Natural Sciences Collections Association

By Ameena Mughal, Intern at Leeds Museums and Galleries on the Voices of Asia projectHajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, is the last and fifth pillar of Islam and occurs in the last month of Dhul Hijjah, which is in the twelfth month of the Islamic Calendar. Muslims around the world of different ethnicity, status and class gather together and pray to Allah. The first member of my family to perform Hajj was my great grandfather in 1976, then later my grandparents and my own parents.  My grandmother first went to Hajj in 1985 and acquired many objects including a wall hanging of the Kaaba which was given to my parents as a gift. 
It is a large red velour wall cloth showing the Masjid al-Haram of Mecca with the sacred Kaaba stone.  The Kaaba meaning cube in Arabic is an ‘ancient stone structure that was built and re built by Prophets as a house of monotheistic worship’. Muslims do not worship the Kaaba, and its environs, instead it serves as a focal and unifying point for Muslims. The wall cloth illustrates Muslims performing Tawaf which is where pilgrims walk seven times around the Kaaba whilst reciting prayers and there are five different types of Tawaf, three of which are performed during Hajj. 
Mecca is the most important city to Muslims: it was the birthplace of Prophet Muhammed (pbuh), the place of the divine revelation, as well as the location of the holy pilgrimage of Hajj. There are three different types of Hajj: Hajj Al-Tamattu, Hajj Al-Qiran and Hajj Al-Ifrad. Many Muslims in Britain including my family perform the Hajj Al-Tamattu, this is where pilgrims perform Umrah first and then perform Hajj however two different Ihrams are worn.  Umrah is an extra pilgrimage and can be performed during anytime of the year.  If a pilgrim just completes Umrah they do not perform the rites at Mina, Muzdalifah, and `Arafat which one would do during Hajj. A Muslim must perform Hajj at least once in their lifetime, if they can afford to.
The first stage of the pilgrimage is preparation; one must bathe themselves and be covered in the white garment of the Ihram. An Ihram is a garment that consists of two un-sewn white plain cloths that must be worn by a male pilgrim.  A pilgrim before beginning their pilgrimage must be in the state of Ihram which is ensure that pilgrim is pure.  For example a pilgrim will not be allowed to engage in marital relations, shave or cut their nails, use perfume or scented oils and are not allowed to fight or argue. Many pilgrims return to using traditional teeth cleaning sticks, called miswak, rather than use their modern toothbrush and toothpaste. This bundle of miswak sticks are Hajj souvenirs, and were donated recently by Nahid Rasool.
Pilgrtims must also express their intention of performing Umrah and Hajj by reciting the Talbiyah which translates into ‘Here I am O Allaah, (in response to your call), here I am. Here I am, You have no partner, here I am. Verily all praise, grace and sovereignty belong to You. You have no partner.’   This declaration is significant as at Hajj a pilgrim must seek redemption and ask Allah to keep them on the path of righteousness. They then perform Tawaf Al-Qudum which is also to show their intention for Hajj. Once a pilgrim has performed Hajj, it strengthens their bond to Allah and Islam, and upon their return to their home, they must take steps in becoming a better Muslim. 
A very fond childhood memory of mine is eating dates and drinking Zamzam water once my father had returned from Hajj and my mother would always recall the story of Hajar’s search for water for her son Ismaeel (Ishmael). Therefore on the first day of Hajj, pilgrims have to perform Sa’y and this is the passing between the hillocks of Safa and Marwah.  Hajar was sent away to the desert and in Mecca her baby Ismaeel (Ishmael) became very weak and Hajar ran seven times between the two hills of Safa and Marwah in search of water.  Allah then sent Angel Jibreel (Gabriel) who struck the ground from that spot to which clear water came gushing out and today is known as the Zamzam well. Pilgrims remember Hajar’s agony, her strong bond with her child and how Allah heard her cry for mercy and helped her.  This marks the end of Umrah and pilgrims then wear their second Ihram, make their intention for Hajj by reciting the Talbiyah, as well as perform Tawaf and Sa’y as they have previously done for Umrah.This box of Ajwa dates was also presented by Nahid Rasool, as an example of a Hajj souvenir. She comments: Dates were one of Prophet Muhammad's favourite food, and we also believe that if you have eight of these Ajwa dates every day, you will have good health.

