bb july 2010.pub

JULY 2010 VOL. 23, NO. 3

The Vertebral Column...

NEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

PACIFIC REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS by George Zug

Hawaii now has seven frogs, twenty lizards, one

snake, and four freshwater turtles. Before Capt. Cook

and the whalers arrived, Hawaii had no frogs and, at

best, two geckos and two skinks. Before the Polyne-

sians arrived, there were no terrestrial herps in the

Hawaiian Islands!

Man’s colonization of the Pacific profoundly altered

the herpetofaunas of the Pacific islands. From the

paleontological investigations of H. JAMES,

S. OLSON, and D. STEADMAN, we now know that

Pacific bird diversity was halved within a century or

less of the arrival of the Polynesians. At the present,

we have only a vague hint of the effect of Polynesian’s

colonization on the diversity of Pacific terrestrial rep-

tiles, specifically lizards because only a few Oceanic

islands have native frogs and snakes. Larger lizards,

such as the giant Tongan and Fijian iguanas, disap-

peared quickly, being found in pre-human arrival lay-

ers and the earliest human middens and then they are

gone. Assorted other lizard bones are found but with

low diversity. These subfossils usually represent the

smaller skinks and geckos, and with a few exceptions,

appear to be the species currently present on the is-

lands.

Because we have little information on lizard diversity

prior to the arrival of humans, we [zoologists] have

accepted the current fauna of each island as the origi-

nal fauna. This thought pattern is slowly changing, and

it now seems likely that many lizard species on most

islands are recent arrivals, probably within the last

2000 to 2500 years. Testing this concept is only

beginning. A collaborator, C. AUSTIN, examined the

genetic relatedness of populations of the moth skink

from New Guinea to Polynesia and discovered that all

populations, no matter how distant in kilometers, were

genetically identical. He interpreted these data as the

moth skink colonizing the Pacific as canoe stowaways,

hopping from island to islands with pigs, rats, dogs

and people. That interpretation is certainly possible,

but the moth skinks and other lizards may have been

even later arrivals, perhaps with whaling and trading

Euroamericans.

Identifying and verifying native versus invasive

species is challenging. Two criteria for verifying

native species are: speciation and occurrence in pre-

human fossil layers. Because human colonization of

the Pacific oceanic islands is recent, post last Ice Age,

differentiation and speciation of lizard populations is

highly unlikely, and we assume that distinct and

localized species are

native species, in

contrast to those species

with widespread distribu-

tions across many island

groups. A pre-human

fossil occurrence

obviously negates

human transport.

An intriguing discovery

of a large arboreal skink

in the Cook Islands

reveals the difficulties of discerning native vs. invasive

species. During the mid-1980s, D. Steadman and G.

Pregill were searching and mining fossil sites on

Rarotonga. Neither of them kept their noses in the dirt,

and they saw and collected several tiger-barred

treeskinks. At the same time, another pair of

herpetologists working in Fiji recognized similar-

appearing treeskinks as a new species. The immediate

interpretation was that the Rarotongan treeskink was a

recent introduction from Tonga or Fiji. Was it?

There were no earlier records of the treeskink from the

Cooks. Perhaps

molecules could answer

the question, and in

1999, we visited

Rarotonga and collected

tissues, which eventually

became part of a molecu-

lar study (mitochondrial

and nuclear DNA) of the

treeskinks (Emoia

samoensis species group)

of the Southwest Pacific

(part of Ali Hamilton’s

doctoral dissertation). The results were surprising, at

least to me. The Rarotongan treeskink was not closely

related to any Fijian, Samoan or Tongan lizards in our

samples. Indeed, it had a sister group relationship to a

group of Vanuatuan treeskinks.

DEADLINE FOR NEWS

VZ staff will submit news items to Division Contacts by October 15, 2010

DEADLINE FOR DIVISION CONTACTS

All news items to Joy by October 25, 2010

All News items on diskette or e-mail

EDITORIAL STAFF

Chairman Don Wilson Editor Joy Gold

DIVISION NEWS CONTACTS

Fishes Dave Smith 238-1742 Jeff Williams 238-1736 Tom Munroe 633-1293 Herps Steve Gotte 633-0728 Birds Christina Gebhard 633-0789 Mammals Helen Kafka 633-1254 MSC Helen Wimer 238-1180 Library Courtney Shaw 633-1675

An Emoia samoensis group species from Fiji . Photo by R. Fisher.

VZ NEWS VZ LUNCH SEMINARS

Please contact DON WILSON (633-1265 or E-Mail) to schedule a seminar or suggest speakers for the upcoming year. All seminars are held in the Waldo Schmitt rm., W218 from 12:00-1:00 PM . See E-Mail and elevator for subjects as the date ap-proaches. Upcoming VZ Seminars: Aug 11 –Wednesday—CHELSEA BERNS – Iowa State University, "Understanding phenotypic evolution in hummingbird bills: application of land-mark-based geometric morphometric methods" Sept 8 – Wednesday—HADRIEN VAN-THOMME, NZP - “The impacts of local hunting on wildlife populations in the Central African Republic.” Sept 29– Wednesday -LUISA ARNEDO, Univer-sity of Wisconsin - “Patterns of acoustic variation of the staccato and neigh vocalizations of the northern muriqui monkey "Brachyteles hypoxanthus” Oct 6 – Wednesday -JON PAUL RODRIGUEZ, VZ Post-doc -Parrot conservation on Margarita is-land, Venezuela.” Nov. 3– Wednesday -KATE RODRIGUEZ-CLARK, VZ Post-doc - “Genetic/demographic management of Andean bears in captivity.”

This result stimulated a closer morphological

analysis, and, not surprisingly, the Rarotongan

treeskink was morphologically distinct from Fijian,

Samoan, Tongan, and Vanuatuan treeskinks.

Morphology provides no phylogenetic information,

other than confirming the uniqueness of this

population and differentiation in several other popu-

lations, ones that were also indicated by molecular

analysis. What we have not answered, however, is

the origins of the Rarotongan treeskink. Has it been

in the Cooks for millennia, thus representing in situ

speciation, or is the population a recent introduction

from an island for which we have no molecular or

morphological samples?

Our interpretation is the latter. These treeskinks are

not cryptic and are seen regularly by island residents

and visitors. There are no museum vouchers prior to

the 1980s or literature records of an earlier sighting.

Our molecular sample includes ten individuals, and

they were genetically identical. Neither of these two

pieces of evidences makes our interpretation the only

possible one. For the moment, our interpretation is

the most parsimonious one and recommends

returning to the Pacific and different islands for

more samples!

[See citation in Publications Section: last page]

Emoia trossula from Rotuma. Photo by P. Ryan

AMPHIBIANS and REPTILES by Steve Gotte

Trips and Meetings - KEVIN DE QUEIROZ just returned from the Joint Meetings of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in Providence, RI (July 7-12), where he participated in the Board of Directors and Business Meetings of the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles as a member of the SSAR Board. ROY MCDIARMID (USGS) also attended the Joint Ichthyologist and Herpetologist meetings. ROB WILSON attended the SPNHC & CBA-ABC Joint Conference in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada from May 31st – June 4th, 2010.

Panama BOB REYNOLDS (USGS), JEREMY JACOBS and STEVE GOTTE (USGS) are traveling to the La Mica field station in El Copé, Panama (26 July to 3 August) after meeting up with SI post doc DAN MULCAHY, who is already in the Darien of Panama. The crew will take tissues from and preserve over a hundred fro-zen snakes (over 50 species) for our collections. The specimens were salvaged by the director of the station during the course of her own field work on snake ecology. Presently, 21-31 July 2010, KEN TIGHE is on a museum trip to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, Yale Peabody Museum and Museum of Comparative Zoology to continue his research on the systematics of the order Anguilliformes.

