nelson.794@osu.edu | Fur, Feathers, Fangs, and Frogs

Second life of a manatee

March 10 2015

You may have seen the newest addition to the tetrapod collection, a manatee skeleton, during the Open House (7-Feb) or read the previous blog post. Last Sunday the manatee was in the news again: reporters from the Columbus Dispatch had interviewed Andy Calinger-Yoak, EEOB Ph.D. candidate who articulated the skeleton. He told the detailed story of manatee Willoughby’s short life, how she was sent from St. Lucie River in Florida to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium to recover from injuries from a boat incident, her death two years later and how she ended up well preserved in our museum collection. Andy took on the challenge, recruited a team of helpers and articulated Willoughby’s full skeleton so that visitors can learn about peculiarities of and adaptations to a manatee’s lifestyle.

You can read the full article and hear an interview with Andy here.

Andy talking about the manatee skeleton

We did it again!

February 9 2015

Our annual museum Open House was a success with over 2,800 visitors! It is great to see so many people interested in Natural History and visit our collections each year – thank you all for your support!

In the tetrapod collection, visitors could meet Willoughby, our manatee from the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium.

Anna Smith admiring the manatee

The skeleton was meticulously cleaned and re-assembled by Andy Yoak, EEOB graduate student; during the Open House, Andy tirelessly answered questions about the process of assembling a skeleton as well as the life history of manatees. Visitors could also see a short video documenting the process.

Andy Yoak explaining the manatee skeleton

Thousands of birds die each year when they collide with man-made structures, in particular windows. We encourage people to collect these dead birds and bring them to the museum so that we can prepare them into museum study skins, accession them to our collection and make them available to future research. Now we are giving these birds out for yearlong adoptions.

Stephanie Malinich with birds for adoption

Some, like this House finch, have already found a supporter.

This House Finch has been adopted

If you would like to find out more about this program and adopt a bird please visit here.

Open House at the Museum

February 5 2015

Looking for something fun to do this Saturday? Bring your friends, colleagues and family to the Annual Open House at the Museum of Biological Diversity on Saturday, February 7th from 10am – 4pm. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to meet and talk to researchers and staff and to marvel over the beauty and diversity of specimens they so meticulously care for all year.

This year’s theme will take you into the world of plants and animals that have been the source and inspiration for the most potent poisons and medicines. The complexity of these chemicals is matched only by the complexity of behaviors, anatomies, and biology that organisms have evolved to deploy these natural weapons.

Come explore nature indoors at the Museum Open House! Hands-on activities for kids and adults. Live animals. Treasure Hunt. Special displays. Tours of the collections. Lots and lots of fun!
FREE ADMISSION. FREE PARKING.

Meet Willoughby, a Florida manatee

January 28 2015

Thanks to Andy Yoak, graduate student in EEOB, we now have an articulated skeleton of a manatee on display in the collection! Visit her during our annual Open House on Saturday, February 7th (more information about this event soon!)

Willoughby, an 11-year-old female Caribbean manatee, was donated by the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. The animal was rescued from the St. Lucie River in Florida after being struck with a propeller from a watercraft in June 1995.

Several bones of the skeleton were missing and we were able to 3-D print some of them and give Willougby a unique look. The assembly process of this skeleton has been captured with a GoPro camera and you can watch the video on YouTube.

Note the part of the lower left jaw that was reconstructed through 3-D printing

Note the right shoulder blade which was reconstructed through 3-D printing

Cool facts about manatees

You may know manatees under their alternate name sea cows which is inspired by their slow pace when grazing underwater. Powering themselves with their strong tails, manatees typically glide along at 5 miles/hr. They eat water grasses, weeds and algae, and lots of them to keep up their massive bodies. An adult manatee weighs on average 800-1,200 pounds at a length of 8-10 feet and feeds 6-8 hours each day.

Despite their bulk, manatees actually have very little fat under their skin which makes them very sensitive to water temperature changes and intolerant to cold waters (below 68 degrees).

Boating collisions are the number one killer of manatees. They are killed by impact injuries from physical force of a boat traveling at a high rate of speed as well as by rotating propellers.

You can find more facts about manatees and how to help them survive here. To see a life manatee, visit the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

Museum specimens inspire artist

January 25 2015

Last night (24-January-2015) was the opening of Samantha Parker Salazar’s new show Malleable Matrices at the OSU Urban Arts space in downtown Columbus. Anna Smith, Emily Archibald and myself followed Samantha’s invitation to the reception.

