I’ve been here for ten years… amazingly enough… and even I see something new every year. Our museum staff is a wonderful group of people, all of whom are passionately committed to the mission of the museum. They are also a fascinating mix.

Our building manager, Marlin, fixes leaking pipes, performs seek-and-destroy missions on fire ant nests and climbs the top of a 40-foot lift to change light bulbs in the museum’s Plaza by day. But by night he’s part of the popular band “Harvey and the Wallbangers,” and plays gigs all over the state.

Chris, the jovial head of the museum’s custodial staff, doubles each year as Santa Claus at the museum’s annual Holiday Happening event – patiently listening to the holiday wishes of dozens of kids and having his photo taken hundreds of times.

Our associate director is an amateur falconer who captured and trained his own hunting red-tailed hawk.

Our head of exhibits, Tom, has a passion for prehistoric technology and can show you how to build and throw your own boomerang or atl-atl.

Each year at the Members Night event I’m reminded of what an amazing group of people we have here, and how much each of them enjoys showing off the cool, amazing, fascinating and sometimes just plain bizarre things go on behind the scenes here.

This year I was tickled by the whiz-bang machine one of our building managers, Wes, concocted, using random pieces of equipment in his shop. With the help of various gears, a compressor, some lights and other bits, Wes created an invention that, when pumped up the correct pressure, spins both a wheel of fortune and a mop, (with a great WHOOSH and WHIRRRR), and the visitor wins a prize. How can you beat that?

It’s interesting to see our guests’ reactions to what they find, as well. There are people I’ve seen returning to this event year after year who nevertheless still spend a good three hours going from area to area, taking it all in. There are little girls who can’t get enough of the rows and rows of lizards and frogs in jars in the herpetology collection. There are seniors who will stand for half an hour and watch a curator painstakingly skin a rat and prepare the carcass for the Bug Room. And folks who come in from rural areas to pore over the trays of pot sherds and stone tool fragments in the archaeology collection, talking shop with Don Wyckoff, the archaeology curator, about paleolithics.

And, while I’m at it… lets hear it for the unpaid volunteers who sit patiently and show grade-schoolers how they chip dinosaur bones out of their rocky matrix, and the grad students who come in to teach guests how to name the four seasons in Cherokee.

One thing working at a natural history museum will do for you is to remind you on an almost daily basis to Stay Curious. The world is a big and utterly astounding place. Come on in… we’ll show you!

Kerry Magruder, curator, OU Libraries History of Science Collection, unpacks a first edition of Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle"

This morning, the first-editions of Darwin’s books arrived from the University of Oklahoma Libraries History of Science Collection. Curator Kerry Magruder brought them himself, packed in four big plastic tubs, in an OU van under armed escort by OU PD.

I admit it’s kind of funny how excited a bunch of academics can get about a few boxes of old books, but there is something about these that does give you a little jolt… knowing, with the gift of hind-sight, how some of them would change their world.

Some of the books are also quite beautiful. The illustrations are each individually hand colored. The bindings are elegant. Some have old library catalog numbers inked on the spines, and you know that some of the books are well-travelled and much handled over the years.

An OU Police officer escorted the collection of Darwin first editions to the museum

This morning, one of our curators brought to my attention a wonderful blog that some enterprising person is creating out there: a blog re-creating the voyage of the HMS Beagle, complete with illustrations and Google maps! Verrry cool. This is a fun way to make yourself smart on the subject of Darwin’s travels.  Here’s the link:  check it out for yourself!  www.thebeaglevoyage.com

Cover of The Voyage of the Beagle

Our exhibits team is hard at work these days, preparing to mount two special exhibitions at the museum on October 10. One of them I have mentioned here before: Drawing the Motmot, a collection of artwork by Debby Kaspari. The other I have not yet talked about. It’s Darwin at the Museum, and features the complete set of first editions of Darwin’s books, courtesy of the University of Oklahoma Libraries History of Science Collection.

