MCZ newsletter

Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Volume 19, Number 2
Spring, 1989

7 M, newsletter

<q? fj MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY

Reunited at the MCZ after 57 years

More than half a century ago,
Harvard zoologist William E.
Schevill excavated a skeleton of
Kronosaurus queenslandicus that had
been discovered by R. W. H. Thomas
on his ranch in Queensland, Aus-
tralia. The discovery of the 42-foot-
long and 120-million-year-old fossil
fascinated the world.

Three friends (1. to r.) R.W.H. Thomas,
William Schevill, and Kronosaurus
queenslandicus.

With Thomas’ permission, blocks
of stone containing the giant fossil,
each weighing about six tons, were
dug and blasted out, hauled to the
coast, and shipped to the MCZ. Here
the creature was reassembled and is
still the world’s only mounted spec-
imen of Kronosaurus on display.

Last December, Thomas was
inspired by a television program of
the Mt. Isa Museum to see again the

fossil discovered so many years ago
on his land. According to his wife,
Thomas, who is now 93, declared, “I
want to see my animal.”

On January 11 the retired cattle
rancher, with his wife and grandson,
made a special trip to the MCZ, their
first visit to the United States. Not
only was Thomas reunited with his
animal, but also with Schevill, whom
he had presumed killed in World
War II. Shevill had also imagined his
friend Thomas long since dead and
certainly never expected to meet
him again in front of their very old
mutual acquaintance, Kronosaurus
queenslandicus.

New Zealand
Preview

by Gabrielle Whitehouse

New Zealand, comprising the
North Island, the South Island, and
a few smaller islands, has a land
mass approximately twice the size of
New England and a population of
under three million. Separated from
the continent of Gondwanaland
before mammals evolved, it has no
native mammals except two species
of bats. It also has no snakes but it

Continue on page 4

Patterns of a Life in Science: A. W. Crompton

by Hilary Hopkins

This isa story about animportant
discovery. It was found that an early
ability to read and write with ease is
not necessarily related to being
curious, intelligent, and productive.
The story should be instructive to
those few teachers, parents, and
children who still have not made this
discovery.

I called Professor A. W. Cromp-
ton, Fisher Professor of Natural
History and past Director of the
Museum of Comparative Zoology, to
ask if I might interview him. I
explained that I was especially
interested in his early years. ‘Oh,
my schooling was a disaster!’’ he
exclaimed cheerfully, and agreed to
meet with me.

“I had a disastrous school career
because of dyslexia, which made that
part of my life pretty grim—nobody
had ever heard of it in those days,”’
Professor Crompton said as we sat in
his office a few days later, talking of
his childhood in South Africa.
“School was just a nightmare. I
remember writing an essay for a
physics master, and I succeeded in
spelling ‘aluminum’ four different
ways. I was beaten for insubordi-
nation. Of course, when I looked at
each spelling, they all looked the
same. I was never considered a star
pupil,” he added drily.

“Did you have any teachers that
were at all sympathetic or helpful?”
I asked.

‘There were one or two who gave
me hope that things were OK out
there, that I wasn’t an idiot—but
sympathy was certainly lacking. But
I survived it well, though I never
thought school was much fun.”

As we spoke further of his child-
hood, it turned out that the fun lay
elsewhere, in the outdoors. ‘All
around Capetown you have incred-
ible mountains that come all the way
down to the sea, and there were no
roads in these mountains. When

Hilary Hopkins, a Friend of the MCZ
since 1981, is a science enthusiast and
educational consultant specializing in
gifted children. This article is the sixth
of a series she has prepared for the MCZ
Newsletter.

N

I was 11 or 12, a small group of
my friends and I would just take off
into these mountains—our parents
would deposit us and we would just
walk off, and come back in a week or
two. We would catch fish and live off
the fish, and live out there, like a
bunch of abandoned kids, and have
a wonderful time. I suppose there
were inherent dangers—the only
really dangerous animals were
baboons, and we did have mishaps,
but we seemed to survive them.
Those are the fondest memories
I have.”

