Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) 2015

NatSCA Digital Digest

Hello and welcome to an SVP conference-themed edition of the NatSCA blog. Before we get started, I’d like to introduce you to two very special lion cubs: These two are from the species Panthera leo spelaea, the now-extinct cave lion. They are at least 10 000 years old and they look like they died yesterday. Here’s a link to Brian Switek’s story of the find.

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) conference this year was an avalanche of information, not only for those who attended but for those of us following the live tweets too! I won’t be able to recount the entire thing and you’re probably best off taking a look at the Storify but I’ll mention a few of the highlights for me.

There were non-avian dinosaurs with blue eggs, as well as research on the basal condition of archosaur parenting based on extant bird and croc behaviour.

Bob Bakker presented a view of Dimetrodon as a “Permian bear”: an opportunistic feeder, pulling burrowing animals out of their tunnels by the face some days – while shark-wrestling and taking chunks out of other Dimetrodon the next. I look forward to further studies of these claims but it’s great to see pre-mesozoic behaviour getting an airing.

Nanotyrannus lancensis has been sunk by Dr. Thomas Carr as a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex. For many this will not be ground-breaking news and there are still questions surrounding its outsized forelimbs that need addressing. Carr compared it to Jane, the Burpee’s spectacular sub-adult specimen and saw clear transitional features from sleek juvenile to hefty adult. Here’s the press release from the SVP.

Paul Sereno gave a frustrating talk on the poor swimming abilities of Spinosaurus aegyptiacus which, given its recently revised body plan, left people wondering what exactly Spinosaurus did well. This could not have come at a worse time for our dear old sailed theropod, as a recent review – published in the PeerJ – of the material associated with Spinosaurus has reattributed much of it to a separate genus of spinosaurid, Sigilmassasaurus. While we wait for Ibrahim et al’s much-anticipated monograh, here’s a recap of the story so far by Mark Witton.

Traces of weening behaviour may hold clues as to the cause of mammoth extinction. By studying nitrogen isotopes in the tips of mammoth tusks, Michael Cherney of the University of Michigan discovered that calves were coming off their mother’s milk younger and younger leading up to their extinction. Shortened weaning can be caused by the stresses of over-hunting in modern elephants and points to over-hunting by our ancestors as the probably cause of their demise. This, combined with John Alroy’s work on the Australian megafauna extinction – also pointing to the spread of humans as primary cause – made this year’s SVP an awkward time to be an human.

Next year’s SVP will be held in Salt Lake City, I can’t wait to hear what this year’s “zomg $8 beer” brigade make of that one (dry town, folks. Dry. town).

Finally, don’t forget to book your Tetzoocon tickets – it is right around the corner!

Sam Barnett, NatSCA Blog Editor

NatSCA Digital Digest

natsca

Conference

We will be holding our 2016 annual conference & AGM on 21st and 22nd April, generously hosted by Derby Museums. The venues will be The Silk Mill and Derby Museum & Art Gallery. So, it goes without saying, Save The Date!

Events

On 29th October there is a talk at the Natural History Museum on one of my favourite things: curatorial research!
‘Curatorial research gets a bad name when it serves personal ends, but can it help unlock collections for wider engagement?
This talk is based on a project to understand the life and work of a Victorian ornithologist, Henry Dresser.‘
Held at the Flett Events Theatre, from 2.30–3.30pm. Click here for details.

Speaking of my favourite things, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition is open at the Natural History Museum. If, like me, you’ve been avoiding social media so you get to see the images for the first time at the exhibition, you can now do so.

Around the Web

Did you know Manchester Museum has an important collection of almost 17,000 earwigs? A type catalogue of this fantastic resource has been published with a description of the collection and its history and is freely downloadable here.

The Love London Awards hosted by Time Out and voted for by the general public has issued its shortlists. In the Bloomsbury, Fitzrovia and Holborn area ten museums and collections are jostling for position, you can click here to vote. Two of the ten are natural history collections, and could be voted for, by you, if you so desired, just saying…

The Symposium of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy is often referred to as the friendly conference. Not just palaeontology, the conference also covers comparative anatomy and thus attracts a natural history audience as well. However the guise under which the conference is going to continue into the future is currently under debate, and those with an interested are being invited to comment.

The Bill Pettit Memorial Award 2015

NatSCA is pleased to invite applications to this year’s Bill Pettit Memorial Award. Up to  £1,500 of grant money will be made available to NatSCA members every year to support projects including the conservation, access, and use of natural science collections.

colour-logo(900pxwide)Charles Arthur William ‘Bill’ Pettit (1937 – 2009) started his career with the National Institute of Oceanography, but moved to the Manchester Museum in 1975 to become Assistant Keeper of Zoology. In his time at Manchester, Bill worked tirelessly for the collections and was instrumental in projects such as FENSCORE, as well as numerous publications. It is in recognition of his commitment to natural science collections that we would like to offer this annual award.

