A Note from the Author...

Dr. Richard Kissel, PRI's Director of Teacher Programs and cartoonist/artist extraordinaire is the artist behind PRI's newest publication: Cecil's Colossal Journey Through Time!

Composting at the Museum of the Earth...

Did you know that we compost as much of our waste as possible at the Museum of the Earth? From visitors and staff persons alike we encourage each other to be good stewards of our planet. With that in mind, once a week a different staff person goes through our campus and collects our compostable waste to take to our compost bin that lives behind our facilities. This week was my week.

Fossil of the Week

6/23/10 - Burrowing Sea Urchin (3838.jpg)

The round shape and five radial rays are clues that this fossil is a sea urchin (Phylum Echinodermata, Class Echinoidea). This is Brissus camagueyensis, from the Upper Eocene of Camaguey Province, Cuba, named by Norman Weisbord* in 1934. Brissus is a genus of burrowing sea urchins that first appeared in the Eocene Epoch (40 million years ago) and still has living representatives today. In life, they are covered with long thin spines that easily fold toward the hind end as the urchin burrows through the sand, much the same way that your dog's or cat's fur lays down as you pat her. Burrowing (more technically called the "infaunal" habit - as opposed to "epifaunal" or living on top of the sand) is generally an adaptation against detection by predators (including sea otters and fish), but also can result in reduction of other anti-predator devices, such as (in this case) a thick shell (called a "test" in sea urchins). Brissus has a very thin fragile shell, and thin fragile spines.

This specimen (PRI 3838) is the holotype**. It is 40 millimeters greatest diameter, or approximately 1 ½ inches. It was originally described in Bulletins of American Paleontology, volume 20, no. 70C. Camaguey Province, which this species is named after, is the largest province in Cuba. It lies in central Cuba and stretches from coast to coast across the entire island. [Hint: the "-ensis" at the end of the species name tells us that it was named after a place. It literally translates as "from." So this is the Brissus "from Camaguey."] The exact locality is Loma Calisto, near the port city of Nuevitas on the shore of the Bahia [Bay] de Nuevitas, on the north shore of the island.

*See Fossil of the Week 4/1/2010 - Irregular Heart Urchin about another urchin described by Weisbord in 1934, and for general information on sea urchins.

**See Fossil of the Week 8/19/09 - Cerithium gainesensis for a definition of "holotype."

Text by Paula Mikkelsen

This Weekend at Museum of the Earth

On the Rebound: The Earth's response to the changing polar ice sheets

Saturday, June 19

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Dr. Mike Willis, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University

The surface of the Earth flexes and deforms in response to the changing mass of a nearby ice sheet. Measurements of this deformation made in Antarctica over the last decade, and in Greenland more recently, is used to get a handle on the viscosity (stickiness) of the sub-crustal mantle. With this information, we can separate out how much of the observed, contemporary ice mass change is due to the ice sheet shrinking since the end of the last ice age, and how much is due to modern effects.

Up Next!

Spend your summer with the Museum of the Earth! Once again, we've got a great slate of programs happening this summer for you to choose from. Learn more about our Fossil Collecting Field Trips and Royal Ontario Museum Trip below. We look forward to seeing you in the field!

Fossil Collecting Field trips 2010

• June 26th: Hamilton, NY
• July 10th: Sheds, NY
• August 7th: Morrisville, NY
• Sept 11th: Jamesville, NY (adults only)

All trips are from 11am to 2pm.

Members: Adults $10, Student/Senior $7, Youth $5
Non Members: Adults $20, Student/Senior $15, Youth $10

Register today online or by calling 607-273-6623 x13.

Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) Trip
Saturday, August 14, 2010. 6am to midnight.

Travel to Toronto, Canada with our staff and join us for a special personalized tour of the newly renovated dinosaur halls and other renowned exhibits at one of the world's finest natural history museums. Book a seat today!

Members: Adults $75, Seniors $65, Youth $60
Non members: Adults $90, Seniors $80, Youth $75

Register today online or by calling 607-273-6623 x13

**Please note that due to the necessary border crossing a valid passport or enhanced driver's license will be required to participate in this trip. You can learn more about what documentation you may need here: http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/edl-main.htm and http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html.**

Not a member but want to become one? Choose your membership level online or give us a call at 607.273.6623 x11.

---

Register Today!

Summer Camp
June 28-September 3, 2010
With summer approaching, it's time to find the right summer camp. Museum of the Earth is delighted to once again be partnering with the Cayuga Nature Center for Summer Camp. Building on the strengths of the CNC's landscape, tree house, and animals, Museum of the Earth will be on hand to add fossils, rocks, and so much more to the camp offerings. There will be ten weeks of Camp this year. Each week has a specific theme. For more information and to register click here.

