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Volume 6, Number 2 Pe :
Winter, 1977 Porizp J. Darlington, Jr.

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HIBERNATION,
ANYONE?

The winter of 1977 is enough to
make the always somewhat in-
triguing idea of hibernation seem
positively seductive! How clever
are those animals who manage to
avoid all the storms safe and oblivi-
ous in their nests and burrows. Just
how they manage it is a question
that has occupied Dr. Charles P.
Lyman, recently promoted to Pro-
fessor of Biology and Curator of
Mammals in the MCZ, for the last
thirty years.

Fortunately for the layman, Dr.
Lyman’s long list of publications
(to which he is currently in the pro-
cess of adding a book in collabora-
tion with cell physiologist John
ati oe Steele Willis) include several popu-
Golden mantled ground squirrel, awake. . . lar articles. Here are the answers
to some basic questions on hiberna-
tion, mostly in Dr. Lyman’s words.

What is hibernation?

“Webster defines hibernation as
passing the winter in a torpid or
lethargic state. If the phrase true
hibernation is used for a lowering of
body temperature, this implies that
any other type of hibernation is
false. Therefore, we have coined the
phrase deep hibernation. I define
deep hibernation as a passive aban-
donment of the warm-blooded
state, with body temperature re-
duced to a few degrees above the
environment, but with the animal
retaining the ability to rewarm
without heat from external re-
sources.”

Who hibernates?
“At least five of the eighteen living
orders of mammals contain species
which hibernate. Small opossum-

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and hibernating. All extremities are tightly curled under the body. Science and Technology, 1977.

like marsupials, both from South
America and Australia, have re-
cently been shown to be hiber-
nators. Among the Insectivora the
European hedgehog is the best
known hibernator, but the tenrecs
of Madagascar also hibernate. In the
Primates there are at least two
lemurs which are reported to hiber-
nate, and most of the bats (Chirop-
tera) of the temperate regions hiber-
nate throughout the winter. It is
among the rodents that the largest
number of hibernators is found.
Dormice, ground squirrels, birch-
mice, chipmunks, and woodchucks
are among the best known hiber-
nators from this group . . . Folklore
to the contrary, bears do not enter
the deeply hibernating state. They
often retire to dens during the
winter and remain curled in a ball
for long periods, but Hock and
other scientists have shown that
their body temperature does not
drop below 91°F., and they are
ready to wake up at once and amble
drowsily away (Hock, 1957).

Why hibernate?

There is a simple answer to this
question: economy. For, as Dr.
Lyman explains, it is a costly
metabolic proposition to maintain a
body temperature of close to 100°F.

“Many years ago Claude Bernard
pointed out that mammals as a class
had developed an extremely precise
control over their internal environ-
ment, and hence were less influ-
enced by the vagaries of the external
environment than were more primi-
tive vertebrates such as reptiles or

Edible dormouse in hibernating position; note exposed hind

feet.

amphibians. To a certain degree,
they carried their own weather
around inside them and hence they
could live in places which would
chill, sizzle, dessicate or waterlog an
animal with less internal environ-
mental control. One of the most im-
portant additions to this physiologi-
cal advance was the development of
“warmbloodedness’’, which has
been attained, of course, only by
mammals and birds. Actually
“warmblooded” is itself a poor
word, for a_ reptile can be
warmblooded if it sits in the sun. A
better word is ‘“‘homeothermic”’,
which indicates that the body tem-
perature remains steady.

A body temperature of near 100°F
is really quite hot, and it has been
said that ‘mammals live internally in
the tropics’. There has been much
speculation concerning the reasons
for this high temperature, for it ac-
tually means that mammals and
birds use an enormous amount of
fuel to keep themselves warm. Most
mammals carry this metabolic
millstone with them throughout
their lives — they must hold their
temperature above 90°F or die in the
attempt.

