Quote of the Week

"I saw a corpse!. It was mushy." - Skye Chang

Fishes Lecture

Students gathered in the Carolyn Rose Seminar Room for their first RTP lecture: "The Greatest Fish Story Ever Told: the discovery of the coelacanth and the science behind this amazing fish" which was presented by collection manager, Susan Jewett.

The Coelacanth Lecture

Despite an avid interest in herps, Miguel Fernandez was fascinated by the coelacanth lecture and decided to add further details and notes to the lecture handouts.

The Coelacanth Lecture

Following the lecture, students Nancy Price (left) and Abby Moore (middle) were given the opportunity to examine a model of a newborn coelacanth with speaker, Susan Jewett (right), pointing to the fine details.

Pic of the Day

Fishes Tour

Join Brittany Meagher and the rest of the RTP group on a tour of the U.S. National Fish Collection.

Fishes Tour

The U.S. National Fish Collection includes some 8 million specimens, including facinating species from around the world. Some of the most interesting specimens are gathered together in the "OH MY" cabinet.

Fishes Tour

stone fish

Fishes Tour

Scientific discovery is often the unanticipated result of unexpected acts, as one ichthyologist discovered. Out of collecting bags, he stuffed a fish related to this one into his swim trunks for safe keeping. Looking innocent enough, this group of fishes was discovered to produce interesting, irritating (VERY irritating) compounds when confined (such as when stuffed in one's swim trunks). The chemical irritant was isolated and is named "grammistin" after this subfamily of fishes, the Grammistinae.

Fishes Tour

Pickled tuna, museum style.

Fishes Tour

In the dark depths of the deep ocean, fish have adapted some interesting methods to survive. To lure prey, the angler fish dangles a fleshy appendage above its' mouth. The black glob attached to her side, however, is her male companion. Once a male angler fish finds a female, he latches on for life and is almost completely absorbed becoming not much more than a small dark lump on her side. Quotes tour host Jeff Williams "males are nothing but a head and gonads." We're pretty sure he was talking about the male angler fish.

Fishes Tour

One method of studying the skeletal structure of specimens, such as fish, is to chemically clear the soft tissue and then stain the bone and cartilage. Called "cleared and stained" these specimens are not only scientifically valuable, but also can be quite beautiful.

Fishes Tour

Enjoying the tour of fishes, ichthyologist Mandy Cass holds one of the cleared and stained fish specimens.

Fishes Tour

Fishes Tour

Susan Jewett (right) explains the clearing and staining method to anthropology students Danielle Royer (left) and Skye Chang (middle).

Fishes Tour

A tour of the fish collection isn't complete without a chance to see the coelacanth. Delighted, as always, to share her enthusiasm for the fish collection, Susan Jewett reaches in the coelacanth tank to point out the unique characters of this living fossil fish and provide each student the opportunity to touch for themselves.

Fishes Tour

The coelacanth tank.

Fishes Tour

The skin of a shark is uniquely textured. You can read about it in books, learn about it in lectures, talk about it all day but as Beth Bollwerk can confirm, the best part of RTP events is the opportunity to examine up close, see, touch, feel and study the objects for yourself.

Fishes Tour

Jocelynn Johnson and Nancy Price

Lunch in the ARC

Lunch in the ARC doesn't always feature such yummy desserts but good company and chances to meet other interns is almost always guaranteed.

Pic of the Day

Library Orientation

RTP and other NMNH interns gathered in the ARC during lunch for a overview of the Smithsonian Library system. These happy smiling faces belong to Beth Bollwerk, Toccarra Thomas, Dalia Palchik and Skye Chang.

Vertebrate Zoology Lecture

Vertebrate Zoology Day began with a classic lecture by Roy McDiarmid (center),: "The Lost World: cerro de la Neblina".

While it's the highest peek out side the Andes, shrouded in mist and isolated from civilization, it wasn't "discovered" until 1955. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle certainly featured Neblina's tepui neighbor, Roirama, in his famous book, "The Lost World."

Intrigued by what they might find on the unexplored, isolated, and ancient mountain, during the mid-1980's Roy lead groups of scientists to the mountain tepui, Neblina to collect museum specimens and survey the biological and geological features of the region.

RTP interns Miguel Fernandez (left) and Raul Diaz (right) weren't the only ones eager to meet Roy (center) and hear his stories of the Neblina expeditions, but as students with a focus on herpetology, Miguel and Raul watched in hope of someday leading similar teams back to the tepui region for further exploration.

Amphibians & Reptiles Tour

What better way to start the tour of the Amphibians and Reptiles fluid-preserved specimen collection than with an introduction to a real life ecological villain - the brown tree snake.

