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Wall Street Journal
30-06-2025
- Wall Street Journal
‘The Beast in the Clouds' Review: A Bear of an Expedition
Growing up in New York City, Theodore Roosevelt planned to be a naturalist. Although he eventually chose politics, he never lost his love of the outdoors, as seen in his record as a conservationist, rancher, hunter and explorer. Roosevelt's two oldest sons, Theodore Jr. (Ted) and Kermit, shared their father's passion, and in 1928 the brothers mounted a monthslong expedition to Tibet and China to collect animal specimens for Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. In 'The Beast in the Clouds,' Nathalia Holt recounts that journey. Both Ted and Kermit were veterans of World War I. By the time they left for Asia, Ted, 41, was a successful investment banker who had held several political offices, including assistant secretary of the Navy. In 1924 he was the Republican nominee for New York governor. Unlike his father, he was not elected. After the war, Kermit, two years Ted's junior, founded the Roosevelt Steamship Co. Of the two brothers, he was the more experienced outdoorsman, having accompanied their father on his African safari (1909-1910) and his harrowing journey to Brazil to chart the River of Doubt (1913-14). 'I seek my father in the wild places,' Kermit wrote, and for both brothers hunting was a way to relive the happy days of their youth. In 1925 Ted and Kermit had led an expedition through the Himalayas, collecting more than 2,000 zoological specimens for the Field Museum. Three years later, they organized their second trek, searching especially for the giant panda, about which little was known. Although they were again sponsored by the Field Museum, the Roosevelts were clearly drawn by the thrill of the hunt more than any contribution to science.
Boston Globe
28-06-2025
- Science
- Boston Globe
Honey, We Shrunk the Cod
But a new study suggests that intense fishing was driving the evolution of the fish. Small, slow-growing cod gained a significant survival advantage, shifting the population toward fish that were genetically predisposed to remaining small. Today's cod are small not because the big individuals are fished out but because the fish no longer grow big. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The data, which were published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, add to a growing body of evidence that human activities like hunting and fishing are driving the evolution of wild animals -- sometimes at lightning speed. Advertisement 'Human harvesting elicits the strongest selection pressures in nature,' said Thorsten Reusch, a marine ecologist at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany and an author of the new paper. 'It can be really fast that you see evolutionary change.' The imprint that humans are leaving on other species is not always quite so visible. In a second study published this week, researchers at the Field Museum of Natural History, in Chicago, reported that over the past century, increasing human development may have driven changes in the skulls of local rodents. But some of these changes were subtle, and they were not the same across species. Advertisement 'We are comparing two species in the same area that were supposedly exposed to the same pressure,' said Anderson Feijó, the assistant curator of mammals at the Field Museum and an author of the rodent study, which was published in the journal Integrative and Comparative Biology on Thursday. 'But the way they dealt is totally different, because their biology is different.' Go Fish In the new cod study, researchers studied a set of unusual biological specimens: a collection of otoliths, the tiny, bonelike structures located in the inner ear of most fish. Otoliths grow in size over the course of a fish's life, adding rings much as a tree trunk does. By examining these rings, scientists can estimate the age and growth rate of individual fish. The researchers used a newly developed chemical technique to analyze otoliths collected from Eastern Baltic cod harvested between 1996 and 2019, when the collapse of the population prompted a fishing ban. They found that fish harvested in more recent years were significantly smaller, with slower growth rates, than those from the beginning of the period. From 1996 and 2019, the average length of the cod declined by 48%. Then, the researchers sequenced and analyzed the DNA of each individual fish. For the older specimens, this was a tricky task, requiring the researchers to recover degraded DNA from otoliths that had been stored in paper bags, at room temperature, for decades. 'We had to work with a little dirt, a little slime, some blood traces that were sticking to the otoliths,' Reusch said. Advertisement Ultimately, the team identified a variety of genomic regions and variants associated with growth rate. A statistical analysis revealed that over time, these variants were changing in correlated, nonrandom ways -- suggesting that there was some external selective force acting on the genome and the population. That is a 'signal of selection,' said Kwi Young Han, a postdoctoral researcher at GEOMAR and an author of the paper. The results didn't prove that fishing is what drove this selection; warming temperatures would also be expected to favor smaller cod. But the size changes that the scientists documented far exceed what would be expected from temperature alone. The genetic changes could have long-term consequences for the population and help explain why it hasn't bounced back since the 2019 fishing ban. 'It's 2025 right now, and we don't see any big fish still,' Han said. Rodent Roundup In the second study, researchers examined hundreds of rodent specimens contained in the collection of the Field Museum of Natural History. The specimens had originally been collected from around the Chicago metropolitan area between 1898 and 2023. The scientists focused on the skulls of two species: eastern chipmunks and eastern meadow voles. Each skull was analyzed for specific characteristics, including its particular collection site and how highly developed the area was. The researchers found that over time, as Chicago grew more urban, the chipmunks' skulls became larger -- but their rows of teeth grew shorter. These seemingly opposing trends may have been driven by a change in diet, the scientists said. Urbanization, with its abundance of human food and trash, could have made it easier for chipmunks to pack on weight year round, leading to larger body sizes. At the same time, the robust teeth that helped chipmunks extract calories from nuts and seeds may have become less essential. Advertisement Voles, in contrast, did not show significant changes in skull size over time, perhaps because their more restrictive diets -- mostly grasses and other plants -- and reclusive natures made them less likely to dine on human food, Stephanie Smith, a research scientist at the Field Museum and an author of the study, said. 