Other special outdoor memories
include a wonderful Huck Finn
interlude: ‘When I was in the first
grade, my school was about four or
five miles from home, and I had to
walk there. I became a sort of truant.
I'd go along, and I would play with
animals, and I would swim in the
rivers, and I’d get to school late—it
was just a marvelous life. The
teachers eventually found me out,
why I was coming late.’’

The young Crompton, who was so
at home and confident in the out-
doors, yet who had such difficulty in
the world of formal schooling,
planned to become a vet. Almost
overnight, as he describes it, the
great discovery was made.

“All of a sudden, after these years
of non-productive schooling, I got
into science classes at the university
and found out what sort of science
there was. God! Where has this been

all this time! Whether it was in the
physics lab, or the histology lab, all
of a sudden what I’d never really
thought was within the realm of
possibility for me was sitting there
and was really quite easy to
approach. It was an absolute reve-
lation to me that I could do all this
sort of stuff—I’d been the dunce, and
now I wasat the top, and it was a very
exciting time in my life, that first
year, and from then on things went
well for me.”

It turns out this is something of
an understatement. Things went
exceedingly well, as Crompton
completed not one but two Ph.D.’s
before turning 26, and was
appointed Director of the South
African Museum at the age of 28, the
youngest director in the one
hundred fifty year history of that
institution.

The career in science began with
embryology, with a professor named
deVilliers who introduced Cromp-
ton to the evolution of form. “‘I’d
done this work on the development
of penguin skulls, and I thought if I
was going to do anything with this
understanding of embryological
development, it’d be nice to know
something about historical devel-
opment of animals. So I went into the
Ph.D., on South African fossils, with
a famous paleontologist at Cam-
bridge, by the name of Rex Parring-
ton. That sparked my interest in the
possibilities of the Red Beds, these
massive deposits that lie in the cen-
tral part of South Africa. I spent a
good fifteen years working these
beds, and we discovered the first
mammals, we discovered the earliest
dinosaurs, and it was great fun.”

I asked Professor Crompton to tell
a story about finding a new fossil.

“Well, basically what you do when
you go out to find fossils is you go
on your two feet and you start walk-
ing. We did once find a dinosaur that
we were very excited about, because
it had never been seen before. When
we got to the lab and started working
on it, lo and behold, what we were
really looking for was inside it, or in
close association with it, and that was
one of the earliest mammals.”

‘The other very early mammal |

Davis Prizewinner Stephen Gatesy:
Tracing evolution through locomotion

Do birds and crocodiles walk in
ways similar to their extinct ances-
tors the dinosaurs, thus providing
science with clues about the evolu-
tion of locomotion in this group?

That is a question fifth-year grad-
uate student Stephen Gatesy has
been investigating for some time. A
recent paper on one aspect of this
research won Gatesy the D. Dwight
Davis Prize for best student paper in
the Division of Vertebrate Morphol-
ogy of the American Society of
Zoologists. Given only by unani-
mous decision, this distinguished
award honors “significant concep-
tual, observational and experimental
contributions to the field of verte-
brate morphology.”

The paper Gatesy submitted,
“Neuromuscular evolution: activity
patterns, morphology and homol-
ogy,’’ constitutes only part of his
overall thesis research. The goals of
this broader-based research include
a reconstruction of the evolving
archosaur (birds and crocodiles)
locomotor system from a phyloge-
netic perspective. He plans to make
this projected reconstruction based
not just on fossil remains, but onan
examination of how the muscular-
skeletal system functions in living
archosaurs.

As he notes in his thesis abstract,
“Although the changes in the skel-
etal system during archosaur evo-
lution are fairly well documented, an
appreciation of the functional con-
sequences of these modifications
requires an understanding of the
structure-function relationship in
living forms.” In other words, how

Stephen Gatesy with one of the alligators
he walks on a treadmill for his research
on locomotion.

do the bones and muscles of animals
interact during movement?

