University of California Museum of Paleontology

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News & Updates

Posted by Jennifer Skene

Last week, two University of California Museum of Paleontology alums, Sterling Nesbitt and Randall Irmis, described a new species of dinosaur in the journal Science. The new species, Tawa hallae, sheds light on early dinosaur evolution — and the importance of the UCMP's collections. Tawa's bones were first found by hikers in Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, in 2004. Around that time, Sterling and Randy were doing fieldwork at the nearby Petrified Forest National Park in northern Arizona, excavating … [Read more...] about New dino described by UCMP alums

Posted by Jennifer Skene

Ardipithecus ramidus has been named Science magazine's Breakthrough of the Year. At 4.4 million years old, Ardi is the oldest hominid skeleton. This fall, a series of 11 papers about Ardi and her paleoenvironment were published in Science. UCMP Faculty Curator and Human Evolution Research Center (HERC) director Tim White was one of the lead scientists on the project, which involved an international team of researchers, including UCMP Faculty Curator Leslea Hlusko. To learn more about Ardi, … [Read more...] about Ardi is Breakthrough of the Year

Posted by Jennifer Skene

Congratulations Judy Scotchmoor, UCMP Assistant Director for Education and Public Programs! Judy was named an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow. Judy receives this prestigious award "for leadership in defending teaching of evolution and quality science education through nationally recognized websites on these issues and through leadership of Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science." The websites, for which Judy is project coordinator, include The … [Read more...] about Judy Scotchmoor named AAAS Fellow

Posted by Jennifer Skene

Evolution doesn't just happen in a textbook — evolution is happening right now, and one example is the pathogen that causes malaria. Malaria kills nearly one million people each year. The disease can be treated, but new drug-resistant strains of the pathogen, Plasmodium falciparum, have recently been discovered in western Cambodia. These strains are resistant to artemisinin, the most effective anti-malarial drug available. Learn more about the evolution of drug resistant malaria pathogens, and … [Read more...] about Evo in the news: Fighting the evolution of malaria in Cambodia

Posted by Erin Meyer

The UCMP Invertebrates Collection includes over 31,000 catalogued specimens! Corals, crabs, bivalves, snails, ammonites… both fossil and recent — if it doesn't have a backbone, it's in this collection. I am a UCMP and Integrative Biology graduate student and have been assisting with curation of the Invertebrate Collection. I catalogue and label specimens, process loan requests, manage the Invertebrates Collection database, curate private collections that are donated to the UCMP, and do numerous … [Read more...] about No backbones allowed

Posted by Jennifer Skene

Evolution is everywhere — including in the news! That's why each month we publish a new Evo in the News feature on our Understanding Evolution website. This month, we focus on oxygen as an evolutionary constraint. When life began 3.5 billion years ago, all organisms were tiny. Today, earth has some pretty big inhabitants, like the blue whale and the giant sequoia. Learn how the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere opened the door for the evolution of these big organisms. Read the latest Evo in the … [Read more...] about Evo in the news: Oxygen as an evolutionary constraint

Posted by Jennifer Skene

During the Cretaceous, dome-headed pachycephalosaurs roamed through what is now the Hell Creek Formation, covering parts of Montana, Wyoming, and North and South Dakota. But UCMP Curator Mark Goodwin and Museum of the Rockies Curator Jack Horner argue that there were fewer pachycephalosaur species than we thought. Mark and Jack suggest that two species, Dracorex hogwartsia and Stygimoloch spinifer, are actually juveniles and teenagers of the species Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis. Learn about … [Read more...] about Paleo Video: A modern day dinosaur extinction

Posted by Jennifer Skene

Sometimes, the study of basic biology can lead to technological advances, and a recent discovery about the vision of mantis shrimp is a perfect example, providing insight that could help us improve the technology inside DVD players. What is the connection? Circularly polarized light! You're probably familiar with linearly polarized light. Fishermen often wear polarized sunglasses to reduce the glare from the water and make it easier to see the fish. Typically a ray of light vibrates randomly in … [Read more...] about Stomatopods and DVDs

Posted by Matt Perry

Daniel Fortier visited the UCMP for two weeks this summer, investigating the taxonomy of South American crocodilians — crocodiles, caymans, and gharials. Daniel is from Brazil, where crocodiles are fairly common. He is a Ph.D. student at the Universidade Federal Do Rio Grande Do Sul in Porto Alegre, and is spending the year at the University of Iowa, in Iowa City. He is using fossils and modern skeletal materials to learn about crocodilian evolutionary history, places of origin, dispersal … [Read more...] about South American crocodilians

Posted by Mariska Batavia

The UCMP has hosted several Flat Stanleys this year, as part of the Year of Science 2009. Flat Stanley is a fictional character from a children’s book, written by Jeff Brown in 1964. In the original story, Stanley is a little boy who is flattened when a bulletin board above his bed falls on top of him. He finds that, in his new flattened state, he is able to have many great adventures by being mailed from place to place in an envelope. Inspired by this story, the Flat Stanley project began as a … [Read more...] about Flat Stanley visits the UCMP