Charles Darwin is, of course, a hot topic this year. It is both the 200th anniversary of his birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his most famous book: On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection, 1859, in which he laid out the framework for his theory of evolution by natural selection.

Now, I’m no biologist, but I have to admit that the first time I heard about this exhibit I was a little underwhelmed. Books? Really? But I’m here today to get you as jazzed up about this exhibition as I have become.

Darwin was not always the dowdy old guy with a white beard that we think of today. In his time, he was quite the dashing adventurer. Imagine the romantic figure he must have cut following his five year voyage around the world on the siling vessel the Beagle in the 19th century. FIVE YEARS.  On a ship.  Sailing the seven seas, exploring parts of the world that were virtually unknown.  He must have been all the social rage when he returned, full of swashbuckling stories of faraway places and the strange and exotic people and animals that inhabit them.

From what I understand, The Voyage of the Beagle, in which Darwin describes his experiences during the journey, was a Victorian era bestseller, and for good reason. Though the first edition was unillustrated, a second edition was later produced that was chock full of gorgeous color illustrations of the animals, people and landscapes Darwin had encountered along the way. The pictures were produced by some of the top scientific illustrators of the time and each one was hand colored.  (The illustrations will be shown as a slide presentation on a flat-screen television in the exhibition.) These images must have been something like National Geographic’s most famous photos for their time.  People all over the world would have been poring over these pictures of wonderful exotic animals.  It’s likely the illustrated version of the Voyage was a well-thumbed parlor show-piece in many homes.  People probably discussed it over polite dinners.  Young would-be explorers probably turned over the pages and dreamed of being a scientist adventurer themselves someday.  Perhaps little boys played at being Charles Darwin, swinging make-believe bolas over their heads as they road with the imaginary gauchos – the South American version of cowboys –  in their back yards.

An illustration of a falkland fox from Voyage of the Beagle

And if that’s not enough to get you interested in Darwin in a whole new way, take a look at the list of books he published in his lifetime.  We think of Darwin as a biologist and naturalist.  But he started out as a geologist, and his interests ran the gamut from geology to biology to the expression of emotion in animals.  His works include books on the structure of coral reefs, geological observations of volcanic islands and South America, how orchids are fertilised by insects, variations in domestic plants and animals, insectivorous plants, the power of movement in plants, earthworms, barnacles, and of course, the Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex and On the Origin of Species.  The sheer scope of the books is worth looking at.

The exhibit will include a complete traditional costume such as those worn by the gauchos of South America (they’re pictured in Voyage of the Beagle in the process of hunting  rheas  – large flightless birds similar to emus – with bolas).  There will also be specimens from our museum collections of animals mentioned in Darwin’s works.

A model of the HMS Beagle under construction for the exhibition "Darwin at the Museum"

The exhibition will also feature a beautifully crafted model of the Beagle itself.  The ship is being built by a professional team of model makers and should make a really lovely centerpiece to the exhibition.  Darwin’s career, after all, really took off after his trip aboard the Beagle.  It was the grand scope of that experience that provided Darwin with the Big Picture of the diversity of life on the planet.  Laurie Vitt, the museum’s curator of reptiles and one of the co-developers of the Darwin at the Museum exhibit, said:  “Any biologist would have a difficult time following the route that Darwin followed and not being stunned by the diversity.  Any biologist would think ‘what causes that?’ With a little bit of geology the questions started to stand out. It was the impact of Darwin’s voyage to South America that started him thinking of the causes of the diversity of organisms.”

There’s a great diversity to Darwin himself, as well.  And we hope this exhibition will help open it up to our museum visitors.

Paul Sereno (center) talks with reporters in the museum's Hall of Ancient Life

This weekend the museum received a surprise visit from Paul Sereno, paleontologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence from the University of Chicago.  Most folks with a natural history bent will recognize Dr. Sereno from his National Geographic specials.  He’s something of celebrity in the popular dino crowd.

