Smithsonian Science » Science Spotlight

Jeholopsyche liaoningensis

John Barrat — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:46:33 +0000

This fossil represents a new genus and species of extinct aneuretopsychid, Jeholopsyche liaoningensis, recently described in a paper in the journal ZooKeys by Conrad Labandeira of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and Dong Ren and ChungKun Shih of the College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing. The aneuretopsychidae are a family of long-proboscid insects that lived in Asia from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous. The paper documents the first formal record of fossil Aneuretopsychidae in China. The new fossils reveal previously unknown and detailed structure of the mouthparts, antennae, head, thorax, legs and abdomen of this distinctive insect lineage.

Cinnabar specimen donated to Natural History

John Barrat — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:45:32 +0000

A mineral dealer from Dallas recently donated this fine specimen of Chinese cinnabar–the common ore of mercury–to the Department of Mineral Sciences of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. This twinned crystal is approximately 3 centimeters across. The specimen was donated to replace one that was damaged during the Aug. 23, 2011 earthquake. (Photo by Jeff Scovil)

Great Barrier Reef coral Acropora tenuis

John Barrat — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:46:49 +0000

This photo shows developing embryonic cells of the coral species Acropora tenuis, from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Researchers from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology and other partnering organizations spent two weeks at the end of November collecting sperm and embryonic cells during spawning from this and one other species of coral. The researchers have built the first frozen repository for Great Barrier Reef corals that could someday restore a coral species or diversify a population. (Photo by Drs. A. Hayward and A. Negri, Australian Institute of Marine Science)

Frederick Walpole illustrations recovered

John Barrat — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:01:49 +0000

This illustration of a lodgepole pine was drawn in 1898 by U.S. National Herbarium illustrator Frederick Andrews Walpole (1861–1904). Recently two botanical illustrations by Walpole were spotted for sale on an online auction Web site. Smithsonian scientific illustrator Alice Tangerini had the drawings successfully returned to the Smithsonian’s Botanical Art Collection after proving that Walpole was on official Smithsonian business when he created them more than 100 years ago. Read the details of this story on the Smithsonian’s Field Book Project Web site.

Camping With the Sioux: Fieldwork Diary of Alice Cunningham Fletcher

John Barrat — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:06:24 +0000

“Camping With the Sioux: Fieldwork Diary of Alice Cunningham Fletcher ” is a Web site of the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives consisting of two fascinating journals kept by American anthropologist Alice Fletcher (1838-1923) during a six-week venture into Plains Indian territory in 1881. Drawings of the plains, Indian reservations, and her many campsites in eastern Nebraska and southern South Dakota accompany her writings which provide important insight into the attitudes of white scientists and administrators in the late 19th century with regard to what they termed “the Indian Question.”

Lithograph of the hummingbird Trochilus maria from the 1849 book “Illustrations of Birds of Jamacia”

John Barrat — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:29:26 +0000

This lithograph of the hummingbird Trochilus maria from the 1849 book Illustrations of the Birds of Jamacia was published in a recent paper in the journal Zootaxa “Rediscovery of the holotype of Trochilus maria Gosse, 1849 (Aves: Apodiformes: Trochilidae)” by Gary Graves of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and Robert Prys-Jones of the Natural History Museum, United Kingdom. The paper’s authors used the illustration to help identify an uncatalogued hummingbird specimen found in the collections of the Natural History Museum (U.K.) as the missing type specimen of Trochilus maria.

“Molynocoelia erwini,” a new species of fruit fly from Ecuador

John Barrat — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 18:08:58 +0000

Molynocoelia erwini, is a new species of fruit fly from Ecuador recently described by USDA entomologist Allen Norrbom, who works in the Systematic Entomology Laboratory of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The discovery of this species in Ecuador extends the known range of the genus Diptera: Tephritidae. It was named for Smithsonian Entomologist Terry Erwin who conceived of and led the forest canopy fogging project in which this species was collected.

North Atlantic deep sea acorn worm – Purple species

John Barrat — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:08:56 +0000

This image shows one of three newly discovered North Atlantic deep sea acorn worms–Purple species–recently captured by scientists from deep in the mid-Atlantic Ocean. These worms are members of the family Torquaratoridae. DNA analysis conducted by Karen Osborn of the Department of Invertebrate Zoology of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History confirmed their identity. The worms have no eyes and no tail but manage to crawl along the sea floor harvesting food that has fallen from the surface. They were captured last year using a remotely operated vehicle launched from the RRS James Cook. Click here to read more. (Images courtesy David Shale)

Peruvian mummy as seen by a SOMATOM Emotion 6CT scanner

John Barrat — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:48:31 +0000

Viewed from inside the SOMATOM Emotion 6CT scanner used at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, the skeleton and internal organs of this well-preserved Peruvian mummy can now be studied non-destructively and non-invasively. CT scanners are fundamentally changing the way scientists examine museum specimens. The SOMATOM Emotion 6CT scanner was recently donated to the Smithsonian by Siemens Corp. (Image courtesy Bruno Frohlich)

Ancient whales

John Barrat — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:59:26 +0000

This illustration by Carl Buell depicts Ocucajea picklingi (center) and Supayacetus muizoni (bottom), two ancient whales that lived off the Peruvian coast during the Eocene, between 56-34 million years ago. At top is an unnamed whale and the fossil penguin Perudyptes devriesi. Nicholas Pyenson, paleobiologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, helped discover fossils of these whales in Peru’s Pisco Basin. Read his account of the discovery on this Ocean Portal blog post.