New curator, really old dinosaur!

Randall B. Irmis joined the Utah Museum of Natural History as curator of paleontology at the beginning of this year with a freshly-minted doctorate! This week, his identification of a new dinosaur species, Tawa hallae, was published in the journal Science. This discovery was made by a team that includes scientists from the American Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum, the State University of New York in Stony brook, and the University of Texas.

I talked with Randy earlier this week about his work and how a paleontologist discovers something new that is also over 200 million years old!

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JF: What are the big questions for you in your research at this point?
RBI: Well, most of my work has focused on the early Mesozoic Era (250-180 million years ago), and particularly during the Late Triassic (235-201 m.y.a.). For my Ph.D. dissertation, I investigated the origin and rise of early dinosaurs. I’m particularly interested in why dinosaurs became so successful, whereas other contemporaneous groups fell by the wayside. I also want to know how terrestrial ecosystems during this time responded to global climate change, similar to changes we are seeing today.

JF: Tell us about the new species of dinosaur that is part of your research publication?
RBI: This week we announced the publication of a new species of early carnivorous dinosaur called Tawa hallae, discovered in northern New Mexico at a place called Ghost Ranch. “Tawa” is the Hopi name for the Pueblo sun god, and is a reference to the rich Native American heritage in the area where the fossils were discovered, as well as to New Mexico itself, whose state symbol is a Puebloan representation of the sun. The species name “hallae” is for Ruth Hall, the woman who founded the paleontology museum at Ghost Ranch.

Tawa was found in rocks called the Chinle Formation, and is approximately 213 million years old. This places it in a time period called the Late Triassic, when all the continents were together as a super continent called Pangaea. During this time, North America was near the equator and had a warm and seasonal climate.

JF: What makes Tawa special to science?
RBI: The fossils are really complete and well-preserved; we have pretty much every bone in the body. The new species fills a gap in the evolutionary tree between the earliest carnivorous dinosaurs Herrerasaurus and Eoraptor (from Argentina), and later Triassic carnivorous dinosaurs like Coelophysis (also found at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico).

Using data from Tawa and other species, we were able to determine that the first dinosaurs evolved in South America, and then spread across Pangaea. In fact, the three species of carnivorous dinosaurs we find at Ghost Ranch each represent separate emigration events from the southern continents. This indicates that early dinosaurs were able to freely move across Pangaea without interference from physical barriers such as mountain ranges.

What’s really interesting is that some other dinosaur groups, namely ornithischians and sauropodomorphs, never made it to North America during the Triassic. This got us wondering – why didn’t these two groups arrive in North America when it is clear that early dinosaurs could freely move around? We think it has to do with climate – areas near the equator during the Triassic weren’t hospitable to the ornithischian and sauropodomorph dinosaurs, but the carnivorous dinosaurs could tolerate it.

JF: What drew you to conducting fieldwork in Ghost Ranch?
RBI: Ghost Ranch is world famous for the discovery of many skeletons of the Triassic dinosaur Coelophysis bauri, in addition to other lesser-known paleontological discoveries in the Late Triassic rocks there. It has always been a mecca for Triassic paleontologists. In fact, some of the very first Triassic vertebrate fossils to be described from the western U.S. were discovered in the vicinity of Ghost Ranch in the 1870s.

All of us on the research team had been to Ghost Ranch as paleontological tourists, but our field research there really was a result of serendipitous events starting in 2004. During the fall of that year, Sterling Nesbitt and I attended the Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Denver, Colorado. At that meeting, Alex Downs from the Ruth Hall Museum of Paleontology, showed us some early dinosaur bones from a new site, called the Hayden Quarry, that he was excavating at Ghost Ranch. We got excited, because they looked to be a new species.

We agreed to work with Alex on scientifically describing the new material, and the next spring we went to Ghost Ranch to do this work. When we got there, we were amazed at how many early dinosaur specimens had been excavated from the site – it was a treasure trove! Sterling and I spent only an afternoon at the site and we discovered half a dozen dinosaur bones. This was unprecedented for Triassic rocks in North America. No one else had ever found a site of this age where early dinosaur specimens were so numerous. So, we resolved to return the next summer, to begin large scale excavations.

During our first season of excavation, we were fortunate to discover several nearly complete skeletons, which ultimately gave us a complete picture of this new species. It has taken three years of lab work to remove these bones from the rock that encases them.

JF: What does it mean to be classified as “a new species”?
RBI: As paleontologists, we typically only have bones to look at when trying to distinguish different species. We look for anatomical characters on the bones – bumps, ridges, depressions, and other small features – that tell us if a specimen is distinct or not. If a fossil specimen has a unique character or unique combination of anatomical characters preserved on the bones, these tells us it is a new species not known to science.

But we have to be careful – we compare the bones to all other known species first to make sure that some other species don’t already have these anatomical characters on the bones. This requires a lot of time and effort – particularly visiting museums across the world to look at their fossil collections.

JF: That sounds like fun work! How do you work with artists to come up with a rendering of what the dinosaur may have looked like?
RBI: A good paleoartist has an excellent knowledge of anatomy, and there is a constant dialogue between the artist and scientists as work progresses. We provide images of the bones, our skeletal reconstruction, notes on anatomy, things like that to the artist to give them an idea of what the skeleton looked like.

The artist then uses their knowledge of anatomy of living relatives of the dinosaur -- like, birds, for example -- to flesh out the skeleton and bring the animal to life. As the artist works, they’ll provide sketches and preliminary renderings that us as scientists can comment on and make suggestions. Jorge Gonzalez was our paleoartist, and he did an amazing job!

JF: How do you know that this is what this species looked like?
RBI: Some of it we know based on the skeleton, whereas other parts are scientifically informed inferences. For example, the general body and head shape is clear from the complete skeletons we have. But we don’t know for sure what color Tawa was, or what it was covered in. You’ll notice that Jorge’s reconstruction of Tawa is covered in a downy plumage of “protofeathers.”