The hibernators, however, have
developed a dodge which was uni-
versal among their reptilian ances-
tors. Under certain very specific cir-
cumstances they abandon the
warmblooded state and allow their
body temperature to drop to that of

Photos by Alfred Ley

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the environment. From the point of
view of metabolic economy, the
mammal which hibernates saves at
most as much energy as the reptile
or amphibian but here the re-
semblance stops.

Hibernation is a particularly ef-

fective strategy for small mammals
since, having the highest body sur-
face area to body mass ratio, their
metabolic load is the heaviest.

How does the researcher study
hibernation?

With difficulty! As Dr. Lyman

puts it:

“Until recently the physiological
changes which take place during a
bout of hibernation had not been
measured because of the lack of in-
strumentation. Unlike most physio-
logical studies where the experi-
menter can produce the condition
he wishes to study at will, there is no
known way of producing hiberna-
tion. The investigator must design
his apparatus so that the animal is in
natural comfort, and then hope that
the recording machines do not break
down until the necessary informa-
tion has been obtained. Chronically
implanted thermocouples and skin
electrodes for recording heart rate
and electromyograms are now
routine . . . Always the investigator
is faced with the problems of dealing

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This drawing shows an experiment to determine whether the
waking process in the edible dormouse is stimulated by
peripheral temperature. The pair of “boots’’ or “Wel-
lingtons”’ serve to circulate liquid around the hind feet and
can vary their temperature while T, (Body temperature) is
held constant. When T w (Wellington temperature) was low-
ered, heart rate, respiratory rate and oxygen consumption

witha small, wild animal which may
object so strenuously to a piece of
apparatus that it will never hiber-
nate. Some species are tempera-
mentally unfit for laboratory exper-
iments, and have to be abandoned
after many frustrations. Thus it is no
wonder that the information ac-
cumulates but slowly, and that
comparative data for various species
are far from complete.”

How does hibernation work? (in-
cluding as many questions as an-
swers)

The many physiological experi-
ments conducted by researchers
into every aspect of hibernation
have produced many answers to
this puzzling process but many
questions remain.

It is known from simple observa-
tion, for instance, that there are
two kinds of hibernators (those
that store large quantities of food in
their nests like the chipmunk and
those that store food internally like
the woodchuck) and that at a cer-
tain time of year these animals
begin preparing for hibernation. It
is not known, however, what
stimulates them to start preparing.

‘Whatever the preparation may be,
one day or night the animal starts to
hibernate. At that point his oxygen
consumption, respiratory rate and
heart rate start to drop, and only
after this does his body temperature
begin to go down. This is in marked
contrast to the amphibian, reptile or
the non-hibernating mammal when
exposed to overpowering cold. In
such cases the body temperature
falls first and the heart rate and
other vital functions decline as a
consequence. Entering hibernation
may well be an active process, in
which the heat regulating mecha-
nisms are deliberately dampened so
that body temperature declines
passively to that of the environ-
ment.”

It is also known that all hibernat-
ing animals rouse themselves
periodically:

“This process of arousal is the most
dramatic phase of the hibernating
cycle, for it starts with an inert,
moribund animal and ends three or
more hours later with a beast which
is totally awake, very active and ex-
tremely angry. Fortunately, the
whole process may be easily studied
because all one has to do is to stimu-

late a hibernator with a poke or a
pinch, and the animal does the rest.
During arousal the animal warms
itself more than 50°F and the
metabolic effort required to do this is
enormous. When a woodchuck is
puffing away trying to get his tem-
perature back to ‘normal’ he is using
more oxygen than when he is run-
ning full tilt across a field.”

Obviously, arousal is a very ex-
pensive habit, in terms of energy
consumption, but just why the
animal needs to indulge in it (in
some cases as often as once a week)
has not been adequately explained.

Professor Charles P. Lyman, awake.