The phrase ‘’structure-function
relationship’”” is key to Gatesy’s
approach. As he also points out in his
thesis abstract, while the bone,
muscle, and ligament structure of
living archosaurs are relatively well
known, “the functional mechanics of
the hindlimb complex during loco-
motion remains highly conjectural.
This is due to a paucity of basic
knowledge of limb movements and
muscle activity during walking and
RunNINg.<

To investigate how the muscles of
the hindlimb complex works in
archosaurs, Gatesy has been walking
alligators and guinea fowl on a
treadmill and measuring their
movements with cineradiography
(x-ray movies) and electromyogra-
phy (EMG). EMG monitors the elec-
trical pulses of active muscles. And,
by measuring the pulses generated
by specific muscles during specific
activities—walking, running, stand-
ing, etc.—Gatesy is able to get a
much clearer picture of the func-
tional mechanics of locomotion in
these species.

In his study of evolution, Gatesy’s
own interests and plans have
evolved. He began with an interest
in bones, as he says, which led to
muscles, which led to nerves. As a
result, he plans to pursue neuro-
biology when he finishes his thesis.

didn’t find at all. It was found by an
assistant of mine, who came and
said, ‘I’ve found a mammal, it’s in the
rocks up there.’ And I said, ‘Don’t be
silly,’ and we all laughed and said,
‘You haven’t found one,’ and
wouldn’t go and look at it at all. But
eventually she persuaded us to go
and look, and there it was.”

“How would you describe your
work style?” I asked.

“T suppose I haven’t followed a
regular course; it tends to be a kind
of jumping around. I find it difficult
to say, ‘This is what I’m going to do,’
and then stay with that particular
thing exclusively. I find out what I
want to find out, and then move on
to something else. Consequently I
have ended up with a mass of
unpublished data.”

“IT went from embryology to play-
ing around with fossils, and then I
went on to ask: ‘We have all these

fossils, how do they work?’ So I then
embarked on a series of experimental
programs to explore the functioning
of the systems of living animals and
looking at their development. For
instance, if you look at an evolving
jaw, you can ask, how is the jaw
changing, and can you get any kind
of handle on why it’s changing, and
how did it function previously? And
we designed a series of experiments
on living animals to try and test
that.”

As we came to the end of the
interview I asked Professor Cromp-
ton one of my favorite questions. “If
you were not able to do science, by
some horrible circumstance, what
other work would you choose?”

“Oh! I don’t know .. . shoot
myself I suppose! I might farm. My
father had a fruit farm after he
retired, when I was in university,
and I was in charge of the packing

shed for the fruit packing during the
summer, and I have some feeling for
farming. But I can’t ever conceive
that I would retire, not do science.

. The thought that one would actually

go and sit and play golf somewhere—
totally incomprehensible to me!”’

“I’m afraid mine is not a very
encouraging story about how sci-
entists are born! I wasn’t a gifted
child,” he laughed as I turned off the
tape recorder.

As a teacher of gifted children, I
disagree, I thought to myself.
Indeed, quite the contrary. It all
depends upon what arena you give
the child to perform in. Did those
teachers ever see the young boy so
at home in his knowledge of the
mountains? Did they ever ask
whether the poor reader was a good
thinker? Teachers! Are you listening?

Australian gannets nest at Cape Giere Face Bay, North feland

New Zealand Preview continued from page 1

does have several endemic bird spe-
cies, lush rain forests with vine-laden
native trees, many waterfalls, and
dramatic snow-covered mountains.
From Cape Reinga in the far north
to Stewart Island, south of the South
Island, George Whitehouse and I
explored New Zealand in February
with Friends of the MCZ travelers in
mind. While it is difficult not to
include everything we saw, we think
we have come up with an ideal three-
week itinerary for next February. The
trip combines spectacular scenery,
visits to gannet and royal albatross
nesting colonies, glow-worm caves,
glaciers, the two sounds (Milford
and Doubtful) and the four-day
Hollyford Track. There will be
opportunities for fishing enthusiasts
to try their skill on trout and salmon
and for plant fanciers to become
acquainted with the incredibly rich
flora. Mark Skinner, a veteran MCZ
trip leader whose knowledge
encompasses birds, plants, and
fishing, will join me in leading our
February 1990 expedition.
Highlights of our exploratory tour
include ‘Blackwater Rafting” ina
glow-worm cave in Waitomo, staying

