In The Field: Research News

The curators of The Cleveland Museum of Natural History are actively involved in research outside of the museum. We hope you will enjoy discovering their latest field research by returning to this page for updates.

2008 In The Field: Research News

Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie

Physical Anthropology:
Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie

Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie, Curator and Head of Physical Anthropology, has completed his 2008 field research season at the Woranso-Mille Paleontological Site.

You can view an online exhibition that highlights the multidisciplinary team's efforts to recover fossil records of human origins.

The fossil specimens collected at Woranso-Mille site are currently being curated for analysis and subsequent publication.

 

Dr. Brian Redmond

Archaeology: Dr. Brian Redmond

Dr. Brian Redmond, Curator and Head of Archaeology, field school volunteers and students wrapped up the 2007 field school excavation on July 20, 2007.

This season the Danbury site yielded astounding findings that you can read about in Blogging Archaeology. Dr. Redmond maintained this blog during the field school to describe their work and findings on a weekly basis.

The July 22, 2007 posting summarizes information about "The Ossuary", of the Early Woodland age. This feature yielded counts of crania exceeding 20 individuals and densely packed post-cranial bones.

Last season's report,  A Report of Archaeological Investigations at the Danbury Site (330T16): 2006 Season was recently completed. The report is available to download online.

Physical Anthropology: Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie

Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie

Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie, Curator and Head of Physical Anthropology, had an unusually successful 2007 field season at the Woranso-Mille study area.

“We recovered fossil hominids that date to between 3.5 and 3.8 million years ago,” said Haile-Selassie.  “These specimens sample the right time to look into the relationship between Australopithecus anamensis and Australopithecus afarensis and will play a major role in testing the ancestor-descendant hypothesis.”  The project team found isolated teeth from this time frame during its earlier field seasons.  However, during the 2007 field season, they recovered more complete jaws that are important to conduct comparative analysis.

Museum photographer Liz Russell travelled to Ethiopia to document the 2007 field season. The exhibition of her photographs and video is on display at the Museum in the Lower Level gallery. You can view an online exhibition that highlights some of her photography and Dr. Haile-Salessie's field work.

Dr. Joe Keiper

Invertebrate Zoology: Dr. Joe Keiper

Joe B. Keiper, Ph.D., Director of Science, Curator of Invertebrate Zoology is featured in an article in the July–August, 2007 issue of Audubon Magazine.

The article by Frank Graham Jr. is about the Bioblitz, more precisely the Diptera Blitz, held on the Schoodic Peninsula at Acadia National Park last July.

Entitled 'Joy of Flies' it features our own resident 'fly guy,' Dr. Joe Kieper, guiding a group of inveterate fly-spotters, catchers and catalogers in determining the diversity of this perhaps under-appreciated and certainly misunderstood group of insects in Acadia National Park. It also features descriptions of some of Joe's forensic work.

You can read more about Joe's current field work through his blog, 'Bugs and Bears Blog'.

Dr. Tim Matson at lab study

Vertebrate Zoology: Dr. Timothy Matson

Timothy O. Matson, Ph.D., Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Museum conducted a spring lab study at Squire Valleyvue farm.

This study is to answer the questions that have developed from his 2006 pond study – to see if metals were a contributing factor in the decline of the Jefferson salamander. Other contributing factors that he was aware of include predation by the Marbled Salamander and drought.

More research photographs and details are available.

Vertebrate Paleontology: Dr. Michael Ryan

Ryan with the holotype skull of the new horned dinosaur. Photo courtesy of Chad Kerychuk, Digital Dream Machine.

New Horned Dinosaur Genus Discovered,
Albertaceratops nesmoi

Michael J. Ryan, Ph.D., Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Museum reports his findings on the new genus and species in the latest volume of the Journal of Paleontology.

This new genus, named Albertaceratops nesmoi, is approximately 20 feet long and weighing nearly one half ton. The newly identified plant-eating dinosaur lived nearly 78 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous Period in what is now southernmost Alberta, Canada.

Its identification marks the discovery of a new genus and species and sheds exciting new light on the evolutionary history of the Ceratopsidae dinosaur family. Only one other horned dinosaur has been discovered in Canada since the 1950s.

Archaeology: Dr. Brian Redmond and Dr. N'omi Greber

The book Ohio Archaeology: An Illustrated Chronicle of Ohio's Ancient American Indian Cultures, which contains sections written by Museum Curator and Head of Archaeology Dr. Brian Redmond and Curator of Archaeology Dr. N’omi Greber, recently received the Society for American Archaeology’s Book of the Year Award.

The Ohio Historical Society’s Brad Lepper wrote the book’s primary text. Redmond wrote the chapter titled The White Fort Site, Lorain County and Greber contributed a chapter titled The Edwin Harness big house.

The book, published by Orange Frazer Press in Wilmington, Ohio, is part of the Ohio Archaeology Project, a collaborative initiative led by Tom Law of Voyageur Media Group, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to the creation of public media about science, history and culture.

Paleobotany: Dr. Shya Chitaley 

In November 2006, Curator of Paleobotany Dr. Shya Chitaley attended the Diamond Jubilee International Conference at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany in Lucknow, In