Although we only have the bones of Tawa, we know from fantastic discoveries of fossils with soft tissue preservation from China that a wide variety of dinosaurs had these protofeathers. So, we thought it was a reasonable inference that Tawa would have had a similar covering.

Color really is up to the artist – but even here we can make some guesses. For example, carnivores today generally aren’t a garish bright color, because they don’t want their potential prey to spot them prematurely. So it’s a reasonable guess that as a carnivore, Tawa also had a subdued color scheme.

JF: How can the public see the fossils?
RBI: We’ll have original fossils of Tawa, along with fossils of other creatures from the same time, on display in the Utah Museum of Natural History lobby for the next few months – so I encourage you all to come down and see them! I’ll also be doing a special presentation in the museum from Noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 12th.

JF: You participate in several Scientist in the Spotlight events like this at the Museum. What will people see when they come Saturday?
RBI: I’ll have a variety of original dinosaur fossils available for people to see up close. We also demonstrate how specimens are removed in the lab from their rocky tombs, and show what it’s like to excavate dinosaurs in the field.

JF: How does this new research, and your work in general, contribute to the overall work of the Museum and the University of Utah?
RBI: UMNH has a long tradition of dinosaur research, and is currently one of the only museums in the world to have an active research program in all three periods of the Age of Dinosaurs. In recent years, we’ve been particularly strong in studying the latter two geologic periods of the Age of Dinosaurs, the Jurassic and Cretaceous. My research gives us expertise and active research in the Triassic, at the beginning of the dinosaur age.

JF: What are you working on next?
RBI: I have a variety of Triassic and early dinosaur research projects in the works right now. Several of these should be published in the coming year. Look for a major announcement about the earliest relatives of dinosaurs in early 2010! I’m also involved in the long-term Kaiparowits Basin Project, which aims to understand terrestrial ecosystems from the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, during the Late Cretaceous (80-70 m.y.a.) in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument of southern Utah. We have discovered a variety of new dinosaur species, some of which we hope will be announced in the next year.

JF: One last question: How did you end up as a paleontologist, anyway?
RBI: I always wanted to be a paleontologist since my childhood love affair with dinosaurs. As I got older, my interests broadened to geology and evolutionary biology, but I never lost sight of the goal of becoming a paleontologist. In college, I majored in Geology with an emphasis in Paleontology, and got involved in several undergraduate research projects. This propelled me into the field, and I was lucky enough to be accepted into the Ph.D. program at University of California, Berkeley. The rest, as they say, is history!

To see photos and the paleoartist's rendition of Tawa hallae, visit umnh.utah.edu/dinos

Follow up with Scott Sampson

Last month, we spoke with Scott just prior to his visit to Utah to launch his new book Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life.

I followed up with Scott to see how the launch of his book and his new blog are going:

JF: How did your lecture in Salt Lake City go month?
SS: It was a terrific experience for me! It was certainly fitting that my book tour was launched in Utah, given my involvement with dinosaur paleontology there over the past decade. And it was particularly heart-warming to be surrounded by friends and long-time supporters of paleontology, including numerous volunteers who have put in long hours in the field and the lab. I had a great time, in particular, interacting with all those kids who are getting even more hooked on dinosaurs from watching [Jim Henson's] Dinosaur Train. The question & answer period was fun and surprising, and, as usual, the kids asked the best questions!

JF: What has the initial response to the book been?
SS: Although we are still in the early days (the formal release date of the book was last week, November 30th), Dinosaur Odyssey has had some extremely positive reviews. An author never knows how a book is going to be received, so it feels great to see one’s writing described with words like “engaging”. I am particularly excited that so many readers are picking up not only on the web of life approach, which aims to make diverse connections, but also on the fact that we humans still have a lot to learn from dinosaurs.

JF: Tell us about the blog that you have just launched?
SS: I launched The Whirlpool of Life on Tuesday, November 24, the sesquicentennial anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. Posts will encompass a wide range of topics, spanning paleontology, evolution, ecology, education, sustainability, philosophy, and psychology. The thread that I will use to weave these topics together is science education in general, and nature literacy more specifically.

JF: How is the work of Darwin relevant today, 150-years later?
SS: Darwin triggered an intellectual revolution, with effects that have cascaded through science and society. Yet, one hundred and fifty years later, a portion of Darwin’s legacy, the foundational concept of common descent through deep time, remains virtually untapped outside academia. In particular, this concept has not been communicated in such a way as to shift our relationship with nature.

JF: When did Charles Darwin first enter your consciousness?
SS: As I recall, Darwin first entered my consciousness as a 14 year-old student in ninth grade biology class. But this introduction was anything but inspiring, and it really wasn’t until my undergraduate years at the University of British Columbia that I truly began to plumb the depths of evolutionary thinking.

JF: As a paleontologist, what contribution do you feel museum collections make to science and culture?
SS: Museums are the storehouses of living and ancient life. Fossil collections are used by researchers to conduct science. Some of the greatest “aha!” moments in paleontology occur in the bowels of museums when one is surrounded by the bones of ancient creatures.

Of course, museums also spark the imaginations of non-scientists too, and this is another of their crucial roles. Now it is time for natural history museums to enter the 21st century and define their place in helping the general public connect more deeply with the natural world.

Natural history museums were founded by people with a true love of nature, people who understood the plants and animals of their region, people who were naturalists. Today there are all too few naturalists around. Indeed the skill of knowing one’s place and communicating it to others might be regarded as a disappearing art. Yet this skill is more needed now than ever before. Natural history museums need to go back to their roots and foster a world of naturalists!

JF: What attracted you to paleontology as a field of study?
SS: I was the classic 5 year-old with a fascination for dinosaurs. Without any exaggeration, paleontology was one of the first words I learned how to spell. For me, one of the most attractive aspects of paleontology is that it requires mental time travel to places from the distant past. Imagining those worlds excited me as a youngster, and that excitement is still there today.