witha farm family in Cambridge on
the North Island’s rich Waikato Plain,
landing on Franz Josef glacier in a
helicopter and walking around
among the ice crevasses, and hiking
along the pristine Hollyford River in
the South Island’s spectacular
Fiordland National Park.
“Blackwater rafting” is one of New
Zealand’s hottest new adventure
activities and should really be called
“tubing” since participants use an
inner tube to float on the river both
inside and outside the cave. We wore
wetsuits, brightly-colored leggings
so our guides wouldn't lose us in the
cave, hard-hats, and miners’ lights
for this descent into the dark
unknown. Our group of twelve led
by two guides hiked for about a mile
in the hot sun (in our bizarre regalia
we looked like something out of a
Monty Python film) to the mouth of
the cave where we were prepared for
what lay ahead. ‘Watch out for the
eels” was our guide’s first warning.
To help us become comfortable when
meeting these cave-dwellers, a con-
tainer of ‘eels’” was passed around
which one squeamish young woman
finally got the courage to open. They

Milford Sound flows into the Tasman Sea on the west coast of the South Island.

Photo by George G. Whitehouse

Photo by Gabrielle Whitehouse

turned out to be chocolate-covered
marshmallow fish. ‘‘Watch out for
loose rocks, slippery surfaces, keep
your hands close to your sides since
the tunnels are narrow,’’ we were
advised.

And then it was time to enter the
cave. At first the water was around
our ankles but soon it was up to our
thighs. We negotiated a waterfall
with aplomb after an earlier practice
jump into a stream, and were soon
floating along on our innertubes, our
headlights turned off, mesmerized
by the green glow emanating from
the star-like constellations of glow
worms above us on the cave roof. All
too soon we saw the faint light of the
outside world and were back in the
sunshine, floating along and feeling
thoroughly elated with the whole
experience.

We met with Martha Ash, the
education director at the Waitomo
Cave Museum, who takes those
participants who do not wish to opt
for blackwater rafting on a nature
walk. All MCZ travelers will have
two chances to explore glow-worm
caves by boat, and will also see them
ona night walk during the Hollyford
Track.

The New Zealand “‘tracks”’
(“hikes”’ to us) are legendary. For
many, hiking the Milford Track is a
lifetime ambition. We chose the
somewhat less rigorous and much
more varied Hollyford Track because
we thought that every MCZ traveler
to New Zealand should have the
experience of spending four days
completely in the wilderness and the
physical demands of the Hollyford
are within reach of our typical MCZ
Friends travelers. The walks along
easy trails lined with many species
of New Zealand’s native trees, and
accompanied by the songs of bell-
birds and tuis, were invigorating, the
jet-boat rides had just enough white
water challenge to make them
exhilarating. Our meals were plen-
tiful and wholesome, and our nights
at the track huts were comfortable.
We saw a colony of Southern sea lions
on the boulder-strewn beach, and a
Fiordland crested penguin negoti-
ating the boulders. Members of our
party caught trout and salmon in the
clear Hollyford River. We emerged
reluctantly from our sojourn in the
wilderness determined to return.

———

Travel Program

So far 1989 has been an outstand-
ing travel year for the Friends. The
two Tanzania camping safaris, and
our land and cruise program to
explore the treasures of western
South America have been enthusi-
astically reviewed. Remaining 1989
trips include the sold-out Beyond the
North Cape cruise (Edinburgh to
Spitsbergen)—an additional MCZ
group will be on the return trip—
aboard the Polaris, two safaris to
Botswana and Zimbabwe, and the
Foothills of the Himalayas, another
sell-out.

Plans for 1990 include:

January 12—24: Ecuador and the
Galapagos Islands with optional
6-day extension to Peru. A compre-
hensive cruise of these islands which
formed the basis for Darwin’s
thoughts on evolution. Aboard the
new Isabella II. Led by Steven Austad.

January 13-26: Antarctica:
Another opportunity to explore the
frozen south, with its magnificent
ice-bound vistas, again at the height
of the penguin nesting season. Led
by Randy and Molly Olson aboard
the Illiria.

January 6-22: Tanzania Tenting
February 13— — Safaris: Twoclassic
March 1: tenting safaris in-
cluding visits to Lake Manyara, Ser-
engeti National Park, Olduvai Gorge
and Ngorongoro Crater. Led by Ken
Dial (January) and Farish Jenkins

(February).