Grants – A few months ago GREG BUDNEY from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology visited ROY MCDIARMID (USGS) and RON HEYER. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a vast collection of bird song recordings and considerable holdings of frog and insect calls. Among the things Greg brought up was whether we would be interested in participating in a NSF proposal with Cornell and the University of Kansas to properly archive frog and electric fish re-cordings. BILL DUELLMAN donated his frog calls to Cornell and RAFE BROWN is including his Asian frog calls in the proposal. We enthusiastically agreed to participate in a joint NSF proposal. ADDISON WYNN and Ron Heyer put together the A&R NSF Collaborative Proposal and the entire proposal was submitted to NSF on 22 July 2010 with the help of VIOLET JONES-BRUCE of the Smithsonian Grants and Contracts Office. If awarded, all of our recordings will be transported to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology where they will be archived with state-of-the-art equipment. The main reason we are excited about the proposal is that quite a few of our tapes have the “sticky-shed” syndrome. The problem with the tapes is that the adhesive that binds the recording surface to the supporting surface bleeds through such that the all the surfaces are stuck together. The tapes have to be carefully heated so that the tapes do not rip apart: heat-ing results in the adhesive migrating back to where it should belong. The heating process can only be done one time to recover the signals. The Smithsonian does not have the equipment and expertise to perform the recoveries of the afflicted tapes. The Cornell lab is equipped to deal with these tapes. In addition, we have submitted a Collaborative Pro-posal to provide the resources needed to process our recording backlog. Addison will provide the oversight for the personnel who will be hired to process the backlogged recordings and search for photo vouchers that can be associated with USNM voucher specimens. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the proposal will be funded.

DIVISION NEWS

Visitors - The Division hosted more than 32 visitors from 12 states (AL, CA, CO, DC, FL, IL, MD, NJ, NY, PA, SC, TX and VA), Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Ecua-dor, Germany, Japan and Mexico for a total of over 85 researcher-days, since the last Backbone. In addition several local researchers and students visit the division on a regular basis. Interns – A&R collection management intern BOBBY SLATOR completed his internship 31 May 2010. After leaving herps Bobby got a STEP position with the Collections Support Staff (CSS) and is currently helping move material into the renovated POD 3 at the MSC. Thanks and congratulations Bobby! Students, RAs, Fellows - ROSARIO CASTAÑEDA (GWU Ph.D. student) suc-cessfully defended her dissertation on the systematics and ecomorphology of the Dactyloa subclade of Ano-lis lizards on May 13. Rosario has submitted her dis-sertation to the library and is awaiting word on its final acceptance. SAYANTAN BISWAS (GWU Ph.D. student) suc-cessfully defended his dissertation on diversification of the herpetofauna of the Western Ghats on July 9. Congratulations to both Rosario and Sayantan!! ALEXANDRA HERRERA MARTÍNEZ (GWU Ph.D. student) is spending the summer in Tucumán, Argentina (where her husband is a postdoctoral fel-low) studying for her written and oral exams. DAN MULCAHY (SI postdoctoral fellow) is conducting fieldwork in Panama, hoping to collect various species of leptodeirine snakes.

BIRDS by Christina Gebhard

Honors

DICK BANKS, Emeritus Zoologist continues to make us proud here at the USGS Biological Survey Unit and the De-partment of Verte-brate Zoology. Dr. Banks, was pre-sented the Storrs L. Olson Prize for the best book review pub-lished in Volume 121 (2009) of the Wilson Journal of Ornithology, at the annual meeting of the Wilson Or-nithological Society in May 2010. Banks’s review was of: The white-cheeked Geese: Brant canadensis, B. maxima, B. “lawrensis” B. hutchinsii, B. leucopa-reia, and B. minima. Taxonomy, Ecophysiographic Relationships, Biogeography, and Evolutionary Con-siderations. Volume 2. Western Taxa, Biogeography and Evolutionary Considerations by Harold Hanson, published in 2007.

The Wilson Ornithological Society is the only profes-sional scientific society whose journal gives a prize for the best book review (as far as we know). This is the second year of the Olson Award, which was estab-lished in 2009 by the journal editor, Clait Braun. The award is named in honor of STORRS OLSON, who received the first award.

WAG funds-- Congratulations to HELEN JAMES and CHRIS MILENSKY, for their 2010 Web Advisory Group (WAG) Proposal on “Imaging and Web Development of the Bird Division Synoptic Skeleton Collection” which was fully approved for funding from the WAG and the Office of the Director . Chairman, DON WILSON tells VZ there will be another call for WAG proposals next year, so be thinking about those pro-jects you would like to see up on the web. CRAIG LUDWIG and DIANE PITASSY are our VZ repre-sentatives on the WAG, and they are very helpful in guiding you through the proposal process. HELLEN JAMES, CHRIS MILENSKY, and CRAIG LUDWIG are creating a website that gives users the ability to perform comparative osteology for the pur-poses of science and education. The site will include an overview of the avian skeleton to educate the pub-lic, assist with identification of bones, and highlight how the collection is used by scientists with links to research programs at SI. The first step is to create im-ages of all of the bones in the synoptic collection. A summer intern, EMILY MORSE, from the Rochester

Institute of Technology has been hired to begin that process. Some of the new images are already avail-able in KE-Emu. The group is also in the process of hiring a web developer to create the web interface for making the comparisons. Once this site has been de-veloped, the technology might prove to be very useful to other divisions in the museum for creating similar sites.

General News - JOE JEHL collaborated with New Jersey Dept of Conservation in long-term studies of Red Knots mi-grating through Delaware Bay. JOE JEHL, in continuation of ongoing studies of mi-gratory physiology, conducted fat extraction of flight muscles of several species, with assistance and col-laboration of MICHAEL JAKUBASZ at NZP. STORRS OLSON made his annual migration to northern Nova Scotia at the end of June and will try not to gloat about missing this summer in Washing-ton. He took boxes of materials to continue working on an eclectic variety of manuscripts when not en-gaged in forestry management and front porch ornithology. Outreach - CHRISTOPHER MILENSKY gave a tour on 9 July to Mary McKenna from Howard University and stu-dents from the Blandy Farm Research Experience for Undergraduates program. Meetings and Talks - CARLA DOVE was an Invited Speaker at the Air-craft Airworthiness & Sustainment Conference where she gave a talk on the 11 May 2010 in Austin, Texas Carla also attended the Wilson Ornithology Society Meeting (19-21 May) in Geneva, NY CARLA DOVE was an Invited Speaker for the 108th Air Wing Safety Squadron and gave a talk on the 11 June 2010 at McGuire Air Force Base, NJ. CARLA DOVE, MARCY HEACKER, FARIDAH DAHLAN, and JAMES WHATTON attended and presented at the Birdstrike Committee Meeting 2010, 21 -25 June 2010 , in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Morse working on digitizing synoptic skeleton collection

FARIDAH DAHLAN will attend the Non-Human DNA workshop, 26-30 July 2010, hosted by the Na-tional Institute of Justice and the Florida International University in Miami, Florida GARY GRAVES presented a well-attended lecture at the University of Copenhagen on 23 April, "Biopolitics of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker." I'm a visiting professor at the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the University of Copenha-gen from 1 April until 1 June. (not reported in the April Backbone)

Special tour - ERIC BENJAMINSON, US Ambassador to Gabon, visited the Smithsonian Thursday, July 22, 2010. In addition to meet-ing with SCOTT MILLER, FRANCINE BERKOWITZ, ,and FRANCISCO DALLMEIER, , CHRISTINA GEBHARD, CHRIS MILENSKY and BRIAN SCHMIDT gave a tour of the division of birds and

highlighted the importance of collections and their applications to science. The Ambassador was genu-inely supportive of the kind of work that we do here.