JF: With a book and a blog both geared for people like me (not a professional scientist) and involvement in popular, almost mass media television shows, you seem to have moved beyond a life of traditional academic work. Can you tell us about that, ahem, evolution?
SS: In short, I felt that the pressing issues facing us today required that I move beyond the narrow domain of paleontology research and education within a university. My underlying contention is that the current sustainability crisis is not merely an external crisis of the environment. More fundamentally, it is an internal crisis of worldview rooted in a dysfunctional relationship between humans and nonhuman nature. Thus, any meaningful resolution to the eco-crisis will require not only more and “greener” technologies, but also a fundamental shift in awareness and understanding, particularly within industrialized nations.

Since worldviews are built upon a lifetime of experience, it’s highly doubtful that the necessary transformation will occur solely among adults. Rather we must rethink, indeed reinvent, education, placing less emphasis on upward mobility and more on living well; less on generating consumers and more on serving communities, including communities of nature. Surprisingly, perhaps, I am convinced that the concept of evolution has a pivotal role to play in this gargantuan effort of “schooling for sustainability”.

JF: Tell us more about “schooling for sustainability”....
SS: Schooling for sustainability should be rooted in three intertwined elements, each of which informs the other two:

• new metaphors that augment the dominant “life-as-machine” and “web of life examples, enabling us to perceive reality in new and instructive ways;
  
• the Great Story encompassing the evolution of cosmos, life, and culture, which provides a universal origin myth and anchors us in the deep time evolution of life on Earth; and
• a strong emphasis on place.

Together, this trio of elements—metaphor, story, and place—have the power to transform education and help trigger a change in the dominant worldview, thereby serving as a springboard to a sustainable future.

JF: How can public education organizations — like natural history museums and public television — play a role in “schooling for sustainability”
SS: I see two fundamental roles for natural history museums and other natural science institutions in this redefinition of education. First, museums of natural history—home to both extensive collections and scientific expertise--are better positioned than perhaps any other institutions to communicate the nature of place and reconnect people to their local environs. Second, museums can communicate the Great Story, linking the origin of the universe, of life, and of humanity into a single story, and related that story back to their home regions. In particular, great potential exists for museums to help school teachers access the information and resources necessary for them to feel comfortable teaching these big ideas to their students.

However, both of these efforts will require that museum get beyond their four walls and guide visitors in direct experiences with nature. Television, on the other hand, is currently much more a part of the problem than the solution. To turn this situation around, public television in particular has potential to generate even more programming that helps viewers reconnect with the natural settings around their homes. And television too needs to do a much better job of communicating the Great Story at age-appropriate levels.

JF: One last question: Since the Museum's blog is a community exchange of ideas and books, what book is on your nightstand these days??
SS: I am currently reading a marvelous, though frighting, book by Lester Brown called, Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (Norton, 2009). If ever there was a succinct description of our current ecological predicament, together with necessary steps that must be taken, this is it. Highly recommended!

Conversation with "Dr. Scott"

The UMNH team has been preparing for our colleague and friend's lecture in Salt Lake City this evening. Scott D. Sampson, paleontologist and UMNH research curator, is launching his new book, Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life, in Salt Lake City tonight! This public event kicks off of over six months of visits, lectures, signings, special appearances and more across the continent. Not the lost one, but the one we currently know as North America!

Reading through the first hundred pages of Scott's book -- and working on the communications materials for Scott's visit -- has been great fun because we can see how Scott's ideas, research topics, themes, and, quite frankly, passion that we know from working with him have come together into a new, bold, and very public forum. For Scott, it's not just about dinosaurs (although, he does love them!). It is about how we, the human species, can learn from dinosaurs -- the way they lived, the way they lived together, the ways in which they went extinct or evolved into species alive today -- a deeper understanding of our own intricate relationship with the natural world.

Scott and I have been conversing electronically over these past several weeks, and we'd like to bring you into the conversation:

JF: Scott, as a dinosaur paleontologist who often thinks in terms of millions of years of deep time, your work tends to unfold at a relatively slow pace. How is all that going for you these days?
SS: 2009 has been an action-packed year both for the study of dinosaurs and for me personally, with plenty of new discoveries and projects. Dinosaur Train, an animated kids show produced by the Jim Henson Company and now airing daily on PBS, premiered on Labor Day following an intense year of production. As the science advisor and on-air host of the series, "Dr. Scott", I have had great fun with this project, and those of us involved have been overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response received both from children and parents. Two days before the show first aired, I had the pleasure of kicking off this national series for an audience of families right here in Salt Lake City at the Utah Museum of Natural History.

This month, my book, Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life, will finally be published, the culmination of several years of work.

JF: I am enjoying working my way through the opening pages of your book. Can you give us an overview of the story you've set out to tell?
SS: This book describes both the ancient world of dinosaurs and the present-day world of paleontology. It represents the first attempt to provide a general audience summary of the entire field of dinosaur paleontology in about a generation—a generation that has witnessed more discoveries of “new” dinosaurs than in all prior history combined. More important, at least from my perspective, the book utilizes these amazing creatures as a window into understanding not just the ancient Earth of the Mesozoic, but today’s changing world as well.

It is perhaps ironic that long-extinct animals like dinosaurs can inform our present-day situation, but that is exactly my contention. Dinosaurs lived in a hothouse world characterized by climates that far exceed the most dire present day climate predictions. They suffered the last major extinction endured by our biosphere, although we may now be in the middle of another such event. And, through their living descendants, the birds, dinosaurs help anchor us into the story of everything, from the Big Bang to us, a story that needs to be communicated today more than ever before.

JF: I can't believe that after, what 150 or so years, paleontologists are still discovering new dinosaurs! And, in listening to the UMNH paleo team, it seems that what we know about them, even how they are drawn or portrayed in museums, is changing!
SS: One of the key points I try to make in the book is that the body of scientific knowledge is always changing. This does not mean that all scientific ideas are tentative or prone to easy dismissal. But new findings are made all the time that cause us to re-evaluate long-held assumptions.

In the realm of dinosaur paleontology, Utah is an exemplar in the realm of shifting ideas. Research conducted over the past decade by our group from the University of Utah -- through the Utah Museum of Natural History and the Department of Geology and Geophysics -- has unearthed a previously unknown assemblage of dinosaurs, from ornate horned herbivores to giant tyrannosaur meat-eaters. Many of these beasts are so new that they have yet to be given names.