The exact sequence of body
warming upon arousal has also
been thoroughly documented:

“The process of arousal is beauti-
fully coordinated, for the blood is
shunted from the rear end of the
body so that the front end warms
rapidly while the rear remains cool.
At one point in arousal there can be

NEW EDITOR

Dwight Davis has joined the staff as Editor of the
MCZ’s two scientific publications, Breviora and MCZ
Bulletin. To find him, authors should go to the back of
the Mammal Department on the fifth floor.

Mr. Davis, who majored in Biology at Macalester
College and is completing his M.S. in Journalism
(Science Communication) at Boston University, wel-
comes this opportunity to immerse himself in biologi-
cal writing and to become familiar with publication
procedures. He is working on increasing circulation

at least a 40°F difference in tempera-
ture between the heart and the
lower abdomen. This is a very effi-
cient way of doing things, for the
most important organs heart,
lungs and brain — are first to reach
their peak efficiency, and heat loss
during warming is kept at a
minimum by only warming one area
at a time. Once the anterior has
reached about 95°F vasodilation oc-
curs, and the warm blood rushes to
the posterior.”

What is the outlook for human
hibernation?

Quite apart from the prospect of
fulfilling some of our escapist
midwinter fantasies, hibernation
for humans is an integral part of
any serious space travel considera-
tion:

“Fortunately or unfortunately, most
space travel tourist-spots are a long
way off, and there is not much merit
in starting off as a high school stu-
dent and landing as an octogena-
rian, having spent one’s life in a
capsule. We think that the process
of aging is greatly reduced during
hibernation, so that if we can induce
hibernation in humans the far off
planets had better watch out. How-
ever, I suspect that inducing hiber-
nation in humans will bea lot harder
than getting them into space.”

Hibernating animals, far from
being more “primitive”, i.e., closer
in their physiological process to
reptiles than are other mammals,
as was once thought, are actually
more highly developed since they
are able to sustain life at two dis-
tinct temperature settings. A large
number of researchers, who are
about to hold their Fifth Sym-
posium on Hibernation, are spar-
ing no effort to find out their secret
formula.

and will soon have a new brochure ready for mailing.

VISITORS

This complicated-looking set-up allows Dr. Wilhelmus A. Weijs (a visiting functional anatomist from
Groningen University, the Netherlands) to simultaneously x-ray (upper left) and record the muscle
activity (through cable to electromyography equipment at right) during locomotion of the American
opossum. To date, no foolproof technique has been developed to guarantee locomotion to coincide with

the experimental schedule!

Dr. Jalka Weijs-Boot, also visiting for a year from the Netherlands, is assisting Professor A. W.
Crompton in his ongoing study of mastication by analyzing high-speed film on the Vanguard motion
picture analyzer.

THE MORE WE KNOW ...

It is acommon experience to find
that the answer to one difficult
question only leads to a whole set
of even more difficult questions.
Professor Richard C. Lewontin’s
research into genetic variation in
populations is no exception.

Until 1966, there was no way to
measure how much genetic varia-
tion existed in a particular popula-
tion. Ernst Mayr, in a 1963 review
of the state of knowledge, con-
cluded:

“It has been estimated (Wallace,
1958) that 50 percent or more of the
loci of a given individual in an open
natural population may be occupied
by dissimilar alleles.! Others calcu-
late that 12-20 variable loci already
place a severe strain on a popula-
tion, owing to the segregation of
inferior genotypes. Far more re-
search and a classification of the
basic concepts is needed to narrow
the gap between these widely diver-
gent estimates.”

The technique of gel elec-
trophoresis (see photo) developed
in 1966 by J. L. Hubby and Richard
C. Lewontin, then at the University
of Chicago, was the breakthrough
needed to allow researchers to
measure the amount of genetic var-
iation within a population and
since then, researchers the world
over have been grinding up all
kinds of organisms and separating
the proteins by subjecting them to
an electric charge. Answers to the
resulting new set of questions are
now being sought by the popula-
tion genetics group at the MCZ.
They are trying to find out what the
surprising results mean. Why is
there such an unexpectedly large
variation between individuals of
the same species?

