Carnegie Museum of Natural History

One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

Blogs from our Scientific Researchers

Carnegie Museum of Natural History is home to active research and vast scientific collections. Our scientific researchers regularly contribute to the blog at the museum.

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Carnegie Museum of Natural History presents The Stories We Keep: Conserving Objects from Ancient Egypt

March 9, 2024-March 9, 2025 

Ancient Egyptian Objects Return to View, Museum Invites Visitors to Step Behind the Scenes and Follow the Conservation of More than 80 Ancient Objects

person removing soot from an ancient Egyptian artifact

Carnegie Museum of Natural History presents The Stories We Keep: Conserving Objects from Ancient Egypt. The new exhibition, produced in house, opens the curtain on behind-the-scenes work and puts the art and science of artifact conservation centerstage. It also marks the return to public view of ancient Egyptian objects after the museum closed Walton Hall of Ancient Egypt in 2023 for necessary conservation. Opening March 9th and on view for one year, The Stories We Keep invites visitors to see these objects—cared for by the museum for more than a century—in a new light and to witness the work that will preserve them for future generations. 

pair of gloved hands holding an artifact

Every object in the museum’s care has stories to tell, about its creation and original use, its journey to Pittsburgh, and about the lives of those in ancient Egypt. The Stories We Keep features more than 80 items from ancient Egypt—including the 4,000-year-old Dahshur boat, one of only four in the world. CMNH invites visitors to engage with these objects like never before, have conversations with museum conservators, observe the care and restoration of objects in real time, and attempt the work themselves by reassembling replicas of ancient objects created with the assistance of 3D scanners.

Museum conservators will hold daily demonstrations and answer visitor questions about the objects and conservation tactics. Visitors can also submit questions by using a QR code, and the conservation team will address select entries in a video series accessible on the museum’s website and social media channels.


“We know how interested visitors are in ancient Egypt,” said Sarah Crawford, Director of Exhibitions and Design. “This exhibition allows visitors to satisfy their curiosity and watch as our Conservation team carries out their vital work caring for these ancient Egyptian items. We hope our fans gain new insights into these beloved objects and an appreciation for the hard work, dedication, and talent of our colleagues who safeguard them.”

person using a brush on a piece of wood

The exhibition will prominently feature the Dahshur boat, one of four funerary boats still in existence from Egypt’s 12th Dynasty. In 2023, CMNH recruited Egyptian conservator Dr. Mostafa Sherif, an expert on ancient wood restoration, to treat the boat. He joins senior conservator Gretchen Anderson, who oversees the museum’s conservation operations, and project conservator Annick Vuissoz, who arrived at the museum last month to manage the ongoing conservation of 650 ancient Egyptian objects in CMNH’s care.

“This is an entirely new experience for visitors,” said Dr. Lisa Haney, Assistant Curator and Egyptologist. “It connects us to ancient people in a new way, encouraging us to think differently about our own everyday objects and the stories they tell. We hope to create new connections between the past and the present and highlight the science that helps preserve those connecting threads.”

 
The Stories We Keep is free with museum admission and runs until March 9, 2025. General museum admission costs $25 for adults, $20 for adults 65 and older, $15 for children aged 3-18 or students with valid student IDs, and $12 after 3 p.m. on weekdays. Admission is free for members and children aged 2 and younger. More information is available at CarnegieMNH.org.  

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Carnegie Museum of Natural History Researchers Describe Seven New Species of African Skinks

Trachylepis wilsoni. Photo credit: Luis Ceríaco.

Researchers from Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) and international colleagues describe seven species of skinks from the African nation of Angola that are new to science. In a study recently published in Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, the research team review all the occurring species of the genus Trachylepis in Angola and conclude there are seven new species.  

Two of the new species names, Trachylepis attenboroughi (“Attenborough’s Skink”) and Trachylepis wilsoni (“Wilson’s Wedge-snouted Skink”) honor iconic naturalists David Attenborough and Edward O. Wilson, respectively. The other names honor the late French herpetologist Roger Henri Bour, Angolan herpetologists Suzana A. Bandeira and Hilária Valério, the Angolan chieftain Mwene Vunongue (1800–1886), and the Ovahelelo ethnolinguistic group in gratitude for supporting and welcoming the research team and permitting them to study fauna of their lands.  

