Category: Field Museum
You probably hadn't noticed -- but the head shape and overall size of rodents has been changing over the past century. A University of Illinois at Chicago ecologist has tied these changes to human population density and climate change.
The finding is reported by Oliver Pergams, UIC research assistant professor of biological sciences, in the July 31 issue of PLoS One.
CHICAGO, IL -- In the Late Paleozoic (260 million years ago), long before dinosaurs dominated the Earth, ancient precursors to mammals took to the trees to feed on leaves and live high above predators that prowled the land, Jörg Fröbisch, PhD, a Field Museum paleontologist has concluded.
As Darwin observed, natural selection leading to adaptation of individuals and populations is occurring gradually and all the time. But over very long spans of time, the major channels of genetic organization, organism form, and the different ways organisms develop arose as outcomes of history-dependent variation that is now channeled, or constrained, within different groups of organisms.
During the summers of 2006 and 2007, an international team of researchers from China and the United States excavated a treasure trove of dinosaur skeletons from Early Cretaceous rocks in the southe
The Field Museum is embarking on a two-year project that could help bridge cultural and scientific barriers exacerbated by the Iraq war. With the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the museum recently began to study, catalog and reconcile the scattered but priceless collections of materials from the famous 5,000-year-old archaeological site of Kish, 50 miles south of Baghdad. Kish is one of the world's oldest cities and site of the earliest evidence of wheeled transport.
For the first time, scientists have determined the lifelong growth pattern for the Tyrannosaurus rex. T. rex reached its massive adult size due to an extraordinary growth spurt that stretched from about 14 to 18 years of age. Furthermore, the surge was followed by about 10 years of little or no growth as an adult, according to a new study. During the peak in its growth spurt, T. rex gained 2.1 kilograms (4.6 pounds) per day, developing into a more than 5,000-kilogram (11,000-pound) giant, one of the largest terrestrial carnivorous animals ever.
Archaeologists working in southern Peru found an ancient brewery more than 1,000 years old. Remains of the brewing facility were uncovered on Cerro Ba?l, a mountaintop city over 8,000 feet above sea level, which was home to elite members of the Wari Empire from AD 600-1000. Predating the Inca Empire by at least four centuries, this Wari brewery was used to make chicha, a fermented beverage similar to beer that played an important role in ritual feasting and drinking during Peru's first empire. Ancient Peruvians made chicha with local grains and fruit, which is quite different from today's commercial beers typically made with barley and hops.
A team of American and Filipino biologists has discovered a new species -- or perhaps a new genus -- of mouse in the Philippines that took them quite by surprise. The tiny mouse was captured on Mount Banahaw, a national park in the south-central portion of Luzon Island, only about 50 miles from Manila. The bright-orange animal has a large head, heavily muscled jaws and powerful teeth that can open hard nuts. It weighs about 15 grams, and has a body length of 3 inches and a tail of four inches. The mammal's whiskers are about eight times as wide as its head, and there is a second set of ''whiskers'' that arise from a patch at the back edge of each eye.
Archaeologists have found a 4,000-year-old gourd fragment that bears an archaic image of the Staff God ? the principal deity in South America during thousands of years. "Like the cross, the Staff God is a clearly recognizable religious icon," says Jonathan Haas, MacArthur curator of North American anthropology at The Field Museum. "This appears to be the oldest identifiable religious icon found in the Americas. It indicates that organized religion began in the Andes more than 1,000 years earlier than previously thought."
Trying to separate science from mythology, two researchers have put to rest several longstanding myths concerning the museum's infamous Tsavo lions. They propose alternative scenarios based on comprehensive reviews of historical literature, game department records, unpublished journals, and museum specimens. First, the Tsavo lions were not 'aberrant'. Lions and other big cats have repeatedly turned to man-eating in the face of certain conditions, many of which are manmade. Furthermore, man-eating by lions continues today.
