Carnegie Museum of Natural History scientists endeavor to increase knowledge of life on Earth through the study and collection of specimens reflecting our planet's biological, cultural, and geological diversity. Come back to this page often to learn more about what we're working on!

Little croc looms large over outback town

A new exhibit featuring more fossils of the world's first modern crocodilian opened in Isisford, central-western Queensland. Heading up the project was former Carnegie Museum Rea Post-doctoral Fellow Steve Salisbury. Click here to read the article.

Photo: Anthony O'Toole, The University of Queensland

CMNH researchers contribute to a new publication from the American Malacological Society

Have you ever wondered about collecting snails with a leaf blower? How about the ins and outs of preserving a giant squid? If questions like these arise from time to time, you want a copy of The Mollusks: A Guide to Their Study, Collection, and Preservation. This book would not exist without major contributors from Carnegie Museum of Natural History Section of Mollusks personnel. Click here to learn more about the book and find out how to order! (Microsoft Word, 26Kb)

CMNH Becomes a Contributing Publisher to BioOne
Recent Issues of the Annals and the Bulletin now online

After more than 100 years in print, the Annals of the Carnegie Museum is now also available online through becoming a contributing publisher to BioOne, an Internet-based  collection of electronic journals in the biological, ecological and environmental sciences. As the Museum is also now a subscriber to BioOne, Museum staff and onsite visitors have complete access to all journals in BioOne.  To see what BioOne has to offer, visit the Web site at http://www.bioone.org.  For more information, write to the Web team and your request will be forwarded to the Museum Library staff.

Illustration by Mark Klingler, from "A New Diadectid (Diadectomorpha), Orobates pabsti, from the early Permian of Central Germany," by David S. Berman, Amy C. Henrici, Richard A. Kissel, Stuart S. Sumida and Thomas Martens, as published in the Bulletin of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, number 35, 2004.

Snails on the Radio

A rare snail, Hendersonia occulta (cherrystone drop) was known from only 2 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties before 2005. Fieldwork by Tim Pearce in 2005 increased the number of known counties for this snail from 2 to 5, and noted finding the snail near rare larkspur plants. In this 5-minute radio expedition produced by Cynthia Berger from WPSU-FM in University Park, Pennsylvania, join Dr. Pearce to see if a 10-year old report of the larkspur is the clue to finding Hendersonia occulta in yet another county: http://wpsx.ois.psu.edu/www/wpsu.org/radio/features.php?bookmark_id=355&view=2

Congratulations to the Common Loons, winners of the 2007 Shaver’s Creek Birding Cup!

Powdermill’s Mike Lanzone and Trish Miller, members of team “Common Loons”, won this year’s contest among teams of birders to identify the most bird species in an area near State College, PA in a twenty-four hour period. Funds raised by the Loons will be used to support the Golden Eagle project on which Powdermill and the National Aviary are collaborating. Competing in the same event, 2nd PA Breeding Bird Atlas field crew staff member Lewis Grove of team “Birding the Midnight Oil” won first place in the County category.

Click here for details of the contest: http://www.wpsu.org/radio/features.php
For a clip aired on NPR, click here: http://wpsx.ois.psu.edu/www/pspb.org/podcast/files/features/Birding.mp3
Image: American Bittern

Newly discovered fossils of an ancient bird provide new evidence of evolutionary relationships

The discovery of dozens of beautifully preserved fossils of the ancient bird Gansus yumenensis in China is providing fresh evidence of how and when modern-style birds evolved from their dinosaur ancestors. The Chinese-American research team, co-led by Carnegie Museum of Natural History paleontologist Dr. Matt Lamanna, published its findings in the June 15 issue of the journal Science. Click here for the press release and images!

Reconstruction artwork by Mark A. Klingler/CMNH

New family of mammal really a living fossil

Laonastes aenigmamus, a rodent first described in 2005, made international headlines as the sole member of a new family of mammals. But according to a paper published by a team of international researchers led by Carnegie Museum of Natural History paleontologist Mary Dawson, the animal is actually a surviving member of the rodent family Diatomyidae, thought to be extinct for 11 million years. Click here for the press release and images!

Reconstruction artwork by Mark A. Klingler/CMNH

Scientists discover first swimming mammal from the Jurassic

A team of international researchers have discovered Castorocauda lutrasimilis, a new species of primitive mammal capable of swimming in the Middle Jurassic lake beds of China. In a cover article published February 24 in Science, the team of researchers including scientists from Carnegie Museum of Natural History describe the fossilized skeleton. Click here for the press release and images!