“Perhaps we’re not as interest-
ing to the layman as other MCZ
departments because we don’t
study easily seen characteristics of
appealing, or at least interesting,
animals,” explains Dr. Lewontin

1. Mendelian genetic characteristics.

The MCZ Newsletter is published three times a year by the
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Ox-
ford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138; A. W

Crompton, Director
Editor: Gabrielle Dundon
Photographers: A. H. Coleman
Paula Chandoha

but obviously, the research they
conduct in the population genetics
department is at the base of all evo-
lutionary studies. Their research
animals, Drosophila or fruitflies, are
eminently practical for several rea-
sons: 1) they reproduce conve-
niently fast, going from one gen-
eration to the next in seven to ten
days; 2) their characteristics are
very well known having been
thoroughly studied by geneticists
for many years; and 3) they don’t
bite!

An active population of students
is attacking the problem from vari-
ous angles. Don Hickey is trying to
assess the role that enzymes play in
genetic variation; Fred Cohen is
looking at genetic variation in
waterfleas; Jerry Coyne and Alex
Felton are concentrating on hidden
genetic variability while Anand
Gupta is questioning the morpho-
logical consequences of genetic dif-
ferences. John Ramshaw, an Au-
stralian biochemist who will soon
be joining the staff, will undertake
the difficult task of analyzing the
proteins themselves on_ the
biochemical level.

Meanwhile, Professor Lewontin
is finding time to teach five courses
this year ranging from Biology 106:
Social Issues in Biology to Biology

A gel showing genetic variation of the
amylase enzyme in Drosophila. The
first two bands from the left are one
form of the enzyme, the two bands on
the right are a slower-moving form,
and the middle two are heterozygotes,
having both forms of the enzyme.

153: Biological Statistics. Although
his lectures are always masterfully
organized, none of his students
have ever seen him sit down to
write a lecture. Friends of the MCZ
will have an opportunity to hear
Professor Lewontin speak on “Ge-
netic Diversity in Humans and
Other Animals” on Tuesday, May
10, 1977.

Professor Richard C. Lewontin

IN BUTTERFLIES,
BEAUTY IS MORE THAN SKIN-DEEP

a | act

How insects recognize one another is one of the questions being studied by Dr. Robert E. Silberglied, Assistant
Professor of Biology. For example, many butterfly species have “hidden” ultraviolet patterns on their wings, which they
can see but to which we are blind. A common orange butterfly of the New World Tropics, as we see it a, contains a
“hidden” ultraviolet component b, visible only to the insects (as a color pattern superimposed upon the image we see).
Butterflies have the broadest visual spectra known in the animal kingdom.

During the spring and summer, Dr. Silberglied works with the living butterflies on Barro Colorado Island, Panama,
where he is affiliated with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. By hybridizing different species of butterflies
(mated pair composed of different species c) and rearing the offspring, he and his collaborator Annette Aiello are able to
experimentally determine how their wing patterns d and mating preferences are inherited. By studying differences in
mating preferences between populations, and by physically, chemically and genetically altering the color patterns on
their wings, much can be learned about how such behavior and color patterns evolve. Photos by Robert E. Silberglied

This sequence shows an offspring eclosing from its

pupa and extending its wings.