Last week, Dr. Sereno garnered quite a bit of press with his description of a brand new dinosaur:  Raptorex, a miniature version of a tyrannosaur, from China.  The announcement hit the media on the 17th, and Dr. Sereno hit our museum on the 19th, with parts of his new dinosaur in tow.

In truth, Paul was in town for an OU Sooners football game.  But he was kind enough to bring along with him casts of Raptorex’s skull and forelimb, and the real fossilized jaw and finger claw from this new diminutive ancestor to the T. rex, thus giving our local media, and some lucky visitors to the museum that morning, the opportunity to see them for themselves and to talk to Dr. Sereno about his find.

The fossilized jawbone and claw of Raptorex

Raptorex was much older than T. rex. It lived in the earlier part of the Cretaceous period, about 125 million years ago. T. rex didn’t show up on the scene until 90 to 65 million years ago – right at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs. But it shared many common traits with later tyrannosaurs, including an oversized head with mighty jaw muscles, tiny forelimbs, and big feet on powerful legs meant for running.  Raptorex also shows the same enlarged olfactory “bulb” in the brain as T. rex.

If you want to learn more about Raptorex, you can see articles on it here:

http://news.uchicago.edu/news.php?asset_id=1710

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/09/17/tiny.t-rex.dinosaur.discovered/index.html

You can also see and hear local coverage of Sereno’s visit to the museum here:

KGOU story

Fox 25 story

(Oh, I think I should emphasize that Raptorex is not on display in our museum. Dr. Sereno just brought it for a brief visit.)

Paul Sereno (right) shares the cast skull of Raptorex with museum visitors.

This dinosaur was not actually discovered and excavated by Dr. Sereno.  It was actually collected in China and smuggled out of the country, then sold to a private collector, Dr. Henry Kriegstein, in Massachusetts.  Kriegstein had it looked at by a private lab for identification. When scientists recognized the find as a likely new genus and species, Kriegstein approached Sereno.

Sereno studied the fossil and prepared the scientific paper which “describes” it as a new genus and species.  He also named it:  Raptorex kriegsteini, in honor of the collector’s father.  Kriegstein has agreed to donate the specimen to the University of Chicago, where it will be studied in greater detail and then eventually repatriated to a museum in Mongolia, where Sereno believes the fossil most likely originated.

One of the things this visit made me think of is how and why scientists name species. A new species isn’t just named willy-nilly.  Scientists must prepare a carefully researched and well argued description of the new species, pointing out exactly how this specimen differs from other similar animals and why it should be considered a separate species. Publication of this description in peer-reviewed journals grants the status of species.  But it’s not forever.  Sometimes later scientists will determine, on further research, that two specimens previously believed to be separate species are, in fact, one and the same.  Then a new paper is published, and all the previous separate species get lumped back together.  Take, for example, the case of the brontosaur.

The animal named Apatosaurus currently on display in our museum’s Clash of the Titans exhibit is one and the same as the animal known to children of the ’60s and ’70s as “Brontosaurus.”  They were at that time considered two similar but distinct species.  Later scholarship, however, determined that they were the same, in which case the official scientific moniker reverts to the one first given… in this case, “Apatosaurus.”

It happens with modern species, too.  Collection managers in our museum spend a good amount of time changing labels on individual specimens and making notations in catalogs as updates occur to species names.  New technology makes this even more likely, as scientists are able to compare animals on a genomic level to determine exactly how much genetic information two animals share.

Confused yet?  It can be tough to follow.  Our collection managers have a “no erasure” rule, by which names on the  labels on specimens are physically crossed out and new names written in, so the trail of past names remains intact.  It’s not at all uncommon to see specimens in our collections with two, sometimes even three names on them.

