Carnegie Museum of Natural History
One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
“It’s not just dino bones we’re seeking. Here’s some fossilized wood found on Cape Lamb.”
Matt Lamanna is a paleontologist and the principal dinosaur researcher at Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. Matt and his team of researchers blog frequently from Antarctica while on expedition at antarticdinos.org.
February 28, 2016
We arrived to Lima on a sunny, hot day and decided to make a trip to the beach to see some wildlife. We left the outskirts of the gigantic city of Lima on a bus that headed South through the arid regions of the Atacama desert. After about an hour we reached the small and beautiful fishermen village of Pucusana.
Dozens of boats were docked along an ample and peaceful bay where a crowd of people, pelicans, gulls, and sea lions where all busy doing what they do. We rented an small boat and went off to enjoy the wonders of the Pacific coast of the Atacama desert, one of the most productive and best preserved coastal areas of the world—millions of sea birds populate the many islands, islets, and cliffs of the coast. The sea birds produce the guano, a rich manure that has been exploited ever since Alexander von Humboldt described its wonders after studying it at the port of Callao. Here is a glimpse, in pictures, of the few hours we spent in this extraordinary ecosystem.
José Padial and his team of researchers have traveled to the remote Vilcabamba mountains of Peru in the pursuit of biodiversity research. He blogs and sends photos as often as possible capturing his expedition along the way and his return home to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, PA.
This signature specimen is a hemimorphite after calcite with greenockite inclusions from near Joplin, Missouri. It was donated to the museum in 1897 and was the first major specimen in the collection. Image © Harold & Erica Van Pelt.
by Patrick McShea
An argument can be made that one of the more interesting features within this diorama are the reddish earthen mounds framing the scene.
These irregular soil towers are termite mounds, the product of coordinated efforts by thousands of tiny social insects to create safe and stable living conditions. Mound-building termites are the master architects of the animal world. If they and their shelters were magically changed to our size and scale, their mounds would stretch upward as high as a 180 story building!
Within the thick walls of a termite mound air circulates through a network of channels to both cool the structure on hot days and warm it on cool days.
From hidden positions below ground and within their distinctive towers, termites exert tremendous influence over the landscape. By physically mixing various soils and their own wastes during the mound’s construction and as part of structure’s maintenance, the colony’s thousands of tiny insects improve the fertility of the savannah.
Herbivores such as the Grant’s gazelles featured in this diorama are attracted to the richer plant growth on the resulting islands of fertility. Cheetahs and other carnivores follow the plant eaters.
Patrick McShea works in the Education and Visitor Experience department of Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.
March 3, 2016
Our last week in Lima was a busy one. We are working from an apartment in the beautiful bohemian neighborhood of Barranco. We have built a lab in the living room where we examine our specimens and refine preliminary identifications performed in the field. Our certainty about what we thought were potential new species grows after checking pertinent literature and pictures of museums specimens. We also work on the paperwork necessary to export part of the samples to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (half or more will stay in Peru).
In addition, we have been attending two important scientific events that are taking place in Lima this week: the 36th Annual Symposium On Sea Turtle Biology And Conservation, and the Day of Wildlife, celebrated today at the Natural History Museum of San Marcos University.
José Padial and his team of researchers have traveled to the remote Vilcabamba mountains of Peru in the pursuit of biodiversity research. He blogs and sends photos as often as possible capturing his expedition along the way and his return home to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, PA.
Q: Will you be digging under deep layers of ice?
A: We will not be digging through ice for our expedition. Our expedition is timed for the end of the Austral summer, when most rock along the northernmost tip of the peninsula is readily available. There will be glaciers where we will be working but they will not be covering all of the islands where we will be working. Unfortunately, the possibility of a snow storm can still limit the amount of exposed rock with fossils.
Matt Lamanna, is a paleontologist and the principal dinosaur researcher at Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. Matt and his team of researchers blog frequently from the field at antarticdinos.org.
