cultural institutions hold millions of items that have never been adequately described," the CLIR awards grants in order to support … [Read more...] about UCMP awarded three-year grant to catalog our archives
UCMP websites win a Science Magazine education award
The news is finally out! Understanding Evolution and Understanding Science have won the Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE) award. The prize honors websites that encourage innovation and excellence in science education. We are proud to have been selected from among hundreds of sites to receive this prestigious award — and we are glad to be able to finally let everyone know about it! We’ve been trying to keep it a secret for almost a year now ... Check out our essay … [Read more...] about UCMP websites win a Science Magazine education award
Upcoming workshop: Insect-induced Plant Galls of California
Insect-induced Plant Galls of California September 18, 2011 Kathy Schick, Joyce Gross, and Diane M. Erwin UC Berkeley Co-sponsored by the Essig Museum of Entomology and the University of California Museum of Paleontology Plant galls provide a fascinating array of color and texture on most of the plants in our California landscape. Galls, growths of plant cells that are not normal plant organs, can be induced by a number of organisms. The most numerous as well as most beautiful and intriguing … [Read more...] about Upcoming workshop: Insect-induced Plant Galls of California
UCMP’s Evo 101 in Tibetan!
Since its launch in 2004, the audience of the Understanding Evolution website has continued to grow, and the site is evolving in response to the needs of that audience. The site now averages more than a million page accesses per month during the academic year, but additionally there is a large international audience that is visiting UE "sister sites." Through partnerships with educational organizations abroad, the UE site is now available in Spanish and Turkish and most recently has been … [Read more...] about UCMP’s Evo 101 in Tibetan!
National Fossil Day at UCMP
Yesterday was the first ever National Fossil Day and UCMP pulled out all the stops! Come check out the new online exhibit, Fossils in our parklands: Examples of UCMP service and stewardship, featuring fossils in UCMP's collection from national and state parks in California, Nevada, Oregon, and Montana. The museum played a pivotal role in the creation of some of the featured parks and we're happy to highlight our shared histories. Additionally, the 2011 UCMP Fossil Treasures Calendar is now … [Read more...] about National Fossil Day at UCMP
UCMP celebrates National Fossil Day!
On October 13, come celebrate the first ever National Fossil Day with UCMP! National Fossil Day is a nation-wide event organized by the National Park Service in partnership with American Geological Institute to promote public awareness and stewardship of fossils, as well as to foster a greater appreciation of their scientific and educational values. It falls during Earth Science Week and we here at Cal have been busily preparing for the festivities! To highlight the museum’s history of … [Read more...] about UCMP celebrates National Fossil Day!
In “Dr. K’s” footsteps: A glimpse of Turkey in the UCMP paleobotany collections
Why would a Swedish paleobotanist go to the UCMP during a cold summer to study a collection of early Miocene plant fossils from Turkey instead of going to Turkey to enjoy a warm summer and great fieldwork? The reason - UCMP is home to a collection of fossil plants made over 40 years ago by Turkey native Dr. Baki Kasapligil (1918-1992). Born in Çankaca, Turkey, Baki was raised in Istanbul – his father was Turkish and his mother from the country of Georgia. As a young man he attended UC Berkeley … [Read more...] about In “Dr. K’s” footsteps: A glimpse of Turkey in the UCMP paleobotany collections