If a scientist is naming a new genus:  that’s one level up from the species level, like Raptorex… the genus name often has something to do with the way the animal looks, its taxonomic family tree, or the niche it fills in its habitat.  The ginormous long-necked dinosaur recently installed in our museum’s Orientation gallery was named Sauroposeidon:  Sauro for lizard, of course, and poseidon for the Greek god of earthquakes, because the ground likely shook when this monster walked by.   Raptorex is a nice combination of “raptor” and “rex” that calls to mind an image of a nifty little diminutive tyrannosaur, doesn’t it?  The second name or species name, is sometimes a way of giving further descriptive information, but often given in honor of a person. It is not capitalized, and a Latinate possessive suffix is tacked on: i.e.  kriegsteini = “of Kriegstein.”  Sauroposeidon’s species name, proteles, means “perfected before the end,” referring to the fact that Sauroposeidon was one of the very last great sauropods that appeared just before dinosaurs became extinct:  the biggest, the best, the final.  There’s a third name, too … one that we usually don’t see, but remains in the scholarly papers:  the last name of the scientist who named it.  In the case of Raptorex, that’s Paul Sereno. And voilá:  Raptorex kriegsteini sereno is born.  Or Sauroposeidon proteles cifelli.

There is also lots of information online about “binomial nomenclature” and the Linnaean system of taxonomy, rife with rules and expectations and latin terms.  But I find it interesting to see the fun scientists sometimes have with the names.  Our own museum director and curator of mammals, Dr. Michael Mares, named an Argentinian rodent after his favorite Argentine musical group, Los Chalchaleras:  Salinoctomys loschalchalerosorum. (Try saying that ten times fast)   Then there’s Masiakasaurus knopfleri, a dinosaur named after the guitarist for Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler.

I could go on and on here.

If you discovered a species, what would you name it?

National press releases sent out by the Discovery Institute were worded in a way to give the impression that this screening was somehow sponsored or endorsed by the museum. In fact, the museum is in no way associated with this event, except as a rented venue, but the release raised questions which the museum’s director, Michael Mares, has addressed in an open letter currently posted on our website. I transcribe the full content of the letter below:

An Open Letter from Dr. Michael A. Mares, Museum Director
Regarding the screening of the film “Darwin’s Dilemma” by the OU IDEA Club in the museum’s Kerr Auditorium

The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is dedicated to science and to elucidating the remarkable evolutionary history of life on Earth. The museum actively engages in public programs, undergraduate and graduate education, outreach education, and other efforts to increase the scientific literacy of visitors to the museum and the people of Oklahoma.

Although the museum does not support unscientific views masquerading as science, such as those espoused by the Discovery Institute, the museum does respect the religious beliefs of all people. Moreover, the museum is obligated to rent its public space to any organization that is engaged in lawful activities, free speech and open discourse. The museum does not discriminate against recognized campus organizations based on their religious beliefs, political philosophy, scientific literacy, or any other factors.

We invite everyone interested in an accurate description of how life developed over the last four billion years to visit our galleries. The well-organized and scientifically accurate exhibits illustrate – through real specimens and scientific methods – the fact of evolution by natural selection as first described by Charles Darwin and continually supported by all branches of science ever since that time. The museum also recommends that people interested in evolutionary science review the more than 1,000 publications by our curators and professional staff that are based in evolutionary biology.

The museum’s many galleries will be open for free before and after the showing of the Discovery Institute’s film “Darwin’s Dilemma” on Sept. 29 so the public can see that there is no scientific controversy in evolutionary science’s explanation of the development and history of Earth’s biodiversity.

This calendar year – the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species –
the museum, in partnership with OU departments of Zoology, the Department of Botany and Microbiology, the Department of Anthropology, and the History of Science and History of Science Collections of the OU Library, has presented more than 15 public education programs related to evolution, with many more on the calendar ahead. We encourage the public to take part in these programs, many of which are free, to educate themselves about the true nature of the science of evolutionary biology.

