News archive

			News archived from: 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006

		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.

		Fellows of the California Academy of Sciences honor Clemens October 22, 2007 Last week at the Annual Meeting of the Fellows of the California Academy of Sciences Bill Clemens received the Fellows' Medal. This is the highest honor awarded by the Fellows.

		Pyenson and Haasl describe Miocene whale-fall in Biology Letters September 14, 2007 Graduate student Nick Pyenson and museum scientist David Haasl describe and discuss a fossil whale-fall from the Miocene of California in the latest Biology Letters. The fossil, found on Año Nuevo Island, is a small baleen whale (only 11 feet long) with mollusks attached to its skeleton. The find demonstrates that extremely large body size is not necessary for whale-fall communities, and suggests that the evolution of these communities did not rely on whale size. Read more about it at the UC Berkeley NewsCenter and see the paper in Biology Letters.

		Lindberg and Pyenson propose that whales evolved sonar to locate cephalopods September 6, 2007 The journal Lethaia has published new work from curator/professor David Lindberg and graduate student Nick Pyenson regarding the evolution of sonar in toothed whales. They propose that whales at first used sonar to track nautiloids in shallow water, and over time evolved to track softer-bodied cephalopods at greater depth. Read more about it at the UC Berkeley NewsCenter.

		Barnosky receives Fulbright Senior Specialists Award July 31, 2007 Tony Barnosky, UCMP Curator and Professor of Integrative Biology, has been selected for a Fulbright Senior Specialists Award to conduct work in Santiago, Chile, at the Departamento de Ecología, Pontificia Universidad Católica, during Fall 2007. Tony will be working with Chilean faculty and students to study the ecological effects of global warming and is one of over 400 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad this year through the Fulbright Senior Specialists Program.

		Irmis and Padian explore dinosaur origins and make the cover of Science July 19, 2007 UCMP's Randy Irmis and Kevin Padian describe the Late Triassic coexistence of dinosaurs and dinosaur precursors in a cover story for the July 20 issue of Science. Fossils found in New Mexico, by Randy and others, show that dinosaurs did not quickly replace their predecessors, but rather that they may have shared the landscape for 20 million years or more. To find out more, go to the UC Berkeley press release, a fact sheet about the paper, Science magazine and Randy's recent field notes from Hayden Quarry in New Mexico. Also, watch some local television news coverage of the discovery, featuring UCMP alum Matt Wedel. KTVU and ABC7 both had the story.

		Caldwell on The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer July 18, 2007 UCMP director Roy Caldwell appeared on the PBS program The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer in a discussion about Claire Nouvian's new book The Deep. A transcript, audio and streaming video are available at the PBS website.