Natural Sciences Collections Association

When maintainer is asking for resetting password is receiving the following error:
Sorry, zhanghr@ibcas.ac.cn is not recognized as a user name or an e-mail address.

Also, Support team asked for a reset password email to be sent to the maintainer through the profile view but the maintainer is not receiving reset password instructions for his site.

The taxonomy editor has a row of buttons in the top right which includes an "Add term" button. For interface consistency, can we add a "Delete term" button here in addition to the small delete button?

This issue was encountered on the training sites in the Lviv, Ukraine training but was not possible to replicate at NHM.

When importing a taxonomy, the import was stuck on initialising for 5+ minutes.

Checking the site in another tab showed that the import had be completed successfully by the status of the importer never updated.

I have assigned this issue to Support Team in case we get the same issue during subsequent training sessions this week.

Logos are not displayed (missing image is shown) when added to training sites.

If this could be fixed before the next training session (hence high priority) that would be great.

I am SO excited. I moved into a new flat last week and it has a balcony. That isn’t even the exciting part. Whilst I was flat hunting I narrowed the list down from 1230 to four by using a list of non-negotiable criteria (it’s good to know what you want in life), and then crossed off everything that didn’t stand up to the requirements. On viewing day, I was waiting for the estate agent outside property number one, staring up at the balcony when an eagle landed on the railing. In an ‘if it’s good enough for the eagle to sit on, it’s good enough for me to live in’ mindset, I took the flat. Almost there and then. After moving in, I took my first balcony outing and as I stepped out the self-same eagle erupted out of the corner and flew off. It was only then that I realised I in fact have a nest on my balcony, right there- on MY balcony, with three medium sized white eggs in it. WOW! I vowed never to step foot on the balcony again in order not to disturb the eagle and her future offspring and now check on her every evening using a mirror stuck to a spatula, very slowly and quietly inserted out of a window. She’s doing very well and I expect her baby eagles to hatch within the the next week or so. Now completely obsessed with baby animals in general, I thought I’d tell you about one we have at the Museum. This week’s Specimen of the Week is…

**The Baby (unspeciated) Lemur**
(P.S. I feel I should tell you that it is a pigeon not an eagle)

 

1) Primates are divided into several groups that range from super easy to ridiculously hard to tell apart depending upon the particular species in hand. For example, apes have the very obvious morphological difference of no tail. As with every rule however there are exceptions, for example the tail-less barbary macaque, which has no tail, is not an ape. Although there are numerous ‘rules of thumb’ I think it’s fair to say that many species invoke the enviable identification trick of ‘just knowing’, to a certain extent. The main non-ape, non-monkey groups are bushbabies, tarsiers and lemurs. Once you get get your ‘eye-in’ for facial shapes and various other qualities, you can begin to see patterns that will allow you to come across a new species of primate and give a pretty good attempt at placing it into a category.

 

2) As we are not quite sure as to which lemur family our baby lemur belongs, I shall tell you about lemurs as a group. Lemurs are all endemic to Madagascar, although two species were introduced to the Comoros Islands where they have flourished. There are no (modern) species of lemur found anywhere else in the world (I mean in the wild… obviously).

 

3) There are currently approximately 100 recognised species and subspecies of lemur, although many scientists have been saying for years that there are likely to be many more. To back this up, they went and discovered several species within recent years, indicating (as zoological patterns seem to do) that more are likely to come out of the woodwork. The 100 odd known types include the smallest primate in the world; Madame Birth’s mouse lemur, which weighs only 30g. Awwww. The largest species of lemur is the spectacular indri which weighs up to 9kg. The huge number of lemurs means that the country of Madagascar ranks second in the world for the highest number of primate species. Brazil got the top spot, though with the Amazon fighting in it’s corner, you’d expect nothing less.

 

4) The word ‘lemur’ comes from Roman mythology. The ‘lemures’ were shades, ghosts, or spirits of the restless or malignant dead. The lemur was named after the lemures owing to their ‘ghostly vocalisations’, the reflective qualities of their eyes and possibly also the fact that many species are nocturnal.

 

5) For the majority of lemur species, the mating season is less than three weeks each year, the timing for which is directly related to environmental conditions. A single female is likely to be in oestrus for just a few days during this period which causes many a conservationist to pull their hair out. I mean their own hair, not the lemur’s hair in a fit of sadistic rage-filled frustration. The gestation period can be as short as nine weeks in some species but lasts for up to 24 weeks in others. Smaller species tend to have twins, though many have triplets or even quadruplets. Conversely, larger species normally have a single offspring, or twins on occasion. Newborns are vulnerable and are carried in the mother’s mouth of all places until they are old enough to hold on to the fur on the mother’s back. They drink the mother’s milk until the environment causes the next flush of fruit and shoots, when they begin to forage for themselves. They will stay with the mother until they are two years old.