Fieldwork - Utah

CHRIS MILENSKY and JIM WHATTON con-ducted breeding bird surveys in Utah from Jun 7 – 21. The museum has little material from Utah since Wet-more was there in 1914-1916 and Chris and Jim used their time to sample as many of the different habitat types as possible starting in the 108 F heat of Wash-ington Co. in the SW corner of the state. After finding some of the sonoran desert specialists like Lucy’s

Warbler and Black-chinned Sparrow, they began their trek north into the higher elevations where they were greeted with snow and temperatures as low as 28F! While not being quite prepared for camping in that temperature range (bring a jacket next time!) they braved the elements and sometimes hazardous road conditions for

what was ultimately a very successful trip. CHRISTINA GEBHARD and BRIAN SCHMIDT con-ducted a breeding bird survey of western Maryland in June. Visitors-

Bumper crop of Interns, Fellows and Volunteers.

HELEN JAMES’s interns this summer are working on a variety of projects. FELICIA KULP is identifying and Inventorying Hawaiian Fossil Bird bones. ASHLEE WALKER is studying Ruddy Ducks at Patuxent. EMILY MORSE is photographing the synoptic osteology collection for the division’s website, and REED RUMELT splits his time with post processing work on the synoptic osteology collection and collection management work. BRIAN SCHMIDT is hosting a summer intern, KELLY McADOW from Mary Washington University. Kelly is helping Brian install collections from Namibia, Greece, Russia, Moldova, Ukraine, and the United States.

Ambassador Benjaminson with Brian Schmidt discussing new Forest robin from Gabon.

Ambassador with Chris Milensky and Christina Gebhard

The installation will require them to shift contents of more than 100 cases to make room for the additional specmens. Kelly also helped with bird specimen prepara-tion, degreasing bones, numbering bones, and assists as needed. Kelly also got to spend one week in western Mary-land with Brian and CHRISTINA GEBHARD learning field techniques.

CARLA DOVE hosted ASHLEY WICH from Wheaton College and NICHOLAS RICHTER from Department of Health and Human Services, USDA, Irvine, CA. . Ashley worked on Anthro-Ornithology projects and Nicholas is learning forensic feather identification techniques. SPENCER GALEN, a NHRE intern working with TERRY CHESSER, spends most of his time at the zoo using molecular techniques to analyze the genetic differences between the subspecies of Rufous Antpitta. He comes into the collection to discuss his analysis with Terry. The Division of Birds hosted 100 visitors since the last edi-tion of the Backbone. Three of our visitors arrived from the

the following countries: Costa Rica, India, and United King-dom. The remaining visitors were domestic from the follow-ing states: CA, DC ,FL, ID, KY, ME, MD, MA, MN, MT, NJ, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI and VA.

FISHES

by Dave Smith, Jeff Williams, and Tom Munroe Staff activities.— On July 22, 2010, BRUCE COLLETTE represented NOAA at a meeting of the Interagency Working Group on Scientific Collections to plan future actions of the group. BRUCE COLLETTE was appointed to the Stakeholder Committee of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) on June 2, 2010. TOM MUNROE is working with SI Behind-The-Scenes Volunteer, Mr. DANIEL JORDAN, from 07/13-08/21. Daniel will assist with various flatfish projects in the lab. Travel and meetings.— CAROLE BALDWIN spent several days in July at the Smithsonian Marine Station in Ft. Pierce working with NHRE intern JESSICA GLASS collecting Bathygobius gobies for Jessica’s summer research project. See photo p. 10 CAROLE BALDWIN, BRUCE COLLETTE, DAVE JOHNSON, TOM MUNROE, LYNNE PARENTI, DAVE SMITH, and JEFF WILLIAMS, along with in-terns CHRISTINA CASTILLO and JESSICA GLASS attended the annual meeting of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH) at Providence, RI, July 7-12. Carole presented a poster, co-authored with CHRISTINA CASTILLO and LEE WEIGT titled “A New Look at Spe-cies Diversity of Western Atlantic Starksia (Teleostei: Labrisomidae) Using a Molecular/Morphological Ap-proach.” She also was a co-author of a talk given by LUKE TORNABENE (Univ. Texas, Corpus Christi) titled “Exploring the Diversity of Western Atlantic Bathygobius (Teleostei: Gobiidae) with Cytochrome c Oxidase-I.”

Kelly McAdow, Brian Schmidt’s intern

Spencer Galen

student. Lynne gave a lecture entitled “Patterns of Mor-phology, Molecules and Endemism in Ricefishes,” led a graduate student pizza-lunch discussion on science writing, and had numerous other opportunities to interact with biol-ogy graduate students and faculty, including a crawfish boil at the home of faculty member KYLE PILLER. LYNNE PARENTI gave an invited Keynote Address –“Endemism and Conservation of Native Fish Faunas: Focus on Sulawesi, Indonesia”-- at the VIth National Fish Seminar (Seminar Nasional Ikan VI) and 3rd Congress of the Indo-nesian Society of Ichthyologists (Masyarakat Iktiologi Indo-

nesia) held in Cibinong, west-ern Java, 7- 8 June, 2010. The meeting fo-cused on threats to Indonesia’s endemic fish fauna from hu-man develop-ment. Oryzias woworae Par-enti & Hadiaty 2010 (see Pub-

lications), a recently described colorful species of ricefish from southeastern Sulawesi, served as the meeting’s icon and graced meeting materials including the program book and banners (see photo below). Keynote talks in English were followed by a day and a half of shorter powerpoint presentations mostly in Bahasa Indo-nesia by a broad array of Indonesian ichthyologists from throughout the country, including Sumatra, Sulawesi, and New Guinea. Lynne was invited to be an honorary member of the Indonesian Society of Ichthyologists. Following the meeting, Lynne and GWU graduate student DANIEL LUMBANTOBING joined colleagues RENNY HADIATY and SOPIAN SAURI from the Museum Zo-ologicum Bogoriense (MZB) on a field trip to collect fishes in Sulawesi Tenggara, the southeastern region of Sulawesi which includes the type locality of the endemic O. woworae. Fishes were surveyed from the Sungai Pohara, a large river that flows eastward into the Banda Sea, freshwa-ter streams, mangroves and other coastal localities.

Bruce attended as a Past-President and member of the Board of Governors. He also presented the 2010 Robert H. Gibbs, Jr. Award to JOHN LUNDBERG of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, announced the results of the ad hoc com-mittee to nominate an Honorary Foreign Member in Ichthyol-ogy to be SVEN KULLANDER of the Swedish National Mu-seum, and presented a paper "Why Red List Tunas and Bill-fishes?" co-authored with KENT CARPENTER. Dave Johnson gave a talk titled “An Extraordinary Primitive Eel from Shallow Waters of Palau – New Family, Living Fos-sil?” Tom Munroe co-authored a talk given by M.-Y. Lee, National Taiwan Ocean University, ti-tled “Evaluating the Taxonomic Status of Tonguefishes Tentatively Identified as Symphurus mi-crorhynchus: Comparisons of Morphological and Molecular Data between Populations Collected off Taiwan and Viet-nam.” Tom was also elected to the ASIH Board of Gover-nors. Lynne Parenti attended the Board of Governors and Business meetings and served as MC of the meeting’s closing banquet. Dave Smith attended in his capacity as Society Historian for Ichthyology. Jeff attended the meeting of the ASIH collec-tions committee. BRUCE COLLETTE participated in a meeting of the IUCN Marine Conservation Subcommittee in Gland, Switzerland June 14-15.