February 11- New Zealand:
March 4: North and South
Islands including visits to glow-
worm caves, gannet and royal alba-
tross nesting colonies, Franz Joseph
Glacier, Milford and Doubtful
Sounds, and the Hollyford Track
with jet-boating and scenic flights.
Led by Mark Skinner and Gabrielle
Whitehouse.

February 17— _—‘Costa Rica’s
March 3: National Parks: a
repeat of this year’s excellent itiner-
ary to some of the outstanding nat-
ural areas including Manuel Antonio
National Park, Santa Rosa, and
Monteverde Cloud Forest. Led by
Charles Vogt.

April 11-26: Unspoiled French
Polynesia: A Cruise to the Marque-
sas. Leaving from Tahiti aboard the
World Discoverer, we will visit the
islands made famous by Gauguin
and Melville and considered by
many to be the most physically
beautiful islands in the world. On
this second MCZ voyage to Polyne-
sia, we will once again combine
marine studies, birding, cultural
exploration, and literature. Jointly
sponsored with Harvard Alumni
Association. Led by Prudence Stei-
ner and Robert Woollacott.

June 3- Secret Islands East
June 20: of Bali. A choice
selection of some of the least visited
of Indonesia’s over 13,000 islands. We
will give our attention to the mag-
nificent birds, fishes, and other
marine life; unusual terrestrial life
including spiny anteaters and the
Komodo dragon; and the rich cul-
tural heritage of the islanders who
will welcome us at markets, feasts
and concerts by gamelan orchestras.
Jointly sponsored with California
Academy of Sciences. Led by

Stephen Jay Gould.
July 16- Kenya Camping
August 1: Safaris: Two op-

August 20— portunities to visit
September5: Kenya’s premier
national parks. Exclusive private
camps in Amboselli, Samburu, and
Masai Mara and visits to Aberdare
Country Club, the Ark, and Lake
Naivasha. Led by Cristian Samper
(July) and Steven Austad (August).

July 27- In the Wake of
August 9: Viking Explora-
tion. On this voyage we will examine
the historic stage set by the vikings,
meet their descendents, and marvel
at the natural beauty and diverse
wildlife of coastal Norway, the
Shetlands, Faeroes, Westmann
Islands and Iceland. Aboard the
Polaris. Led by Karel F. Liem.

October 12—30: Natural Wonders
of Brazil and Argentina. A repeat of
our highly successful 1988 trip to Rio,
Iguassu Falls, Buenos Aires, Tierra
del Fuego, Perito Moreno Glacier,
and Peninsula Valdez in Patagonia.
Jointly sponsored with Long Term
Research Institute. Led by Roger
Payne, Michael Ellis, and Alfred
Alcorn.

Upcoming Events
at the MCZ

May 2 Feed the Birds: An
exhibition of bird feeders, the ani-
mals they attract, and their potential
effect on local bird populations.
Members’ Preview: 5:30-7:00 p.m. in
the MCZ. The exhibition continues
through the summer.

May 4 The Desert, The
Delta, and The Falls: Everything you
ever wanted to know about our Bot-
swana and Zimbabwe safaris. A
slide presentation by Babette Alfieri
of Abercrombie & Kent. 5:30 p.m. in
the MCZ.

May 17 An Evening with
Peter Jones: One of the world’s lead-
ing experts on stone tools and a for-
mer colleague of Mary Leakey. Jones
has excavated hominid and mam-
malian remains throughout Africa.
He is currently studying the Hadza
and Wanderobo hunter-gatherer
tribes of Tanzania. 5:30 p.m. in the
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford
St. Admission: $3.00 for general
public, $2.00 for Friends, students
and seniors.

September12 Images from Na-
ture: Brazil and Argentina photo-
graphs by Dr. Sean Palfry. Members’
Preview: 5:30-7:00 p.m. in the MCZ.

September 24 Open House at the
Concord Field Station: Come spend
Sunday afternoon with the animals
and explore behind-the-scenes at the
Concord Field Station in Bedford.
Members only. Fee: $10.00 individ-
ual, $25.00 family. 2:30-5:00 p.m.