The Brown Tree Snake (Boiga irregularis) is a member of the family Colubridae and is native to costal Australia and the Solomon Islands. It was accidentally introduced on the island of Guam about 1952 and has since caused serious ecological and economic damage.

The snakes probably arrived on Guam from Papua New Guinea sometime during the 1950's as part of passive stowaway in military cargo. In the absence of natural predators and other population controls the snake population exploded. In some areas the population counts more than 12,000 snakes per square mile. Since the snake's accidental introduction into the Guam ecosystem, most of Guam's native vertebrates have either become endangered or disappeared from the Island. The snake virtually wiped out the native forest birds of Guam. Nine species of birds, some found nowhere else, have disappeared and the rest are near extinction. Snakes crawling on electrical lines frequently cause power outages and damage electrical units on the Island. The snake is arboreal and nocturnal, but aggressive and mildly poisonous. It kills its prey by chewing to inject the venom. Attracted to the smell of birth, it can be found in the cribs of babies having crawled in through the plumbing in houses. The Smithsonian houses a large collection of brown tree snake specimens representing a good cross section of the population spanning geography, age, and time, thereby documenting the adaptations underway.

Amphibians & Reptiles Tour

The National Collection of Amphibians and Reptiles is among the largest and most important herpetological collections in the world, consisting of more than one-half million specimens and many thousands of type specimens.

Although working this summer in mammals with Don Wilson, a herpetologist at heart, Miguel Fernandez, was eager to see as many specimens as possible during the one hour tour.

Amphibians & Reptiles Tour

The snake collection includes over 50,000 specimens. Specimens are stored in 70% ETOH.

Amphibians & Reptiles Tour

The herps collection also includes about 13,000 dry specimens such as these turtle bones.

Amphibians & Reptiles Tour

Like fishes, cleared and stained amphibian and reptile specimens provide valuable diagnostic information to scientists studying the skeletal structures of species. Miguel Fernandez holds one of the cleared and stained lizards.

Amphibians & Reptiles Tour

The division includes about 3,600 cleared and stained specimens. Jocelynn Johnson examines one of them.

Amphibians & Reptiles Tour

There are over 140,000 frog lots in the collection.

Amphibians & Reptiles Tour

Steve Gotte with Conraua goliath a frog from Cameroon, West Africa. The largest frog known to science.

Amphibians & Reptiles Tour

Conraua goliath

Amphibians & Reptiles Tour

Surrounded by science, but never far from the magic.

We wonder: "just how many frogs do you have to kiss before you finally find your prince?" exclaims Jen Maloney as she holds a collection jar containing specimens of the new object of our affection, Oreophrynella quelchii - the frog Roy McDiarmid studied in graduate school, that proved why field work is ever so important to graduate investigation.

Things aren't always what they seem.

Using only specimens available in museums, as a graduate student Roy speculated that the strange opposable toes of the frog were for grasping vegetation. However, years later, when he was able to venture to the tepui region of Venezuela and had the chance to observe Oreophrynella in its' habitat, it became clear that the opposable toes were for clinging on slippery rock surfaces.

Oreophrynella is a small frog, and was previously known from a single specimen discovered by the first scientists who came to the south side of Roraima tepui in 1898.

The small Oreophrynella is even more ancient than the dinosaurs, and, curiously, it is more closely related to African species than any in South America. These frogs may have been here for many millions of years, since the time when the Tepuis were joined together as one massif plateau. As a frog, it has certain primitive characteristics: it can neither hop nor swim, but it does have special adaptations that help it to survive on the tepuis including opposable toes.

Amphibians & Reptiles Tour

Basiliscus plumifrons also known as the Jesus Christ Lizard because it's ability to run acorss water. Thi scute creature is also the subject of Raul Diaz's summer research project.

Amphibians & Reptiles Tour

A far leap from bugs, this large frog still caught the attention of Stephanie Johnson.

Amphibians & Reptiles Tour

The division currently has about 550,000 catalog records with the oldest specimen dating to a 1834 collection.

Amphibians & Reptiles Tour

The cleared and stained collection consists mostly of small and/or fragile specimens that would be damaged or disarticulated in the process of making dry skeletal preparations. For the last 15 years most of our C&S specimens have been prepared using a double staining technique that stains the bones red and some types of cartilage blue.

Amphibians & Reptiles Tour

Snake skins.