Honors LYNNE PARENTI was selected as the 2009-2010 ‘Superspeaker’ by the Biology Graduate Student Organization (BGSO) of Southeastern Louisiana University and invited to the Hammond, LA, campus in early May. The BGSO was led this year by CALEB MCMAHON, a former NMNH RTP

Attendees of the Seminar Nasional Ikan VI get together for final group photo, June 2010.

Texas Gulf Coast

DIANE PITASSY joined JIM VAN TASSELL (AMNH) and ROSS ROBERTSON (STRI) to conduct a survey of shore fishes along the Texas Gulf coast, April 3-23. Travel-

ling by RV, the group sampled sites from the mouth of the Rio Grande (not as impressive as the name suggests at only 40 yards wide) northward to Matagorda Bay. Collecting localities were mainly focused on the shallows of estuaries and coastal streams and rivers. The group collected over 350 vouchers for the DNA Barcoding project led by CAROLE BALDWIN and LEE WEIGT. This collection complements previous field work of the Smithsonian Barcoding group, which has representative collections from the across the Caribbean and the east coast of the southern United States.

The collaboration also resulted in thousands of photographs for an online identification system for the shore fishes the Greater Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico that is being devel-oped by Ross Robertson. Compared with a similar survey by Van Tassell and Robertson in this region during 2007, the fish fauna was considerably less diverse. Targeted groups, such as blennies, were noticeably absent from prime habitat. The cause of this faunal shift appears to be linked to the unusually cold winter of 2009-2010, coupled with a

rapid change in estuarine salinity as Texas went from a drought period to an overabundance of rain. RICH VARI spent 8 days in Europe at the end of July for projects involving South American and African freshwater fishes.

Sulawesi 2010 field team: Sopian Sauri (MZB), Daniel Lumban-tobing (GWU), Renny Hadiaty (MZBO) and Lynne Parenti at a

pond near a mangrove swamp, Sulawesi Tenggara.

Mobile field lab on Texas Gulf Coast, used by Pitassy, Van Tassell, and Robertson

Labrisomus nuchipinnis, collected by Pitassy et al in Texas.

Intern Jessica Glass measuring water depth at a Bathygobius collecting site

near Ft. Pierce, Florida. Photo by Carole Baldwin

Visitors and students.— The Division of Fishes and the NMFS Systematics Labora-tory hosted 71 visitors over the past three months including the following: JAN ALBAUM, University of Arizona, JRS Biodiversity Foundation School of Information Resources and Library Science, Arizona. Jan is the local host for a delegation of scientists from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda Ministries of Fisheries and National Museums and this group is organiz-ing data about Lake Victoria for the three countries. The group consists of HARRY CERINO, BRYAN HEI-DORN, EGID KATUNZI, DISMAS MBABAZI, DORO-THY NYINGI, STELLA SIMIYU, WILLIAM OJWANG, and VINAND NANTULYA. (06/01/2010). MARY ALDRICH, Norfolk Agriculture High School, MA, Walpole, Massachusetts; Intern with Lisa Palmer and work-ing on reformatting jar label project. (06/28/2010 - 07/19/2010). RACHEL ANDERSON, George Washington University. Intern with Lisa Palmer working on Lophiiformes Image Digitization. (05/17/2010 - 08/17/2010). DAHIANA K. ARCILA-M, Universidad de Quindio, Quindío, Colombia; Visiting researcher working in the divi-sion and at GWU (with G. Orti) on a morphological and molecular study of a group of Neotropical characiforms. (04/12/2010 - 07/30/2010). SUSAN ARTER-MAYER, San Diego Natural History Museum. Visited the Fish Collection. (05/21/2010). CLARIANNA MARTINS BAICERE-SILVA , PhD Stu-dent in Cellular and Structural Biology, UNICAMP, Brazil; Working on spermatozoa ultrastructure, with Irani Quágio-Grassiotto as her main advisor and Luiz Malabarba as co-advisor. (07/13/2010 - 07/20/2010). RICARDO BETANCUR, Postdoctoral researcher, Depart-ment of Biological Sciences, George Washington Univer-sity. Examining catfish type specimens. (present - 01/01/2011). DAVID BOSETO, Texas A & M University, Corpus Christi, Texas. Looked at the Stiphodon pelewensis. (04/26/2010). JOANN BRENNAN, Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs, Associate Professor of Photography, Arts Building, Denver, CO. Visiting artist, here on one of our artist fellowship programs and took photos of the collection, specimens people, etc. (06/18/2010 and 07/08/2010).

FERNANDO R. CARVALHO, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul [UFRGS], Câmpus do Vale, Instituto de Biociências, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil; He is doing a phy-logenetic analysis of the characid genus Hyphessobrycon including a revision of some components of the genus. Fer-nando is a student of Luiz Malabarba at UFGRS. (03/29/2010 - 07/31/2010). CHRISTINA CASTILLO, University of Texas at Austin, DNA barcoding; intern w/Carole Baldwin. (08/17/2009 - 07/02/2010). DAVE CATANIA, Sr. Collection Manager, Ichthyology, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California. Visited MSC collection. (07/15/2010). ADAM E. COHEN, BEN LABAY, and DOUG MAR-TIN, Texas Natural History Collections, University of Texas, Texas Natural Science Center, Austin, Texas. Con-tinuing work on the Fishes of Texas project and identifica-tion or georeferencing errors by looking for geographic out-liers, etc. (07/19/2010 - 07/21/2010). KATHLEEN (KASSI) COLE, University of Hawaii, Ha-waii. Working with specimens, and to discuss editing of BRUCE COLLETTE’s ms "Reproduction and Develop-ment in Epipelagic Fishes", a chapter in her book "Reproduction and Sexuality of Marine Fishes" which will be published by the University of California Press next spring. (04/15/2010 - 04/19/2010), (04/29/2010 - 05/05/2010), and (07/15/2010 - 07/29/2010). CAITLYN CONNER, University of Pittsburgh. Intern with LISA PALMER on the Ichthyologist Imaging project. (05/17/2010 - 08/13/2010). ROBSON TAMAR DA COSTA RAMOS, Professor of Zoology, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Brazil, and his student, DANIEL FRIETAS, on flatfishes (Citharichthys), in collaboration with TOM MUNROE. (07/08/2010 - 07/16/2010). ALESSIO DATOVO, Universidad de Sao Paulo (USP) - Ribeirao Preto Campus, Sao Paulo, Brazil; To work with RICH VARI on an analysis of cheek musculature across the Infraclass Teleostei. (05/31/2010 - 07/05/2010). CASEY B. DILLMAN, Department of Biology, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri. To x-ray 1100 speci-mens. (06/15/2010 - 06/23/2010). SHOBNOM FERDOUS, Auburn University, Biological Sciences, Auburn, Alabama. Studying Mystus measure-ments and digital photography. (07/12/2010 - 07/15/2010). CARL FERRARIS, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California. Visiting researcher (05/10/2010 - 05/14/2010).