Fossil of the Week

6/16/10 - The Fourth Variant

Is it a fossilized flower or a crinoid? Neither! This is Striacoceras typum variety delta, a straight-sided ("orthoconic") nautiloid cephalopod*, related to the modern Chambered Nautilus. This is the "phragmocone," the collective term for the multi-part body chamber of the squid-like animal. The "segments" of the phragmocone are actually chambers that in life were filled with gas to give the animal buoyancy. An earlier name for this species (the name was judged invalid due to a nomenclatural technicality) was Orthoceras marcellense - named for natural-gas-rich Marcellus Shale Formation so prevalent in the news these days in Upstate New York.

This fossil is the holotype** (PRI 5346) of the variety described by Rousseau Flower*** in 1936 from the Cherry Valley limestone of the Middle Devonian Period (390 million years ago) of Stockbridge, a small town in Oneida County in central New York, in Bulletins of American Paleontology no. 76. Also in the limestone were numerous specimens of thin-shelled pteropods ("sea butterflies," actually highly specialized, pelagic snails) that are presumed to have been the food items for the nautiloids.

Flower described five "varieties" of the species Striacoceras typum in his monograph. These varieties blend into one another in morphology, so are not regarded as full species and the usefulness of naming such growth forms can be debated and is not generally done today. The name "delta" for this particular variant means nothing except that it is the fourth variant described. Flower used Greek letters for the five variants (alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and epsilon), so this is simply "variant D." It is characterized by being more noticeably tapered ("a greater rate of expansion") and having smaller chambers ("shallower camerae") than other variants. At the time of description, it was known from only the single specimen. Flower found these varieties fascinating, and named them as a tool for easier discussion of what he considered a rare occurrence - the availability of a large number of individuals that lived at or around the same time. The study of intraspecific variability in a population is indeed relatively uncommon in paleontology.

Did you know that issue no. 76 and other early issues of BAP can be viewed and downloaded freely online at the Biodiversity Heritage Library website (http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/39837)?

*See earlier installments of Fossil of the Week to read about other orthoconic nautiloids: 5/5/10 - Bradfordoceras and 11/19/09 - Virgoceras cancellatum.
**For a definition of holotype, see Fossil of the Week 8/19/09 - Cerithium gainesensis.
***See Fossil of the Week 11/19/09 - Virgoceras cancellatum for more about the author, Rousseau H. Flower.

Text by Paula Mikkelsen

Scientist-in-Residence

PRI has just successfully completed its first ever "scientist-in-residence" program with Ithaca's Fall Creek Elementary this past May. The program took the place of the school's more traditional science fair, in an effort to make an equitable, science-based activity in which all students had an opportunity to work on real science projects with real scientists. Kindergarteners learned about dinosaurs with Dr. Richard Kissel, 1st & 2nd graders worked with their 5th grade "buddies" to examine ice age life with Christine Besemer, while 3rd & 4th graders examined local Devonian fossils with Dr. Carlyn Buckler. Over the course of this program, PRI staff worked with a total of 215 students for a total of 35 contact hours. This program was coordinated by PRI's Sara Auer Perry, and it was funded through teacher grants from the Ithaca Public Education Initiative and the Fall Creek PTA.


Sara Auer Perry
Geoscience Education Resource Developer

Another Sneak Peek...

Birds, sea turtles, and dolphins get most of the press, but all organisms in the Gulf of Mexico are threatened by the catastrophic oil spill that followed the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig on April 20, 2010.

Next week the Museum of the Earth will be unveiling a new temporary exhibit featuring amazing specimens from the world renowned PRI collection. These specimens are some of the organisms that may be affected as the spill spreads through the Gulf Coast and into the Florida Keys.

Steve Durham from collections assists Tonya Cribb from exhibits
with the exhibit install.

A giant Sponge from the PRI Collection.

A coral specimen from the PRI collection.

Fossil of the Week

6/9/10 – Canadian Brachiopod

Here’s a fossil whose identity might not be immediately obvious. It is a brachiopod (or lamp shell*) from the Middle Devonian (approximately 390 million years old) of Redfern Lake, British Columbia, in western Canada. The locality is a river cliff known as the “The Ramparts” of the Mackenzie River only a short distance south of the Arctic Circle. It consists of approximately 200 feet of limestone that is very fossil-rich and equivalent to the upper part of the Elk Point Formation. Fossils at this locality include corals, plant spores, and brachiopods, including this new one, described by C. H. Crickmay** in 1954.