Cannot find a link to the Tabanidae content on http://diptera.myspecies.info/

FLYTREE tab on main page http://diptera.myspecies.info/ does not connect to content.

 Guest blogger: Kholood Al-Fahad

How can Ancient art be brought to life by contemporary art? Is there a connection between ancient and new?

Tomb Raiders is the place were such questions should have an answer.

Florence’s temporal balloons

Get inspired by the intelligent ideas of the nine artists from the Central Saint Martin School. In May 14th the Petrie Museum, UCL, will present an exhibition in collaboration with Central St. Martin’s artists. A partnership which demonstrates how education plays a great role in the transformation and translation of the knowledge in museums. This exhibition brings the past back through contemporary works of the students of fine art. It sets an example of the power the objects of a museum hold within them in inspiring the minds of their examiners. It sheds light on the continuity of the meaning and significance of the objects after they end up in a museum.

Tais’ new god

The artists were closely exposed to the objects from the Museum’s collection and were given the chance to study, search and create their own works. Their works reflected their interpretation of the objects they examined. Artists were inspired in different ways; Some were inspired by the ancient art objects themselves Like Florence Lam. Inspired by the idea of eternity of the ancient objects that stood the test of time by conservation and restoration work , Florence used balloons that die in a very short time to create non eternal sculptures. A juxtaposition between the eternal objects of the museum and the modern non-eternal sculptures. Others had different approach in interpretation. Lauren Jetty, for instance, was inspired by the methodology Petrie Flinders has used in establishing the museum linking it to the material world in the museum. She went on photographing everything she owns creating a collection that talks about her. A collection that piles up to compose a story.
Alongside the direct engagement with the objects, the artists used different techniques and methods to reflect their interpretation of the ancient art works in implementing talented works and intelligent exhibits in a contemporary way of thinking. They used various materials and different media to express their thoughts and tell their own stories. They did drawings, took photographs created animations and audios and used unusual materials like balloons in creating the message they applied to their works. They proved the continuity of the lives of the objects after being acquisitioned in a museum. Through their works they tell us silently that the past and present are linked forever.
Don’t miss the chance. Come and explore how very small details can create great works.

 Kholood is an intern at the Petrie Museum, studying at UCL Qatar.

The web service doesn't seem to be consistent. E.g. This taxon has 'no results' under the SOF web service for E. acutilabra
http://eulophiinae.e-monocot.org/taxonomy/term/148/media
Yet there are images in the SOF database for this taxon: http://orchid.unibas.ch/phpMyHerbarium/112054/1/Eulophia/acutilabra/Summerhayes_Victor_Samuel/specimen.php
With thanks,
Ruth

I’m not quite sure how I’ve managed it, but this is my 200th mystery object. 100 objects ago I said that I was running out of ideas for new objects and time for writing answers, but clearly that problem hasn’t stopped … Continue reading →

I thought you may be interested to hear about a most unusual spider I’ve encountered whilst here in Corfu. It belongs to the spider Genus Eresus, and its extremely colourful – it has similar patterning to that of a ladybird, from which it takes its common name. The male spider I photographed today never stopped moving for a second – I think he has the female of the species on his mind!

Ladybird Spider (c) Andrew Gray (click on image to see in more detail)

These spiders are very rare to come across, and even in the UK they are probably one of the rarest spiders of all. They prefer living on south-facing hillside slopes, such as the one behind where I am staying. Females construct a silk-lined burrow then wait for the males to approach. At this time of year, the males, like the one pictured, are actively searching for females, which are velvety black and much larger. Unfortunately for this particular male, when he  finds a female and mates with her it will be the last thing he ever does – as with many spiders, the female, who in this instance will see his red coloration, then kills the male on the spot.

One thing I did notice when photographing this spider was that he seemed very aware of everything around him – he had excellent eyesight and seemed to be thinking of where to go before doing so. His behaviour and intelligence enthralled me. When feeling threatened he also dipped his head and raised his bright body up as a defence strategy, similar behaviour to that of some frogs I’ve seen. These spiders, which eat beetles and millipedes, appear to have pretty decent sized jaws (something I only saw in scary detail when photographing the male after filming the video below!) Anyhow, he didn’t bite me, and I very much hope he finds his female – and that she then turns out to be colourblind!

 

Martin Nicolas shows me some slightly larger spiders 

The forum sidebar block displays the literature navigation instead of the forum navigation (see attached screenshot). Also, notice that some of the main menu link tabs are truncated.

Brian Cox opened the new Nature’s Library a few weeks ago now. It was really good of him to come and support our new gallery which has been the culmination of many  months work.

