Archived Department News

2008

Headlines for June

IB Professor Todd Dawson named Director of U.C.'s Blue Oak Ranch Reserve

Headlines for August

VLSB Cafe Now Open!

Headlines for September

IB Graduate Student Katie Brakora awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Kenya
Dr. Michael Shapira chosen to receive the Ellison Foundation Award
IB graduate student Sarah K. Amugongo awarded two fellowships for work on human evolution and bone biology

Headlines for October

Methods for unlocking the secret lives of tiny snails, and testing the effects of preservation on biological patterns in the fossil record in two new reports by Professor Carole Hickman

Headlines for September

Big turn-out for annual Geometric Morphometrics Summer Shourtcourse

June

IB Professor Todd Dawson named Director of U.C.'s Blue Oak Ranch Reserve

Published June 25, 2008

The reserve is a new and exciting resource that will provide opportunities for
research and teaching about California oak woodlands ecosystems.

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August

VLSB Cafe Now Open!

Published August 19, 2008

At long last, Micro Yali's has opened on the 2nd floor of VLSB.  Please come by for coffee and espresso, tea, juice, pastries, and sandwiches. The menu will expand later this week to include salads and other items.

The café can be found on the east side of the courtyard;  service is available from the  lobby side or the courtyard directly. Initial opening hours will be 7:30am - 4:00pm

The facility is also available to cater approved events in VLSB;  please contact Joseph for a space reservation and we can work together with Micro Yali's to manage your function.

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September

IB Graduate Student Katie Brakora awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Kenya

Published September 8, 2008

IB graduate student Katie Brakora, from the Padian Lab, has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Kenya beginning in January 2009. Katie will use her year abroad to study the evolution of sex differences in five species of spiral-horned antelope. To that end, she’ll be working at the Nairobi National Museum and at field sites around Kenya to measure the physical changes that occur with growth in male and female antelope.

Established by the U.S. Congress in 1946 and sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the Fulbright Program is America’s largest and most prestigious international exchange program. The Fulbright is intended to “increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries, through the exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills.”

Useful links:

Fulbright website: http://us.fulbrightonline.org/home.html
National Museums of Kenya: http://www.museums.or.ke/

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Dr. Michael Shapira chosen to receive the Ellison Foundation Award

Published September 2, 2008

IB assistant adjunct professor Michael Shapira has been chosen to  receive the Ellison Foundation New Scholar Award in Aging to support  his research on the interface between infection and aging.  Specifically, Dr. Shapira’s work focuses on how aging effects susceptibility to infection, and also how infection, especially early in life, affects life history traits such as fecundity, lifespan, and adult susceptibility to infection.

New Scholar awards provide four years of generous funding to new faculty in the first three years of their career. Candidates for the award must be nominated by their university (or medical institution) “for their outstanding promise in aging research.”

For more information about the Ellison Foundation New Scholar Award in Aging:
http://www.ellisonfoundation.org/adsp.jsp?key=13_aging_new_about&show=110

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IB graduate student Sarah K. Amugongo awarded two fellowships for work on human evolution and bone biology

Published September 8, 2008

IB graduate student Sarah K. Amugongo, from the Hlusko lab, has been awarded the Franklin Mosher Baldwin Fellowship by the Leakey Foundation, and the Wadsworth International Fellowship by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. This is Sarah’s second time to receive the Franklin Mosher Baldwin Fellowship, and her third time to receive the Wadsworth International Fellowship.

The Leakey Foundation, founded by interested individuals in 1968 to support the work of famed anthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey, awards Franklin Mosher Baldwin Fellowships to students “who seek to obtain an advanced degree or specialized training in an area of study related to human origins research.” Similarly, the Wadsworth International Fellowship is granted by the Wenner-Gren Foundation to support students in the field of anthropology, from “countries where anthropology is underrepresented.” Only two Wadsworth Fellowships are granted to students in any one university.

Useful links:

The Leakey Foundation: http://www.leakeyfoundation.org/
The Wenner-Gren Foundation: http://www.wennergren.org/

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October

Methods for unlocking the secret lives of tiny snails, and testing the effects of preservation on biological patterns in the fossil record in two new reports by Professor Carole Hickman

Published October 1, 2008

Observing animals in the wild can be quite a challenge, even if the animal in question is visible from across a football field. So when an organism is smaller than your average grain of rice and lives underwater, studying their natural behaviors and habits becomes even trickier.