Most of these discoveries are being made in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah; this fall, UMNH crews working in a single quarry unearthed the nearly complete skull of a giant duck-billed dinosaur (to go with the skeleton found previously), the skull and partial skeleton of an huge armored dinosaur, a nearly complete turtle and crocodile, and some other strange bones that may turn out to belong to some sort of flying reptile.

JF: Where does the "lost continent" come into the story?
SS: Well, around 75 million years ago, near the end of the Cretaceous Period, these dinosaurs and many others lived on an island continent of sorts, formed by the flooding of the central region of North America, from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. The marooned western landmass, today known as Laramidia, witnessed what is arguably the greatest known florescence of dinosaurs.

All of these finds and more are causing us to question some long held ideas about the world of dinosaurs. Why did so many different and wondrous varieties of dinosaurs evolve here? How were so many giants able to co-exist on a chunk of land less than one-fifth the size of present day North America? Why should we care about animals that disappeared so long ago? Those are the questions that I've started to address in my book, and, in my lectures will try to answer.

JF: You have been working with these themes and ideas over the past decade of your involvement with the Museum. Now that the book is released, what happens next?
SS: Well, in support of the book, I will be conducting a North American speaking tour that will include at least 15 cities in the US and Canada. I am very excited to be launching this tour in the same locale that the book found its origins - Salt Lake City, Utah! So, if folks want to learn more about Utah’s pivotal role in the world of dinosaur paleontology, please join us for the event or one that will happen in another city.


And we are, too! We hope you can join us with Scott this evening and continue to follow the development of his ideas and research in the months ahead! Event details, including location and times, can be found at www.umnh.utah.edu/dinos.

The UMNH Book Group will be discussion Dinosaur Odyssey both at the Museum and online in January 2010. Follow the blog or join our mailing list to be notified of details!

Scott D. Sampson is research curator at the Utah Museum of Natural History, adjunct associate professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Utah, author of several articles and books including Dinosaur Odyssey, scientific advisor and on-air host of Jim Henson's Dinosaur Train, and much more!

You can follow Scott's book tour and blog at www.scottsampson.net. And we'll check in on him from time to time on this blog as well!

The Gift of Good Land

The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays Cultural and Agricultural is again available in paperback, published by Counterpoint (Berkeley, CA). I've finally begun to weave through these essays by Wendell Berry, written mostly between 1979 and 1981, when the collection was originally released.

Through these essays, most of which were originally published in magazines, Berry questions the true value and costs of economies of scale, the basis of the Cold War era United States Department of Agriculture ethic of "Get Big or Get Out". With my professional background in wholesale distribution sales and marketing, I've always put great faith in economies of scale and the benefits of driving the costs out of distribution, out of the supply change. However, based upon the UMNH Book Club reading, I have come to question our current industrial food system, and the viability of the small farmer. Have the economies of scale gone too far? Are we losing from land fertility, biodiversity, economic sustainability and community culture more that we are gaining?

These are issues Berry raised 30 years ago, and yet it seems that only in the past five years have they started to hit the national dialogue. What has caused our national community to be so slow to respond to Berry's call for small farming and the protection of biodiversity as well as the health of humans, animals, and soil? Does the “fault” lay within our "get big or get out" culture? Is it a lack of understanding on the part of especially urban and metropolitan citizens? Is it because of the strength of special interest and agribusiness on policy? And what are the land-use policies within our own state? Are they supportive of small-scale farming and sustainable agriculture??

Our partner in the Wendell Berry discussion is the Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment, an excellent program within the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. The Stegner Center brought Wendell Berry to Utah this past March as part of the Stegner Symposium, which celebrated the centennial of Wallace Stegner's birth and explored his legacy in the West.

The last time we partnered with the Stegner Center, we discussed Robert Keiter's book, Keeping Faith with Nature: Ecosystems, Democracy, and America's Public Lands. Keiter himself participated in our book club discussion. I was struck by his perspective, as a lawyer, on how Congress takes a long view of local resolution on conservation, preservation, and land-use issues, before establishing federal policy, perhaps 30 or more years. Is that the same case with small farming practices and agricultural land-use policies? Are there examples of local communities taking back some of the small farming practices and land-use allocations toward a more diverse and sustainable agriculture and food system?

Joining our discussion of Berry's essays on Monday, September 21, will be Amy Wildermuth, an environmental law professor and Wendell Berry aficionado, representing the Stegner Center. Amy has invited her brother, Todd Wildermuth, to join the conversation as well. Todd's areas of expertise include land use and agricultural policy, plus he's a Berry fan as well. I'd love to be a guest at their family gathering table, but, in lieu of that, we look forward to talking with Amy and Todd over the next couple of weeks both at the book club and here on the blog.

With the harvest and more farmer's markets than ever in full-swing, it is a good time to join the community conversation on agricultural land use. There are several initiatives percolating and I invite anyone involved in land use, small farming practices and local food production to join the conversation. I understand that a group, working in conjunction with the Salt Lake City Mayor's Office, has formed to (re) establish a Food Policy Council along the Wasatch Front. Slow Food Utah is hosting Time for Lunch Campaign on Monday, September 7, to inspire locals to take a stand on improving children's health. And just last month, the Salt Lake Tribune ran two interesting articles relating to these issues:

• On 8/13/09, Dawn House wrote in the Business Section on the challenges of finding available land for small, local farming.

• On 8/18/09, Jeremiah Stettler wrote on plans to increase urban farming in Salt Lake County.

It's a good time for a community discussion on The Gift of Good Land. Join us!

Summer Reading!

Hope that you have had many opportunities for good summer reading this year! Here are some updates on books, authors, and more relating to the UMNH Book Club!

1. We had a spirited conversation on July 13 about Paul Roberts' The End of Food. People, at least the ones who attend book clubs on food books, have strong opinions about what is acceptable and unacceptable in the food-supply. It was great having Christi Paulson of Slow Food Utah leading the discussion.

