Tortoise Traffic

In an era where digitization and networking technologies offer a new way for environmental and natural history institutions, like natural history museums and science centers, to promote their services to the general public, new challenges rise on the field on intellectual property rights. Natural Europe project aim is to make natural history knowledge accessible on an open access basis to a wide spectrum of end-users, through Europeana portal. The value the project delivers is not merely in making works available online, but in the open access terms under which the works are available. Therefore understanding Intellectual Property considerations is fundamental in achieving this goal. The aim of this paper is to enable a further discussion on issues concerning the intellectual property rights for environmental and natural history collections.

Gustav Adolf Fischer (1848–1886) was an important German naturalist and ornithological collector in Africa. The extensive ornithological collections from his several expeditions were sent to at least two different museums (Zoological Museum Berlin and Zoological Museum Hamburg), and to a smaller extent, some private sales are assumed. Together with Anton Reichenow, Fischer described many species new to science, so the many types in the collections make them especially important. We located 616 bird specimens in the collections of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and the Museum der Natur Hamburg along with a few further specimens in the collections of the Museum Heineanum Halberstadt, the Naturalis Biodiversity Center Leiden, The Natural History Museum-UK (Tring), the American Museum of Natural History, New York and the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. Among these, type specimens for 133 species and subspecies of birds were traced. For all of them, an update of the collecting localities with particular emphasis on some previously unknown locations is provided. A taxonomic update of the described species is given and a designation of lectotypes for the following four taxa was necessary: Francolinus Altumi G.A. Fischer & Reichenow, 1884, Accipiter minullus tropicalis Reichenow, 1898, Hypochera ultramarina var. orientalis Reichenow, 1894 and Spinus citrinelloides frontalis Reichenow, 1904b.

In 1712 the poet Elkanah Settle (1648–1724) published a funeral poem, Threnodia Apollinaris , dedicated to the memory of Dr Martin Lister.[1][1] Settle had a good deal of material to draw upon, because Lister had been Vice-President of the Royal Society, a physician to Queen Anne, and the first

Tracing the evolution of modern museums of science and natural history

Planning the future of plant systematics: Report on a special colloquium at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The National Museum of Natural History is committed to long-term stewardship of collections and to supporting their use by scientists and the general public. This stewardship role is unique among other US natural history museums. As the nation’s natural history museum, the National Museum of Natural History has a mandated commitment to conserve and protect its collections in a manner that will assure their continued accessibility by future generations and maintain the National Museum of Natural History mission. A significant number of objects from the National Museum of Natural History are permanently stored at the Museum Support Center in Suitland, MD. This space not only includes collections from the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), but also the Museum Conservation Institute (MCI), the National Museum of American History (NMAH), the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (HMSG), the Freer Sackler Gallery (FSG) and the National Museum of African Art (AfA) as well as several other museums. In terms of collections access and use, the museum support center has a team, Collections Support Services (CSS), dedicated to collections’ long-term care and preservation. Collections Support Services provides access and support for the 730,000 square feet of collections housed at MSC. CSS staff perform a variety of technical and labor tasks related to the cleaning, preparation, packing, transport, unpacking, and permanent storage of objects and specimens. This includes building custom aluminum pallets for oversized objects and whale skull cradles. Moreover, while the use of palletized storage is not a new concept in museum storage, the construction of Pod 4 at the Museum Support Center in Suitland, MD posed some unique challenges for the permanent storage of oversized collections. Pod 4 provides continuous rows of 2', 4' and 8' deep cantilevered open racking from floor to ceiling (22 feet high), and allows palletized objects to be moved and placed in the racking via forklift. Traditional wooden pallets are unacceptable by archival standards, as they are acidic by nature, bulky, heavy, not fire-retardant, and prone to pest infestation. Collections Support Services circumvented these issues by establishing an innovative system of customized aluminum pallets for collections’ long-term care and preservation. These pallets are durable and lightweight, and must pass several quality control tests that include dropping and jarring. They are also designed with multiple functions in mind for ease of use, storage, transport, and maintenance.

Natural history collections and museums made their appearance in the Ottoman in late 19th century through various attempts to build collections through field excursions, donations and exchanges among researchers, individuals and institutions around the world. Among them, the Imperial Medical School of the Ottoman Empire, schools of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) and other American educational groups and French colleges stand out with their vast collections from various parts of the Ottoman Empire and beyond. While these museums were created and built by eminent curators and researchers, a considerable amount of work was carried out by uncredited staff and the students. The history of these museums was often obscured by catastrophic events such as the great fires in Istanbul, the passing of the curators and other administrators and, particularly, the devastating effects of the First World War. However, long-lasting commercial science objects networks and the establishment of global natural history collections and museums are still operational today, supported by scientific exchange between other countries and the Ottoman Empire during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Drawing an outline of the history of the natural history collections of the Ottoman Empire can shed light on the evolution of both the naturalistic movement within the Ottoman society and an embryonic scientific network around the Middle East and the rest of the world.