October 10 Around the World
Again in 80 Minutes: A whirlwind
preview of the 1990 MCZ Natural
History Travel Program. Pick up
your passport to adventure and tour
around the world in our museum
exhibits. Get your passport stamped
at booths representing each desti-
nation where you can meet trip
leaders, sample regional fare, and
see some of the animals you will
encounter on your journey. 5:30-6:50
p-m. in the MCZ.

Where did turtles come from?

Why and how have turtles
developed a body plan unique unto
themselves and vastly different from
any other vertebrate? That’s the
puzzle Ann C. Burke has been
patiently investigating in her dis-
sertation research. Burke, a graduate
student in herpetology under Pro-
fessor Pere Alberch, became inter-
ested in this important and
heretofore unaddressed question
while working in the fossil reptile
department of the American
Museum of Natural History in New
York. Here her curiosity was piqued
about the neglected enigma of
the inimitable chelonian (turtle)
“bauplan”’.

“The 19th century German term
‘bauplan’,”” Burke explains, “implies
a structural and developmental
invariance. The vertebrates share a
structural bauplan within which
there is rarely any major rearrange-
ment of the fundamental rela-
tionships between the basic
components.”

Burke divides the world of tetra-
pods (four-limbed vertebrates) into
“chelonian” and ‘“‘non-chelonian’”’
because the defining character of the
order Chelonia represents a signifi-
cant exception to the relative uni-
formity of bauplan. Chelonian
vertebrae and ribs, she postulates,
are associated with a specialized
dermis (body covering), and
together these structures form the
carapace (shell).

Burke notes, “’The critical char-
acter in chelonian anatomy is not
simply the presence of an extensive
dermal armor, but the relationship of
the ribs to the dermis, and together
their relationship to the pectoral
girdle. This rearrangement radically
affects such functions as respiration
and locomotion and is different from
any other vertebrate.”

Burke, who worked with MCZ
fossil preparator William Amaral in
1979 while still an undergraduate,
chose to approach the evolution of
the chelonian bauplan from a devel-
opmental perspective. Because of the
dearth of historical information, both
in terms of fossil material and pub-
lished research, ontogeny, or the
development of an_ individual
through gestation, is the most effec-

6

tive way to infer how this odd, highly
derived bauplan evolved.

Although fossil evidence of turtles
is abundant, they emerge in the fossil
record, whole hog, so to speak, with
very little variation from modern
turtles, thus providing neither evi-
dence of prior evolutionary forms nor
indicating what type of intermediary
creature could have been functional.

Turtles have been studied exten-
sively since the nineteenth century
by such eniment biologists as Agas-
siz, Goethe and Cuvier. However,
they were interested primarily in the
composition of the carapace, not how
these creatures arrived at a bauplan
unique among vertebrates.

How does one extrapolate phylo-
geny from ontogeny?

All vertebrate embryos follow
similar developmental paths, many
of which have been extensively
studied and documented in what are
termed “fate maps.” Using these fate
maps for comparison, Burke has
been searching for the point at which
turtles begin to develop differently.
Using a microscope, and immuno-
fluorescent and autoradiographic

S.E.M. (scanning electron microscope)
image showing the first sign of carapace
formation. (Magnified 8 times.)

techniques, Burke examines the cells
of embryos for size, shape and
migratory patterns. She has isolated
the moment in development when
turtles diverge from the traditional
pathway and embark upon their own
journey. This point of divergence,
Burke discovered, is the first
appearance of the carapace margin.
At this time the ribs are just begin-
ning to form. They become ina sense
“captured” by the expanding dermal

serpentina.

carapace and redirected from what
would be a normal “non-chelonian’”’
position.

Her presentation of this discovery
in 1986 won her the D. Dwight Davis
prize from the American Society of
Zoologists.