Nature’s Library is a celebration of the amazing objects in our natural science collections. We really wanted to get people excited about nature and show how the collection is used, from cutting edge research into endangered plants and animals to public events.

Come along and have a look at the gallery for yourself.

Can we please investigate if bulk email capability to Group members is available and whether we can enable it for Scratchpads maintainers?

Team Grant receiving their Museums and Heritage Award

Rarely are the Grant Museum team allowed out. At the end of a typical day we’re stuffed back into our respective cases until the next morning when zoologising begins at dawn. Last night was an exception however as the team headed down to the illustrious premises of 8 Northumberland for the 11th Museums and Heritage Awards, the Oscars of the museum world if you will.

We were shortlisted for the Culture Pros Pick Award for the most inspiring museum or heritage visitor attraction. Over 500 nominations were received and the five museums that received the most nominations were put through to a public vote. This is the first time one of the Museums and Heritage Awards has been voted for by the public and we were suitably edge-of-our-seats with anticipation for most of last night. Our fellow nominees were Amlwch Copper Bins, Dorking Museum & Heritage Centre, Museum of London, and Stow Maries Aerodrome.

However, if you read the title of this post then you may already gathered that we won it! To prove it, here’s Scary Monkey with the award, complete with our grubby fingerprints from last night:

Woolly Monkey is chuffed to work at the Multi-Award winning Grant Museum of Zoology

We actually picked up two awards last night, we were accidentally given the Innovations Award trophy (again, we won this award last year), the evening’s host Sue Perkins mixed up the awards but eventually we managed to get the right trophy.

Winning this award is very exciting for the team, particularly as it was voted for by the public. We heartily thank all of our film buffs, twitter followers, animal lovers, lunch hour browsers, colleagues, peers, students, families, artists and young dinosaur geeks who made the effort to vote for us in this category. We pour our hearts and souls into the work we do at the Grant Museum and this award is evidence that we’re doing a good job of it. After all, without our visitors and users we’re just a room of stuff. The day to day running of the museum is done by a team of five, some of who are part time, but we have hundreds of colleagues from our department, UCL Museums and Public Engagement, across UCL and the wider university and museums sectors we work with who we want to thank for supporting and inspiring us.

You can see the full list of winners, commendations and nominees from last night’s awards here.

With last year’s award and this one we hopefully have a breeding pair, as I type this Grant Museum manager Jack Ashby and Director of Museums and Public Engagement Sally MacDonald are on their way to Belgium as the Grant Museum is nominated for the European Museum of the Year Award, the ceremony for which is this Saturday so don’t uncross your fingers just yet!

Mark Carnall is the Curator of the Grant Museum of Zoology

UPDATE 17/05/2013: Added the image from the awards ceremony.

On the very last night of my previous visit to Corfu, I was told an almost fairytale-like story about a special flower that is said to exist here: the tale tells of a very rare white wild rose which was found on the island, and of which only very few people know anything about. It was a sacred rose that only existed as one or two plants, it only flowered for a very short time, and it had the most beautifully scented flowers you could ever imagine …

Today, rather than a reptile hunt, my quest was to look for it.

I set off early, and headed north on foot towards the bay of Agni, where the tale arose (forgive the pun!) The sun was up to meet me, and so were the beautiful goldfinches, which appear to be even more abundant here than the sparrows. The rocky coastline, where tall Cypress trees meet turquoise waters, just increases in beauty as you near Agni – it’s stunning. To make my hike even more of a pleasure, many fast-moving reptiles slithered ahead of me as the heat from the midday sun started to bake my path.

The path twisted through scented olive and lemon groves until I finally reached Agni, where the sweet smell of Jasmine hit me as I entered the small bay. Time for a break, and lunch at Toulas, my favourite restaurant, before continuing my quest. But not before being told a secret…

The Wild Rose, Corfu (c) Andrew Gray

Armed with new knowledge, I finally found the Rose today – stood, in all its majesty, over ten feet tall, like some mythological golden fleece, its flowers basking in the sunshine.

It was beautiful, and its fragrance was like a kiss to the senses.

Herbology Manchester 

Plant Sciences

Toulas       

I updated a species page. On this species page, if clicking on the specimens tab, no entry is visible. But there were more than 60 specimens uploaded several month ago. These specimens are all visible when clicking on the Specimens tab from the front page.

In the user accounts there is a "given name" field and an "other/given names" field, both required and displayed in the user registration form. However, when I check the user registration form, only the "other/given names" field appears.

Apparently several fields were migrated from the profile content type of the old Scratchpad but have not been integrated into the user registration form and the data were not imported into the proper fields.

None of the user data have been migrated except for username, email, status and role. Please migrate the other data as well.

Error reported by maintainer:

Data entered in a character project in http://agelenidsoftheworld.myspecies.info/character-editor-project/2#overlay-context= are not visible.