PROGRAMS HELD AT THE MUSEUM SO FAR THIS YEAR

01/22 –Ken Taylor, professor emeritus, OU History of Science, “Volcanology before Darwin: From burning mountains to Igneous Global Dynamics” In partnership with the History of Science Department Presidential Dream Course
02/03 –Paul White, Darwin Correspondence Project, Affiliated Scholar, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, “Darwin’s Emotions” In partnership with the History of Science Department Presidential Dream Course
02/12 –John Lynch, “Was There a Darwinian Revolution?” In partnership with the History of Science Department Presidential Dream Course

02/13 – “Darwin Across the Disciplines,” Darwin Panel Discussion Part of Darwin 2009 events

02/19 – Pam Soltis, Curator, Florida Museum of Natural History, “Darwin’s ‘Abominable Mystery’
Part of the Sutton Lecture Series sponsored by the OU Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program

02/26 –Michael Ruse, T. Werkmeister Professor, Department of Philosophy, Florida State University, “Is Darwinism Past Its ‘Sell-By’ Date?” In partnership with the History of Science Department Presidential Dream Course

03/12 – John Beatty, Department of Philosophy, University of British Columbia, “The Details Left to Chance: Evolutionary Contingency and its Broader Implications in the Work of Charles Darwin and Stephen Jay Gould” In partnership with the History of Science Department Presidential Dream Course

03/24 – ANTS: Nature’s Secret Power (Movie), In partnership with The Sutton Lecture Series on behalf of the Sutton Foundation, and the University of Oklahoma Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Graduate Program, Department of Zoology and Department of Botany and Microbiology

03/26 –Bert Holldobler, Foundation Professor, Arizona State University, “Order in Chaos: Communication and Cooperation in Ant Societies
Part of the Sutton Lecture Series sponsored by the Sutton Foundation, and the University of Oklahoma Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Graduate Program, Department of Zoology and Department of Botany and Microbiology

04/07 – Anne Magurran, University of St. Andrews, “Little Fish and Big Issues: Guppies and Biological Diversity,” Part of the Sutton Lecture Series sponsored by the Sutton Foundation, and the University of Oklahoma Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Graduate Program, Department of Zoology and Department of Botany and Microbiology

04/09 – John van Wyhe, University of Cambridge & Darwin Online Project, “Darwin’s Secret? Was the theory of evolution really held back for twenty years?” In partnership with the History of Science Department Presidential Dream Course

04/16 – Garland E. Allen, Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, “Darwin and Marx: Science as History and History as Science. Dialectical materialism and the dynamics of historical change” In partnership with the History of Science Department Presidential Dream Course

04/21 – Joe Cain, Department of Science and Technology Studies, University College London, “A Monkey’s Uncle: The 1925 Scopes Trial wasn’t what you think!” In partnership with the History of Science Department Presidential Dream Course

08/27 – Stephen Weldon, University of Oklahoma History of Science department, “Hopes, Fears, and Discontent in America: Four Decades of Anti-Evolutionism and Anti-Creationism” In partnership with the History of Science Department

09/08 – Piers Hale, OU History of Science Dept., “Difficulties on Theory,” In Discussion with Darwin Seminar series

09/15 – Lynn Fowler, Charles Darwin Foundation & Lindblad Expedition, “Charles Darwin: Exploring Galapagos and the Charles Darwin Foundation Today” In partnership with the History of Science Department

UPCOMING PROGRAMS

Tuesday, Sept. 22, 7 p.m.
In Discussion with Darwin: Classroom seminars on Evolution
Rich Broughton (Department of Zoology)
“Has Macroevolution Been Misunderestimated?”
This seminar discussion will focus on the lack of a fundamental difference between micro- and macroevolution (as the terms are commonly used). It will use molecular data to examine the basis of taxonomic groups and explore examples of evolutionary divergence in nature.
Cost: $10 per seminar members, $15 per seminar non-members

