RW Moriarty Science Seminars

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "Follow Your Nose: How birds use scent to find mates, assess rivals, and recognize relatives" Speaker: Danielle Whittaker, Oregon State University. This event will take place online Monday, February 13 at Noon. Abstract: Smell has been called the most ancient sense, and songbirds are no exception in their use of […]

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "Using the Past to Predict the Future: What Museum Specimens Can Tell Us About Ecological Responses to Anthropogenic Change" Speaker: Jennifer Sheridan, Carnegie Museum of Natural History. This event will take place Monday, February 27 at Noon both online and at Earth Theater. Abstract: Animal body size dictates a host […]

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "Sailing Through Eternity: Caring for the Dahshur Funerary Boat" Speakers: Gretchen Anderson and Dr. Lisa Haney, Carnegie Museum of Natural History This event will take place Monday, March 13 at Noon online via Zoom. Abstract: Four ancient Egyptian boats were excavated at Dahshur, Egypt in the 1890s. The Carnegie Museum […]

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "Effects of Urbanization on Plant Phenology" Speaker: Daijiang Li, Louisiana State University. This event will take place Monday, March 27 at Noon online via Zoom. Abstract:With 57% of the human population now living in urban areas, urbanization is one of the most important drivers of global environmental change. Urbanization and […]

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "Nonhuman Artists? Multidisciplinary and Multispecies Accounts of the Origin of Art" Speakers: Dr. Deirdre Smith, Carnegie Museum of Natural History This event will take place Monday, April 10 at Noon online via Zoom. Abstract: Do animals other than humans make what some humans call “art”? What might other animals’ behaviors […]

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "Sleuthing on Cryptic Mammals at Powdermill Nature Reserve: Bobcats & Coyotes & Bears, Oh My!" Speakers: Dr. Jan Janecka, Duquesne University This event will take place Monday, April 24 at Noon online via Zoom. Abstract: Pennsylvania experienced removal of forest habitat and alterations associated with open pit mining. Starting in […]

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "10 Things I Hate About 'Nature,' or a Political Ecology of Conservation" Speakers: Dr. Noah Theriault, Carnegie Mellon University This event will take place Monday, May 8 at Noon in person in Earth Theater and online via Zoom. Abstract: "Nature” and “natural” are part of our everyday vocabulary, but we […]

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "Our Changing Ohio River: Climate, Water Quality, and Harmful Algal Blooms" Speaker: Emily Elliott, University of Pittsburgh. The Ohio River basin is not only vast, but its waterways are a vital economic, ecological, and recreational resource for the 15 states within basin boundaries. Yet, a half-century after the Clean Water […]

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "Academia and Indigenous Communities: Opening the Doors to Collaborative Research and Community-Driven Projects" Speaker: Jessie Ryker-Crawford, Institute of American Indian Arts. An honest assessment of research practices and methodologies often leads to new and innovative strategies that address inclusion and accessibility between researchers and host communities. Collaborative research projects, in […]

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "Let’s Talk About Climate Change! Outcomes of Climate in Rural Systems Partnership (CRSP)" Speaker: Nicole Heller and Laurie Giarratani, Carnegie Museum of Natural History. The Climate and Rural Systems Partnership (CRSP) operates at the intersection of three ideas: 1) museum resources are valuable for understanding environmental change, 2) museums are […]

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "Awareness of the Natural World Through the Lens of Amphibian and Reptile Ecology at Powdermill Nature Reserve" Speaker: Dr. Walter E. Meshaka, State Museum of Pennsylvania. Curiosity brings awareness, and, awareness, in turn, makes caring possible. A protected resource, Powdermill Nature Reserve, in the northern Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania, provides […]

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "Impacts of Extreme Warming Events on Early Eocene Mammals and Ecosystems" Speaker: Abigail Carroll, University of Pittsburgh. How might animals and ecosystems respond to today’s warming planet? Looking to Earth’s past may help us answer this question. A series of extreme warming events during the early Eocene (beginning 56 million […]

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "A Time-Machine to Africa: Revisiting the Collections of the Pulitzer Expedition to Angola at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History" Speaker: Luis Ceríaco, Carnegie Museum of Natural History. In 1930, the newspaper mogul Ralph Pulitzer funded an expedition to Angola, southwestern Africa, for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Aimed […]

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "Glow-in-the-Dark Millipedes, Mimicry Rings, and the 1,306-Legged Millipede" Speaker: Paul Marek, Virginia Tech. A myriapod is a many-legged arthropod in the subphylum Myriapoda. They include centipedes, millipedes, and the poorly known symphylans and pauropods. They are an ancient group, and the first evidence of land animals are late Silurian fossil […]

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "‘Chancing on a Spectacle:’ Co‐occurring Animal Migrations and Interspecific Interactions" Speaker: Emily Cohen, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. This event will take place Monday, February 12, 2024 at Noon in person at Earth Theater. Seminar 164 .

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "Minerals as the Bedrock of the Energy Transition" Speaker: Barbara Dutrow, Louisiana State University. Minerals, the fundamental solid material comprising planet Earth, are critical to solving some of society’s most pressing challenges, including global warming and the climate crises. Minerals provide the essential chemical constituents needed for the lower carbon […]

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "River Life in Ancient Egypt: The Nile and its Varied Environments" Speaker: Christine Johnston, Western Washington University. Ancient Egyptian society developed around and was dependent on the Nile River. It was the physical and cultural heart of the pharaonic state, playing important roles in transportation and trade, agriculture and subsistence, […]

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "Nittany Lions, Peruvian Chinchillas, and Mammalian Cognition: 25+ Years of Collaboration Between Penn State and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History" Speaker: Carolyn Mahan, Penn State. Since 1994, I have worked with the Section of Mammals at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) to explore conservation issues and to […]

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: "Leveraging the Digital Extended Specimen Model of Extensible Biodiversity Data for Advancing Collections-Based Research and Education" In recent decades, digital data has been added to the physical objects housed in natural history collections around the world, allowing researchers, educators, and policy makers easy access to centuries of information about Earth’s […]