It struck me as we were debating organic vs. non-organic produce, and regaining the lost arts of jam and condiment making, that we are lucky to be having that conversation. Perhaps organic vs. non-organic is a bit splitting hairs as long as we agree to avoid the rows and rows of boxed and processed food that lies between the produce and the dairy section. Hmmm.

2. Due mostly to publishing release dates, we've ended up with two food-related books in a row, much to the chagrin of some members. Our next book to discuss is The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays on Culture & Agriculture by Wendell Berry. We selected this book at the recommendation of Anne Holman of The King's English Bookshop before Mr. Berry's visit to Utah in March for the Stegner Symposium. Our partner in this discussion, scheduled for Monday, September 21, is the Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment at the S.J. Quinney College of Law, the University of Utah.

I've just talked with the booksellers at the King's English, and the new edition of The Gift of Good Land is now in! I'm on my way to pick up my copy and will strive to post a few times before the 9/21/09 discussion. Join me!

3. The authors, scientists and thought-leaders we encounter at the Museum -- through the Nature of Things lecture series and the UMNH Book Club -- are busy folk. Here are some updates on past and future authors:

• E.O. Wilson, inaugural keynote speaker in 2007, is returning to Utah this Saturday, August 15, to participate in the lovely Sundance Author Series. We've heard this morning that tickets are still available at www.sundanceresort.com/create and click on Events. Tickets are $95 and include brunch in the award-winning Tree Room, plus a signed copy of a new edition of Wilson's book, On Human Nature.
• Michael Pollan, whose Omnivore's Delimma was the UMNH Book Club's July 2006 selection, and who delivered the Nature of Things 2008 keynote lecture, has been all the buzz this summer with the release of the film Food, Inc. Last week, UMNH heard that the Salt Lake Film Society had extended screenings of the film at the Broadway Theater in Salt Lake City for a week or two, due to strong community support.
• Gary Hirshberg, president of Stonyfield Yogurt, is also featured in Food, Inc., as indication of how business can be financially successful while integrating the company’s social, environmental, and financial missions. UMNH is in the process of finalizing a date for Hirshberg to participate in the Nature of Things lecture series in March 2010. The complete series line-up will be announced this fall, and subscribers to this blog will be among the first to know!

4. We are still waiting for Richard Fortey's Dry Storeroom #1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum to be delivered in paperback. The King's English tells us September. We'll cross our fingers and hope we have time to delight in Fortey's great stories of the people, places and adventures that make up THE Natural History Museum in London. Some UMNH staff members are dying to share their stories as well at the November discussion.

5. And, it's time again to look for books to read in the coming year and for interesting people to read them with! The Utah Society of Environmental Education is interested in reading Stephen Trimble and Gary Nabhan's The Geography of Childhood with us next spring, a great way to discuss how to reconnect our children and our families with nature.

I would like to explore some of the science behind climate change and am looking for recommendations.

I'm intrigued by The Superorganism: The beauty, elegance and strangeness of insect societies by Bert Holldobler and E.O.Wilson, however it's size and cost are a bit daunting. Please send me your thoughts for natural science and environmental books to explore next year.

Enjoy the rest of your reading summer!

The End of Food

The UMNH Book Club will meet to discuss The End of Food by Paul Roberts on Monday, July 13, 2009, at 6:30 p.m. This book was recommended to us by Slow Food Utah, who will be contributing to the Book Club discussion next week.

I'm just getting started on Roberts' book, but immediately realized that the title is more daunting and discouraging than the text. The book is a very interesting read!

As I personally have been exploring our industrialized food supply (starting with Omnivore's Dilemma in this Book Club two years ago), I have continually asked myself, "How did we get here? How did we just hand over our food system to the interests of chemical fertilizers and bottom-line profits?"

The first chapter of this book, "Starving for Progress", lays out "how we got here" over the past three million years, starting with Australopithecus, "a diminutive ancestor who lived in the prehistoric African forest and ate mainly what could be found there -- fruits, leaves, larvae and bugs." Over the next 20 pages or so, the author recaps how the quest for food and survival drove the development of modern humans, civilization and, ultimately, a global society and food supply. The chapter illustrates the intricate relationship between humans being, the ever-changing environments and climates in which they live, and the desire to create predictability in their resources. It is like a speed-read through several anthropology and political science courses in one sitting!

But the reading challenges my organic leanings as being symptomatic of luxury. The fact is, predictability in food and other natural resources is a good thing. It creates opportunity for individuals and civilizations to do more things that hunt for and produce food. Was there a moment in time when this desire for predictability and "enough" went to far? Was it in the mid-twentieth century when we added chemical fertilizers and carbon-based machinery in an attempt to be masters over nature, thereby changing the very thing we call food? Or was in 3500 B.C., when Egyptian wheat farmers were "routinely producing more grain than they could eat themselves, and these surpluses" let to trade and the first accumulate wealth? Agriculture itself is a mastery over nature. Yet, did human society cross a line in 1957, when, according to Roberts, "Ray Goldberg, the Harvard economist, and his colleague, John Davis, proposed that term "agriculture" be replaced with a new, more fitting one: "agribusiness."

Food is the fundamental way in which we as humans -- as living beings -- interact with the natural world. Food, or energy from which to live, creates the "place of humans" within the natural world, referring to the Museum's mission statement. So far, this book and others I've read provide data to the balance between calories produced by the earth and calories needed -- and how that balance changes over time. The questions are popping in my mind. Join the Museum and Slow Food Utah for a discussion of this book, and will raise your own questions and comments here or at the discussion on 7/13/09!

For more information on the meeting, visit us at www.umnh.utah.edu/bookclub.

Onto Chapter 2: "It's So Easy Now"....

It's all Connected

We started out organizing these entries by the title of the book we were discussing. But we've realized, that is not going to work. This discussion, the themes and memes covered in these readings, are to intertwined. Just as in our Book Club meetings, in which we refer back to past discussions to enrich the current book, these conversations sort of weave into a larger tapestry of thought. A larger discussion on the place of humans in the natural world.