MacFadden, B. J. (Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, The American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, 10024) 1976. Cladistic analysis of primitive equids, with notes on other perissodactyls. Syst. Zool. 25:1-14.-The following hypotheses are developed by cladistic methodology, using only synapomorphic characters to assess phylogenetic relationships. The sister group of perissodactyls is formed by phenacodont condylarths, as evidenced in both groups by reduction (or absence) of metapodials and reduction (or absence) of the paraconid-paralophid complex on the lower cheek teeth. The taxon Perissodactyla is monophyletic, as defined by the presence of a saddle-shaped, or concave, navicular facet on the astragalus. Within perissodactyls, Hyracotherium and other equids form a monophyletic group, distinct from all non-equid perissodactyls, as evidenced by confluence of the foramen ovale and middle lacerate foramen in the ventral basicranium, and by the optic foramen that has migrated close to, or has become confluent with, a group of posteroventral foramina: anterior lacerate, rotundum, and anterior opening of the alisphenoid canal. The Palaeotheriidae are included in the Equidae at a lesser taxonomic rank. Within equids, Orohippus has apomorphic dental characters (greater degree of molarization of the premolars) relative to Hyracotherium. Orohippus and Haplohippus are morphologically similar. The premolars of Epihippus have a degree of molarization greater than those of Orohippus and Haplohippus. The subfamily Hyracotheriinae is a paraphyletic taxon and should be abandoned. [Hyracotheriinae; Hyracotherium; Equidae; Perissodactyla; cladism.] Cladism is a logical framework for reconstructing phylogeny, and among systematists it is gaining acceptance as a valid method for relating taxa. The primary purpose of this paper is to apply cladistic analysis to perissodactyls, not to discuss it in theoretical terms. The theory of cladism has been extensively discussed elsewhere: in the definitive work by Hennig (1950, in German; 1966, English translation) and in many more concise articles (e.g., Hennig, 1965; Brundin, 1968; Kavanaugh, 1972). Many terms used in the present paper are adopted from those discussions. The methods of determining that a character is plesiomorphic (primitive), symplesiomorphic (shared primitive), apomorphic (derived), or synapomorphic (shared derived) conform with the discussion of Schaeffer, Hecht, and Eldredge (1972). The purpose of this paper is to apply cladistic analysis to perissodactyls, particularly to equids. After equids are set apart as a monophyletic group, distinct from other perissodactyls on the basis of apomorphic characters, then several primitive equids will be discussed. Various taxa discussed in this paper need taxonomic revision, e.g., phenacodontid condylarths. Also, some taxa are not satisfactory (monophyletic) cladistic categories. Occasionally, these problems will be mentioned when germane to the discussion. It is not within the scope of this paper to discuss problems of all perissodactyl taxa. Unless otherwise indicated, the nomenclature used represents the present and imperfect state of the art. Names of institutions are abbreviated as follows: AMNH, The American Museum of Natural History, New York; BMNH, British Museum (Natural History), London; CMNH, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; YPM, Peabody Museum of Natural History, New Haven. SISTER GROUP OF PERISSODACTYLS A basic procedure of cladistic analysis is to search for the sister group. What is the sister group of perissodactyls? Numerous

The historical catalogs of the museum collections contain a wealth of information for historians seeking to reconstruct their contents, how they were displayed and the ways in which they were used. This paper will present the complete transcription of a draft catalog that was prepared in 1797 for the Museum of Natural History and Antiquities of the University of Padua. Conserved in the university's Museum of Geology and Paleontology, the catalog was the first to be compiled of the museum, which was established in 1733 thanks to the donation by Antonio Vallisneri Jr. of his father Antonio Vallisneri Sr.'s collection of antiquities and natural history. The catalog was compiled by the custodian of the museum, the herbalist and amateur naturalist Bartolomeo Fabris. It is of great interest because it provides a record of the number and nature of the pieces conserved in the museum at a time when natural history and archeology collections were still undivided. It also provides indications as to how such collections were arranged for display in the public halls of a university at the end of the eighteenth century. Based on this catalog, with additional information drawn from other manuscript and published sources and museum catalogs from the 1830s conserved in various institutes at the University of Padua, it is possible to reconstruct the contents and layout of a significant late 18th-century natural history collection.