One of the five pillars of Islam is to pray five times a day therefore pilgrims must ensure that they read all prayers. After performing Sa’y, pilgrims go to Mina and perform their prayers before leaving for Arafat on the second day. Pilgrims perform Wuquf at Arafat, where they pray at the Mount of Mercy, reflecting on their lives, seeking redemption. A Muslim comments ‘that standing at Arafat was extremely emotional and overwhelming’, and as well as mentally enduring, Hajj is also physically enduring. On the second day some pilgrims climb Jabal Rahmah where the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) delivered his last sermon and once the sun has set pilgrims leave for Muzdalifah. There they collect forty nine pebbles which they will throw at the three pillars of Jamarat over the next few days. 
On Eid al-Adha pilgrims set off to Mina where they perform the stoning (ramy) in which they must hit each of the three pillars of Jamarat with seven pebbles going from east to west.  This is done because it is said that devil appeared to Prophet Ibrahim (pbuh) at three different stone heaps and that he tried to tempt and misguide him.  Thus Angel Jibreel (Gabriel) ordered Ibrahim (Abraham) to throw stones at the devil so that he withdrew from him. The three pillars represent the devil however the largest stone signifies his temptation of Ibrahim (Abraham) against sacrificing his son Ismaeel (Ishmael), the middle stone illustrates the temptation of Ibrahim’s wife Hajar to induce her to stop him and lastly the small stone symbolises the persuasion of Ismaeel (Ishmael) to avoid sacrifice.  The aim of this is to dispose of the devil and become closer to Allah. According to a Muslim woman ‘performing stoning made me realise I can stop myself from doing bad things and I can say no to temptation’.  Hajj teaches discipline and provides millions of Muslims with strength and guidance.
Another pillar of Islam is to give Zakat (charity) therefore once the stoning has been performed; an animal such as a sheep or a goat is sacrificed as commemoration of Prophet Ibrahim (pbuh) willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael. Another duty is that men have their hair shaved off and women have a lock of hair cut off. They then proceed to Masjid al Haram in Mecca to perform Tawal Al Ifadah and this is a formal rite of Hajj in Mecca. Pilgrims also perform Sa’y, drink Zamzam water and they no longer have to wear the Ihram.  During the last days of Hajj pilgrims go back to Mina and will stone the three pillars, and return to Masjid Al Haram and perform their last seven circuit circumambulation of the Kaaba which is known as Farewell Tawaf and this is the completion of Hajj.  
It is difficult for many non Muslims to understand the journey of Hajj but it is both mentally and physically rewarding, the view of the Kaaba overwhelms many Muslims, the beauty of Mecca and the unity of people is outstanding. During Hajj Muslims display strength, kindness, commitment and harmony and pilgrims gather from many different cultural backgrounds to worship Allah.  It is truly mesmerising to see the equality and, the bond between Muslims, as one individual explains ‘I do not think I will be able to describe the appreciation of being amongst a large gathering, in which we are all engaged in the same activities to achieve the same goal.’ 
During the recent Ahlul Bayt Islamic Society display in Parkinson Court at the University of Leeds, (23-24 April 2012), visitors were able to see a model of the Kaaba, as well as the items illustrated here. From 21 May to 1 June 2012 Leeds Museums' Hajj items will be part of a larger Islamic display for schools at Leeds Grand Mosque on Woodlea Rd. The star Hajj item is this fragment of Kaaba cloth given to Hussein, King of Hejas (Arabia) in 1917, to a Mr Fox as a diplomatic gift.
In the forthcoming ‘Voices of Asia’ displays, which will be installed in the World View Gallery at Leeds City Museum from 2014 onwards, one of the focuses will be Faith and Worship.  Islamic items will be shown, as part of a series of Faith installations enriched by the involvement and personal comments from each Leeds faith community.  The above Kaaba covering cloth fragment will definitately be shown, and these newly acquired Hajj souvenirs.  In the autumn of 2012 we plan to run a discussion forum for this project, to bring together the communities who want to take part and open up the debate on which topics to highlight.  If you are interested in participating please contact the curator, Antonia Lovelace, or by e-mail at antonia.lovelace@leeds.gov.uk
Ameena Mughal