Applications are invited under a wide range of categories. Each project will be considered on its own merits by the NatSCA committee and the committee’s decision, including not awarding any money that year, will be final. Grants up to £1,500 are available. To apply, please put together a 700-word project proposal, which must include:

  • The name and status (e.g. charity, individual, local authority) of the applicant
  • The proposed outcomes of the project and benefits to the museum
  • Detailed costs
  • Accurate timescale (including any work undertaken so far and the project end date)
  • Details of other funding/match funding already secured for the project

Grants will be considered on an annual basis in January or February.

Deadline for 2015 applications: Friday 11th December

Successful applicants will be announced at the NatSCA annual general meeting and are required to produce a report/article on their project for publication.

Applications are open to NatSCA individual or institutional members only.

Please contact David Gelsthorpe (david.gelsthorpe@manchester.ac.uk, 0161 3061601) for further information or to submit a grant application.

NatSCA Digital Digest

Gorilla skull on a black background

Jobs and Placements

Life Collections Conservator (maternity cover) – Oxford University Museum of Natural History. A great opportunity to join the Oxford team. Applications close 21 October 2015.

Collections Administrator and Access Coordinator – Science Museum, London. A 6 month, fixed-term post. Applocations close 27 October 2015.

Two placement positions are available at Leeds Museums: with their Zoology collections, and on a Geoblitz Project. Applications for both close 31 October 2015.

As always, more opportunities are advertised on our Jobs Page.

Events

The Geologists’ Association’s Festival of Geology is on 7 November, at UCL, London. The festival includes talks, walks, stalls, displays, and a photography competition. Entry is free!

On 27 November, there is a free one-day conference at the Natural History Museum (NHM), London, entitled ‘Biotic Response to Environmental Change: Insights from Natural History Collections‘. Booking is via Eventbrite, where you can also see the full schedule of talks.

Save the date! The Geological Curators’ Group’s AGM is coming up on 1 – 2 December at NHM, London. This year the theme is ‘Not just rocks in the cupboard: communicating geoscience through collections‘. Further details have yet to be announced.

Around the Web

Controversy over the collection (and non-collection) of specimens seems to have reigned lately…

The first male moustached kingfisher to be observed was found by a research team from the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), and a single specimen was euthanised and collected. Following a negative reaction in the press, the lead researcher wrote an article defending the decision to collect this scientifically important specimen.

A new species of South African bee fly was described, solely on the basis of photographic evidence, with no physical type specimens preserved for study and comparison.

Derby Museums showcases 200 year old Captain Cook shells

200 years after being collected, a group of sea shells with links to Captain Cook’s voyages have been fully documented and photographed for the first time, and put on display in Derby Museum & Art Gallery, thanks to one of the museum’s Super Nature volunteers, Hannah Maddix. Donated to the museum in 1961, along with original documents dating to 1815, they are key to unlocking the secrets of 18th century shell studies. Fred Woodward, former president of the Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland, said: “The collection could be considered an equivalent to the Rosetta Stone since it contains shells with common names and Latin names not only used by Humphrey in his catalogues but also numbered by Humphrey himself, which until now has not been known.”

Shell. Image: Derby Museums

Image: Derby Museums

The shells have a fascinating history. They were bought by a Mrs Borough in 1815 from George Humphrey, a London dealer in shells and ‘curiosities’ who in turn had bought shells collected on Captain Cook’s second and third voyages of discovery to Australia and New Zealand in the 1770s. It is almost certain that the Australian and New Zealand shells in the collection came from Captain Cook’s voyages. George Humphrey was one of the world’s first conchologists, and wrote numerous catalogues of important shell collections. The shells in Derby Museum have tiny numbers written on them by George Humphrey, and his original lists survived with the collection. This unique combination of actual specimens related to original lists provides a missing link for modern shell specialists, allowing them to translate long forgotten 18th century shell names into their modern equivalents.

Rachel Atherton, Co-production Curator at Derby Museums said:

“This wonderful collection of shells not only links to Captain Cook and the discovery of a continent, but also give us a glimpse into the early scientific study of shells.”

Shell. Image: Derby Museums

Image: Derby Museums

Hannah Maddix, who catalogued the collection, said:

“It was such a delight to research these shells and discover that we have specimens collected from all over the world. For over two hundred years they have remained desirable and beautiful objects, commonplace and yet still precious.”

The Borough family was once a prominent Derby family, originally called Borrow, living at Castlefields House, before moving to Chetwynd House, Shropshire in 1803. Mrs Borough’s shell collection was passed down in the Borough family until they were donated to Derby Museums in 1961, along with six Joseph Wright oil paintings and a portrait of Isaac Borrow, twice Mayor of Derby in 1730 and 1742.

The shells are on display in Derby Museum’s new nature gallery ‘notice nature feel joy’.