The National Museum (NM) is preparing several temporary exhibitions in all of its buildings, along with preparing new permanent exhibitions in the New and Historical Buildings. All parts of the National Museum are incorporated in the preparation of new exhibitions, i.e. the Historical Museum, Natural History Museum, Czech Museum of Music, Náprstek Museum and the National Museum Library. In 2017, these exhibition projects are: Light and Life, Masaryk as a Phenomenon, and Indians. In 2018, the National Museum will present the Czech-Slovak / Slovak-Czech exhibition, which will reflect the 100th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia, together with selected moments of Czechoslovakian history and the relationship of these two nations. 2019 could bring the opening of the grand Egyptology exposition Sun Kings and also new Natural history expositions. The remaining permanent expositions should be opened in 2020. The exhibitions in this period will likely recall some important anniversaries (1620, 1920). In future years, the renovation of the Czech Museum of Music and Náprstek Museum will take place.

Reviewed by: Dodo by Jeffrey Carpenter et al. Shelby Brewster DODO. Co-created by Jeffrey Carpenter, Gab Cody, Tami Dixon, and Sam Turich. Bricolage Production Company, Carnegie Museum of Art and Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh. October 20 and November 4, 2017. In the late 1890s, famed US industrialist Andrew Carnegie founded the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History. Bricolage Production Company’s immersive work DODO, co-created by Jeffrey Carpenter (director), Gab Cody (lead writer), Tami Dixon (director), and Sam Turich (director), gave audiences a dreamlike journey through the public and private spaces of both museums. Through a series of encounters with performers, museum staff, and collections, DODO explored the social and cultural meanings of collecting in light of climate change. Upon arriving at the museums, I joined the small group who would journey through the performance with me. A representative (Fred Frances) of the “National Self-Preservation Society” welcomed us to our “donation process”—what we were donating remained mysterious at this point. He interviewed each of us and based on our answers gave us an object that would determine our path. The first time I attended, I was given a sprig of eucalyptus; the second time, a small bone. We took a service elevator into the art museum, where the Docent (Emilie Sullivan) guided us through the darkened galleries. After asking to see our objects, she directed each of us to contemplate a particular piece of art until she came to retrieve us. While enjoyably meditative, the connection between this first encounter with museum collections and the performance’s framing was unclear. Standing before John McCracken’s sculpture Untitled (Blue Leaning Plank), I wondered exactly how I should respond. Being in the gallery after hours created a delicious sensation of breaking the rules, but the lack of framing left me feeling lost. We crossed into the natural history museum’s polar exhibit: dioramas of Canadian Inuit seal hunting and taxidermied polar bears. The gregarious Explorer (Michael McBurney), a high-society type with a penchant for hunting, regaled us with tales of his exploits. He lamented the loss of his sport as he and his fellows were hunting their prey to extinction. Our engagement with the Explorer brought out questions of the provenance of the museums’ acquisitions: How do the legacies of colonialism continue to play out in contemporary cultural institutions? Across the hall in the Egyptian exhibit, two of my counterparts and I were met by a pensive Yasmine (Watipaso Kumwenda). She described her home in a future where it was difficult to breathe unless you could afford your own climate. Surrounded by funerary boats, she asked us what would be left of humans? (The answer: plastics.) Yasmine sent my companions off, asking me to crawl through a small tunnel behind a sarcophagus. Suddenly, a flashlight interrupted us. A guard scolded me for being in a restricted area, then led me away. On a catwalk above the museum, I entered the nest of an avian couple: Maeve (Kelsey Robinson) and Marvin (Tyler Ray Kendrick). Maeve treated me and another participant to a song on her ukulele. The jovial mood was broken when Marvin announced that they could keep only one of us. He asked me: What makes me keepable? As I dumbly blurted out that I make a good chicken pot pie, he shouted my answers to Maeve. They decided that I was not worth keeping and sent me away. With two other participants, I met a museum scientist preserving the body of a small bird. As we entered her work-room she asked one of us to open a chest freezer and remove a plastic bag containing a specimen. I expected to hand it to her, but instead she asked me to hold the frozen bird in my hands, thawing it. For the next several minutes, as she showed us other specimens and tools of her trade, I held the cold, plastic-wrapped bird between my palms. These encounters drew attention to the ways in which life is circumscribed as worth conserving within the confines of the museum, and the ways that life is deemed valuable (or not) outside of it. Click for larger...

The French geologist Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond (1741–1819) abandoned the legal profession to pursue studies in natural history, working at the museum of natural history in Paris and as royal commissioner of mines. His enthusiasm for geology took him in 1784 to Britain, to investigate the basalt formations on the Hebridean island of Staffa described by Sir Joseph Banks in Pennant's Tour in Scotland (also reissued in this series). His subsequent account was published in France in 1797, and first translated into English in an abridged form in 1814. This two-volume annotated translation by the well-known geologist Sir Archibald Geikie (1835–1924), prefaced by a short biography of Faujas, was published in 1907. The work is interesting for its social as well as its geological observations. Volume 2 describes the geology and natural history of the Hebrides. On his return journey, Faujas also visits the geological marvels of Derbyshire.