This fossil is a paratype*** (PRI catalog number 270000) of Geranocephalus inopinus. I do not know the etymology (the meaning of the word) of the genus name, but the species name means “unexpected,” so the species must have been a surprise! The specimen is unusual in that it includes both surfaces and a cross section – the part facing you is a cross section through the articulated specimen. One valve of the brachiopod is the yellow-colored surface at the top in the picture. The other valve is the tan-colored surface at the bottom (on which white paint has been applied as a background for the catalog number in black ink – a very common practice in some museums). The gray matrix in the center is the “space” between the valves, which in life would have been occupied by the soft body of the brachiopod, and during fossilization, was filled with mud or sand that has lithified into rock. The tan structure that is attached to the lower valve, and that extends into the central space is part of the cardinal process (for muscle attachments) and part of the fused crura (singular crus), the internal shelly supports for the lophophore, the ciliated, filament-bearing feeding organ of the brachiopod that is used to filter food from seawater.

Next time you see a slab of marble on a museum wall or floor, look for cross sections of fossils like this one – they are very common!

*For more about brachiopods, see Fossils of the Week 10/14/09 - Atrypa aperanta Crickmay, 5/12/10 – Colombian Brachiopod, and 7/15/09 - Brachiopods.

**Crickmay, C. H., 1954, Paleontological correlation of Elk Point and equivalents, in: Ralph Leslie Rutherford Memorial Volume, Symposium, Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, American Association of Petroleum Geologists, pages 143-158. For more about the author, see Fossil of the Week 10/14/09 - Atrypa aperanta Crickmay.

***For a definition of paratype specimens, see Fossil of the Week 10/14/09 - Atrypa aperanta Crickmay.

Text by Paula Mikkelsen

The Ithaca Festival Parade...

For the past several years the Museum of the Earth has participated in Ithaca's official kick-off of the summer season -- the Ithaca Festival Parade. This years theme was "Singing in the Rain." Our uniforms were Museum of the Earth rain ponchos and dinosaur masks!

Here are a couple pictures from the parade that took place on Thursday, June 3, 2010 -- courtesy of Rachel Philipson Photography & Design:

Friday Night - Got Plans?

No? Then join us at the Museum of the Earth tonight from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. for the opening of our latest art exhibition, They're Alive! Dinosaurs in our Mind's Eye featuring the artwork of Chris Wildrick. We'll also be celebrating our temporary exhibit One Fish, Two Fish, Old Fish, New Fish*: Exploring the Evolution of Biodiversity. Snacks and wine will be provided.

Tonight's wine is courtesy of Atwater Vineyards. Get a glimpse and taste a drop of Cecil's Chard - Atwater's new wine label for the Museum of the Earth!

Tickets: $10

Purchase your tickets by clicking below or for more information and to purchase by phone, please contact 607.273.6623 x11.

• Exhibit Opening Single Ticket

  $10.00

  Select this
• Exhibit Opening Couples Ticket

  $20.00

  Select this

*ONE FISH, TWO FISH, RED FISH, BLUE FISH™ & © 1960 Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

A Sneak Peek...

The coloring book that PRI's Richard Kissel authored and illustrated-- Cecil's Colossal Journey Through Time -- is now published and in hand! It will be on the shelves in the Museum's gift shop and available for purchase on our website (museumoftheearth.org/publications) very soon!

Fossil of the Week

6/2/10 - Moss Animals

This week's fossil is a bryozoan or "moss animal." The triangular yellow label with the catalog number on it is pointing toward the fan-shaped colony on the right side of the rock. Bryozoans are colonial animals, just like corals. Each one of the "dots" in life was the opening of a calcified chamber in which lived one of the bryozoan animals. The animal, more properly called a zooid, reaches out of its chamber with a ring of tentacles to filter feed, that is, to capture food particles in the water. There are about 4,000 species of living bryozoans, and another 15,000 fossil species, dating back to the Early Ordovician Period (480 million years ago). The Phylum Bryozoa is the only animal phylum with a fossil record that does not date back to the beginning of multicellular life - the Cambrian Period. Scientists speculate that perhaps the earliest bryozoans were entirely soft-bodied, so did not leave a fossil record during that time.

This bryozoan is Fenestrellina harrisi, named for PRI's first director Gilbert Harris by Andrew H. McNair, of Dartmouth College (now University) in 1940. It is from the Devonian Period (416-359 million years ago = the same geological age as Ithaca, NY) of Colombia, in northern South America. This is the holotype*, PRI catalog number 5901.

*For a definition of holotype, see Fossil of the Week 8/19/09 - Cerithium gainesensis.

Text by Paula Mikkelsen