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image of moving an MCZ fossil mount in 1959Moving an MCZ fossil mount, Teleoceras fossiger, 1959

MCZ News & Events

  • The infamous Jackalopus karelliemi, a.k.a. ”Liem’s Jackalope,” made an unexpected appearance at the opening of the newly renovated Great Mammal Hall in the Harvard Museum of Natural History on October 16th. The perpetrator remains unidentified and at large. The prank honors the memory of Bigelow Professor of Ichthyology Karel Liem, who was a master practical joker.
  • Encyclopedia of Life has been named among the top 16 best educational websites by the Telegraph, a daily newspaper in London, UK. Telegraph.co.uk, 11/12/2009
  • The MCZ celebrates its 150th anniversary this year.  A series of three lectures will commemorate the MCZ’s proud past and promising future, as well as the role of natural history collections in the scientific community.
  • Yael Aminetzach, a postdoctoral researcher in the Hoekstra lab, shows that venomous shrews and lizards evolved toxic proteins in the same way. Harvard Gazette, 10/29/2009
  • Farish A. Jenkins, Jr. was awarded the prestigious Romer-Simpson Medal at the September meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Bristol, UK. The society's highest award honors sustained and outstanding scholarly excellence in the discipline of vertebrate paleontology. SVP Annual Meeting website, 9/26/2009
  • The Herpetologist’s League has initiated the Ernest E. Williams Research Grants for graduate students, named in honor of the late Ernest E. Williams, former Curator of Herpetology at the MCZ and an honored faculty member of Harvard University. Herpetologist League Website, 9/29/2009
  • Gonzalo Giribet is part of an international research team using scalable phylogenomic methods to place the Acoelomorph flatworms as a sister clade to other bilaterally symmetric animals. The results appear in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Proc. R. Soc. B Abstract, 9/16/2009
  • The MCZ will co-sponsor two of five global lectures for the Darwin 150 Project, celebrating the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. Prof. Everett Mendelsohn and Prof. E.O. Wilson are scheduled to speak. Registration for the September 16th and November 24th lectures is free. 9/8/2009
  • Professor Karel F. Liem, Henry Bryant Bigelow Professor of Ichthyology, Curator of Ichthyology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and Honorary Associate and Former Master of Dunster House, died on September 3, 2009. July 2010 symposium in his honor is planned.
  • James McCarthy shared his research on climate change with school teachers from around the Northeast during a weeklong Harvard workshop “Oil and the Contemporary Globe.” Harvard Gazette, 9/1/2009
  • Hopi Hoekstra, Catherine Linnen and Evan Kingsley's article, published in the journal Science, shows mice living in Sand Hills quickly evolved lighter coloration. Harvard Science, 8/27/2009
  • H. Bradley Shaffer begins term as Hrdy Visiting Fellow in Conservation Biology for the 2009-10 academic year. Fellowship details, 7/1/2009
  • The Ernst Mayr Library contributed books, images, manuscripts, and records from the Hassler and Albatross expeditions to the recently unveiled "Expeditions & Discoveries" Open Collections project by Harvard University.
  • Jesse Weber, a graduate student in Hopi Hoekstra's lab, was awarded the Hamilton Prize for the best student paper at the Evolution 2009 Meeting.
  • Work by of Yael Salzman, a postdoctoral researcher in Hopi Hoekstra's lab, on the molecular evolution of toxic proteins in shrews was featured in The Washington Post, 6/8/2009.
  • Graduate student Dino Martins receives a 2009 Whitley Award for his work related to the conservation of insects and sustainable agriculture in Kenya. Watch an online video of Dino’s project. Press Release, 5/13/2009
  • Christopher Kenaley, former Curatorial Assistant in Ichthyology, describes a new species of fish, Photostomias liemi, after Professor Karel Liem. Abstract: Copeia 2009, Full text PDF download (1.41M)
  • Scott Edwards collaborated with recent OEB PhD graduate Leon Claessens to create a 3-D digital model of a rare dodo skeleton in the MCZ's collections. HarvardScience, 2/19/2009.
  • Hopi Hoekstra's work on cryptic coloration in mice was featured in Smithsonian Magazine, 2/10/2009.