Last night a contingent from UCL including colleagues from Museums and Public Engagement, UCL Centre for Digital Humanities and Heritage Without Borders headed down to the illustrious premises of 8 Northumberland for the 10th Anniversary Museums and Heritage Awards. In total three UCL projects had been shortlisted; the move of the Grant Museum for Project on A Limited Budget, the Grant Museum’s QRator project for Innovations, and Heritage Without Borders for The International Award. Did we bring home the silver (glass)? Well from the title of this post you can gather we did but you’ll have to hit the jump to find out more..

We won the Innovations award for QRator: Visitor Participation Through Social Interpretation. Here’s what the award looks like, complete with our grubby finger prints from last night. Some of them may even be comedienne and broadcaster Sue Perkins’ who presented the award.

There’s a whole raft of people who need thanking and who were instrumental in the QRator project. In no order they are: Andrew Hudson-Smith and the original team behind Tales of Things from UCL Centre for Advance Spatial Analysis, Steven Gray from CASA who developed the QRator app and has been our 24/7 helpdesk ever since, Claire Ross from UCL Digital Humanities who worked with me originally in trialling QR codes in the Grant Museum and who has been instrumental in researching, supporting and spreading QRator, Melissa Terras and Claire Warwick also from Digital Humanities who have given continuous feedback on the project as well as share the burden of the numerous published papers on the project, Susannah Chan from UCL Museums and Public Engagement for inventing the mounts for the iPads, Grant Museum Manager Jack Ashby who writes the content and designs the displays for QRator, Grant Museum colleagues Emma-Louise Nicholls and Simon Jackson who moderate the content day in and day out, UCL Public Engagement Unit for their funding and support of the project, Sally MacDonald Director of UCL Museums and Public Engagement who has been a huge driving force behind the project and key to realising it and of course the visitors of the Grant Museum who interact with QRator and interpret the Grant collections. Without them this project would literally be nothing.

Here’s what Director of Museums and Public Engagement, Sally MacDonald, has to say about the project:

“Museums are traditionally rather passive places where visitors read labels written by curators. Even museum interactives are usually pre-programmed with set responses. We wanted to experiment with putting public dialogue at the heart of the museum and QRator has helped us do that in a way that could transform the way museums work. What’s even better is that it’s been such a great collaboration with a group of really creative researchers across several UCL disciplines. Already it’s leading to new projects”

We’re not bitter about not scooping the other awards, getting shortlisted was achievement enough, especially as there was a wide range of really impressive projects from a sector that has been hard hit with cuts, you can see the full list of winners, commendations and the full shortlists here.

UPDATE: The Digital Urban blog post about the award. Clare Ross’s thoughts on the evening over at her blog.

UPDATE 2: Now with Flickr gallery. Warning some images may depict slight inebriation/elation.

Now is the time for all keen botanists to head to the hills.  The Spring Gentian is a sight not to be missed and it is in flower now.  This plant is an arctic-alpine species with very special requirements and grows in only a few places.  It is easy to see inUpper Teesdale(Cow Green Reservoir) and on The Burren in the West of Ireland but the weather has to be bright as the flowers close up if there is insufficient sun.

The day we made our expedition was not promising and although it was May it was cold and windy with overcast skies.  However, there were many plants, almost hidden in the grass with petals tightly closed.  One or two flurries of snow dampened our spirits and we found some Bird’s Eye Primrose to photograph instead.  A Golden Plover kept a wary eye on us from a distance and then flew away.  Many other interesting plants grow in the reserve but few are in flower so early in such an inhospitable place.  At length patience paid off and the skies brightened.  The brief sunny spell was sufficient for several of the flowers to open and photographs were duly taken.  They really are a startling blue and on a sunny day must be a wonderful sight.  I imagine the Victorian botanists took a great many plants for herbaria but we are more enlightened nowadays and the plants are protected by law from humans and by fencing from rabbits.

