News and events

			Upcoming events UCMP Museum Scientist Diane Erwin and UCMP/University and Jepson Herbaria volunteer John Miller will be presenting a workshop on June 14, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, called Beneath the Crown: A Paleobotanical Perspective on the Green Tree of Life. It will provide an introduction to the "lost world" of plant diversity. Participants will learn about key major lineages of plants known only from the fossil record and their role in reconstructing the Green Tree of Life. See first-hand the evidence of extinct groups and learn about the evolutionary history of some of the oldest extant plant lineages including lycophytes, horsetails, ferns, and conifers. The workshop will be held in the Valley Life Sciences Building on the Berkeley campus. There is a fee and the workshop is limited to 20 participants. For more information contact the Friends of the Jepson Herbarium at 510-643-7008 or visit the Herbaria website. News archive For older UCMP news see the news archive. Newsletter January 2008 issue Read the latest issue of the official UCMP newsletter, which includes a feature on the late Joe Gregory, UCMP publications for 2007, a goodbye to Museum Scientist Dave Haasl, and more.

		Caldwell finds that stomatopods can perceive circularly polarized light March 25, 2008 Some stomatopods can detect and analyze circularly polarized light according to research by UCMP's Roy Caldwell and collaborators published in the recent Current Biology. No other animal is known to be able to perceive this sort of light. These stomatopods can actually distinguish between left-handed and right-handed circular polarization. The discovery has been widely reported, including by Wired and Science News.

		Pyramids, forams, and Red Sea reefs: Field notes from Lorraine Casazza, part 2 March 24, 2008 Grad student Lorraine Casazza's Egyptian adventure continues as she collects Nummilites and endures sandstorms in the Valley of the Whales.

		UCMP alum Malcolm McKenna dies at age 77 March 12, 2008 Malcolm McKenna, a retired curator of vertebrate paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History and alumnus of UCMP, died on March 3, 2008, in Boulder, Colorado, according to the obituary in The New York Times (March 10, 2008).

		Padian talks Darwin in Nature February 8, 2008 UCMP curator and professor of integrative biology Kevin Padian reflects on what constitutes Darwin's enduring greatness in this week's Nature. You can also hear Padian speaking about Darwin in the February 7 edition of the Nature podcast.

		Lee and Werning find that dinosaurs reached reproductive maturity during adolescence January 16, 2008 Dinosaurs reached reproductive maturity well before they stopped growing according to research by UCMP grad student Sarah Werning and recent UCMP Ph.D. recipient Andrew H. Lee published in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. By looking at many thin slices of dinosaur bone Werning and Lee were able to find individuals with calcium-rich deposits that accumulated prior to egg-laying. The fact that these individuals were still adolescents is an important piece of information for understanding the lives of dinosaurs. Read more about it at the UC Berkeley NewsCenter and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

		Patek receives 2008 George A. Bartholomew Award December 13, 2007 UCMP's Sheila Patek has received the Bartholomew Award from the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. Read more about it here.

		Pyramids, forams, and Red Sea reefs: Field notes from Lorraine Casazza, part 1 November 30, 2007 Grad student Lorraine Casazza files a report from Egypt, where she tracked down giant foraminifera in the Nile Valley and used modern and fossil forams to assess reef health in the Red Sea.

		Paleontologist Joseph Gregory has died at 93 November 30, 2007 Professor emeritus of paleontology and former UCMP director Joseph Gregory died on November 18. Read more about Dr. Gregory at the UC Berkeley NewsCenter.

		Pyenson publishes on the feeding mechanics of fin whales November 27, 2007 University of British Columbia biomechanists, along with UCMP grad student Nick Pyenson, quantify the feeding mechanics of fin whales in a recent paper published in Marine Ecology Progress Series. Read more about it at the UC Berkeley NewsCenter and The New York Times.

		Padian named as fellow of AAAS October 30, 2007 UCMP curator and Professor of Integrative Biology Kevin Padian has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The announcement was made in the October 26 edition of Science. Read more about it at the UC Berkeley NewsCenter.

For older UCMP news see the news archive.