'Voles are kind of much more secretive,' she said. 'They're not as out-and-about and stealing people's french fries.' But their skulls showed signs of other changes. Vole skulls collected from more urban areas were flatter than those found at less developed sites. The bony structure that houses parts of the middle and inner ear -- known as the auditory bulla -- also tended to be smaller in vole skulls from urbanized areas. There is some evidence from other species that larger auditory bullae may be associated with enhanced hearing. Perhaps urban voles evolved smaller auditory bullae to help dampen the urban din, Smith said. Voles live 'down in the ground, near all of the train noises, all of the vibrations from people walking around, cars, buses, everything,' Smith said. 'So our thought here is that, potentially, this change in the auditory bulla could be related to filtering out excess sound.' It's just a hypothesis, Smith stressed, and one that requires much more study. But the findings help illustrate the enormous diversity of ways in which humans are inadvertently reshaping other species, whether out in the open ocean or in our backyards. Advertisement 'There is evolution happening everywhere, all the time,' Smith said. 'You just have to know where to look for it.' This article originally appeared in
Time of India
27-06-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Bigger bodies, smaller teeth, and flatter skulls: Why Chicago's rats and rodents are evolving
A groundbreaking study from the Field Museum of Natural History has revealed that chipmunks and voles in the Chicago metro area have undergone significant physical changes over the past 125 years, driven by urbanization and climate change. Researchers Anderson Feijó and Stephanie Smith analyzed over a century's worth of rodent skulls to track how these animals are adapting to life in a sprawling city. The study found that eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus) have grown larger in body size but developed shorter rows of teeth. Researchers attribute this to easy access to high-calorie, processed human food, which is softer and requires less chewing than their natural diet. The increase in size suggests chipmunks are consuming more food year-round due to human proximity. Voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus), on the other hand, didn't grow bigger, but their skulls changed more dramatically. They developed flatter skulls and smaller auditory bullae—bony structures in the skull linked to hearing. These adaptations are likely a response to the constant noise pollution in urban areas. Additionally, voles from densely urbanized regions showed less variation in skull shape, indicating a loss of morphological diversity. Using museum specimens collected before 1950 and after 1980, the researchers applied geometric morphometrics to analyze cranial changes. They discovered that while both species were affected by urbanization, their responses were distinct—highlighting the complexity of evolutionary pressure in human-dominated environments. 'Urbanization and climate change can have unexpected effects on organisms that share space with humans,' the study notes. 'Understanding these impacts helps us forecast how wildlife may cope with ongoing environmental change.' Live Events The findings emphasize the need for species-specific conservation strategies as cities continue to grow. The study, recently published in a peer-reviewed journal, also underscores the value of natural history collections in documenting long-term evolutionary trends.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
‘Important moment in evolution': Fossil preserves never-before-seen flight feathers in ‘first bird'
Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. When a fossil preserves an animal's complete body in a death pose, seeing it is observing a snapshot in time. Several such fossils exist for Archaeopteryx — the earliest known bird — and now, a remarkable specimen that was off-limits to scientists for decades is offering previously unseen evidence about the first bird's ability to fly. Researchers have long wondered how Archaeopteryx took to the air while most of its feathered dinosaur cousins never left the ground, and some argued that Archaeopteryx was probably more of a glider than a true flier. The first fossils of this Jurassic winged wonder were found in southern Germany more than 160 years ago and are about 150 million years old; to date just 14 fossils have been discovered. But private collectors snapped up some of these rarities, isolating the fossils from scientific study and hobbling investigations into this pivotal moment in avian evolution. One such fossil was recently acquired by Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History and has provided answers to the longstanding question about flight in Archaeopteryx. Researchers published a description of the pigeon-size specimen in the journal Nature on May 14, reporting that ultraviolet (UV) light and computed tomography (CT) scans had revealed soft tissues and structures never seen before in this ancient bird. The findings included feathers indicating that Archaeopteryx could achieve powered flight. While most Archaeopteryx fossil specimens 'are incomplete and crushed,' this fossil was missing just one digit and remained unflattened by time, said lead study author Dr. Jingmai O'Connor, a paleontologist and associate curator of fossil reptiles at the Field Museum. 'The bones are just exquisitely preserved in 3D; you really don't see that in all the other specimens,' O'Connor told CNN. 