“It is an honor to name two new species after Sir Attenborough and E.O. Wilson,” said Mariana Marques, CMNH Collection Manager for the Section of Amphibians and Reptiles. “Both naturalists played a crucial role in my academic and professional paths, and their legacy definitely sparked my passion for African wildlife. We hope that naming two species in recognition of such inspirational naturalists can raise awareness worldwide that there are still new species to be discovered and described while many others are becoming extinct before they are even discovered. We are in a race against time to save our biodiversity, we cannot preserve what we do not know.” 

Trachylepis attenboroughi. Photo credit: Luis Ceríaco.

“It’s equally important to acknowledge the people of Angola,” said CMNH Research Associate and CIBIO/BIOPOLIS Researcher Luis Ceríaco. “We owe so much to them, including scientists who have contributed vital knowledge of the country’s beautiful biodiversity and the people who live on this land and who welcomed us and supported these endeavors. Both Suzana and Hilária started participating in this project as students, and now they are both leaders in their respective fields in Angola. They are training a new generation of Angolan biologists and conservationists. Honoring them with these two new species is a way to celebrate the new generation of African naturalists!”  

The description and naming of new species provides critical insights for biologists, contributes to our understanding of the evolutionary processes that shaped today’s biodiversity, and updates the catalogue of life on Earth. As biodiversity grows ever more vulnerable on a worldwide scale, a clear understanding of the real number of species and their distribution is fundamental to developing effective conservation plans.  

Angola, a country in southwestern Africa, is one of the most biodiverse countries on the continent, with high levels of endemism, or species that occur nowhere else in the world. This diversity is due to the county’s geographic position and wide diversity of biomes—including tropical rainforests, savannahs, and deserts, providing the specific habitats for species to adapt and speciate. Angolan biodiversity serves as a trove of new scientific knowledge, due in part to the armed conflicts that have engulfed the country for more than four decades, impeding research. 

In addition to Marques and Ceríaco, the research team includes Diogo Parrinha, CIBIO/BIOPOLIS PhD Candidate; Arthur Tiutenko, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen/Nuremberg Assistant Professor; Jeffrey Weinel, American Museum of Natural History Postdoctoral Fellow; Brett Butler, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico PhD Candidate; and Aaron Bauer, Villanova University, Professor.  

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Robert T. Downs Wins 2023 Carnegie Mineralogical Award 

two people posing for the camera holding a framed award
Robert T. Downs, 2023 Carnegie Mineralogical Award Winner, and Travis Olds, Assistant Curator of Minerals at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. 

Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) is pleased to announce Robert T. Downs as winner of the 2023 Carnegie Mineralogical Award. The award honors outstanding contributions in mineralogical preservation, conservation, and education. 

Robert T. Downs is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Geosciences at The University of Arizona. Over the course of his career, he has taught thousands of students, published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers, and co-authored three books.  

“In his long career, Bob has influenced countless students and people from all walks of life through his lectures and publications, and as one of his supporters best put it, his influence on the mineralogy community is unique, lasting and profound. Congratulations, Bob,“ said Travis Olds, Assistant Curator of Minerals at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. 

Among his many achievements, Downs developed and continues to curate the RRUFF mineralogical database, one of the most widely used open-access mineral databases in the world, which has fundamentally changed how mineralogical data is kept and shared. The Raman spectra, X-ray diffraction, and chemistry data within RRUFF help mineral researchers identify specimens on Earth and beyond. Downs was a principal investigator on the Mars rover Curiosity, part of the Mars Science Laboratory mission. In 2023, he was second author on a paper in JGR Planets that summarizes a survey of 161 probable or confirmed Martian minerals and suggests that mineral diversity on Mars is an order of magnitude less than on Earth.  

Downs also prioritized making mineral education accessible to the public. He led the development of the popular, new University of Arizona Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum in Tucson. 

“I found that the beauty of minerals was rivaled by the beauty of the math that described their crystal structures and the bonding of their atoms,” said Downs. “I am so thankful for a life in mineralogy that provided me the excitement of discovery and feel honored to receive the award.” 

Olds presented the award to Downs on February 10, 2024, at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. 
 
Carnegie Museum of Natural History established the Carnegie Mineralogical Award, funded by the Hillman Foundation, in 1987. 
 