DANIEL GONÇALVES DE FRIETAS, Laboratório de Ictiologia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Biológicas/Zoologia.Departamento de Sistemática e Ecolo-gia/CCEN, Universidade Federal da Paraíba – UFPB, Bra-zil. Working on flatfishes. (06/01/2010 - 07/23/2010). LIV ALICE WANSETH GEFVERT, University of Mi-ami, Packing old return of old loan projects with LISA PALMER. (02/22/2010 - 09/14/2010). JESSICA GLASS, Yale University. Spring & Summer NMNH Research Experience for Undergraduates intern w/CAROLE BALDWIN (06/01/2010 - 08/06/2010). TERRY GRANDE, Ph.D. Professor, Graduate Program Director, Department of Biology, Loyola University, Chi-cago. Visited collection. (06/16/2010 - 06/19/2010). BRITT GRISWOLD, Infonetic/Maslow Media Group NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Mary-land. Photography. (06/26/2010). MARIA LAURA HABEGGER, PhD student from Dr. Motta's lab at University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida. Her dissertation focuses on the feeding biomechanics of piscivores fishes, and looking at Istiophorus platypterus (Sailfish) to CT scan. (07/06/2010 - 07/07/2010). KATHRYN E. (KATIE) JOHNSON, Washington Col-lege, Chestertown, Maryland. STEP hire working on staging and packing loans. (05/17/2010 - 08/21/2010). ANNALIS B. KENNEY, Huntingtown High School (Calvert Co.), Chesapeake Beach, MD. Intern with LISA PALMER working on reformatting fish radiographs. (06/21/2010 - 07/30/2010). KATHERINE (KATIE) LANG, Maryland Institute Col-lege of Art, Baltimore, MD. Intern with LISA PALMER working on the Fabulous Fish Illustration project. (06/14/2010 - 08/26/2010). MAO-YING LEE, Biodiversity Research Center, Aca-demica Sinica National Taiwan Ocean University, Taipei, Taiwan; Visiting Researcher, conducting collaborative re-search with TOM MUNROE on systematics and taxonomy of western Pacific tonguefishes. (07/13/2010 - 08/08/2010). EVA B. LORENTZ, T.C. Williams High School, Alexan-dria, VA. Intern with LISA PALMER working on refor-matting fish radiographs. (06/28/2010 - 07/26/2010). SARA LOURIE, Redpath Museum, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Hippocampus holotypes. (05/07/2010). BRENDAN LUTHER, Episcopal High School, Alexan-dria, VA. Spring & Summer Intern w/Carole Baldwin (05/10/2010 - 06/04/2010).

LUIZ R. AND MARIA CLAUDIA S.L. AND DAUGH-TER LAURA MALABARBA, Departamento de Zoologia – IB, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS BRAZIL and Museu de Ciencias e Tecnologia – PUCRS, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil; Visited collection. (07/14/2010 - 07/19/2010). CHRISTIANA MANDINA, University of Hawaii. Intern with LISA PALMER and working on mummy and over-size jar projects. (06/08/2010 - 08/13/2010). LEN AND HOLLY MATERMAN PLUS JACK AND BEN MATERMAN, Executive Director,Joint Powers Au-thority,San Francisquito Watershed, Menlo Park, CA and Stanford University, School of Education, External Rela-tions, Cubberley, Stanford, CA. Tour of Oceans (07/06/2010). CHARLENE MCCORD, Field Museum of Natural His-tory, Chicago, Illinois. Triggerfish species and photograph-ing the dissections. (07/19/2010 - 07/23/2010). WALDINEY MELLO, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Fellowship, and to visit the fish collection. (07/14/2010 - 07/29/2010). CRISTIANO RANGEL MOREIRA, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Diadema, Brazil; Working w/RICH VARI for one month on higher level relationships within the order Characifor-mes. (07/12/2010 - 08/15/2010). SAMANTHA MULVANY, University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. From Dr. Motta's lab (07/06/2010 - 07/07/2010). MICHAEL NEWBREY, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palae-ontology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; Examining dentaries from dried osteological specimens of Blennidae and Gobii-dae (04/14/2010 - 04/20/2010). LARRY PAGE, Curator of Fishes, Fish Div., Fla Mus. of Natural History, Gainesville, Florida. Looking at balitorids and nemacheilids. (07/14/2010 - 07/16/2010). PATRICIA PELAYO-VILLAMIL, Universidad de An-tioquia, Colombia. Measure morphological parameters on fish species for the database of IPez and a study of the eco-logical factors controlling the diversification process of Characiforms. (05/17/2010 - 07/31/2010). JORDAN PEMBERTON, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD. Intern with LISA PALMER on Fabu-lous Fish Illustration project. (05/10/2010 - 08/27/2010). MICHAEL RETZER, Illinois Natural History Survey, Institute of Natural Resources Sustainability, University of

Illinois, Champaign, Illinois. Examining specimens of Auchenoglanis. (06/07/2010 - 06/11/2010). FRANK RIBEIRO, Doctoral student at INPA (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia), Brazil. His advisor is Dra. Lúcia Happ Py-Danial and his dissertation is a system-atic revision of the genus Ageneiosus. (07/06/2010 - 07/13/2010). KEVIN RIKLIN, Walter Johnson High School, Bethesda, MD. Intern with LISA PALMER working on reformatting fish radiographs. (06/21/2010 - 08/19/2010). MARCELO ROCHA, Works in collections management in the fish collection at INPA, Manaus, Brazil; Visited be-fore ASIH meeting. (07/06/2010. KENNETH PEARCE (KEN) SEARLES, Washington College, Baltimore, MD. Intern with LISA PALMER and working with mummy and oversize jars projects. (05/24/2010 - 07/30/2010). BRIAN SIDLAUSKAS, Assistant Professor, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Corval-lis, Oregon. Interested in specimens from Guyana, Suri-name and French Guiana from the following fami-lies:Anostomidae, Chilodontidae, Curimatidae and Pro-chilodontidae (05/10/2010 - 05/14/2010). DAPHNE SOARES, University of Maryland, College Park, MD. Assistant professor at the University of Mary-land working on cavefish. (05/04/2010). MEAGAN SUNDBERG, Fisheries Associate at the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Honolulu, Hawaii. Work-ing with opahs and lampris. Works under Robert Hum-phreys with the Life History program of the Fisheries Biol-ogy and Stock Assessment Division (NMFS/NOAA). (06/24/2010 - 06/25/2010). ANDREA THOMAZ, Universidade Federal de Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; works on molecules, and received a grant from deepfin to work with Guillermo Orti at GWU. (04/01/2010 - 07/31/2010). KATHRYN MARGARET WEAVER, St. Olaf College, Minnesota. Intern with LISA PALMER and working on Fabulous Fish project. (06/07/2010 - 07/30/2010). LAURA WEIR, Simon Fraser University, Post-doctoral research fellow, Department of Biological Sciences, Bur-naby, Canada; Ricefish phylogeny. (05/03/2010 - 05/05/2010). JENNIFER WILLETT, George Mason University, Fair-fax, VA. STEP hire working on mummy jars project. (05/18/2010 - 08/13/2010).