A short walk to view Cauldron Snout is recommended and warmed us up on a cold day.

 

 

 

The Spring Gentian featured on a UK postage stamp in 1964.

by Christine Walsh, Botany volunteer

When in Africa a couple of years ago, I looked high and low for these gorgeous animals. I mean EVERYwhere. When we finally caught up with a clan (clue), another tourist in our jeep attempted to ruin the moment by harping on about how disgusting they were. Sadly, for an unfathomable reason, this animal does appear to generally induce an upturned nose amongst the general public. Which is so UNFAIR!! This animal is amazing and I am going to set the record straight on why. This week’s specimen of the week is…

 

**!!!THE SPOTTED HYENA!!!**

 

1) Hyenas are highly misunderstood, intelligent and beautiful animals. Yes… they are. Although dog-like in appearance, they are more closely related to cats, come on- we all love cats. Ok so the high shoulders, sloping down to the bum that is much lower, does give the hyena a slightly ‘interesting’ appearance, but really it just gives them character.

 

2) The spotted hyena is actually the second largest carnivore in the whole of Africa, only beaten to the gold medal by the lion. They are extremely powerful animals that possess one of the strongest bite forces of ALL mammal species. So they should at least get the respect, if not the love, right?

 

3) Ok they are scavengers, but firstly- so?! I’ll have you know that scavenging is actually an extremely energy efficient way of life, thus, in this day and age of climate change and global warming, the hyena should be the template for a model citizen in terms of its eco-friendly ways. Secondly- in reality scavenging is very widespread. EVERYONE does it! Lions, tigers, bears… So why do hyenas get such a bad rep? Never been to a carboot sale? (You really should, they’re great).

 

4) You’ll like this one. Clans have a strict hierarchy. Once a male has bitten, growled, and clawed his way up through the clan to be the most high ranking male- he is still subordinate to the absolute lowest of the low ranking females. (Snigger.) Female hyenas are way more aggressive than males and can weigh up to 14 % more, to keep them in line.

 

5) Hyena cubs are born with a full set of gnashers, and their eyes already open. Within minutes of bursting forth into the African sun, hyena cubs fight each other for milk and it is here that the hierarchy begins to be established for later life. No pressure then.

 

On display we have two spotted hyena skulls, one striped hyena, and a cousin of the three hyena species- the aardwolf. What is also very exciting is that we now have an official Specimen of the Week plaque- YAY! You will find it currently sitting proudly in front of the spotted hyena skull, which seems to have a bigger grin than normal today.

On Friday I gave you this object to identify: I chose this object because it gave me a chance to take a photo using my new phone camera and a hand lens (inspired by an article by Nigel Larkin in the latest NatSCA News). I thought it might be a bit of a challenge, but [...]

This Friday I have a small and somewhat tricky object for you identify. Any idea what this is? As usual you can put your suggestions, comments and questions below and I will do my best to answer. Good luck!

Stichting Ebenist is an organisation of conservation professionals in the Netherlands and their conferences in relation to wood and furniture conservation are established now as the premier such event globally, attracting an international audience, similarly speakers. The theme for the 2012 conference is Reproduction and Reconstruction in Furniture Conservation. Delegates for the upcoming conference will be getting a Temple Newsam double whammy: a paper on the re-construction of the Queen Anne State Bed, from Ian Fraser, Temple Newsam's furniture conservator:And a paper from Temple Newsam's retired senior curator Anthony Wells-Cole into the research and virtual re-construction that he has been working on in relation to the 17th century Japanese lacquer columns and mouldings of the Temple Newsam lacquer secretaire, and upright piano, both supplied in the 19th century, and kept in the Chinese Room. The Japanese lacquer columns and mouldings once formed part of a highly elaborate balustrade in the bedchamber of Amalia van Solms, wife of the Stadholder of The Hague. They lived in Huis ten Bosch, a palace in The Hague, The Netherlands. Commissioned by the occupants, and probably the first European commission of Japanese lacquer work, the components arrived in the 1630s, were installed and stayed there until the Napoleonic Wars. French troops overran the Low Countries, and Huis ten Bosch was ransacked. The Japanese lacquer components, war booty, start turning up in the furniture trades in London and Paris in the 19th century, and being added to pieces of furniture. A fascinating backstory, and one of the aims of Mr Wells-Coles's research has been trying to visualise what the bed balustrade looked like in Huis ten Bosch. Of outstanding quality, the scenes depicted on the columns tell the ancient story "The Tales of Ise".