'We also have more fossilized soft tissues associated with our specimen than we've seen in any other individual.' Field Museum fossil preparators and study coauthors Akiko Shinya and Constance Van Beek worked on the specimen for more than a year. They spent hundreds of hours scanning and modeling the positions of the bones in three dimensions; chipping away shards of limestone; and using UV light to illuminate the boundaries between mineralized soft tissue and rocky matrix. Their preparation — a process that took about 1,600 hours in all, O'Connor estimated — paid off. The researchers detected the first evidence in Archaeopteryx of a group of flight feathers called tertials, which grow along the humerus between the elbow and the body and are an important component of all powered flight in modern birds. Since the 1980s, scientists have hypothesized that Archaeopteryx had tertials due to the length of its humerus, O'Connor said. But this is the first time such feathers have been found in an Archaeopteryx fossil. The surprises didn't end there. Elongated scale shapes on the toe pads hinted that Archaeopteryx spent time foraging on the ground, as modern pigeons and doves do. And bones in the roof of its mouth provided clues about the evolution of a skull feature in birds called cranial kinesis, the independent movement of skull bones relative to each other. This feature gives birds more flexibility in how they use their beaks. 'It was one 'Wow!' after another,' O'Connor said. The discovery of tertials in particular 'is an extraordinary finding because it suggests that Archaeopteryx could indeed fly,' said Dr. Susan Chapman, an associate professor in the department of biological sciences at Clemson University in South Carolina. Chapman, who was not involved in the research, studies bird evolution using paleontology and developmental biology. 'The preparators of the Chicago Archaeopteryx did an outstanding job of preserving not just the bone structure, but also the soft tissue impressions,' Chapman told CNN in an email. 'Because of their care, this near complete specimen provides never-before-understood insights into this transitional fossil from theropod dinosaurs to birds.' However, Archaeopteryx could probably only fly for short distances, she added. Despite having tertials, it lacked certain adaptations for powered flight seen in modern birds, such as specialized flight muscles and a breastbone extension called a keel to anchor those muscles, Chapman said. The museum acquired this Archaeopteryx specimen in 2022, and at the time, museum president and CEO Julian Siggers called it 'the Field Museum's most significant fossil acquisition since SUE the T. rex.' As a link between non-avian theropod dinosaurs and the lineage that produced all modern birds, Archaeopteryx's evolutionary importance was unquestionable. But in some ways, the museum was taking a big gamble on that particular fossil, according to O'Connor. It had been in private hands since 1990, and its condition was unknown. When it arrived at the museum, scientists weren't sure what to expect, O'Connor said. To say that the fossil exceeded their expectations would be an understatement. 'When I found out we were going to acquire an Archaeopteryx, I never in my wildest dreams thought that we were going to end up with such a spectacular specimen,' O'Connor said. 'This is one of the most important macroevolutionary transitions in Earth's life history, because this gives rise to the group of dinosaurs that not only survives the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, but then becomes the most diverse group of land vertebrates on our planet today. So this is a very, very important moment in evolution.' The significance of such specimens underscores why scientific access should be prioritized over private fossil collection, Chapman added. When fossils are sold for profit and private display rather than for study, 'their preparation is often poor, thus losing irreplaceable soft tissue structures,' she said. 'Moreover, the value of such specimens to mankind's understanding of evolution is lost for decades.' The Chicago Archaeopteryx likely preserves many other important details about bird evolution, O'Connor added. With an abundance of data already collected from the fossil and analysis still underway, its full story is yet to be told. 'There's going to be a lot more to come,' she said. 'I hope that everyone finds it as exciting as I do.' Mindy Weisberger is a science writer and media producer whose work has appeared in Live Science, Scientific American and How It Works magazine. She is the author of 'Rise of the Zombie Bugs: The Surprising Science of Parasitic Mind Control' (Hopkins Press).
CBS News
16-04-2025
- General
- CBS News
Story time for families honors Arab American Heritage Month at Field Museum
The University of Illinois Chicago is home to the first and only Arab American Cultural Center on a college campus, and staff members were at the Field Museum of Natural History on Wednesday to celebrate Arab American Heritage Month with families. When CBS News Chicago visited, youngsters were sitting on the floor for story time. A story has the power to make the floor of a Field Museum exhibition hall feel like the center of the Arab world. Nesreen Hasan usually works with UIC students, but she was the one reading to toddlers on Wednesday. "I work at the Arab American Cultural Center and this month, April, is the month for Arab Americans," Hasan said. Story time with toddlers at the Field Museum is now a three-year tradition during Arab American Heritage Month. Reese Corey, 2, loves reading until she is distracted by a dinosaur — something that has a higher-than-average probability of happening at the Field Museum. But story time — no matter how long it lasts — helps Reese's mom, Anna Shea-Michaels, teach her daughter her own story. "Reese here, her dad is part Lebanese and Syrian, and we don't have very much connection to the family over there," Shea-Michaels said, "so I just love to kind of broaden her world about her culture." As Hasan read to kids Wednesday, she hoped to reach adults too. "For many years, Arab Americans have been facing racism, bigotry, xenophobia — and we feel sometimes a heritage month, or Arab American Heritage Month, can broaden people's horizons," she said. And whether they realize it or not, kids are learning how to listen to stories — and embrace their own. "Even at the youngest of ages, having a narrative about who she is, is really important," Shea-Michaels said of her daughter. At the Field Museum, the Crown Family PlayLab hosts free story time sessions, music and more on most Wednesdays.