Reconstruction artwork by Mark A. Klingler/CMNH

Not Your Typical Mosquito
A Web site for the Crane Flies of Pennsylvania

By mobilizing our data-rich collections and collaborating with conservation organizations, government agencies and private citizens, CMNH is working to satisfy expanding demands for biological information that contribute to effective stewardship of natural habitats. An example of this environmentally useful research is the current survey of the Crane Flies of Pennsylvania. Learn more about the project at this link: http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/cranefly

Powdermill Ornithologist Spots the "Holy Grail" of Birdwatching, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker

Avian Researcher Mike Lanzone was a member of the select research team seeking evidence of a bird presumed to have been extinct for the last 60 years. Learn more about this historic event at these links:
- Rediscovering the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Cornell Lab website)
- Pittsburgh Tribune Review Article

New evidence of early horse domestication is found

A team of geologists from the University of Pittsburgh is collaborating with Carnegie Museum of Natural History's Anthropology Curator Sandra Olsen to investigate a possible prehistoric horse corral in northern Kazakhstan. Olsen and her colleagues, Dr. Rosemary Capo and Dr. Michael Rosenmeier, and their students found phosphorus-enriched soils indicative of ancient manure within a fenced enclosure at a site belonging to the Botai culture. These findings provide evidence for horse domestication as long as 5,600 years ago.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History Collection Manager named President-Elect of the American Society of Mammalogists

Suzanne McLaren, Collection Manager in the Section of Mammals, was named President-Elect of the American Society of Mammalogists (ASM) at their annual meeting June 17-21, 2006 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. McLaren will be only the third female president and the first non-PhD president in over 50 years. Click here to read the press release.

The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey: Unearthing the Origins of Monkeys, Apes, and Humans

Taking us back roughly 45 million years, CMNH Vertebrate Paleontologist Chris Beard offers a tantalizing new perspective on our deepest evolutionary roots. In a fast-paced narrative full of vivid stories from the field, he reconstructs our extended family tree, back to the first anthropoids—the diverse and successful group that includes monkeys, apes, and humans. Illustrated by award-winning CMNH Scientific Illustrator Mark A. Klingler.

Researchers discover new species of mammal

Scientists from Carnegie Museum of Natural History have discovered a brand new species of early mammal, dubbed "Popeye" because of its massive forearms. It shows some very unique features that would be otherwise known only in armadillos, but it is older than the armadillo lineage by 100 million years and unrelated to them.

New Fossil of a Primitive Marsupial Discovered

CMNH scientists Zhe-Xi Luo and John Wible are members of a collaborative team of Chinese and American scientists who discovered Sinodelphys, a 125-million-year-old fossil animal that is the most primitive and oldest known relative of all marsupial mammals.

Bones of the Skull of the Short-Tailed Opossum Monodelphis brevicaudata

CMNH Section of Mammals Curator John R. Wible describes and illustrates in detail the exterior bones of the skull of this small South American opossum, close relative of the now popular laboratory mammal Monodelphis domestica. This study represents one of the few such resources for scientists and students other than veterinary textbooks on domesticated mammals.

Geology Along the Lewis & Clark Trail

The geology and invertebrate paleontology along the Lewis and Clark (1803-1806) trail discusses the geologic basis for the route of the expedition. It describes the geology from the Appalachian Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. This route follows the Monongahela, Ohio, Missouri and Columbia Rivers, all of whose courses were brought about by the distribution and melting of Ice Sheets during the Ice Age.

Horses Through Time

The horse has had a bigger impact on societies through the ages than any other animal. The origin or origins of horse domestication is currently a hot topic in archaeology. The time and location(s) of this event are debated by scholars across Eurasia. Sandra Olsen and colleagues are currently working at a site in north-central Kazakhstan to see if it holds clues to the beginnings of taming and eventually domesticating horses.

A Mammal the Size of a Paper Clip

An international team of researchers led by Carnegie Museum of Natural History Vertebrate Paleontologist Dr. Zhe-Xi Luo has discovered a 195-million-year-old fossil mammal. This find is the smallest known mammal of the Mesozoic and represents a new branch on the mammalian family tree. The newest addition to the mammalian family group also happens to be the tiniest mammal known from the Mesozoic Era, and one of the smallest mammals ever.

Tracking Our Extended Family

Two exciting fossil discoveries offer clues to the origin and evolution of higher primates—the group that today includes monkeys, apes, and humans. A team of American and Chinese paleontologists, organized by Carnegie Museum of Natural History's Dr. Chris Beard, have unearthed fossilized foot bones that provide us with our first glimpse at the skeleton of primates that are near the common ancestry of monkeys, apes, and humans.

A Treasure Trove of Specimens

Since 1993, Carnegie Museum of Natural History paleontologists Dr. David Berman and Amy Henrici have been excavating an abandoned sandstone quarry in Germany. The Bromacker Quarry excavations have yielded fascinating specimens that provide new information about the dominant life forms nearly 80 million years before the Age of Dinosaurs.

Unearthing the Roots of the Family Tree

Because very few skeletons of early mammals have been found, scientists have had only vague ideas about their lifestyles. The completeness of the Jeholodens jenkinsi skeleton, however, has allowed CMNH Vertebrate Paleontologist Zhe-Xi Luo and his collaborators to reconstruct some of the complexities of mammalian evolution.

World's Earliest Known Placental Mammal

This nearly complete skeleton was discovered by an international team of scientists – including Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Zhe-Xi Luo and John Wible – in the famed feathered dinosaur quarry of China’s Liaoning Province.The discovery of this little creature is of big importance to the understanding of the evolution of mammals. Since most mammals living today are placental, all may point to Eomaia scansoria as an ancient ancestor.