For me this year, it all started in early March listening to Terry Tempest-Williams presenting at the Wallace Stegner Center of Land, Resources and the Environment's annual symposium. As this year marks the 100th anniversary of Stegner's birth, the symposium was dedicated to Stegner's life and legacy. Terry reflected on Stegner's advice to her and Charles Wilkinson in their work to protect wilderness lands in Southern Utah. Stegner's advice? Be bold! Saving wilderness is protecting the place in which our humanity has a place to breathe. I asked myself: What in my life is worth fighting to save?

The next week, Thomas Friedman was in town. He discussed the "Americum", the measure of people in the world living the "American lifestyle" in terms of consumption. It struck me that it is our moral responsibility as Americans to redefine the "American Dream" so that it can be protected, so that it can expand and more people in this world can live with basic food security, clean water, healthcare, education, justice, and opportunity; but so that the balance of life on this planet can be sustained -- including places of wilderness, I would guess. And in his discussion, and especially in the reading of his book, it was evident that the market has been heavily changed by the lobbying of oil companies and auto manufacturers who have ensured that carbon fuel was cheap, easy to attain, and guzzled up by large "American Made" automobiles.
what is worth protecting? I want people across the world to have the same basics that I have. Am I willing to give up on the intense excess, recalibrate the American dream, so that more people can live with safety, security, and peace? What portion of "the American lifestyle" is worth fighting for, worth saving?

A couple of weeks later, a group of local community members formed a discussion group on the Northwest Earth Institute's "Menu for the Future". Together, all of us women living in Salt Lake City with school-aged children, we have spent the past six weeks exploring issues of the food supply. Corporate agriculture, fossil fuels in the food supply chain, pesticides and additives in our food supply, explotation and effects from pesticide exposure of agriculture workers. All while Michelle Obama is taking heat for choosing organic growing practices on the White House lawn. And what is our largest concern is as mothers is the time and cost of restoring nature -- faith -- in our families' food. We start to ask ourselves, "we've placed such a value on convenience because we are so busy. Why are we so busy?" What is worth protecting?? Isn't the health of our families, and the time we can spend together growing, sourcing, cooking, sharing food worth protecting??

Then Tyrone Hayes comes to Salt Lake to finish up the Nature of Things 2009. He talks about the effects of the agricultural pesticide Atrazine in frog populations. And there it is again: 80 million pounds of Atrazine used in American agriculture each year, corporate reaction to research indicating that Atrazine is causing hormonal change in frog populations living in waters with agricultural run off, documentation that when the company realized that Atrazine was contributing to hormonal changes that stimulated some cancers, they then established a new division to create a pharmaceutical that can reduce the hormonal changes -- rather than removing the Atrazine from the market, they are now selling the pesticide to the agriculture industry and the cancer-treatment pharmeceutal through the healthcare treatment. Tyrone's final call? Get politically active to call for better testing, integrative evaluation of pesticides so that the real story can be told. The future is in your hands. Is that worth fighting for?

It starts to feel that we are living in a society in which the basics have traded out for convience, profit, predictablity.

Wendell Berry: where we are headed....

Speaking of Poetry

Heard this piece yesterday morning on NPR's Morning Edition program and wanted to pass it on to our discussion group: Can Poetry Save the Earth?

Stanford University professor John Felstiner writes in his new book, Can Poetry Save the Earth?: "If poems touch our full humanness, can they quicken awareness and bolster respect for this ravaged resilient earth we live on?"

Listen to the entire piece on the NPR Website.

Felstiner was asked to pick just one poem that could save the world, if everyone were to read it. He chose:

The Well Rising
by William Stafford

The well rising without sound,
the spring on a hillside,
the plowshare brimming through the deep ground
everywhere in the field —

The sharp swallows in their swerve
flaring and hesitating
hunting for the final curve
coming closer and closer —

The swallow heart from wing beat to wing beat
counseling decision, decision:
thunderous examples. I place my feet
with care in such a world.


Hope you get a chance to appreciate "such a world" today.

Wendell Berry: Dramatized Poems

Since Wendell Berry's recent visit to Utah for the Stegner Symposium, I seem to be finding him everywhere! A couple of weeks ago, there was a nice piece on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Saturday about an group in Kentucky who has brought Berry's poems to the stage.

As NPR reporter Elizabeth Kramer explained: "Wendell Berry, the Kentucky-based agrarian philosopher, has been described as our era's heir to Emerson and Thoreau — a writer concerned with the importance of community, and with the lessons we can learn from the natural world. Now, the Actors Theatre of Louisville is putting his ideas on stage."

You can listen to the entire piece at the NPR Website.

Kramer continues: "And though some were published decades ago, the poems feel surprisingly current. One in particular — about a stock market crash — feels particularly timely:

When I hear the stock market has fallen,
I say, "Long live gravity! Long live
stupidity, error and greed in the palaces
of fantasy capitalism!" I think
an economy should be based on thrift,
on taking care of things, not on theft,
usury, seduction, waste, and ruin.
My purpose is a language that can make us whole,
Though mortal, ignorant, and small.
The world is whole beyond human knowing."

The UMNH Community Book Discussion will be delving into Berry's essays in "The Gift of Good Land" later this year. Until then, where are you discovering Berry these days??

Hot, Flat and Crowded #2: Paying Attention

The UMNH Book Club met last week for our discussion of Hot, Flat, and Crowded. About half of the group had been to Thomas Friedman's SLC lecture, some had listened on the radio, a few had just skimmed the book. The group was comprised primarily of retirees, a handful of professionals in their 50's, three "40-something" women, two of us who have children, and our guest facilitator, Young Jonny Spendlove. (Sorry, Jonny, can't help saying your name as a title! It's so catchy!) I go into details of the make-up of the group because of the way the discussion went, but more about that later....