MAMMALS by Helen Kafka

Research Feature -

New Montane Mammals Discovered in Central America

by Neil Woodman Two new species of mammals that live in the rugged, frosty highlands of the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes in western Guatemala, have been discovered by a USGS scientist. Neal Woodman, a Research Zoologist with the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and Cu-rator of Mammals at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, described two new species of small-eared shrews in the June issue of the Journal of Mammalogy. Although they look superficially very much like mice, shrews are distinct from rodents in many aspects of their morphology, as well as in their physiology, be-havior, and food habits. Shrews typically are abundant and common members of the biological communities in which they live, but they remain poorly know be-cause they are difficult to observe or capture. The two new species were named Cryptotis mam and Cryptotis lacertosus. The name mam is the name of the Mayan Indian group that lives in the region where the species was found. The name of the other shrew, lacertosus, is a Latin word meaning, “having a strong arm,” and refers to one of the sets of characteristics that helpful in distinguishing the new species. In a scientific age when many new species are identi-fied on the basis of genetic molecules, these two spe-cies were identified using a series of anatomical stud-ies. In addition to characteristics of the skull, which are traditionally used to identify mammals, Woodman also used characteristics of the rest of the skeleton, particularly the fore arms, and he employed digital x-ray technology to determine minute differences in the

bones of the fore feet that ultimately were shown to be useful in telling species apart.

Individuals of the new species were obtained during field work by Woodman and colleagues from San Jose State University, Northern Virginia College, and Texas Tech University in the remote highlands of Guatemala. The two species are known only from conifer forests above 2500 m elevation, where frosts are often common and water can freeze overnight –

not the com-mon view of a tropical forest. The geographi-cal ranges of both species are very small, and their habi-tat is threat-ened by logging, which

is common in the region. It is also likely that their habitat will be further reduced, if not lost entirely, as a result of climatic change. (See publication section for citation.)

Humeri

Manus skeletons

Campsite at El Rancho in los Cuchumatanes (photo by Neal Woodman)

Cryptotis mam. Photo by Neal Woodman

Honors Al Gardner receives Honorary Membership in the

ASM - ALFRED L. GARDNER, USGS, was awarded an Honorary Membership to the American Soci-ety of Mammalogists at the 90th annual meeting, held June 11-15 at the University of Wyoming, Laramie. This prestigious award was first given to J.A. Allen in 1919 and continues to distinguish mammalogists who have made significant and dedicated contributions to the field. As a graduate student at the University of Arizona, he mentored our very own Don Wilson, then an undergraduate, in mammalogy and even taught Don how to iden-tify bat skulls held behind his back. Al was also influential in many other mammalogists’ lives. One was cited as saying, “anything that he may have achieved over the past four decades is pri-marily due to [Al’s] influence on his ‘early’ life in mammalogy.” Al has named more than 19 mammal genera and species and is considered an authority on the rules

of the International Code for Zoological Nomenclature. The publication in 2008 of Mammals of South America, Volume 1: Marsupials, Xenarthrans, Shrews, and Bats, edited by Al, has been the cap-stone of his career. Over the past 50 years, Al has published more than 150 papers and monographs, with emphasis in the areas of taxonomy, systemat-ics, wildlife biology, and research in Neotropical mammalogy in general. Al has made and contin-ues to make many other important contributions to the study of mammals, and we ask you to join us in congratulating him on this well-deserved recognition.

More Honors KRIS HELGEN was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Society of Mammalogists, for a term from 2010-2013 at the Annual Meeting of ASM in Wyoming. He was also elected to the Washington Biologists’ Field Club in May. Meetings - KRIS HELGEN attended the workshop Integrating Datasets to Investigate Megafaunal Extinction in the Late Quaternary at the National Evolutionary Synthe-sis Center in Durham, North Carolina in May, and was able to attend part of the annual National Geo-graphic Society’s Explorers’ Symposium in June be-fore departing for the ASM conference in Wyoming.

Maressa Takahashi reports on the ASM meetings - The Division of Mammals, along with col-leagues from NZP, was well-represented at 90th meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists, held at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, June 11-15, 2010.

Attending from Mammals were DON WILSON, KRIS HELGEN, LAUREN HELGEN, RICHARD THORINGTON (with wife CAREY THORING-TON,) MARESSA TAKAHASHI, JOHN OSOSKY; from NZP were CHRISTINE BOZARTH, TAMMY HENRY, and MISSY ROBERTS. Posters presented by SI staff at the ASM - “A preliminary overview of morphological variation in the masked palm civet, Paguma larvata (Carnivora; Viverridae),” Lauren E. Helgen and Kristofer M. Helgen. “Squirrels of the World: a Compendium of the Sciuri-dae,” Richard W. Thorington, Jr., John L. Ko-prowski, Michael A. Steele, James F. Whatton, and Maressa Takahashi. “Urban population structure of the endangered San Joaquin kit fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica),” Tammy R. Henry, Katherine Ralls, Brian Cypher, Christine Van Horn Job, Samantha Bremner-Harrison and Jesús Maldonado. “Mid-Atlantic melting pot: non-invasive molecular detection of coyote origins in northern Virginia,” Christine A. Bozarth, Larry L. Rockwood, Cody W. Edwards and Jesús E. Maldonado. “Estimating spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) abun-dance using camera-trap surveys in Mole National Park, Ghana,” Maressa Takahashi and Cole Burton. Talks given by SI staff at the ASM- “Marsupial and monotreme biogeography: Surprising insights from overlooked specimens,” Kristofer M. Helgen. “Role of the Smithsonian in the black-footed ferret recovery program,” John J. Ososky and Jo Gayle Howard.

Outreach and Tours: JOHN OSOSKY and STEFAN OSOSKY pre-sented an outreach program on black-footed ferrets in the Biodiversity tent at the Folk-life Festival on July 4. John also gave a tour of the marine mammal collections on June 18 to interns from the NZP Community Outreach Center, and they are currently working together on some skeletal articula-tion projects. KRIS HELGEN gave research seminars to the NHRE interns, and later to NMNH interns as a whole, includ-ing a tour of the mammal collection, in June. He also provided a tour of his research program for middle school students visiting Washington DC as part of Na-tional Geographic’s Student Summit Program, in May. Trips and Travel - On July 22, CHARLEY POTTER and JOHN OSOSKY delivered two specimens that John had pre-pared for the Calvert Marine Museum, a manatee and a harbor porpoise. (The manatee skeleton may be a first record of this species to be stranded and collected in Maryland. ) Charley and John were accompanied by the interns working with them in the marine mammal lab. The museum director, the curator of paleontology, and the collection manager spent the whole day with them. The group went fossil-hunting at Scientist Cliffs, and afterword were taken by their hosts to a very nice lunch. This was followed by a wonderful behind-the-scenes tour of the museum. Interns - CHARLEY POTTER and JOHN OSOSKY hosted a number of interns in the Marine Mammal

lab this summer: CHELSEA PETERSON (Boston Uni-versity) has been working with John, boxing up marine mammal specimens, working on specimen data bases and re-jarring and relabeling ce-tacean fluid specimens.) AZHAR HUSSAIN (University of Massachusetts) CONNIE CHO (University of Michigan) have been working with Charley and CHRIS HUD-DLESTON on the marine mammal tissue collections. STEFAN OSOSKY (West Aurora High School, Illinois) is working with John, help-ing to prepare cetacean skeletons. Stefan is John’s nephew, and John says that while Stefan is first and fore-most a dinosaur devotee, he’s also interested in all things natural history. KRIS HELGEN sponsored several interns in the Division of Mammals this summer: SAMOA ASI-GAU, currently a Master’s Student at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, visiting on a fellowship from the East-West Center during May and June to study New Guinea mammals and ectoparasites and museum methods.

