Schedule
of Events
Lectures
Vertebrate
Zoology
Location:
Academic Resources Center
- ARC
NHB, Main Building, Ground Floor, Room 60A
Host:
Andrew
Furness
Speaker:
Roy McDiarmid
Roy
has spent most of his career in museums and universities
working on the systematics, behavior, ecology,
and biogeography of amphibians and reptiles. He
received an MS degree in 1966 and his Ph.D. in
1968, studying "Comparative morphology and
evolution of the neotropical frog genera Atelopus,
Dendrophryniscus, Melanophryniscus,
Brachycephalus and especially Oreophrynella.
Roy was introduced to tropical wet forest habitats
through classes with the Organization for Tropical
Studies (OTS) program in Costa Rica in 1966, and
since that time, he has done most of his field
research in the Neotropics. In the 1980's Roy
joined several expeditions to the Mountain tepuis
of Venezuela, including Neblina.
Topic:
The
Lost World: Cerro de la Neblina
|
Oreophrynella
quelchii
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, 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.
|
While
its 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.
Crammed
into a helicopter with many weeks worth of supplies
the team of biologists leave Caracas for base
camp in the middle of the Venezuelan jungle. In
the distance, half-hidden in the fog and rain
is Cerro de la Neblina, the fabled "mountain
of the mist," a world of virtually unexplored
peaks and canyons laden with scientific mysteries.
The
Tepuis Neblina
and Roirama are remnants of an ancient plateau
that covered much of what is now the northern
end of South America. Over millions of years,
the plateau was worn down by wind and water, leaving
a series of flat-topped mountains or "tepuis."
Each tepui is an austere "island" marooned
in a sea of lowland forest and savanna. As a result,
the tepui inhabitants were isolated from the rest
of the world resulting in many unique remnants
from a time long since passed possessing characters
which offer clues about evolution patterns and
curiosities about features whose significance
have yet to be learned.
An
RTP classic! You can't miss Roy's famous lecture
about the adventures of field research, the search
for (and discovery of?) living dinosaurs, and
the answer to the important question: "Would
you like blueberries with your oatmeal this morning?"
Learn more:
Roy
McDiarmid
Bassett
Maguire
Travels
with Charlie
Mount
Roraima
The
Living Edens
Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle
"The Lost World"