Photo by William M. Winn

GONE FISHING
in the MCZ

A visit to the MCZ’s Fish Department these days is a
stimulating experience. From the collection area,
where Curatorial Associates Robert Schoknecht and
Karsten Hartel oversee the actively used bottled
specimens in their splendidly renovated quarters to
the experimental labs where Professor Karel F. Liem
and his students leave few questions unasked about
their chosen animals, exotic specimens of which can be
viewed swimming in their aquaria, there is an undeni-
able aura of intellectual excitement in the air (and
water!). The visitor seldom finds everyone at home
since various members of the Department are often at
sea (or river or lake) collecting new specimens to help
solve the many mysteries of aquatic life. On a recent
venture into the Department, this visitor found Assis-
tant Professor William Fink! newly returned from
Brazil with a catch of Synbranchus marmoratus for Pro-
fessor Liem’s research into air-breathing adaptations,
while graduate student Philip Lobel, having temporar-
ily suspended his coral reef collecting and study of
feeding distribution in the Pacific, was in Panama
working on fish ecology. Professor Liem, who is teach-
ing two courses this Spring (Biology of Fishes and,
together with Professor Farish A. Jenkins, Jr.,
Functional Vertebrate Morphology) was on hand to
explain his current work as were graduate students Joe
Levine, George Lauder, Dana Ono, and Dr. James
Wallace.

Professor Liem is simultaneously involved with
three somewhat inconoclastic lines of inquiry. First, he
is questioning the hypothesis that adaptations are
always the most efficient solution to a particular prob-

1. See MCZ Newsletter Fall, 1976, Vol. 6, No. 1.

lem of survival by investigating the air-breathing
mechanisms in some fishes who have developed this
adaptation as, what seems to be, a compromise. These
fishes use the same structures to both eat and breathe
and while they gain mobility and are able to inhabit
habitats not available to non-airbreathers, they are not |
able to exploit all the food sources in these habitats due
to the limitations imposed by their compromise solu-
tion.

A second area of study deals with the concept of
optimization, using the exceptional case of the
cichlids, a group of freshwater fishes which display a
remarkable variety of adaptation in their feeding
mechanisms. One of the reasons they are able to
exploit every available food source with such efficiency
is that their feeding mechanisms, unlike that of the
airbreathers, is independent of other functions and
they can therefore evolve optimal solutions to a great
variety of problems.

The study of variations both at the individual and
population level has led Dr. Liem to his third major
area of current work, a general critique of predictive
models in functional anatomy. He is skeptical of the
current preoccupation with developing models to ex-
plain and predict the evolution of organisms and is
concerned that investigators are returning to the
“body plan” concept of the idealistic morphologists.
The danger is that the model can become more impor-
tant than the real organism. Having built a model to
explain the muscle mechanisms in cichlids, Dr. Liem
then realized that the remarkable capability of cichlid
species to deviate from that model is probably much

Karel F. Liem, Henry Bryant Bigelow
Professor of Ichthyology.

Cichlid fish from Lake Malawi with
electrodes in the various jaw muscles to
record muscle activity during feeding
on an electromyogram.

more important and could be the key to their evolu-
tionary success. For example, what does a cichlid do
during the two months of the year when its preferred
food supply is diminished? Its ability to deviate from
its normal feeding behavior allows it to survive. The
remarkable diversity of cichlids may have a genetic
basis — four kinds of offspring from one set of parents
in Cichlasoma are adapted to feed on four very different
foods, i.e., snails, fish, insect larvae and detritus.
Clearly this extreme polymorphic diversity leads one
to question the value of trying to average feeding
patterns into a particular body plan — perhaps it is the
diversity in functional expressions that leads to evolu-
tionary success. Dr. Liem thinks that in the field of
functional morphology it is time for the pendulum to
swing back to the study of variations which is how
Darwin, after all, developed his theory of natural
selection.

Dr. Liem’s students also display a remarkable diver-
sity.

George Lauder

What is the secret of the remarkable success of
ray-finned (teleost) fishes? With over 20,000 species,
they are the world’s dominant vertebrates. George
Lauder is looking for the answers in the feeding
mechanisms of their primitive ancestors, both living
and fossilized. In a research study that parallels Pro-
fessors Crompton and Jenkins’ work on mammals,
Mr. Lauder is making high-speed films (both light and
x-ray) of primitive living fishes as well as using elec-
tromyography to determine exactly when the muscles
of the head are contracting. This allows a detailed
comparison to be made between the structural/
functional relationships in primitive living fishes and
the remains of fossil forms and gives an understanding
of how these extinct forms functioned. This work is
greatly aided by the MCZ’s fine collection of fossil
fishes.

e

X-ray of a fossil fish (Dapedium sp.)