Samantha is a recipient of the John F. Fergus Family Fellowship, and a printmaking lecturer at The Ohio State University. She is known for her intricate cut-paper installations. One of her new pieces, Waking Red, is a vortex of cut forms and vibrant colors. It features images of amphibians and reptiles which she photographed at the OSU Tetrapod collection last December.

Waking Red by Samantha Parker Salazar

detail of Waking Red

You can visit the exhibit through Thursday, January 29, 2015 at the OSU Urban Arts Space
at 50 West Town Street, Columbus, OH 43215

This is the season ..

December 19 2014

.. for Christmas bird counts! Every year thousands of volunteers walk the neighborhoods in cities, visit parks, woodlands and fields to identify and count birds. They are citizen scientists for a day and become part of the longest running bird survey organized by the Audubon society. The collected data are used by scientists to investigate trends in bird populations and thus provide crucial information for the conservation of today’s common birds which may be in decline tomorrow.

This year marks the 115^th Christmas Bird Count and counts take place Dec 14, 2014 to January 5, 2015. Given the large scale of the project local organizers find volunteers and compile the collected data. There is still time for you to find a Christmas bird count near you on this online map. On Sunday Dec 14th several groups counted birds in the Columbus circle:

You can participate as little or as much time as you want—you decide! The hardcore members of many groups though meet at the first daylight or even before to listen for owls and do not stop until the sun has set and the last light faded.

This year, with a group of friends and colleagues, I counted birds on west campus. We started the day at the north end of OSU Waterman farm. We scanned the open fields for sparrows and potential Horned Larks or even Snow Buntings which all had been reported from the area in years past but not this time.

Flocks of Rock Pigeons greeted us at the farm buildings:

A brush pile and the long line of wind-breaking trees provided shelter for a good variety (6 species!) of sparrow species.

For a full list of the 34 species seen during the day visit ebird. We saw some additional birds at the OSU west campus woodlot.

Keeping the collection alive

December 7 2014

You may think that a collection of dead animals does not require much work. You may want to rethink this, because every specimen needs to be cataloged, geo-referenced, i.e. we try to find the exact geographic location where it was found. We need to keep out insects that may cause severe damage to our specimens by eating them up, people want to borrow specimens for teaching, research and arts projects. These are just some of the tasks; we are also still adding new specimens to the collection. This collection would not be functioning without the help of some undergraduate students. Meet the team currently working in the collection:

Emily Archibald, an Evolution and Ecology major, has been mainly interested in the mammal collection and is re-organizing our many coyote skulls for teaching and research.

Emily with some of the organized coyote skulls

Stephanie Malinich graduated from OSU last spring, but she discovered her love for museum work as a student. She has been back as the “bird-skinner in-charge” since September. Stephanie has learned how to prepare museum study skins through some workshops with Dr. Jackie Augustine at the OSU Lima campus. She is always looking for new challenges, her newest project: preparing a skeleton of a Red-tailed Hawk with one spread wing.

Stephanie while preparing a Great Horned Owl

Rebecca Price, a Zoology major, has come to the collection as a volunteer. She has since taught herself the skill of bird study skin preparation and is now working together with Stephanie. Just recently she prepared a Pileated Woodpecker!

Rebecca cleaning the head of a Mallard

Anna Smith, a Molecular genetics major, discovered the tetrapod collection as a volunteer for our Open House last year. She has since re-organized the mammal teaching collection, labelled many skulls and bones as well as newly prepared bird skins.

Anna writing labels for some of the newly prepared study specimens

Curator of tetrapods

December 3 2014

As the curator of the tetrapod collection I am often being asked what the collection is used for and who uses it. The answer is simple, specimens are used for research and teaching as well as art projects and the users come form a wide range of agencies, organizations, schools and universities.

So what are tetrapods anyway? For those of you who speak Greek or Latin, this is no mystery, tetra means four and pedes means feet, so all animals that have in their current or ancestral state four limbs. Yes, birds are included too, wings being their second pair of limbs.

How old are the specimens? Some of them, especially among the birds, are from the 18-hundreds, others are very recent. Just today an American Woodcock was added to the collection. Not quite added yet, this bird must have hit a window and died, so we put it into our freezer where it joined hundreds of other birds that are awaiting their promotion to museum specimen.

You will learn about techniques how we prepare birds and other animals in some later posts.

American Woodcock found by Oleksandr Zinenko

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Author: nelson.794@osu.edu