Posted by Jennifer Skene

UCMP Assistant Director Mark Goodwin's research on Triceratops is featured on National Geographic Channel's video of the week. Triceratops are named for the three horns that protrude from the skull — and as Mark and his colleague Jack Horner have discovered, those three horns tell a fascinating story about the growth and development, and potentially the behavior, of these dinosaurs.  The National Geographic video is an excerpt from an hour-long television program, Dinosaurs Decoded. Be sure to … [Read more...] about Dinosaurs decoded

Posted by Jennifer Skene

UCMP and the other Berkeley Natural History Museums are well represented on a new exhibit in the Bancroft Library — Darwin and the Evolution of a Theory. We had a special tour of the exhibit last week thanks to UCMP Faculty Curator – and exhibit co-curator – Kevin Padian. The exhibit is stunning. There are rare books and manuscripts from the Bancroft Library and other campus collections, as well as numerous specimens, including a South American ground sloth fossil from the UCMP, Galapagos … [Read more...] about The Bancroft Library’s Darwin exhibit

Posted by Jennifer Skene

This week's big paleo story centers on Ardipithecus ramidus, a species of hominid that lived in the woodlands of Ethiopia, 4.4 million years ago. UCMP Faculty Curator and Human Evolution Research Center (HERC) director Tim White is co-director of the Middle Awash Project, the team of researchers that excavated and studied the fossils. The team includes UCMP Faculty Curator and HERC Associate Faculty member Leslea Hlusko.  Find out more about the discovery: Science magazine has 11 papers … [Read more...] about Human evolution in the headlines

Posted by Judy Scotchmoor

Well, hairspray is not really the focus of this article, but the process of science IS, and that explains its connection to the UCMP! With all of the efforts on our Understanding Evolution website, it did not take long before it became apparent to us that much of the confusion about evolution is linked to confusions about science itself – how it works, what it is, what it is not, and what is not science. In response, UCMP pulled together an astonishing set of advisors and launched a new website … [Read more...] about Uncovering the hidden hazard of hairspray — what is the connection to the UCMP?

Posted by Jennifer Skene

Watch this video and join UCMP graduate student Kaitlin Maguire on a field trip to the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument! After visiting the park last spring, Kaitlin decided it's the perfect place to do her dissertation research. "When you do a field project for paleontology, especially if you're looking for fossils, you never know what you're going to find — you never know if there's going to be enough data," says Kaitlin. But paleontologists from the UCMP and elsewhere have been … [Read more...] about Paleo Video: Kaitlin Maguire at the John Day Fossil Beds

Posted by Erin Meyer

I am a graduate student with the UCMP and the Department of Integrative Biology at Berkeley, and I study the biogeography, conservation biology, and microevolution of molluscs. From July through August of 2009, I traveled to nine islands in the Eastern Caribbean looking for Cittarium pica, a large, marine gastropod, or snail. This species has many common names, including West Indian Topshell, burgao, burgos, cingua, magpie shell, wilke, and “whelk”, which is why knowing the scientific name is so … [Read more...] about A summer studying snails in the Caribbean

Posted by Jennifer Skene

Jere Lipps retired this year, but the accolades keep coming! Jere has just been awarded the 2010 Raymond C. Moore Medal for Excellence in Paleontology by the SEPM Society for Sedimentary Geology. He receives this medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to paleontology. Congrats Jere! You can read about his career accomplishments in the most recent UCMP Newsletter. The Raymond C. Moore Medal will be presented to Jere at the SEPM Annual Meeting in New Orleans in April. … [Read more...] about Jere Lipps awarded medal for excellence in paleontology

Posted by Jennifer Skene

Climate change is not a new phenomenon - the earth's climate has been changing for millions of years, and no one knows this better than paleontologists. In his recent book, Heatstroke: Nature in an age of Global Warming, UCMP Faculty Curator Tony Barnosky tells why today's climate change is different than the climatic fluctuations of the past, and how that will impact ecosystems in new ways. Tony was recently interviewed in Terrain, Northern California's Environmental Magazine. Read Tony's … [Read more...] about Tony Barnosky talks about his book, Heatstroke, in Terrain magazine

Posted by Jennifer Skene

A few months ago, the UCMP’s Tyrannosaurus rex broke a nail. The right claw mysteriously went missing. We needed to replace it, but obviously the standard-issue drugstore press-on nail just wouldn’t do. We had to re-construct a new right claw by making a copy of the intact left claw. Danny Anduza, a UCMP volunteer, carried out the claw restoration. First, he mixed up a rubbery substance and painted it over the T. rex’s left claw, to make a mold. Once the rubber hardened, he carefully sliced it … [Read more...] about T. rex gets a manicure

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The UCMP is primarily a research museum and our collections are only open to the public during our annual open house on Cal Day. However, we have a limited number of fossil exhibits on display, including a magnificent Tyrannosaurus rex . These can be viewed, free of charge, any time the Valley Life Sciences Building is open. Learn more here.

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