GLOBAL WARMING: UNDERSTANDING THE FORECAST. American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY (May 15, 1992 ‐ January 19, 1993); Museum of Natural History of Los Angeles County (April 3 ‐ July 25, 1993); Carnegie Science Center, Pittsburgh, PA (September 24,1993 ‐ February 13, 1994); Denver Museum of Natural History (November 24, 1994 ‐ March 26, 1995); St. Louis Science Center (May 26 ‐ October 15, 1995); National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC (December 15, 1995 ‐ May 5, 1996).

-The forelimb muscles of several species of the group are here described and illustrated, with the goal of discovering character states of use in delineating clades within the Tyrannidae. These muscles conform in all species to the oscine pattern as described by other authors, with the exception of a few features. Special attention is given to M. latissimus dorsi caudalis, the only muscle that varies widely among, as well as within, the species examined. Absence of this' muscle in the species ofMyiozetetes could mean that this group is a clade. Variation in other tyrannids, however, indicates that closely related species may be losing M. latissimus dorsi caudalis independently. The present study of wing muscles in the kingbird assemblage (Traylor 1977) was undertaken as part of a larger study, to determine whether the appendicular musculature of New World flycatchers (Tyrannidae) can provide information of use in constructing phylogenetic hypotheses for this group. Anatomical data from the work of Garrod (1876), Ames (1971), MidtgArd (1982), and W. E. Lanyon (pers. comm.) have recently been used in a cladistic analysis of relationships within the Tyrannoidea (McKitrick 1985). Other anatomical data for this group are scarce and incomplete, and much additional information is needed from a variety of anatomical (and molecular) systems to clarify relationships within this group. A few published studies of the forelimb muscles of oscines exist, e.g., Swinebroad (1954), Hudson and Lanzillotti (1955), George and Berger (1966), Borecky (1977), and Raikow (1977, 1978), but I have found virtually no such information for suboscines. I undertook to describe and illustrate the forelimb muscles of several species of the group, and compare them with what is known of these muscles in other passerine birds. My purpose was to determine polarities of character states, and thereby assess the potential of this anatomical system for phylogenetic analysis. Similar data for the hindlimb muscles are provided in McKitrick (in press). My working hypothesis was that the Tyrannidae is monophyletic (McKitrick 1985) and, further, that the group is also a clade (Lanyon 1984). MATERIALS AND METHODS I dissected fluid-preserved specimens of the following species: Tropical Kingbird (Tyrannus melancholicus USNM 504538 and 504539), Rusty-margined Flycatcher (Myiozetetes cayanensis USNM 504542), Piratic Flyca cher (Legatus leucophaius USNM 510867), and Variegated Flycatcher (Empiono us varius FMNH 288494), all members of the group. One muscle, M. latissimus dorsi caudalis, was intraspecifically variable, and I examined this muscle in 39 other species of Tyrannidae to assess the extent of variation. Dissections were done under a stereomicroscope at 6 x, 12 x and 25 x, with the use of iodine stain (Bock and Shear 1972) to enhance visibility of muscle fibers. Anatomical nomenclature is from Baumel et al. (1979), and abbreviations are, for the most part, from Zusi and Bentz (1984). Descriptions of muscles refer to Tyrannus melancholicus, and are the same in the other species unless otherwise stated. Comparisons with other passerine species are noted where differences occur. Abbreviations for museums from which specimens were borrowed are as follows: AMNH, American Museum of Natural History; CM, Carnegie Museum of Natural History; FMNH, Field Museum of Natural History; KU, University of Kansas; LSU, Louisiana State University; USNM, National Museum of Natural History; YPM, Peabody Museum, Yale University. Collection data were reported in McKitrick (1984). RESULTS AND COMPARISONS M. rhomboideus superficialis (Fig. I:RS) is a thin, flat, essentially parallel-fibered muscle, lying deep to M. latissimus dorsi pars cranialis and superficial to M. rhomboideus profundus. It arises by an aponeurosis from the neural spines of the last two cervical vertebrae and the neural spines of the first dorsal vertebrae. It passes craniolaterally to insert by a narrow aponeurosis on the dorsomedial surface of the c anial two-thirds of the scapula. The cranialmost fibers insert at the very cranial tip of the

Karen A. Rader & Victoria E. M. Cain Life on Display: Revolutionizing U.S. Museums of Science and Natural History in the Twentieth Century. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2014. 459 pp. Cloth $45.00. - Volume 55 Issue 3