NEWS and EVENTS
Cleared and stained specimens offer stunning views of organisms. Muscle tissue becomes translucent, bones are stained red and cartilage stained blue. Viewing specimens in this way offers insights into morphology and development. These photos were skillfully taken by photographer Stephen Petegorsky while working in the CUMV collections in April 2022.
In April 2022, CUMV and Macaulay Library staff, and an enthusiastic group of undergraduate students loaded a van and drove to central Texas to sample birds and fishes, and record bird songs. Wearing waders in the Texas heat, finding hog-nosed snakes, prothonotary warblers (AKA swamp candles), armadillos, and gar made for a memorable trip!
Natural history collections can help solve a number of puzzles. In this case, Carol Anne Barsody, a master's student in archaeology at Cornell, x-rayed a ~1,500 year old Egyptian bird mummy, then used the CUMV's skeletal collection to ID the mummy as a Sacred Ibis. Read more about this collaborative project through the Cornell Chronicle and CNN!
This video shows a time laps of how museums preserve eggs (that is, remove the yolk and egg white) through a process called "blowing an egg". These goose eggs are so big that we had to get creative and use a dremel to drill the initial hole and a shop-vac to provide a steady stream of air that "blows" the contents of egg out of it's shell.
With support from Engaged Cornell, the CUMV offered a course on natural history collections during the Spring Semester 2020. For part of the course, we wrestled with the ethical dilemmas inextricably tied to scientific collecting. Many thanks to Dr. Yasha Rohwer (Faculty at Oregon Tech) who led a guest lecture on the ethic of collecting that was very well received by both students and the public!
In early December 2019 the CUMV hosted a sketching night at the museum, where local artists of all skill levels could sketch a diversity of specimens. This event was made possible with the help of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's staff illustrator, Jillian Ditner, and the Bartels illustrator-in-residence, Jen Lobo. Check out the talent below!
A selection of sketches by participants of the event. Artists include: Deborah Bilinski, Liisa Mobly, Linda Plarsen, Melissa Conroy, Phoebe Aceto, and
Robin Tuttle. Thanks for sharing your pieces!
In early April 2019, members of the CUMV, Macaulay Library and a group of graduate and undergraduate students, drove 30 hours to sample birds and fishes and record bird songs in west Texas. The trip introduced students to common field techniques of ornithology and ichthyology and illustrated the time, energy and ingenuity associated with field work.
Sampling fishes in the fast, high waters of the Rio Grande. People include (from left to right) Augie Kramer, Vicens Vila-Coury, Nati García, Hermione Deng, Tayor Brooks, and Casey Dillman.
1 van, 7 people, and gear for camping 9 days while collecting birds, fishes, and sound recordings, makes for one full van.
In January 2019, CUMV team members traveled to Tel Aviv, Israel to work with collaborators Roi Dor and Amos Belmaker to grow scientific collections for both the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History in Tel Aviv and the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates. Below are a handful of photos from this recent trip.
Group photo, from left to right, includes: Daniel Berkowic, Amos Belmaker, Sievert Rohwer, Rachel Schlass, Roi Dor, Vanya Rohwer, and Augie Kramer.
Tag-team preparation of a young Great White Pelican, with a wingspan of 9 feet(!) that was salvaged from a power line collision.
Overlook of the Zin Valley, Negev Desert, at the Ben Gurion memorial near Sde Boker, Israel.
July 2018, members of the CUMV recently returned from field work in Nebraska and Colorado, revisiting sites originally surveyed in the 1950's for studies of avian hybridization.
Periodically the CUMV pulls a diversity of specimens and invites artists of all skill-levels for an evening of specimen-inspired sketching. This most recent event in March 2018 was made all the more special with the help of Liz Clayton Fuller, Jillian Ditner, and Phillip Krzeminski, Bartels Science Illustration interns at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, who offered tips and advice to participants.
The Cornell Museum of Vertebrates now has three California condor specimens in its collection, thanks to a donation by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. READ FULL STORY...
Preparing specimens can take anywhere from 1 to 6 hours depending on the size of the bird and experience level of the preparator. This video compresses the whole process to 1 minute! The specimen in this video is a Black-billed Magpie that was salvaged from Washington State.
Euchilichthys royauxi is a species of catfish native to the Congo Basin in central Africa. This high resolution CT-scan of a 20 cm E. royauxi’s, illustrates its massive head, unique teeth, and serrated spines in the pelvic fins.