  • MCZ mollusks collected by Ernst Mayr, Darwin's finches, and primate skulls are featured in a special exhibit "Rethinking the Darwinian Revolution" through May 2009 at the Cabot Science Library. Harvard College Library, 2/6/2009
  • Arkhat Abzhanov and Hopi Hoekstra are praised among the 'modern Darwins' whose scientific work carries on the legacy Darwin's theory inspired. They are featured in National Geographic, 2/2009.
  • A rare MCZ bee preserved in amber with orchid pollinia is featured in an exhibit titled "Orchids through Darwin's Eyes" at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC until April 2009. NPR, 1/23/2009
  • Arctic mammals from the MCZ, including a polar bear and muskox, loaned to the Berkshire Museum for a special exhibit, "Race to the Top: Arctic Inspiration 1909 & Today," and runs through May 2009. Berkshire Eagle, 1/23/2009
  • Papers by Jonathan Losos, Farish Jenkins and Arkhat Abzhanov are cited among the past decade's 'gems' of evolutionary evidence as Nature marks Darwin's 200th birthday.  Nature, 12/31/2008
  • A paper published by MCZ graduate student Dave Blackburn made it among the top 10 science stories of 2008 featured by ScienceNOW, an online publication maintained by AAAS and Science magazine.  Science, 12/24/2008
  • Launch of the Encyclopedia of Life was one of Nature magazine’s 10 “biggest science stories of the year.”  Nature, 12/18/2008
  • Gonzalo Giribet's paper on metazoan phylogenomics, published in the journal Nature, was included in Discover magazine’s "top 100 Science Stories of 2008."  Discover, 12/4/2008
  • "The Language of Color" is on display through September 6, 2009 at the HMNH. MCZ specimens are featured that highlight the ways animals use color and shows the role that color has played in evolution. A Harvard Magazine story includes a video tour of the exhibit with MCZ Curator Hopi Hoekstra. Harvard Magazine, 10/24/2008
  • Migrating species are represented by MCZ specimens from several departments in a special exhibit at the Cabot Science Library "Birds Do It, Bees Do It, Even Roaming Caribou Do It: Migration in the Animal Kingdom" through January 2009.  Harvard College Library, 10/16/2008
  • Gonzalo Giribet explained the role of mite harvestmen in National Geographic Channel's Naked Science: "Supercontinent" episode airing on Oct 9, 2008. Program details.
  • OEB and MCZ postdoc Terry J. Ord, working with Jonathan Losos, has described how Jamaican lizards mark their territory with shows of strength at dusk and dawn. Harvard Science story, 8/27/2008
  • MCZ partners with EOL and Microsoft to present natural-history specimens in a new innovative digital-imaging technology known as "Photosynth." More, 8/20/2008
  • "Taking a cue from ants on evolution of humans," the work of Edward O. Wilson is featured in a New York Times story, 7/15/2008.
  • A polar bear mount from the MCZ is on display at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT in an exhibit examining global climate change, which will be open from June to November 2008. Bruce Museum Exhibitions, 6/28/2008
  • Grad Student David Blackburn, working with James Hanken and Farish Jenkins, finds African frogs packing concealed claws. Live Science story, 5/27/2008
  • A new species of Sri Lankan frog described by Madhava Meegaskumbara, postdoctoral fellow, is on 2008 List of Top 10 New Species of the International Institute for Species Exploration. IISE Web story, 5/23/2008
  • MCZ specimens from multiple departments were on display in an exhibit in the Houghton Library featuring European travels to Iran from 1550 to 1700. Harvard Gazette, 5/22/2008
  • An MCZ tiger specimen from 1904 was included in an exhibit featuring European maps of Iran in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Map Gallery Hall at Pusey Library. Harvard Gazette, 5/22/2008
  • Specimens from the MCZ Blaschka Glass Invertebrate collection are on display at the HMNH through January 2009. Harvard Magazine, Volume 110, Number 5, May-June 2008
  • Gonzalo Giribet's phylogenomic sampling research improves resolution of the animal tree of life and is the journal Nature's cover story. Nature, 4/10/2008, (subscription required)
  • James McCarthy has been awarded the 2008 Walker Prize from the Boston Museum of Science. BMOS story, 4/7/2008