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2024 Carnegie Mineralogical Award, and the deadline is November 15, 2024. Eligible candidates include educators, private mineral enthusiasts and collectors, curators, museums, mineral clubs and societies, mineral symposiums, universities, and publications. For information, contact Travis Olds, Assistant Curator, Section of Minerals & Earth Sciences, at 412-622-6568 or oldst@carnegiemnh.org.  
 
Past recipients include: 

2022 Willliam B. “Skip” Simmons, Jr. 
2021 Barbara Lee Dutrow, PhD. 
2020 John C. Medici, PhD. 
2019 John F. Rakovan, PhD. 
2018 Dudley P. Blauwet 
2017 W. Lesley Presmyk 
2016 Anthony R. Kampf, PhD. 
2015 George Harlow, PhD. 
2014 Bryon N. Brookmyer 
2013 Gloria A. Staebler 
2012 George W. Robinson, PhD. 
2011 Jeffrey E. Post, PhD. 
2010 The Rochester Mineralogical Symposium 
2009 Peter K.M. Megaw, PhD. 
2008 Frank C. Hawthorne, PhD. 
2007 Jeffrey A. Scovil 
2006 Richard C. Whiteman 
2005 June Culp Zeitner 
2004 Joel A. Bartsch, PhD. 
2003 Eugene S. Meieran, Sc.D. 
2002 Terry C. Wallace, Jr., PhD. 
2001 Wendell E. Wilson, PhD. 
2000 F. John Barlow, Sc.D. (honorary)  
1999 Sterling Hill Mining Museum  
1998 Robert W. Jones 
1997 Bryan K. Lees 
1996 Cornelis (Kase) Klein, PhD. 
1995 Marie E. Huizing 
1994 The Mineralogical Record 
1993 Cornelius S. Hurlbut, Jr., PhD. 
1992 Carl A. Francis, PhD. 
1991 Miguel A. Romero Sanchez, PhD. 
1990 Paul E. Desautels 
1989 Frederick H. Pough, PhD. 
1988 John Sinkankas, DHL. (honorary) 
1987 The Tucson Gem & Mineral Society 

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World Pangolin Day 2024 – The Mysterious Mammalian “Wishbone”

by John Wible

World Pangolin Day 2024 is on February 17, a day to raise awareness of pangolins or scaly anteaters, one of the most unique and endangered mammals on Earth. Their scales are harvested for traditional medicines that see them as cure-alls, but their scales are made of keratin like your fingernails and hair. Their scales are as medicinally effective as biting your nails.

Although I will get to pangolins, I am starting with our feathered avian friends. Birds have a Y-shaped bone in their chest called a furcula (Latin for little fork). It is part of the flight apparatus and is thought to be formed by the fusion of the right and left clavicles (our collarbones). However, some researchers think it might be a different bone called the interclavicle, which in mammals is only found in monotremes, the egg-laying mammals. Some non-avian dinosaurs have a furcula, which is part of the evidence placing them on the bird family tree. The furcula is commonly called the wishbone because of the practice of making a wish on the bone! You grab one arm and someone else grabs the other; both make wishes and then pull; whoever gets the larger piece will have their wish come true.

Chicken furcula. Photo credit: Clyde Robinson/Flickr Creative Commons

In celebration of World Pangolin Day, I want to introduce you to a mammal “wishbone.” If you search through the mammalian literature, you will not encounter a bone identified as a wishbone. Nevertheless, a small, select group of mammals have a pair of bones that looks, to me anyway, like a furcula. Here is an example.

Lower jaw of the northern tamandua, Tamandua mexicana. American Museum of Natural History 23437 made from CT scan data by Hannah Barton, University of Pittsburgh.

The lower jaw, the mandible, is made up of right and left bones called dentaries. They meet on the midline at the chin. In humans, the right and left bones are filled with teeth, fused on the midline, and don’t look like a furcula! The northern tamandua from Central America differs in that there are no teeth, the right and left bones are held together only by soft tissues, and it looks like a furcula! How does the tamandua survive without teeth? Tamanduas are social insect feeders (ants and termites) that swallow their prey whole; tamandua parents don’t have to worry about their kids chewing with their mouths open. Now, although the tamandua lower jaw looks kind of like a wishbone, when pulled apart there won’t be a winner as the split will be down the middle with the two halves the same size.