Jonny started the discussion by telling us about his search to find out why Al Gore had made a quiet visit to Salt Lake City the previous week. After some investigation, Jonny discovered that the former vice-president and the unofficial spokesman for climate change came to Utah to meet privately with the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints (LDS). Evidently, Al Gore initiated the meeting and we can only assume that the discussion centered on climate change. The fact that the meeting happened at all had particular significance for those of us living in Utah, regardless of our religious affiliation. What IF the LDS church leaders came out with a call to reduce human impact on climate change? What if?

Jonny asked the group "Where do you 'hook in' on the need for a green revolution?" For one woman in the group it is clean air quality, having raised three children with severe allergies. Many retirees in the group expressed the great sadness of observing a world in which so much that was good (salmon running in the river, growing up on a family farm, the freedom of growing up outdoors) has been lost. Lost for their grandchildren. Another expressed the frustration of having lived a life with great concern for conservation, only to have the world still careening toward breakdown, it seems. For Jonny, it was the importance of not living, working, raising his future children in a world led by petrodictatorships. As Friedman points out, there are many places to jump into the Green Revolution. So many that perhaps an effort to significantly changed our ways of living on our planet will continue to create some new unlikely partnerships. Like Al Gore and the LDS Church.

Our discussion headed toward: What does the "green revolution" look like in Utah? In Salt Lake City? Our discussion covered everything from the green lawns of LDS Ward Houses being converted to community gardens, to lowering our VMT (vehicle miles traveled), to using Solar Dryers (a.k.a. clothes lines). A lively discussion ensued on public utilities. The retirees in the group seemed to have detailed, elaborate tracking of their public utilities usage and bills. Really detailed.

I admit, at one point I had thoughts of, "Wow, these people are really focused on their utility bills!" But then it dawned on me: They are paying attention. And isn't that the whole point? The prosperous American Lifestyle as defined by Friedman, the one that nine "Americums" of people are living today, thrives on not paying attention. Just using more, buying more, burning through cheap oil, cheap energy, more plastic, more cars, more. Prosperity doesn't require having to pay attention to the small details of saving money.

But these folks, they are paying attention. Whether motivated by a fixed income, a life-long practice of conservation, or a desire to use only what is needed (really needed), these folks are paying attention! When can I get over my 1980's perspective of "more prosperity" and start truly paying attention?

Dry Storeroom No. 1....#1

Not to get too many books going at one time, but I have delved into the pages of the Book Club's November selection, Dry Storeroom No.1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum. This book is so enjoyable that I can't stop talking in the hallways about it!

The book is a memory of THE Natural History Museum (as in London, home of Charles Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle collections, once part of the venerable British Museum) written by senior paleontologist Richard Fortey. Evidently, Fortey, who is a "trilobite man", has written other "page turner" natural history books that we will have to check into for future reading lists. He started at "THE" museum in the 70's and the book is his "own storeroom, a personal archive, designed to explain what goes on behind the polished doors in the Natural History Museum." Let us in!!

What I am initially enjoying is the deep appreciation he expresses for collections and the people who work with them. The value of collections to culture and scientific understanding is something that I have come to know only as an employee of the museum. As Fortney expresses:

"I believe profoundly in the importance of museums: I would go as far as to say that you can judge a society by the quality of its museums. But they do not exist as collections alone. In the long term, the lustre of a museum does not depend only on the artefacts or objects it contains -- the people who work out of sight are what keeps a museum alive by contributing research to make the collections active, or by applying learning and scholarship to reveal more than was know before about the stored object. I want to bring those invisible people into the sunlight....Although I describe my particular institution, I dare say it could be a proxy for any other great museum. Perhaps my investigations will even cast a little light on to the museum that makes up our own biography, our character, ourselves." [The British spelling Fortney's]

As the Utah Museum of Natural History is building a new home for the collection, the curatorial staff, and the community, we hope to draw the community into the many stories behind the objects and the many people who have contributed over 40+ years to make our museum a great museum for our region. I hope you'll join me in reading Fortney's memories and stories, and that both make you curious for your own natural history museum!

This book was referred to us by Peter Kraus of the University of Utah's Marriott Library. I currently have the libraries only copy (!) but understand that it will be released in paperback this summer. I'll let you know when it is available at the Museum Store or your local bookseller!

Hot, Flat and Crowded #1

Over 2,500 community members joined the Museum at Abravanel Hall last week to hear Tom Friedman speak about his call for the urgent need for a "green revolution" and how it can renew innovation and the economic climate of America.

The UMNH Book Club will be discussing Friedman's latest book, "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" at our next meeting, Monday, April 6, 2009. Details at www.umnh.utah.edu/bookclub

Have you read some or all of this book?? What thoughts and reactions are you having? I'm not quite halfway through myself, but here are some topics of discussion:

Friedman's basic premise in his talk is that there are "too many Americans" in the world today, meaning too many people in a "flattened playing field" living the American Dream, for the planet to sustain the lifestyle. A new definition of what it means to "live like an American" needs to be defined. Friedman believes that it is up to us, the Americans, to redefine and lead the innovation of that dream. There is nothing wrong with the world having the expectations of safety, health, nutrition, education and economic opportunity that has defined the American Dream. It just needs to be reworked in a way that can be sustainable within our planets resources. So what do YOU think about that??

In the opening chapter of the book, Friedman discusses what he means by crowded: he quotes the United Nations Population Division which issued a report (March 13, 2007) stating that "the world population will likely increase by 2.5 billion over the 43 years, passing the current 6.7 billion to 9.2 bilion in 2050. Forty-three years. I could still be alive by then. My children will be nearing their 50's by then. That seems close to me.

Friedman goes on to quote the United Nations Population Fund's executive director, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, stating that "in 2008, more than half of humanity [will be] living in cities, and 'we are not ready for them.'" The Associated Press reported from London that by 2030 the number of city dwellers is expected to climb to five billion. Obaid said smaller cities will absorb the bulk of urban growth: "We're foucsing on the megacities when the data tell us most of the movement will be coming to smaller cities of 500,000 or more," which often lack the water and energy resources and governing institutios to deal with rising migrant populations. [HFC, pp 28-29]

As a resident of a "smaller city" or of a city that is in the midst of "smaller" and rapidly growing metropolitan area, I have taken notice of that. He's talking about Salt Lake Valley. Growth in population, and shifting of population to secondary cities, is us. Are we ready for that? What does that mean for my children when it comes to education, jobs and a place to live?