Connie Cho

Chelsea Peterson

Samoa Asigau

Stefan Ososky

RENATA BORNHOLDT, a visiting fellow from June to September, is a PhD stu-dent at Pontifícia Universi-dade do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil. She is documenting the full geo-graphic distribution and pat-terns of geographic varia-tion in the species of the mustelid genus Galictis, a little-studied group of Neotropical weasels. JOANNA LARSON, currently a rising senior at Harvard University, joined me under the new NHRE internship program from June to August to study pat-terns of morphological variation in elephant shrews of the genus Petrodromus and to study morphologi-cal features of polar bear-brown bear hybrids. --NORA LEWIN, previously based at the National Institutes of Health, joined me for an internship in May and June, working on the ontogeny and clas-sification of Asian pangolins; Nora is now visiting South Korea for a year on a Fulbright Fellowship.

Working with JESUS MALDONADO and NEAL WOODMAN, SUNJANA SUPEKAR, from Oberlin College, is studying the mo-lecular phylogeny and mor-phology of Central Ameri-cans shrews, Visitors - From April 1 through June 30, 2010, the Mammal Division hosted 80 visitors, of whom 63 were from the U.S., 5 from Camada. 4 from Argentina, 2 from Chile, 2 from the United Kingdom, and 1 each from Austria, Germany, Japan, and Peru.

Collections Management News SUZANNE PEURACH has been appointed co-Collection Manager with ROBERT FISHER for USGS Mammals. This is in recognition of Suzy’s in-creasing share of collection management duties, and to allow Bob to devote more of his time and attention to the production of a long-overdue updated catalog of the Mammals type collection.

New Faces coming to Mammals

The Mammal Division has recently completed the hir-ing process for two new collections-management posi-tions, which went to DARRIN LUNDE and KYN-DALL HILDEBRANDT. They are expected to take up duties sometime in late summer or early fall. Darrin comes to us with years of experience as collections manager for the Department of Mammalogy at the AMNH in New York. Kyndall is currently a graduate research assistant at the University of Alaska Fair-banks Museum of the North, with which she has been associated since her high school days. Look for more-detailed biographies of Darrin and Kyndall in a future issue of the Backbone, after their arrival.

Renata Bornholdt

Joanna Larson

Nora Lewin

Sunjana Supekar

is D.ANN PABST, now is a full professor and leading cetacean researcher at the University of North Caro-lina, Wilmington. Ann began her career with Charley as a student volunteer and intern in the Marine Mammal program.

New Discoveries - The 2008 expedition to the Foja Mountains of western New Guinea involving KRIS HELGEN, CHRIS MILENSKY, and research associate BRUCE BEEHLER, was the subject of an article in the June 2010 issue of National Geographic magazine. The expedition team’s discoveries were the subject of ma-jor media coverage elsewhere, including in the Associ-ated Press, Washington Post, Nature magazine, and many other venues. The documentation of new species of extinct flying foxes in Samoa by KRIS HELGEN, LAUREN HEL-GEN, and DON WILSON was featured in an article in the June 2010 issue of the French version of Na-tional Geographic magazine, along with a French ver-sion of the Foja Mountains article. KRIS HELGEN’S research involving the Foja Mountains and other new mammal discoveries was featured in an article in the August 2010 issue of Smithsonian Magazine.

Interdiscisciplinary Presentation and

Reflections by Neal Woodman

During July 15–21, NEAL WOODMAN attended the 17th Biennial Congress of the New Chaucer Society in Siena, Italy. He and co-author Sandy Feinstein (Penn State University) jointly presented the paper, “Shrews, Rats, and a Polecat in the Pardoner’s Tale,” in one of a series of related

Media coverage -

Squirrels make the NY Times! DICK THORINGTON is immensely pleased that someone at the NY Times shares his interest in squirrels. In an article titled “Nut? What Nut? The Squirrel Outwits to Survive,” published online in the July 5 science section of The New York Times, writer Natalie Angier describes the squirrel’s ability to survive and thrive in almost every part of the world. Squirrels: The Animal Answer Guide (Johns Hopkins Press, 2006,) by Thor and KATIE FERRELL, was mentioned in the article in connec-tion with the squirrel’s amazingly adaptable and plastic behavior. In this case, it was about a Washingtonian squirrel using tourists’ movements to navigate the perils of crossing the street. Mike Steele of Wilkes Univer-sity and John Koprowski of University of Arizona were also referenced. Thorington, Steele, Ko-prowski, and JIM WHATTON are currently work-ing on a new book, Squirrels of the World. Thor hopes that the article was read by many and will lead to more appreciation for these tough little crit-ters.

Marine Mammals in the News - Sometimes it’s worthwhile dipping a bit into the past for an item that didn’t make it into an earlier edition of the Backbone. CHARLEY POTTER and the Marine Mammal Program were featured in the Herald-Mail of Hagerstown, MD in an article by Richard F. Belisle, “Whaleman Specializes in Specimens,” published online on November 22, 2009. In this article, Charley tells about the process and purpose of salvaging cetacean remains for the Museum’s collections and their importance for un-derstanding whale biology. He also talks about the nature of environmental threats that threaten the world’s whale populations. Mentioned in this article

PUBLICATIONS sessions devoted to medieval constructions of animals and organized by Susan Crane (Columbia University). “Shrews, Rats, and a Polecat …” investigated the many layers of meaning in the medieval use of animal imagery in Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale, from the multiple connotations of animal names as applied to both beasts and humans, to a contrasting look at taxonomy and relationships of the animals as perceived by a 14th Century agrarian society and as understood by 21st Century scientific observation. A fellow participant described the audience as “spellbound” during their reading of the paper, and the presence of a “real biologist” at the Congress led to numerous fruitful discussions. One function of this interdisciplinary presentation was make modern science relevant and easily accessible to scholars in a suite of disciplines (history and medieval literature) typically separated from the biological sci-ences. Imaginative literature like that of Chaucer reveals attitudes to the natural world, to things under-stood and things one would like to understand. From these representations, we also see how misconceptions emerge (many that continue into the present) that, in turn, are a form of public relations—both good and bad. We can also see how attitudes to both science and scientists may be ascertained from the literature. Wildlife management, specifically the culling of deer, for example, becomes difficult because of “Bambi.” On the other hand, hunting itself was once perceived as an art, acceptable to all classes, by aristocratic literature. Scientists are losing the public relations battle on too many fields— whether climate change or evolution—because they are not willing to speak outside their own specialized audiences. By not speaking out, we leave it to those who are not professionals and experts in the field to speak for us. That has not provided an ideal outcome thus far in the 21st century.

Tuscan countryside near Sienna, site of 17th Biennial Congress of the New Chaucer Society

Congress participants explore San Gimignano, walled medieval hill town.

Co-authors Sandy Feinstein and Neal Woodman inspect an Etruscan tomb.