The vast majority of the 6,500 species of living mammals have teeth; some have dentaries fused like humans and some have them unfused like the tamandua. Of the 6,500 species, there are 31 that are toothless as their normal condition. These 31 fall into two camps: 15 are baleen whales, including the Earth’s largest animal, the blue whale, which are filter feeders; and 16 are social insect feeders like the tamandua. However, all 31 have a mandible that is reminiscent of an avian wishbone. The 16 social insect feeders are from three unrelated lineages that have convergently adapted to eating ants and termites. The three lineages are:

  • Spiny anteaters or echidnas (monotremes) found in Australia and New Guinea (four species).
  • True anteaters (myrmecophagids) found in South and Central America (four species including two kinds of tamandua).
  • Pangolins (pholidotans) found in Africa and Asia (eight species).

The mandibles of the #1 and #2 look like that of the northern tamandua. The left and right sides are not fused and the mandible is skinny in the front and larger in the back where it articulates with the skull. #3, the pangolins, are really different. The left and right sides are fused at the midline and the mandible is larger at the front.

Lower jaw of the Sunda pangolin, Manis javanica, United States National Museum 144418 made from CT scan data by the author.
Skull of the Sunda pangolin, Manis javanica, United States National Museum 144418 made from CT scan data by the author. Red arrow points to the two bony mandibular prongs in the close-up.

The other very odd thing about the pangolin mandible is that it has a pair of bony prongs at the front that look somewhat like teeth (red arrow). Doran and Allbrook (1973: Journal of Mammalogy) dissected the pangolin tongue and reported that the lower lip was attached to these prongs, but they did not illustrate this or explain it further. Pangolins are clearly doing something different with their mandible than the tamanduas and echindas are, but what, I don’t know. Whatever it is, it has been around in pangolins for at least 35 million years! There was a pangolin that lived in the American West during the late Eocene named Patriomanis americana and it has a set of mandibular prongs just like those in the Sunda pangolin shown here. The other difference with the pangolin mandible is that when subjected to a wishbone pull, it might not break down the middle and be more like a furcula.

I have left the baleen whales until the end. Are their mandibles more like the tamandua, the pangolin, or neither?

Mandible of the blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus. Only the left dentary is on display in the Hall of North American Wildlife at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. The author manipulated the photograph to create the world’s largest “wishbone.”

Baleen whales are more like the tamandua with the right and left sides unfused and the mandible larger in the back than the front. If you were able to do the wishbone pull on the blue whale, there would be no winner and someone would likely lose by throwing their back out!

John Wible is Curator of Mammals at Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

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The Hermit Crab and the Moon Snail

by Timothy A. Pearce and Mandi Lyon

When a snail needs a larger shell, it simply grows its shell larger, continuing the spiral. However, when a hermit crab needs a larger shell, it must find a larger shell to move into. Consequently, hermit crabs depend on snails to provide housing. Hermit crabs have soft abdomens, which are vulnerable to predators, so they keep their abdomens protected inside of snail shells.

There are amusing stories of several hermit crabs lining up in order of shell size, in a type of pecking order. When a new shell becomes available, the hermit crab highest on the pecking order holds onto the new shell and keeps a tight grip on its current shell as well. It tries out the new shell, and if it is an improvement, the crab will quickly move from one shell to the other, releasing the old shell. The old  shell then becomes available to the next crab in the pecking order who examines it, and so on down the line.

Apparently, hermit crabs don’t kill snails to get the shells, but instead appear to move into already empty shells. 

This series of photos was taken in the evening of August 12, 2017, at Amherst Shore Provincial Park on the Northumberland Strait in Nova Scotia. The photos show a hermit crab wearing the shell of a Dog Whelk (Nucella lapillus) encountering a Spotted Northern Moonsnail (Lunatia triseriata). The entire interaction took about a minute or so. The hermit crab approaches (Fig. 1) and climbs onto the moon snail (Fig. 2). The snail pulls its body into its shell and blocks the shell opening with its horny operculum, like a door that shuts the opening tightly (Fig. 3). The crab flips the shell over and the reddish colored operculum is visible (Fig. 4). The crab probes into the aperture (Fig. 5). Then the crab walks away (Fig. 6), evidently convinced that the shell is not available.