  • James McCarthy, co-chair of a United Nations IPCC working group, among delegation honored at laureate Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. Harvard Gazette, 12/13/2007
  • The New York Historical Society in New York, NY featured a pair of golden pheasants from the MCZ in an exhibit on the Marquis de Lafayette open from November 2007 through August 2008. New York Historical Society Exhibitions, 11/16/2007
  • Andy Biewener and CFS researcher Timothy Higham study complexity of bird muscles in motion. Harvard Science, 11/14/2007
  • Giant dragonfly wing from an MCZ fossil collection indicates an ancestral dragonfly with a wingspan of almost two and a half feet. Harvard Magazine, Volume 110, Number 2, November-December 2007
  • A pair of MCZ golden pheasants owned by George Washington traveled to Mount Vernon, Virginia to be part of the special exhibit "A Son and his Adoptive Father: The Marquis de Lafayette and George Washington" on display from October 2006 through August 2007. Mount Vernon Estate & Gardens Exhibits, 10/27/2006
  • Santiago Ramirez, Charles Marshall and Naomi Pierce have identified the ancient fossilized remains of a pollen-bearing bee as the first hint of orchids in the fossil record. Harvard Gazette, 8/29/2007
  • Gonzalo Giribet hunts tiny daddy longlegs to explain continental shifts. New York Times, 8/28/2007
  • E.O. Wilson gives credit to the vast array of pollinators that are constantly at work maintaining the plants upon which we humans depend. Weekend Edition, 6/30/2007
  • Hopi Hoekstra and Farish Jenkins among the "Top 10" recognized by the journal Science for 2006 breakthroughs. Science, 12/22/2006
  • A portion of the MCZ Blaschka Glass Invertebrate collection makes an unprecedented trip to Minneapolis. Harvard Gazette, 12/14/2006
  • Judy Chupasko, James Hanken, Stefan Cover and Ardis Johnston describe some of the historically significant specimens in the MCZ collections and discuss the value of keeping objects that may not ever be displayed. All Things Considered, 08/10/2005
  • Canine mounts and skulls from the MCZ included in a special exhibit "The Nature of Dogs" at the Bruce Museum from July to November 2006. Bruce Museum Exhibitions, 7/1/2006
  • An extinct Spix's Macaw specimen from the MCZ, featured in Swedish artist Henrik Håkansson's installation which draws parallels between species extinction and loss of art, on exhibit at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum from June to September 2006. Gardner Museum Special Exhibitions, 6/30/2006
  • MCZ specimens from multiple collections on display in special exhibit "Benjamin Franklin - A How-To Guide: Science and Sociability" which commemorates the 300th anniversary of Franklin's birth. The Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments exhibit is open from June to December 2006. CHSI Special Exhibition, 6/5/2006
  • Piotr Naskrecki's book "The Smaller Majority" calls attention to endangered species that are often overlooked but in fact comprise the majority of life on earth - animals smaller than the human hand. Talk of the Nation, 4/10/2005
  • Beaver specimens from the MCZ featured in the exhibit "Beavers: Creatures of Industry" in the Wenham Museum from November 2005 through June 2006. Boston Globe, 3/19/2006
  • MCZ specimens on view at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design's Bakalar Gallery from February to December 2006 as part of multimedia artist Shintaro Miyake's installation "The Beaver Project." MassArt Exhibitions, 2/8/2006
  • Multiple MCZ collections provided specimens to the Harvard Busch-Reisinger Museum for "Objects for a Kunstkammer: Early European Collecting, 1550-1700" on exhibit from December 2005 through November 2006. HU Art Museums Exhibitions, 12/10/2005
  • MCZ material on display in the special exhibit "Bringing Nature Inside: 17th Century Natural History, Classification, and Vision" at the Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments from October 2004 and continuing into 2005. Harvard Magazine, Volume 107, Number 2, November - December 2004
  • Stefan Cover discusses the vital role that ants play in life on earth and shares how his love of ants led him to the MCZ. Living on Earth, 10/19/2004
  • MCZ specimens are the focus of the book "The Rarest of the Rare: Stories Behind the Treasures at the Harvard Museum of Natural History." Book Review, 2004