Joining the UMNH Community Discussion will be Jonny Spendlove, a Senior at the University of Utah and is an assistant at the Hinckley Institute of Politics. He became interested in Tom Friedman by reading his books "Longitudes and Attitudes" and "The World is Flat", and by reading 23 of Mr. Friedman's columns in one night on nytimes.com. (Who says 20 year olds don't read newspapers anymore!) I welcome Jonny into this coversation. He'll be just over 60 in 43 years and, while HE doesn't think that's young, it certainly looks younger and younger to me! Will Jonny be looking at retirement at 65, another pillar of the American Dream?

Okay, Jonny, I need a little of your enthusiasm here! How are you responding to the ideas put forth in Friedman's book and in his visit to Utah last week?

Voyage of the Beagle #1

This year marks the bi-centennial of Charles Darwin's birth! The Museum has created a series of Darwin programs to reflect on his scientific and cultural contributions.

My name is Janet Frasier. I am marketing director of the Museum and lead the community book discussion. Over this year, I hope to interview a handful of Museum curators and Utah researchers this year to get their professional and personal perspective on Darwin's work within their own development as a scientist.

I started the conversation with Dr. Sarah B. George, executive director of the Utah Museum of Natural History. Sarah is a biologist, one with a strong interest in museum collections. Prior to coming to Utah, Sarah was a curator of vertebrates at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. In her current role since 1992, Sarah is leading the Museum toward its new home, the Rio Tinto Center, scheduled to open in early 2011.

JF: When did Charles Darwin first enter your consciousness?
SG: I knew his name from early science classes, but he really didn’t register more than Pasteur and van Leeuwenhoek and Linnaeus did. I knew them all as scientists who had made great discoveries.

JF: What were your early attitudes toward "Origin of the Species" and the theory of evolution?
SG: As a military dependent, I went to a variety of Catholic and public schools, and evolution was the basis of the life sciences I was taught in these many schools. I had a lot of curiosity about how nature worked and why organisms look and function they way they do. It was clear to me from an early age that the evolution was the process behind the incredible variability in life.

I cannot tell you when I first heard about “On the Origin of Species,” but I can tell you when I read it! I had just started my doctoral program and was headed out for a 10-week field expedition in Sonora, Baja Sur, Baja Norte, and southern California. I knew that I had to be prepared for comprehensive exams not long after I returned in the fall, so I took “Origin” with me. Coincidentally, I also took Barbara Tuchman’s “A Distant Mirror” along and I remember being struck at some point in the summer that she was simply documenting a catastrophic selective event in human evolution from an historian’s perspective.

JF: What attracted you to biology as a field of study?
SG: My dad was a doctor who did his orthopedic residency in the 1960s in a military hospital. He sometimes sneaked me into rounds, where most of the patients were recovering from battle wounds in Vietnam. It was fascinating to me how they reconstructed these young people.

Science was definitely an interest, but wasn’t a conscious career choice until some years later. For that inspiration, I have to credit my high school biology teacher, Mr. Martin, who said that he thought I should major in biology and go to medical school. I thought, why not? Early in college, however, I took a class in mammalogy, got a job working in the university museum’s collection and never looked back!

JF: In your study and research as a biologist, how did you encounter Darwin’s influence?
SG: My field of study, systematics and biogeography, was all about reconstructing evolutionary trees of groups of species and connecting the divergent points in those trees to past geologic events and current-day geography. My work was all about evolution. I am in awe of Darwin’s keen observations and ability to detect pattern, given what was NOT know about plate tectonics, genetics, and other phenomena that we know about today.

JF: What sense of legacy do you feel with Darwin’s life as a naturalist in building collections?
SG: The nineteenth century was an extraordinary time for biological exploration and discovery—Darwin, Alfred Wallace, Joseph Banks, John Audubon and sons. They observed and documented the diversity around them and left collections as legacies of the biota of that time. When I started school, collecting was still focused on discovery, but on a finer scale than the 19th century—developing an understanding of patterns of diversity on a local scale rather than on continental scales. By the way: A great film that plays up the adventure of 19th century collecting is “Master and Commander”—the character of Dr. Stephen Maturin is based on Joseph Banks.

JF: As a biologist turned museum director, what contribution do you feel museum collections make to science and culture?
SG: With the benefit of collections that span more than 200 years, we have an extraordinary database that documents change in populations, species, geographic distributions, genetics, etc etc etc. Museum collections yielded the hard data that documented the devastation that DDT was having on avian egg shell density and hence viability. Museum collections are documenting changes in altitudinal distributions of plants and animals that almost certainly are the result of climate change. I could go on, but won’t! Suffice to say that museum collections, properly identified and databased, are more important than ever as tools to measure change over time and distance.

JF: What is the role of modern naturalists?
SG: Observing, documenting, and studying change in the world around us and providing a platform of data that we can use to make decisions about our future.

JF: If you were an adolescent today, how would you approach Darwin? What would you read to learn more about him?
SG: I’d beg to carry his bags! One of the great side benefits to being a naturalist is the opportunity to spend a lot of time in the field and to travel the world.

Oh, you mean how would I approach learning about Darwin! I would read “Origin”—it is surprisingly easy to read—or Darwin’s “Journal and Remarks” that we know as “Voyage of the Beagle.” Try “The Illustrated Origin” by Richard Leakey or if you can find it, “Darwin for Beginners.” And if you are more into adventure, dive into Patrick O’Brian’s series of novels about Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin.

JF: One last question: Both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on February 12, 1809. Which one do YOU think has had more influence in western culture?
SG: Without question, Charles Darwin! Abraham Lincoln had a profound effect on the course of American history, but Darwin changed our way of understanding the world around us.