This sequence shows the feeding mechanism of a trout in
action; before, during, and after ingestion. These frames
were taken from a 16mm movie at 200 frames per second.

Joe Levine

The bright colors of coral reef fishes have led Joe
Levine to ask whether the fishes see color themselves.
He hopes to establish, through behavioral experi-
ments, that they in fact do see colors (by setting up
tests and rewarding them with food when they
“push” the ‘‘right” colored button) but how they dis-
tinguish between different colors in water is a far more
difficult problem. Color vision in air is a relatively
simple matter but does the ability to distinguish differ-
ent frequencies in water, where the spectrum of the
illuminating light is much more restricted, require
special adaptation? And is it different in shallow and
deep water species? Using microspectrophotometric
techniques, developed by Dr. Edward F. MacNichol,
Jr. of the Marine Biological Laboratories at Woods
Hole, Mr. Levine is able to study the absorption
spectra of individual cells’ visual pigments. There is
little known about evolution of color vision, and since
there is little data, there is a great deal of conjecture in
this area. Mr. Levine is doing some of the very basic
data gathering necessary to the development of a valid
theory of visual sensitivity in fishes, which in time will
allow serious consideration of questions like why
some animals see color while others don’t.

Dana Ono

You know that your hand is behind your back
without having to look at it. The brain is given informa-
tion about the state of the muscles via muscle receptors
which are found lodged in the muscles themselves.
There is a system in the human brain which monitors
the muscle activity. The same is true in fishes although
a different feedback system is required for fishes to be
able to monitor muscle contraction in water. Evidence
for this is found in the fact that highly specialized
receptors known as muscle spindles are found in all
groups of vertebrates except fishes. As of yet, no one
knows what the receptors in fishes look like or how the
feedback system operates in feeding and respiration.

Dana Ono is attempting to isolate the feedback
system by which fishes operate by elucidating the
nature of the receptors themselves with the use of
transmission electron microscopy and other histologi-
cal methods. With the aid of electromyography which
provides data on the exact time of muscle firing, Mr.
Ono is trying to determine whether fish have a pre-
programmed muscle firing system or whether it can be
modulated by outside conditions. Since cichlids adjust
their responses constantly, there must be a fairly com-
plex system by which they operate.

Dr. James Wallace

Dr. James Wallace, a radiologist who is a half-time
student, is using radiology to investigate feeding
mechanisms in trout and salmon. By inserting surgical
wire in their bones, Dr. Wallace is able to use x-ray
vision to monitor the patterns of the feeding
mechanism.

The visitor came away from the Fish Department
with renewed interest and respect for the remarkable
complexity of the two little goldfish in the office bowl.

FISH DEPARTMENT RECEIVES
IMPORTANT COLLECTIONS

New space made available by the recent renovations
in the MCZ’s Fish Department, and lack of space at the
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, have led to
the transfer of the entire WHOI fish collection to the
MCZ.

The first shipment of over 16,000 North Atlantic
mid-water fishes has arrived and has been catalogued.
Approximately 130 species from 14 families found at
depths of about 1,000 meters are involved. Among the
more interesting groups: the viper fish (Chauliodus)
which has modified anterior vertebrae that allow the
fish to move its head back on its spine. It can then open
its mouth wide enough to get food past its enormous
teeth. Malacosteres, a fish with a large luminous organ
under the eye has greatly enlarged jaws, but its mouth
has no floor.

When the transfer of additional surface and bottom
material is complete, the MCZ collection will be excep-
tionally representative of North Atlantic fish fauna.

FRIENDS’ ACTIVITIES
Spring Lectures

Professor Karel F. Liem: Explosive Evolution and Effi-
ciency of the Exploitation of Energy: Cichlid Fish Biology,
Tuesday, April 12, 1977.