Based on an analogy of the devel-
opmental mechanism which initiates
the first appearance of the carapace
with stages of early limb develop-
ment, Burke proposes that the
interaction that initiates dermal out-
growth has a causal connection to rib
placement. Burke concludes from her
research that the evolutionary tran-
sition from non-chelonian to che-
lonian must have involved a series of
intermediate forms that established
the new relationship between the rib
and shoulder girdle. In view of these
revelations, Burke predicts that the
turtle ancestor was an animal with
reduced thoracic ribs and a gener-
alized reptilian dermis. The pres-
ence of a relatively simple and
common developmental mechanism
in the ontogeny of the turtles unique
bauplan makes plausible a mor-
phological transition that has other-
wise been difficult to understand.

After receipt of her doctorate in
June, Burke is heading north to con-
tinue her work in developmental
biology at Dalhousie University in
Nova Scotia. As part of her research
there she will take her chelonian
investigation a step further and
compile more sophisticated fate
maps of turtles signature departure
from the vertebrate bauplan.

Beyond BEETLEMANIA!

(Classe)

Hevapoda.

Insecten

(Ty pus)

Arthropoda.

(iliedertiissler,

Mymenopt
Immen

Scott Shaw pointing out the anatomy of a parasitic wasp.

Scott Shaw, Curatorial Associate
in Entomology, will be leaving the
MCZ on July 1, to assume an assis-
tant professorship at the University
of Wyoming in the Department of
Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences.

Best known to many of us through
his creation, BEETLEMANIA!, one
of the most popular exhibitions
ever displayed at the MCZ, Shaw’s
presence in the museum has been
felt through many less celebrated,
although not less important,
contributions.

In 1986 he collaborated with Pro-
fessors Wilson, Carpenter, and
Bowers in writing and implementing
the NSF “Ant Grant,” an award that
allowed the expansion and reorga-
nization of the ant collection, thereby
ensuring retention of its status as
best in the world. He is presently
working on an NSF proposal to
develop a computer data base for the
entomological “type specimen”
holdings of more than 33,000, which
are not recorded in handwritten
books.

Shaw recently received a $1,000
grant from the American Philo-

sophical Society towards his work
on the systematics and evolution of
parasitic wasps. Since many of the
insects these wasps kill and eat are
pests, this type of research has par-
ticularly practical beneficial appli-
cations. One of the groups of
parasitic wasps that Shaw is inter-
ested in are the Rogadini. Targeting
caterpillars as prey, the female
rogadine lands on and stuns the cat-
erpillar with a toxin injected by her
sting-like ovipositor, she then
deposits her eggs in the caterpillar.
As the eggs develop and become
larvae they feed on and gradually
consume their host from the inside
out. When they are ready to meta-
morphose they spin a cocoon within
the remaining skin of the caterpillar
preserving its shape. After meta-
morphosis the adult wasp escapes
from its cocoon by breaking a small
hole through the shell of the cater-
pillar leaving intact the mummified
remains of the host insect. These
“mummies” are very valuable in the
study of hosts of parasitic insects,
whose bodies are usually entirely
consumed.

Staff Notes

Dr. Kurt Schwenk, NIH post
doctoral fellow, has been working
with Professor Crompton on the
functional morphology of feeding in
amphibians, reptiles and mammals,
as well as lecturing in histology. In
September Schwenk will assume an
Assistant Professorship in the
Department of Ecology and Evolu-
tionary Biology at the University of
Connecticut.

Brad Calloway, student of profes-
sor Ken Boss, received his Ph.D. last
November for his thesis on ‘’Brood-
ing in the Bivalvia (Mollusca)’’. He
has just been awarded a Smithsonian
post-doctoral fellowship at the
Smithsonian Marine Station in Link
Port, Fort Pierce, Florida to work
with Dr. Mary E. Rice.

Peg Riley, Research Associate in
Population Genetics has recently
won an Alfred P. Sloan foundation
award for outstanding work in
molecular evolution. After defending
her thesis in May, she will continue
her research at the University of
Massachusetts, Amherst, and the
University of California at Berkeley.

Professor Pere Alberch has just left
the MCZ for Madrid where he will
assume the Directorship of the
National Museum of Madrid.

Greg Meyer, student of Ernest E.
Williams, will receive his Ph.D. in
June for his thesis on Caribbean
island biogeography. He will con-
tinue his research as a post-doctoral
fellow at the Smithsonian next year.