The Tales of Ise
Stichting Ebenist 11th International Symposium

As part of my research for Manchester Museum’s new Nature’s Library gallery, I visited the revamped Yorkshire Museum in York.

Their brief was to redisplay the natural history and archaeology collections on a pretty tight budget. On the whole, I think they have done a good job.

Here are the things I liked:

• The mix of taxidermy and fossils
• The fabulous Plesiosaur and Ichthyosaur display
• The bite-size story lines
• The nice use of images
• The view to the books above the galleries
• The Roman mosaic, that you can actually walk on!

 Most of the specimens in the herbarium at the Manchester Museum are pressed and mounted on sheets of paper, or seeds in glass-lidded boxes or slices of tree trunk stacked in a drawer.   But what if we want to preserve the structure of a flower or a fruit that’s too big to press and too wet to dry before it goes mouldy?

Well, one answer is to store the specimen in a glass jar of spirit solution.  The actual compostition of this fluid varies, but is generally a mixture of water and industrial methylated spirits, with glycerol and formaldehyde. 

Here in Manchester, we have around 300 spirit specimens, many of which are beautifully preserved and hopefully a few will be displayed on our new gallery, Nature’s Library. Sadly, some have been neglected, to the point where they have completely dried out and cannot be salvaged. 

I have been working with our current Curatorial Trainee, Andrew Lawton, and our previous Curatorial Trainee, Gina Allnat, and volunteer Veronica, to clean, list and photograph these spirit specimens.  Andrew and Gina have both written blog posts about this project.

With everyone getting ready for this year’s jubilee celebrations, images of the Queen and royal family are everywhere. Even our own City Museum is hosting a wonderful exhibition of photographs of the Queen taken by renowned photographer Cecil Beaton – kindly on loan to us from the V & A.

Recently, I have been looking at communications for some outreach work coming up, and, I have been noticing more and more pictures of the Queen at different stages in her life, so I thought I would share just a few with you.

Today, I have been looking at an edition of the ‘Radio Times – Journal of the BBC’ published in March 1946. On the front cover is a photograph of H.R.H. The Princess Elizabeth, who was due to attend the launch of a new aircraft carrier. For those of us who can’t remember any other reigning monarch, it is almost hard to recognise her from the familiar face of today.

(LEEDM.E.1975.0163.0002.1)

Just like today, advertisers have been keen to use images of the Queen around special dates and occasions to boost their product sales. For example, we have a chocolate box from around 1953, made by Cowan’s, with a picture of the newly crowned queen.

(LEEDM.E.1975.0050.0002.c)




We also have a ceramic pomander from 1977, the year of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, still complete with its Woolworths price tag (a bargain at 85p!). We have items relating to most royal anniversaries, weddings and jubilees in the collection, some of which date back to Queen Victoria, which goes to show that the souvenirs on offer for Kate and William last year and the Jubilee this year are just the latest in a long tradition.

( LEEDM.E.1977.0049.0010)



Perhaps the most familiar images of the Queen are those that take part in everyday life – the queens head on coins and stamps. Most people living in the UK will be familiar with the stamps and coins of today, but even these have changed a little over the years as the Queen has matured. The final image I’ve included is of a stamp from early in the Queen’s reign – from 1957.  It was part of a set of stamps based around a portrait by photographer Dorothy Wilding, which were in use until the late 1960s.