Friday Oct. 2, 7 to 8:30 p.m., and
Saturday, Oct. 3, 9 a.m. to approximately 4:30 p.m.
Adult Workshop: Invertebrate Fossil Dig Field Trip
Join invertebrate paleontology curator Dr. Steve Westrop and museum staff for an exciting journey into Oklahoma’s Paleozoic past. Explore life in Oklahoma’s ancient oceans through an informative talk on Friday evening with a close-up look at some of the museum’s finest invertebrate specimens. On Saturday morning, we will meet at the museum at 9 a.m. and travel in university vans to the dig site where you will find a variety of marine fossils. Bring a sack lunch, snacks, comfortable shoes and plenty of water for this field trip. Advance registration is required and space is limited. This field trip is for adults only.
Cost: members $55 per person, non-members $65 per person

Tuesday, Oct. 6, 7 p.m.
In Discussion with Darwin: Classroom seminars on Evolution
Phil Gibson (Department of Botany and Microbiology, Dept. of Zoology)
“Darwin’s Different Flowers”
While Darwin receives much attention for his work on animals, he was equally influential in the botanical world. This seminar will discuss Darwin’s book On the Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species in which he applies his model of evolution by natural selection to investigate why some plants produce two or more types of flowers.
Cost: $10 per seminar members, $15 per seminar non-members

Darwin at the Museum
Oct. 10 through Jan. 18, 2010
This special exhibition at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, in partnership with the University of Oklahoma History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries, features a complete set of first-editions of Darwin’s works, and sheds light on the man not only as the founder of evolution, but also as a global traveler, a geologist, botanist and thinker. Finally, the exhibition showcases how Darwin’s groundbreaking ideas continue to inspire the work of the scientists at the museum today. In addition to the books themselves, the exhibition features maps and illustrations, hand-written manuscripts and letters by Darwin himself, and specimens from museum collections relating both to Darwin’s studies and to the research of current museum scientists.

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 7 p.m.
Krishna Dronamraju
“J.B.S. Haldane and the Making of Darwinian Genetics “
Free public lecture
J. B. S. Haldane (1892-64) was one of the great scientists–and great science writers–of the 20th century. A central figure in the development of modern evolutionary biology, he was also a highly skilled essayist and an extraordinary, if controversial, character.
Krishna Dronamraju was Haldane’s last graduate student. Dronamraju is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and President of the Foundation for Genetic Research in Houston. He was an Advisor to the White House and served on the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Prof. Dronamraju is a Visiting Professor of the University of Paris, the Albert Schweitzer International University of Geneva, and an Honorary Research Fellow of University College, London. Sponsored by the University of Oklahoma History of Science department and the museum.

Saturday, Oct. 24, 1 to 4 p.m.
Explore with Darwin Family Day
Join us for an exciting adventure as we celebrate the discoveries of Charles Darwin! Children’s book authors Carolyn Meyer and Anne Weaver, both authors of books about Darwin and his travels, will be reading selections from their books and signing books! Visit the Darwin at the Museum exhibit, featuring first editions of all of Darwin’s books and some of his letters. Then take a journey of your own as you explore the museum, and imagine what it might be like to discover new places. Complete your adventure with a fun Darwin-inspired craft to take home!
Activities are free with paid museum admission.

Tuesday, Oct. 27, 7 p.m.
In Discussion with Darwin: Classroom seminars on Evolution
Cecil Lewis (Department of Anthropology)
“Race and Genetics in Health”
Are traditionally identified human “races” biologically meaningful? Are racial classifications useful in genetic disease research? This seminar discussion will address these questions. The practical importance of human evolution studies will be illuminated.
Cost: $10 per seminar members, $15 per seminar non-members