Professor Richard C. Lewontin: Genetic Diversity in
Humans and Other Animals, Tuesday, May 17, 1977.

Drawing Courses

Sarah Landry and Laszlo Meszoly will be teaching
Drawing from Nature and Scientific Illustration this
summer. These summer courses (three mornings a
week during the month of July) have been extremely
popular with students who wish to work intensively
on improving their drawing ability. Registration in-
formation will be available in April.

Children’s Saturday Mornings

In order to meet the demand, two sessions of this
program are being held. Plans for a spring series will
be announced soon.

Paper Marbling Workshop

How to marble your own paper was the morning’s
topic on Saturday, March 5 with Mary Keeler of the
MCZ Library.

Trip Round-Up

Provincetown whale watching has proven to be a
popular occupation. Since last year’s weekends were
such a success, we have again enlisted the services of
William E. Schevill as marine mammal guide and
reserved two weekends on Captain Avellar’s Dolphin

III for this Spring. The dates are May 7, 8 and June 4, 5
and reservations are being accepted on a first-come
first-served basis. For more information, call the Public
Programs office at 495-2463.

Baja whale watching was superb again this January
as reported by Steve Katona:

“Blissfully unaware of the blizzards and subzero temper-
atures ravaging the rest of the continent, 34 Baja trippers
spent a glorious week on the fourth MCZ gray whale
expedition.

As in the past, the gray whales put on a terrific show,
and we were able to see mating, breaching, spyhopping,
mother-calf relations and a good deal of general milling
around. Whereas one can count on the gray whales, the
rest of the trip always provides surprises, and each year’s
expedition is different. This year Qualifier 105 and its
skiffs were joined by four bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops
truncatus) on several occasions in the lagoon. We were
able to get good views of the dolphins as they rode our
bow and looked up to watch us. Some Pacific white-sided
dolphins (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens) and many common
dolphins (Delphinus delphis) were also seen. The sight of
groups of up to 50 common dolphins jumping and racing
to meet our boat was particularly thrilling. We had excel-
lent opportunities to observe harem structure, mating,
nursing, aggressive interactions and other behavior in
elephant seals on San Benitos Island. Large colonies of
California sea lions along the coast of Cedros Island gave
good views of the animals at rest, while swimming and
playing behavior were seen in the species on San Benitos
Island. The harbor seals on San Martin Island tolerated
our observations better than in previous years and we
were able to observe and count approximately 150 ani-
mals.

Several dying elephant seal yearlings were seen at San
Martin, one of which carried about 20 goose-necked
barnacles attached to its flippers and back. Photographs
and samples of the barnacles have been sent to the MCZ
for identification.

Of equal interest to the marine mammals were our
observations on other animals and plants. Although 1976
was a dry year in much of California, the islands we
visited were quite green and Reed Pierce was able to
demonstrate numerous plants in flower. Bill Haas was
able to make several new location records for birds,
including both a Coopers hawk and a horned grebe on
San Benitos Island. The grebe was found dead in an
abandoned outhouse at the top of the lighthouse hill on
San Benitos! Two unusual Heerman’s gulls with symmet-
rical white wing patches were seen at San Ignacio La-
goon. Other seabirds seen included many Manx shear-
waters, pink-footed shearwaters, a black-footed alba-
tross, Sabine’s gull, Xantus murrelet, parasitic jaeger,
frigate bird and rhinoceros auklet, among others. Explo-
rations of the intertidal zone at Cedros Island turned up
three octopuses, abalones, a sea hare, top shells and
turban shells, nudibranchs, several colorful sponges, and
numerous sea anemones. Bill Haas was active as usual,
turning over rocks to find lizards and scorpions, and
discussing the geology of the places visited.

Each night (except one very rough evening) featured
slide talks by one of the guides or a show-and-tell of the
day’s events. One special evening included a talk on
whale evolution by Frank Whitmore, who is a specialist in
the study of fossil whales at the Smithsonian Institution.”