(LEEDM.E.1958.0033.0061)

So my blog this time is concerning some work that I undertook recently at the South Australian Museum. I was over in Oz on a holiday, playing with wombats and wallabies in Tasmania,  and I thought that I would utilise the time in checking on some Cerdistus specimens which was a group of robberflies (Asilidae) that my associate Bob Lavigne, a retired Dipterist in the States, and I were working on. We have recently published a paper on a new species and are currently working on a key. Bob used to live in South Australia and spent many years collecting this group of Asilids. There are many new species that he has described or is in the process of describing and so we decided that it was time to develope a good key to this group. I say group, as we are not sure whether all the previoulsy described Cerdistus belong in this genus - it may be split as well.

 

These are some Cerdistus that were caught in cop and so we are very sure that we have a male and a female of the same species....Lovely looking things. As with all robberflies they have the fantastic mystax or moustache, which are very long stiffened bristles to prevent the flailing prey from damaging the delicate mouthparts!!

 

Bob and I were based at the South Australian Museum http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/terrestrialinvertebrates/collections - and as always I have great fun pocking around in other peoples collections (it is like pocking around other peoples houses! - although you may get arrested for that....) - Everyone has a slightly different style although good management practices are universal. The collection in the South Australian Museum is looked after by just one Man! I am amazed at his workload and what he has achieved! But again he is assisted by a superb team of volunteers! Mostly retired, this team have done wonders with many different parts of the collection.

 

My most surprising event upon arrival was that Bob had kindly arranged accommodation for me through his colleague, a scientific associate at the museum, Archie MacArthur. Now I did not think much of the name till I arrived and I was pounced upon by this man who remembers me coming into the collection 17 years ago to ask for help in identifying ants!! I struggle to remember last week let alone that long ago….and to make matters worse his 90th birthday was whilst I was there…I was utterly shamed!!! He even produced a piece of paper with my scribbled notes over it. (I undertook a placement whilst at the University of Adelaide – months running around the outback looking for ants….not to be sniffed at!!)

 

He is still publishing and one more book is just in print (e.g. http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/assets/files/science/terrestrial-invertebrates/Guide_to_Camponotus_Ants_of_South_Australia_-_Index__Review.pdf).

 

Here he is celebrating his birthday!

 

And here is one of 'the boys' - please pay no attention to the wine on the table they were just props....

But back to flies. Bob had been travelling to many of the major collections in the world to look at the type holdings for this group of flies. Whilst in the UK on a previous visit he had spent time in Oxford as well as in the NHM imaging the specimens. I have been working on a descriptions spreadsheet noting individual characters of NHM specimens and he has been working on them, as well as the Oxford material, material from Paris and of course, the main bulk of the material in the SA Museum.

 

If you leave Dipterists alone for any period of time they start obsessing over genitalia. Bob spent a lot of time finding original descriptions of Type species, making copies of the diagrams where there were any and then photographing the genitalia. (I have a large collection... )

 

See how wonderfully shiny it is!

 

So the plan for the week was to go through the working key with the majority of the specimens in front of me. Now making a key is not easy and Bob had done an amazing job so far in getting as far as he had. Most of the key was written from his (and some of my) notes from specimens. However, It is still amazing how many times they do not fit or something has been recorded incorrectly or with a level of ambiguity as to make writing for a key difficult!! When I was going through the key there were stumbling blocks all over the place (resulting in a bit of a potty mouth)– and much

of that was due to me!! I am always a big believer in simple things – if you are going to describe something – why not have an image to clarify exactly what you mean.

 

However, this means lots of images as there are many characters on the fly that we use in speciating them – the colour of their moustache for instance (it is a key feature of the robberflies). I have pages and pages of notes for images that I have to now take as well as verifications that i have to do. I have had to bring back a box of flies to the UK to enable me to again compare with the specimens in the NHM.

 

Box of flies - always amusing to take as hand luggage on a plane - very confused customs people...airline staff...people sitting next to you...

 

As well as working on the morphology of the specimens we are about to sequence them. This will greatly help us decide if what we think is a new species is in fact a new species, or is it just a colour variant of another one. When you have very few of a ‘morpho’ type you need to gather as much evidence that it is a new species. Our collection in the NHM is dotted with singletons and it is not uncommon to describe on a single specimen although this does not aid us in understanding any variation within the species. Now as we think that there are many many new species to this group (and as already stated, we do not believe that it is even one genus) by enlisting both morphological and molecular analyses we are formulating the best picture.