Tuesday, Nov. 3, 7 p.m.
In Discussion with Darwin: Classroom seminars on Evolution
Ingo Schlupp (Department of Zoology)
“The Origin of Sexual Selection”
Why do males often have elaborate traits that make them attractive for females, but are detrimental to survival? Why are females typically coy and males competitive for females? Charles Darwin proposed the theory of sexual selection as an answer to these questions. In our meeting we shall discuss this idea, its history and some aspects of modern research on this topic.
Cost: $10 per seminar members, $15 per seminar non-members

Thursday, Nov. 5, 6 to 9 p.m., Great Hall
History of Science Colloquium Series
Janet Browne, (History of Science, Harvard University)
Free public lecture
Janet Browne specializes in reassessing Charles Darwin’s work, first as associate editor of the early volumes of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, and more recently as author of a major biographical study that integrated Darwin’s science with his life and times. The biography was awarded several prizes, including the James Tait Black award for non-fiction in 2004, the W.H. Heinemann Prize from the Royal Literary Society, and the Pfizer Prize from the History of Science Society. She has been editor of the British Journal for the History of Science and president of the British Society for the History of Science.

Thursday, Nov. 12, 7 p.m.
“Deceit and Self-Deception”
Robert Trivers, Professor of Anthropology and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University
Free Public Lecture
Trivers is perhaps the most significant evolutionary theorist in the world alive today, and has spent his career investigating the theoretical basis of social behavior in organisms. His theories regarding parental investment, reciprocal altruism, parent-offspring conflict and the biological basis of self-deceptive behavior have been hugely influential in a number of fields. In 2007 Trivers received the prestigious Crafoord Prize from The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. This prize promotes international basic research in disciplines that complement those for which the Nobel Prizes are awarded. The lecture is sponsored by the University of Oklahoma Zoology Department and the museum. It is free and open to the public.

Tuesday, Nov. 17, 7 p.m.
In Discussion with Darwin: Classroom seminars on Evolution
Ola Fincke (Department of Zoology)
“Beyond Darwin: How Evo-Devo Research Offers Stunning Confirmation of Darwin’s View of Complexity “
Darwin postulated that complexity evolved via natural selection from less complex parts. Armed with a battery of new genetic tools, researchers are in the process of confirming that Darwin’s view was of complexity was basically correct. In this session we will discuss the radical and surprising insights that “Evo-Devo” research offers for macroevolution.
Cost: $10 per seminar members, $15 per seminar non-members

Friday, Jan. 22, 7 p.m.
Darwin Remembers: Recollections of a Life’s Journey
Free public event
A historic play written and performed by Floyd Sandford, OU Zoology graduate. Much of the information was derived from Darwin’s autobiography, edited and published shortly after his death by his son Francis. In the play, Darwin “remembers” his life, including the historic confrontation at Oxford in 1860, between Samuel Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford and the biologist Thomas H. Huxley, Darwin’s most loyal and vociferous defender in public forum and debates.

So you can look forward to a ton of programs in the fall, beginning Aug. 27 with a lecture by Dr. Stephen Weldon from the OU History of Science department about the history of the evolution/creation debate.  Because this year is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, there are a lot of Darwin- and evolution-centered offerings, including a seminar series, a lecture series, an exhibition and even a family day and visit by two authors of children’s books about Darwin’s life and work.

Monthly astronomy lectures continue,  as do family nights, field trips and children’s workshops.  And now – following the success of our Movie Night at the Museum offered earlier this month – we are offering a monthly Movie Night in the museum’s Great Hall as well. Dinos and Desserts will be back on Nov. 7 for those of you looking for a grown-up, kid-free museum experience.

The upshot is that there’s plenty of excuses for visiting the museum this fall.  The printed calendar will be out in about a week.  Museum members receive it automatically, and you can sign up to receive it in the mail for a year if you like, just email me at lcoldwell@ou.edu and I will add you to the list.  There is also a monthly enewsletter that you can sign up for online.  Each month you’ll get an email with a listing of what’s coming up for the month ahead. You can sign up at http://www.snomnh.ou.edu/subscribe.htm.