Justine Kalb, daughter of the leader of the Rift Valley
Research Mission, with the hominid skull found in January.

ETHIOPIAN FOSSIL SITE
YIELDS HOMINID SKULL

Here is the exciting sequel to last Spring’s account
(MCZ Newsletter, Vol. 5, No. 3) of Craig Wood’s fossil
hunting in Ethiopia. Upon their return to the Afar
Triangle site, Jon Kalb’s Rift Valley Research Mission
expectations were fulfilled — a skull of Homo ?erectus?
(the question marks indicate that the exact identity is
still under investigation) was found in the area where
numerous stone handaxes had formerly been uncov-
ered.

The skull was found in two parts: one by Alemayehu
Asfaw, the representative of the Ethiopian govern-
ment accompanying the expedition; and the other by
Craig Wood and Paul Whitehead, a vertebrate paleon-
tology student from Yale.

Charles Schaff, Curatorial Associate of Vertebrate
Paleontology, who also visited Ethiopia on an MCZ
reconnaissance trip this fall, missed the hominid ex-
citement but did, together with Messrs. Wood and
Kalb, discover the first Mesozoic (100-140 million years
old) dinosaur and reptile fossils from the Ethiopian
plateau in the spectacular blue Nile region.

A return trip by the Rift Valley Research Mission is
planned for continued collection in Miocene to Pleis-
tocene localities of the Afar Desert Region of Ethiopia.
Exploration of these areas was facilitated by the Minis-

tries of Culture and Mines. Photo by Craig Wood

MARCH IS FOSSIL MONTH

March visitors to the Harvard University Museum
will have an opportunity to learn first hand how fossils
are formed, how they are found and collected, and
how scientists study them to learn about the origins of
life on earth. Special features include: a new exhibit on

David Ebert, Museum Teacher, plays ‘The Last of the
Dinosaurs” with a group of volunteers in preparation for
Fossil Month.

Kaki Aldrich, Education Consultant to the Visitor Pro-
grams, shows volunteers of two generations how to cast
fossils in preparation for Fossil Month.

—_-~

stratigraphy, a slide tape showing all aspects of the
paleontologist’s work narrated by Professor Farish A.
Jenkins, Jr., Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, and
two ‘’Fossil Rooms” where visitors will be able to cast
their own fossils and learn how and where to find
fossils in the field.

This “theme month” is the first in a series planned
and run by the volunteer Visitor Programs staff, now
headed by Kaki Aldrich and Lola Stillman. Their en-
thusiastic energy is not only infecting both new and
“old” volunteers but also enlisting the valuable sup-
port of other staff members engaged in both the scien-
tific and public sides of the Museum’s activities.

For more information about Fossil Month and the
Visitor Programs in general, call Lola Stillman at 495-
2341 or 495-2248.

WILLIAM CHARLES
SCHROEDER (1895-1977)

William Charles Schroeder, who was Associate
Curator of Ichthyology in the MCZ from 1936 to 1961,
died on January 12 at the age of 82.

Mr. Schroeder’s long-term collaboration with the
late Dr. Henry Bryant Bigelow resulted in many im-
portant publications including one which is still on the
MCZ’s “’best-seller list’: Fishes of the Gulf of Maine,
Vols. I and II.

Mr. Schroeder, who was also on the staff of Woods
Hole for many years, was an avid collector of fishes.
The introduction to Fishes of the Western North Atlantic,
which was dedicated to Mr. Schroeder in 1972, in-
cludes this tribute: ‘It has been said of Bill Schroeder
that he neither looks nor acts as if he were important.
Cape Cod fishermen accepted him as an equal. And
scientists name new species after him... .

Mrs. Myvanwy Dick of the Fish Department re-
members him fondly as “a gentle, thoughtful man
who hada superb knowledge of the fishes of the North
Atlantic and a seemingly endless supply of patience
for the many visitors to the Department.”

William C. Schroeder, 1965.

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