PUBLICATIONS Aplin, K.P., and K.M. Helgen. 2010. Quaternary murid rodents of Timor. Part I: New material of Cory-phomys buehleri Schaub, 1937, and description of a second species of the genus. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 341: 1-80. Bravo, A., K.E Harms, and L.H. Emmons. 2010. Preference for collpa water by frugivorous bats (Artibeus): An experimental approach. Biotropica, 42(3): 276-280 Cole, F.R., and D.E. Wilson. 2010. Microtus miurus. Mammalian Species 855:75-89. Courtenay, W.R., Jr., B.B. Collette, T.E. Essington, R. Hilborn, J.W. Orr, D. Pauly, J.E. Randall, and W.F. Smith-Vaniz. 2009. Reply to Briggs Letter to the Editor. Fisheries 35(6):298. Dove, C.J., and S. Koch. 2010. Microscopy of feathers: A practical guide for forensic feather identification. Journal of American Society of Trace Evidence Examiners, 1(1): 15-61. Eggert, L.S., D. Powell, J. D.Ballou, A. F. Malo, A. Turner, J. Kumer, C. Zimmerman, R.C. Fleischer, and J.E. Maldonado. 2010. Pedigrees and the study of the wild horse population of Assateague Island National Seashore. Journal of Wildlife Management, 74(5): 963-973. Furness, A. I., R. W. McDiarmid, W. R. Heyer, and G. R. Zug. 2010. Oviduct modifications in foam-nesting frogs, with emphasis on the Genus Leptodactylus (Amphibia, Lep-todactylidae). South American Journal of Herpetology, 5(1):13-29. Goodman, S.M., and K.M. Helgen. 2010. Species limits and distribution of the Malagasy carnivoran genus Eupleres (family Eupleridae). Mammalia 74: 177-185. Hamilton,A., G.R Zug and C.C. Austin. 2010. Biogeographic anomaly or human introduction: A tree skink (Reptilia: Squamata) in the Cook Islands? Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 100: 318-328. Hearty, P.J., and S.L. Olson. 2010. Geochronoloogy, bio-stratigraphy, and changing shell morphology in the land snail subgenus Poecilozonites during the Quaternary of Bermuda. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 293(1-2): 9-29. Hilton, E.J., G.D. Johnson, and W.F. Smith-Vaniz. 2010. Osteology and systematics of Parastromateus niger (Perciformes: Carangidae) with comments on the carangid dorsal gill-arch skeleton. Copeia (2): 312-333.

Jehl, J.R. Jr., and H. A.nnette E. 2010. The postbreeding migration of eared grebes. The Wilson Journal of Ornithol-ogy, 122 (2), 217-227 Munroe, T.A., and S.R. Ross. 2010. Distribution and life history of two diminutive flatfishes, Citharichthys gymnorhinus and C. cornutus (Pleuronectiformes: Paralichthyidae), in the western North Atlantic. Fishery Bulletin, 108:323-345. Olson, S.L., and P.J. Hearty. 2010. Predation as the primary selective force in recurrent evolution of gigantism in Poecilozonites land snails in Quaternary Bermuda. Biologiy Letter.:Online, 16 June, 2010.Doi:10.1098/rsbl. 2010.0423 Olson, S.L., and A. M. Nieves-Rivera. Fossil evidence and probable extinction of the Greater Fishing Bat Noctilio leporinus on Isla de Mona, Puerto Rico (Chiroptera: Noctilionidae). 2010. Mastozoología Neotropical, 17(1):167-170. Parenti, L.R., and R.K. Hadiaty. 2010. A new, remarkably colorful, small ricefish of the genus Oryzias (Beloniformes, Adrianichthyidae) from Sulawesi, Indonesia. Copeia (2):269-274. Parenti, L.R. 2010. [Review of]: Reproductive Biology And Phylogeny Of Fishes (Agnathans And Bony Fishes). Edited By B. G. M. Jamieson. Journal of.Fish Biology. 76(10): 2599-600. Pecio, A.,J. R. Burns, and S. H. Weitzman, 2010. Modifi-cations for insemination in male reproductive system in Glandulocaudinae and Stevardiinae (Teleostei: Charaacifor-mes: Characidae). [ A published abstract of an oral presentation given by Anna Pecio in May 2010 in Toruñ, Ciechocinek, Poland]. Poss, S. G., J. M. McCosker, C. C. Baldwin. 2010. A New species of Scorpaenodes (Pisces: Scorpaenidae) from the Galápagos and Cocos Islands, with a discussion of the limits of Scorpaenodes and Thysanichthys. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 61:235-267. Smith, D. G. 2010. Historical Perspectives – Clarence Lavett Smith. Copeia, 2010 (2): 334-340. Velazco, P. M., A.L.Gardner, and Patterson, B. D. 2010. Systematics of the Platyrrhinus helleri species complex (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae), with descriptions of two new species. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 159(3): 785-812. Vidal, N., J. Marin, M. Morini, S. Donnellan, W. R. Branch, R. Thomas, M. Vences, A. Wynn, C. Cruaud, & S. B. Hedges. 2010. Blindsnake evolutionary tree reveals long history on Gondwana. Biology Letters 6(4): 558-561

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To be added to the Backbone mailing list send an e-mail to [email protected] or, call Joy Gold at 202-633-1283 or address your request to Backbone, Joy Gold Rm. 369A NHB, MRC 109, Box 37012 Smithsonian Insti tution, Washington, DC 20013-7012

Williams, J.T., and S.V. Bogorodsky. 2010. Entomacrodus solus, a new species of blenny (Perciformes, Blenniidae) from the Red Sea. Zootaxa 2475: 64-68. Williams, J. T. 2010. A new species of blenny, Cirripectes heemstraorum, from Cape Vidal, South Africa (Family Blenniidae). Smithiana, Publications in Aquatic Biodiversity, Bulletin No. 12: 3-7. Williams, J.T., K. E. Carpenter, J.L.Van Tassell, P. Hoetjes, W. Toller, P. Etnoyer, and M. Smith. 2010. Biodiversity assessment of the fishes of Saba Bank Atoll, Netherlands Antilles. PLoS ONE 5(5): e10676. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010676 Williams, J.T., W.F. Smith-Vaniz, & P.A. Hastings. 2009. Cirripectes viriosus, pp. 16-17, Ecsenius dilemma, pp. 42-43, Ecsenius kurti, pp. 44-45, Istiblennius colei, pp. 52-53, and Plagiotremus isodon, pp. 42-43. In: Alava, M.N.R., K.E. Carpenter, M.J.S. Palomar, R.F.N. Quicho, & B. Poli-doro. (Editors). 2009. Red List Status of Marine Endemic Teleosts (Bony Fishes) of the Philippines. Global Marine Species Assessment for the Coral Triangle – First Philippine Conservation Incorporated. 108 pp. Wilson, D.E. 2010. What’s in a Name? Journal of Mam-malian Evolution, 17(2):149. [Review of: The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals – Beolens, B., Watkins, M., and Grayson, M]

Wittenrich, M. L., C. C. Baldwin, and R. G. Turingan. 2010. Larval development of laboratory-reared green mandarin, Synchiropus splendidus (Teleostei: Callionymidae), with comments on fresh coloration of lar-val Paradiplogrammus bairdi from Belize. Aqua 16, 20 Jan. 2010: 7-18. Woodman, N., and Stephens, R.B. 2010. At the foot of the shrew: manus morphology distinguishes closely-related Cryptotis goodwini and Cryptotis griseoventris (Mammalia: Soricidae) in Central America. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 99(1): 118-134. Woodman, N., 2010. History and dating of the publication of the Philadelphia (1822) and London (1823) editions of the Edwin James's Account of an expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains. Archives of Natural History, 37(1): 28-38. Woodman, N. 2010. Two new species of shrews (Soricidae) from the western highlands of Guatemala. Journal of Mammalogy, 91(3):566–579. Zug, G.R., J. F. Jacobs, J. V. Vindum, and Kyi Soe Win. 2010. Non-Reproductive Seasonal Color Change in a Burmese Population of Garden Lizards (Calotes “versicolor”: Agamidae: Reptilia). Salamandra 46(2): 104-107.

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