The museum also has a facebook page and twitter account, if that’s not already enough ways to stay in touch.  You can follow us on twitter at samnoblemuseum, or become a fan on facebook.

So come check us out.  We promise you won’t be disappointed.

Vertebrate Paleontology curator Richard Cifelli sits under the lights during a Discovery Channel shoot in the collection

Last Friday the museum hosted a film crew working on a new program for the Discovery Channel. The show will focus on Prehistoric Predators, and one of the predators being showcased is Deinonychus, the little “kick-boxing” raptor showcased in our Coastal Cretaceous diorama.

Deinonychus was not a big dinosaur, but seems to have packed a powerful “punch.” Its name means “terrible claw,” after the wicked-looking cocked-back claw on its feet. Scientists think it likely hunted in packs, based on teeth and other remains of Deinonychus found among the remains of tenontosaurs. A grouping like that was found by our curator of vertebrate paleontology Rich Cifelli and his team down in southeastern Oklahoma: tenontosaurs with teeth of Deinonychus scattered among the remains and even embedded in the bone, plus the broken remains of one unfortunate Deinonychus that looks like it had an unfortunate encounter with a Tenontosaurus‘ powerful tail. It looks like they likely came at in groups and attacked feet-first, ripping with those mighty hind claws.

The crew interviewed Dr. Cifelli in the vert. paleo collection during the afternoon, and then spent hours Friday night lighting and shooting the exhibit.

This is a dim iPhone photo, but you get the idea. You can see Marc and the camera in the foreground. Brian, the lighting guy, is in the back, adjusting the pipe and drape backdrop behind the tenontosaur. On Marc's screen you can sort of see the shot.

The shoot turned out to be quite a to-do. The director wanted the mounted specimens to appear in a black-box type of environment, with no visible murals or diorama details. This meant that the crew, assisted by our own fossil preparator, Kyle Davies, had to climb into the diorama and use a pipe and drape set-up to mask off the entire back of the exhibit, then lay black fabric (okay, they were really table cloths lent to us by the events department) over every visible bit of ground form under the critters’ feet. The results were stunning. With help from some very dramatic lighting, the fossils take on a wonderful eerie and dangerous aspect. Kudos to Marc Miller, who was handling the lighting and camera work.

I’m not sure when the program will air. “Sometime next year” is the closest guess the crew could give me at this juncture, but we’ll keep you updated.

Meanwhile, I’m also working with another Discovery Channel team, providing images of Sauroposeidon proteles (the world’s tallest dinosaur and also an Oklahoma critter) for possible inclusion in yet another program on extreme dinosaurs. More about that in the future, as well.

You can follow along with their Adventure in photos on the ExplorOlogy web site

http://explorology.snomnh.ou.edu/see-the-adventure-2009

A young explorer wades in a local pond in the museum's Slime and Scales class

This is the time of year when our Summer Explorers program is in full swing. Every day our education team leads groups of kids out into the ponds, streams, fields and forests around Norman to experience nature close-up and personal.

For some of these young explorers, it is the first time they have ever really been out in nature on this level. Over the years, our educators have ceased to be surprised at how many students know more about the animals of the African serengetti than the animals native to their own back yards. The lure of electronic entertainment draws our kids deeper and deeper into the climate-controlled virtual world and further and further away from the real one. You don’t need to hear me argue in favor of getting our kids out and dirty, but if you want to learn more about it, read Richard Louv’s best-selling book “Last Child in the Woods.”

Anyway… it’s a fun time of year. Every morning a group of clean kids troops out of the museum. And a few hours later a group of very wet and muddy kids troops back in.

Last week Steve Sisney, a photographer for the Oklahoman, joined the “Slime and Scales” class on a trip to a local pond and captured some of the action. Follow this link to Steve’s video footage on Newsok.com and join education officer Jes Cole and her class of 7 and 8-year olds as they make an unusual discovery…

http://www.newsok.com/multimedia/video/28134675001