It’s hard to tell whether the hermit crab feels crowded in its current shell; it looks fine to us, but maybe hermit crabs are always on the lookout for better accommodations. The crab approached from the snail’s backside, so perhaps the crab didn’t notice that the snail is alive. The crab flipped the shell over, probed into the aperture where it bumped into the operculum.

How fortunate to be able to witness such an interaction, and to have a camera to record the episode!

Fig. 1. Hermit crab approaches snail. Photo by M. Lyon.
Fig. 2. Hermit crab climbs onto snail. Photo by M. Lyon.
Fig. 3. Snail withdraws into shell blocking opening with operculum. Photo by M. Lyon.
Fig. 4. Hermit crab flips the shell over (note reddish operculum). Photo by M. Lyon.
Fig. 5. Hermit crab probes into the shell aperture, knocking on the door-like operculum. Photo by M. Lyon.
Fig. 6. Hermit crab walks away. Photo by M. Lyon.

Mandi Lyon is the Program Manager for Schools & Groups and Timothy A. Pearce is Curator of Mollusks at Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

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Groundhog Day 2024: Punxsutawney Phil’s Alpine Cousin

by Suzanne McLaren and John Wible

Beginning in 1887 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the celebration of Groundhog Day has made the groundhog (Marmota monax) a familiar animal to people who live far beyond the range of this species. While this large ground squirrel may get the most publicity, especially on February 2nd every year, there are twelve related species that live elsewhere in North America, Europe, and Asia. In Europe, the Alpine marmot (Marmota marmota), which lives in mountainous areas of the continent’s central and western regions, is particularly well-known. Like the groundhog, it spends most of the year fattening up so that it can survive the winter months by hibernating.  

two alpine marmots
Credit: Sylvouille at French Wikipedia. – Transferred from fr.wikipedia to Commons., CC BY-SA 1.0

While our local groundhog leads a more solitary existence, the Alpine marmot lives in a communal setting that includes a single breeding pair and around 15-20 of their offspring. They live in underground burrows that are passed down for generations within the family group, expanding over time into complex systems of tunnels. The tunnels eventually lead to a large chamber or den, where the entire family hibernates during the winter months. This concentrates body heat among the group and helps younger individuals to survive. Similar to prairie dogs, family members are friendly and playful with each other, grooming and touching noses when they greet. One individual, serving as a guard at the mouth of the burrow, will give off a loud whistle, to warn the rest of the family about the approach of an enemy – either a predator or even a non-family member of its own species.  

Humans have hunted this species for hundreds of years for its meat. They are still hunted by the thousands for sport in Switzerland and Austria, with the large, ever-growing, yellowish-orange upper incisors sometimes displayed on hunters’ belts.

alpine marmot skull
Picture of Alpine marmot skull showing large incisors, Klaus Rassinger und Gerhard Cammerer, Museum Wiesbaden, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It is also reported that rendered Alpine marmot fat is still sought after as a folk remedy for arthritis. It is not taken internally but rubbed on sore joints.  

two glass containers of rendered marmot fat
Picture of rendered marmot fat. Credit: H. Zell, CC BY-SA 3.0

Perhaps the most surprising anecdote about the interaction of humans and the Alpine marmot is the use of the animal for entertainment, though not for weather forecasting like Punxsutawney Phil. Stories of a trained Alpine marmot on a leash, accompanying a “hurdy-gurdy man”, somewhat like the organ grinder and his monkey, date to at least the mid-1700s as evidenced by François Hubert Drouais’ painting Les Enfants d’ Ilustre Naissance. Here, two boys sit together, one playing the hurdy-gurdy, a stringed instrument, and the other holding a dancing marmot on a leash. The traveling entertainer carried his marmot from town to town in a box. If you’ve ever witnessed the belligerent behavior of a local groundhog you might find it hard to believe that any Pennsylvania groundhog, other than Punxsutawney Phil, would allow itself to be led around on a leash or kept in a box!

picture of the painting "The Children of the Duc de Bouillion" by Francois-Hubert Drouais
Credit: François-Hubert Drouais, Public domain PD-US, via Wikimedia Commons

Suzanne McLaren is Collection Manager of Mammals and John Wible is Curator of Mammals at Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

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