Amphibians & Reptiles Tour

The "wet" collection is stored in 70% ethanol (EtOH) and is by far the largest component of the NMNH amphibian and reptile collection. Wet specimens were originally stored in ground glass jars and ceramic crocks. Now small specimens are stored in screw-top flint-glass jars with polypropylene lids or canning-style bailtop jars with synthetic gaskets such as the one Danielle Royer is viewing. Large specimens are stored in stainless steel tanks.

Skye's Project

Skye's project: The discovery of a cast iron casket held the remains of an 1862 civil war soldier.

Skye's Project

Skye Chang holds the mandible of a civil war soldier.

Skye's Project

For one week scientists from around the world gathered in the NMNH Conservation Lab to learn about the unknown civil war soldier buired in the cast iron casket. Before rebuiral, RTP interns had the chance to learn about him also.

Skye's Project

Jocelynn Johnson studies the femur bones, particularly intrigued by the white substance formed as a result of interaction with water.

Skye's Project

Chip Clark, scientific photographer, documented every step of the investigation.

Skye's Project

Skye Chang poses next to the cast iron coffin. For the next nine weeks Skye will work to synthesize the information gathered and then present the results as part of her poster presentation.

Skye's Project

In addition to bone, items of clothing were recoved and studied. Danielle Royer gazes at the clothing.

Skye's Project

The boots

Mammals Tour

The National Museum of Natural History houses one of the most important collections of mammals in the world. With roughly 580,000 voucher specimens, it is by far the world's largest, nearly twice the size of the next largest mammal collections. RTP students join Jeremy Jacobs on a tour of the collections housed on the mall. A tour of the mammals collections at the Museum Support Center is planned for next week.

Mammals Tour

The mammals tour began with the monotremes, those egg-laying mammals from Australia, including the duck-billed platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus).

Mammals Tour

On to the marsupials. We tend to think of marsupials as only being found in Australia, but these mouse possums are native to Central and South America.

Mammals Tour

All that remains to science are museum specimens of Thylacinus cynocephalus, commonly called the Tasmanian tiger-wolf, it was neither a wolf or a tiger, but it a marsupial.

The Tasmanian tiger-wolf became extinct on the mainland of Australia long ago because it could not compete for food with an introduced species, the dingo. Tiger-wolves continued to thrive on the dingo-free island of Tasmania until settlers began clearing the tiger-wolf's habitat for sheep farming. Habitat destruction reduced the natural prey available to tiger-wolves.

With its natural prey base reduced, the tiger-wolf began to kill domestic sheep for food and the farmers mounted a campaign to destroy these carnivores who were preying on their livestock. In the mid-1800's, landowners paid a bounty for killing tiger-wolves, and the government introduced an even larger bounty in 1888. The programs were quite successful and the tiger-wolf was poisoned, shot, snared, hunted with dogs, trapped, and otherwise exterminated through the early 1900s.

An unknown disease decimated the remaining population in 1910. By 1933 it was believed that the species had become extinct in the wild. In 1936, the last known Tasmanian tiger-wolf died in captivity. Although the species is believed extinct, reports of tiger-wolves in the wild continue but none have been confirmed or vouchered. So far, Thylacinus cynocephalus remains a wraith.

Mammals Tour

There are some 1,500 different species of bats. In going through the collections, we found something for everyone.

Mammals Tour

Museum specimens are treated with many nasty chemicals to aid in their long-term preservation. In addition, touching and handling specimens can damage them so interaction is limited. However, to truely appreciate some the great natural adaptive traits, you just have to touch, as in the needle-sharp incisors of a vampire bat.

Vampire bats use their sharp incisors to make a small cut in the skin of an animal and then drink the blood that flows freely from the cut, thanks in-part to the special compounts found in the bat's saliva that has anti-coagulating properties.

Mammals Tour

Over half of the bat species use echolocation to capture prey and navigate through the darkness of night. To aid in echolocation, big eared bats are common, especially in the microchiropterans.

Mammals Tour

A tray of hampsters. Same species, color variation.
Smiling faces, Beth Bollwerk and Skye Chang.

Mammals Tour

Dalia Palchik admires the collection.

Mammals Tour

Gorilla skull

Mammals Tour

RTP brains
Jen Maloney, Beth Bollwerk, and Mandy Cass

Mammals Tour

Pickled bats

Mammals Tour

Nancy Price holds a fluid-preserved specimen.

Mammals Tour

Mammal specimens are also sometimes cleared and stained so as to study the skeletal articulation of bone.

Mammals Tour

Jen Maloney examines one of the fluid preserved marine mammal specimens.

Mammals Tour

Housed in the basement are some of the marine mammal collections, including these skulls.

Mammals Tour

Jeremy Jacobs with fluid collection, elephant.