Cheryl Souza is the new bilingual
staff assistant working with Arlene
Nichols in the Education Depart-
ment. She arranges guided tours,
takes registration for the after-school
and Saturday morning programs,
and is liaison to the museum vol-
unteer guides.

Silvard Kool ona recent trip to the Flor-
ida keys collecting interidal muricid
gastropods.

Kool New Curatorial

Associate

This fall the Mollusk department
welcomed Dr. Silvard P. Kool as its
new Curatorial Associate. A native
of Holland, Kool came to the United
States in 1978 te carve out a career in
marine biology.

“In Holland, high school students
choose a field of concentration which
they then must pursue if they go on
to university,” Kool explains.
‘Although I had been studying lan-
guages [he is proficient in Dutch,
French, Spanish, Latin and Greek]
I have had a fascination with shells
and marine biology since I was a
child and spent summer vacations
snorkeling in the Mediterranean. So
I decided to take the opportunity to
deviate from my language path and
pursue what I really wanted to
study.”

Kool found this opportunity at the
University of South Carolina where
he received a B.S. in Marine Sciences
and Marine Biology in 1982. He
continued his studies in the graduate

Photo by Steven Thompson

program at George Washington
University.

While fulfilling his coursework,
he was invited to the Smithsonian by
Dr. Richard S. Houbrick, Curator of
Mollusks, to conduct dissertation
research. Under Houbrick’s direc-
tion, Kool studied the systematics
and evolution of the Muricidae, a
family of marine gastropods. Egg-
laying and carnivorous, members of
this enigmatic group exist in inter-
tidal and subtidal environments
world-wide. Kools’ investigation of
evolutionary relationships and
zoogeographical patterns of groups
within the Muricidae have led him
to such exotic locales as Guam,
Australia, Fiji, the Cook Islands,
Niue, French.Polynesia, Hawaii, and
the Caribbean.

These globe-trotting ventures
were largely financed by one of
Kool’s other passions—music. A
professional pianist, he played to
Washington restaurant audiences on
week-ends and evenings throughout
his graduate career.

Kool became interested in cura-
torial work while at the Smithsonian.
Upon completing his doctoral stud-
ies there, he came to the MCZ as

Curatorial Associate in the Mollusk

Department. Here he manages the
malacological collections, which are
not only among the most extensive
in the world, but so rich in “‘type
specimens’ that they are also of great
historical and scientific value. (A
“type specimen” is the actual spec-
imen on which the description. of a
group of organisms is based.)
Among his new duties, Kool plans
to introduce computerization to the
management of collections—dem-
onstrating his proficiency on another
kind of keyboard.

New Poster Available

The Agassiz Museum Shop has
commissioned a striking MCZ pos-
ter. Designed and produced by
James Higgins, a local artist, the
poster depicts Lestodon armatus, the
giant ground sloth on display in the
Fossil Mammal Hall. The specimen
was purchased by Alexander Agas-
siz from Professor Henry A. Ward
(founder of the still very active
Ward's Scientific) in 1890. At that
time museums in the United States
still possessed very little in the way
of bones of these and other extinct
South American mammals. In fact,
although giant ground sloths coex-
isted with early hominids about two
million years ago, they only came to
the attention of modern humans in ~
1789. '

THE HARVARD MUSEUMS OF NATURAL HISTORY

The poster’s colors are mocha

’ brown on teal blue with an ivory
~ border. It sells for $8.50. All proceeds

generated by the Agassiz Museum
Shop support the exhibits in the
MCZ and the Geological Mineral-
ogical Museums.

Treasures Within Your Reach

April is Museum Goers Month
around Boston. Most of the
museums in the area, of which there
are a great many, band together for
one month each year to promote
public awareness of the diversity and
richness of the cultural resources
available in “our own backyards.”
Each participating museum plans a
special event for Museum Goers
Month. This year the MCZ is offering
“Take a Walk on the Wild Side: Ani-

mal Tracking in the Exhibits.’’ Sim-
ulated animal tracks will be laid
down in the museum leading to the
mounted specimens from which
they originate. The trails will be
trackable from April 17 to 23 and the
activity is free with admission. As
you sneak up on or sloth and pursue
a porcupine, you might be surprised
to find out whose footprints you’ve
been following!

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