The obstacles field biologists face when trying to study just such organisms was the focus of the 16th Unitas Malacologica World Congress of Malacology, held in Antwerp, Belgium, July 15-20, 2007. The recently published proceedings from the symposium, entitled “Micromolluscs: methodological challenges - exciting results” includes a research article by IB Professor Carole Hickman on new methods - and their results - for studying microgastropods, snails smaller than 5 mm, or 1/5 of an inch.

In her report, “New techniques yield new insights on the basic biology of living microgastropods,” Professor Hickman explains how to use undisturbed sediment cores, light traps and emergence traps to make field observations of these relatively understudied organisms. She discovers large populations of microgastropod species previously thought rare living between sand particles on the sea floor, and observes these tiny snails engaged in some unexpected activities. Not only do they use threads of mucus to help them drift through the water column, they also use their cilia, small hair like structures, to crawl upside down at the water surface while feeding. These surprising findings highlight the importance of field observations in understanding just how diverse molluscs are as a group, and how much of that diversity may yet be discovered in its tiniest members.

In a second report, “Assessing the effects of Taphonomic processes on paleobiological patterns using Turbinid gastropod shells and opercula,” Professor Hickman turns her attention to fossilized snails in the Dominican Republic. She and co-author Ross Nehm look at two hard parts of snails that get preserved in the fossil record: shells, and opercula, or “little lids” in Latin, a door-like structure most snails have to seal up their apertures once they’ve retreated inside. The authors find that if only preserved shells are counted and not opercula, the abundance of a particular species may be underestimated by up to 75%, and the total number of species may be underestimated by up to 60%.

Their work is published in a new book, “Evolutionary Stasis and Change in the Dominican Republic Neogene,” edited by co-author of the report and Berkeley alumnus Ross H. Nehm. The book brings together a collection of articles that have resulted from one of the most ambitious and collaborative paleontological research projects in the history of the science, the Neogene Paleontology of the northern Dominican Republic (DR) Project.

From 1977 to 1980, 50 field scientists collected a staggering 800 bulk samples of large and microscopic fossils from throughout the Cibao Valley in Dominican Republic, and then distributed them to specialists all over the world for detailed study. This incredible bank of data has been used to investigate evolutionary trends in multiple lineages and in various ecological communities for the last 28 years.

Articles:

Hickman, C.S. 2008. New techniques yield new insights on the basic
biology of living microgastropods. Pp. 1-13 in D.L. Geiger and B.
Ruthensteiner (eds.), Micromolluscs: Methodological Challenges -
Exciting Results. Zoosymposia 1. Magnolia Press, Auckland, New
Zealand. 308 pp.

Nehm, Ross H. and Hickman, Carole S. 2008. Assessing the effects of Taphonomic processes on paleobiological patterns using Turbinid gastropod shells and opercula. Pp. 63-84 in Ross H. Nehm, Ann F. Budd (eds.), Evolutionary Stasis and Change in the Dominican Republic Neogene. Springer Science. 314 pp.

Useful links:

Learn about Unitas Malacologica here: http://www.ucd.ie/cobid/unitas/index.html
Learn about the DR project here: http://eusmilia.geology.uiowa.edu/nmita.htm

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September

Big turn-out for annual Geometric Morphometrics Summer Shourtcourse

Published September 16, 2008

For nearly ten years the Department of Integrative Biology has been hosting a summer shortcourse in geometric morphometrics, a powerful method for quantitatively describing and analyzing shape and shape changes in organisms. The ongoing popularity of the course is likely a reflection of the many and varied research applications of geometric morphometrics; it can be used to track and compare changes within organisms’ lifetimes (development and ontogeny), how organisms’ shapes are related to their environment and their role in that environment (ecomorphology), or how shape changes through time within lineages (evolution), just to name a few.

This year’s course, held June 23-27 and organized by IB / UC Museum of Paleontology graduate students Jenny McGuire and Katie Brakora, and undergraduate Alumna Lily Li, was one of the largest to date. The 22 Participants ranged in experience from undergraduate researchers to practicing scientists, and hailed from the departments of Integrative Biology and Environmental Science Policy and Management, the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, the Herbarium, the UC Museum of Paleontology - and even California State University, Chico.

It was taught by Drs. Miriam Zelditch and Donald Swiderski from the University of Michigan, two of the world’s leading experts in geometric morphometrics. They focused their morning lectures on the mathematical theory underlying the methodology, and guided students through afternoon software tutorials.

"We're always delighted to teach the course, but it is more fun when there's enough people to reach a critical mass for asking questions and making lab active," said Dr. Zelditch of this year’s high turnout. When asked about the future of the course, she responded, "we'll continue to teach it for as long as students want to take it."

The Geometric Morphometrics Summer Shortcourse is made possible by generous funding from IB, the UCMP, the MVZ and the Herbarium.

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