Pic of the Day

Mammals Tour

As part of the Mammals tour, Elisa Maldonado (left) and Danielle Royer (right) particularly enjoyed the opportunity to view some of the special collections housed behind-the-scenes.

Mammals Tour

Nancy Price puts the couches in the ARC to good use.
The end of a long RTP day.

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

NMNH paleobiologist, Dave Bohaska (left) lead a group of 10 RTP students plus program assistant Elisa Maldonado on a tour of his research site at Scientists Cliffs in Calvert County, Maryland.

Dave's research focuses on fossil marine mammals and this site features deposits from the Miocene Epoch, 25 million to 6.5 million years ago. The day was cloudy and on the cool side but the scattered rain didn't dampen spirits - too much. The forecasted heavy winds and thunderstorms with possible hail stay away and we even saw the sun peek out before the end of the day.

Joining the tour, pictured above (left to right) Dave Bohaska, Elisa Maldonado, Stephanie Johnson, Jocelynn Johnson, Nancy Price, Toccarra Thomas, Abby Moore, Skye Chang, Beth Bollwerk, Mandy Cass, Dalia Palchik, and Daielle Royer (plus ever camera shy photographer and Program Director, Mary Sangrey and her husband Stan Yankowski).

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

The Chestnut Cabin served as field trip home-base for the day.

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

The Chestnut Cabin is located on the hill overlooking the cliffs and Chesapeak Bay. The museum in the basement provides a great orientation to the site and educational hsitory of the cliffs.

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

Field trip leader, Dave Bohaska.

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

Before and after walking the beach Dave (center) provides insight into the formation of the cliffs and the variety of fossils they hold. More than 600 species of fossils have been identified from these cliffs including the Maryland State Fossil, Ecphora garderae garderae Wilson.

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

Maryland State Fossil, Ecphora garderae garderae Wilson, an extinct gastropod (snail). This fossil snail was one of the first fossils from the New World to be illustrated and published in the scientific literature, dating to about 1770. It was officially named Maryland's state fossil 1 October 1994.

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

Located on the western side of the Chesapeake Bay, the "Calvert Cliffs" were formed over 15 million years ago when Southern Maryland was covered by a warm, shallow sea. The cliffs dominate the shoreline of the Chesapeake Bay extending for more than 30 miles; from Fairhaven in Anne Arundel County to Drum Point in Calvert County.

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

The most visible fossils at the site are the mollusk shells. Fragments of fossil bone are also abundant and fossil wood is easy to identify in matrix but by far the most popular, students comb the shore line looking for the fossil sharks' teeth.

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

Dave Bohaska (left) helps Jocelynn Johnson (center) learn what to look for while sign language interpreter Abby Anderson (right) signs the details for Jocelynn to understand.

Pic of the Day

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

Mandy Cass (left) and Stephanie Johnson (right) compare fossil finds.

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

She heads to graduate school in the fall at Scripps to study marine biology, but while excited to locate many extant and fossil sea creatures, on this day, like everybody else, program assistant Elisa Maldonado has her hopes up for finding big sharks' teeth. And she comes through with the find of a, although fragmented, specimen of a great white shark, Carcharodon megalodon.

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

Jocelynn Johnson evaluates her fossil finds.

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

Toccarra Thomas

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

After a couple hours of walking the site, students gather back at the Chestnut Cabin for lunch and to compare their finds. Discoveries today include shells, ray teeth, fossil bone, sand dollar fragments, a fossil crocodile tooth, and of course sharks' teeth. Most abundant today were the ray teeth.

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

Above is the jaw of a modern cow-nosed ray, Rhinoptera sp. Note the crushing dentition, due mainly to a diet of mollusks, and the continual replacement of teeth. Below are some of the fossil ray teeth discovered. Most are from the spotted eagle ray, Aetobatus sp.

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

A variety of finds, including a Mako Shark tooth, Isurus hastalis, (lower right).

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

More finds including a complete Spotted Eagle Ray tooth, Aetobatus sp. (far left) and Requien Shark tooth, Carcharhinus sp. (upper center).

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

While interested in the fossils at the site, geologists Jocelynn Johnson was most excited to find examples of serpentine rock, exclaiming "we don't have these in Manitoba!"

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

Botanist Abby Moore carefully studied the paleobiology of the location but couldn't help but breakout her botanical guides to try to identify the pretty yellow flowered buttercup, Ranunculus sp., growing in the lawn and admire the Eastern deciduous trees abundant at the site, but unfamiliar to her Utah home.

Scientists Cliffs Field Trip

The field trip concluded about 1:00 p.m. and most students headed home to rest in anticipation of another busy RTP week ahead.