New activities, events, and developments relating to the ETE Program at NMNH

ETE participates in the 2011 Natural History Research Experience Intern Program

NHRE participant Anikó Tóth spent her 10-week summer internship on an ETE project assembling mammal species lists for different areas of Kenya from early 20th century Smithsonian expeditions. Anikó used the NMNH Vertebrate Zoology catalogue, Google Earth, and early 20th century maps in the museum's archives to determine where the expeditions of those times (including one that included Teddy Roosevelt) collected their specimens. These were compared with late 20th century faunal lists to see how biodiversity has changed across time. These "site faunas" from specific areas and habitats also can serve as modern analogues for paleocommunities in the fossil record. Anikó is a senior at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA and is majoring in Biology and Applied Science. The ETE Program provided funding through NHRE for her internship, which is co-supervised by Kay Behrensmeyer and Kate Lyons. Anikó presented a poster on her work for NHRE and is now writing up the results of her study for publication.

Toth and Behrensmeyer work on google earth

Anikó begins work using Google Earth and the early 20th century maps to determine where the expeditions of those times (including one that included Teddy Roosevelt) collected their specimens.

ETE welcomes Tyler Faith

Tyler Faith is on contract with ETE during the Fall of 2011 to continue assembling and analyzing data generated by the first ETE workshop on Community Assembly and Disassembly. Some of these results will be presented in October at the 2011 Annual GSA meeting in Minneapolis, MN.