 

So come back to us in about 6 months when we have gone through the analyses, described the new species, and properly developed the key. In the meantime, check out some of the UK species of Asilidae. I love this group as they are just the best predators!!

 

And just to show you how much we love our work - this was my Christmas card from Bob!!! Beautiful isn't it!

Last week the Grant Museum hosted Call My Bluffalo, a panel event in the format of the popular game show Call My Bluff albeit with a zoological twist. The panel was made up of Dr Ian Barnes (Royal Holloway Univeristy), Dr Anjali Goswami (UCL), Professor Kate Jones (UCL, Institute of Zoology) and Dr Victoria Herridge (Natural History Museum). The star-studded panel do what they do best had to put in a lot of effort to contrive science lies and to try to dupe each other into believing made up etymologys of a range of zoological names. A task made difficult by the fact that sometimes the truth is far stranger than fiction. The event went very well judging from the audience reception (and of course the evaluation forms) but we ended up not using a round of questions we had planned. Rather than waste the effort putting them together we thought we’d put them up here for our readers to have a go themselves.

Have a go at guessing the right answer in the comments. Obviously, this task is made slightly easier with the internet at hand but try not to ruin it for others. I’ll be posting the correct answers in a week’s time for those that can wait.

Venatosaurus

1) Venatosaurus is a dinosaur genus named by a palaeontologist, and Star Wars fan,  after the Venator-class Star Destroyer,also known as the Venator-class Destroyer,  Republic attack cruiser and later Imperial attack cruiser, which was also one of the ships used extensively by the Galactic Republic during the later parts of the Clone Wars.

2) Venatosaurus is one of the fictional genera of dinosaur created for the 2005 King Kong movie as director Peter Jackson was keen to create a realistic fiction to explain the presence of dinosaurs on the movies Skull Island

3) Venatosaurus is the name of a sauropod dinosaur that has been misappropriated at least seven times since the 1980s. Originally it was proposed as the name of one of the world’s largest animals but the material was found to be misidentified and belonged to an existing genus. Over the next ten years the name was revived for new discoveries only to find that material was wrongly identified, highly dubious and in one instance applied to a chimera specimen (material from two individuals mixed together) the name is currently orphaned.

Notamacropus

1) Notamacropus is a subgenus of Macropus, the genus that includes kangaroos, wallaroos and wallabies. Notamacropus is the subgenus for wallabies and was coined as in ‘Not A Macropus‘ in reference to the common confusion between Kangaroos, Wallaroos and Wallabies. .

2) Notamacropus is a genus of Jerboa a hopping rodent in reference to the similarity between the two groups of hopping animals

3) Notamacropus is a genus of giant fossil marsupial dunnarts. The genus is so called because two palaeontologists argued for many years  over the identification of some partial fossil material, one insisting it was Kangaroo and should be in the genus Macropus and the other certain it was a carnivorous marsupial. Upon the discovery of further remains the animal turned out to be a Dunnart and in spite the scholar who was correct forever enshrined the error of the other by naming it Notamacropus.

Epitoky

1) Epitoky is the behaviour seen in crabs that live around deep sea vents. The crabs of various species gather around small smoke outlets and appear to take in the smoke as if it were a hookah. It is probably a behaviour to scald of epiparasites in the hot water that comes out.

2) Epitoky is the behaviour observed in some Neobatrachian frogs when males present females with a bundle or ball of partially masticated insects as a gift to persuade them to allow mating.

3) Epitoky is a form of reproduction observed in polychaete marine worms where the worms undergo a partial or complete transformation into an epitoke, a small ‘shuttle’ capable of sexual reproduction.

Nessiteras rhombopteryx

1) Nessiteras rhombopteryx is a new species of caddisfly described in 2011 from two specimens that got caught in the camera lense of a probe sent up to the edge of space by the Near Earth Space Surveilance Initiative (acronym NESSI). Due to the insects getting trapped on the camera the exact altitude these insects were caught at was 50km above the Earth in the stratosphere. In honour of the fortunate encounter, the new genus was erected.

2) Nessiteras rhompbopteryx is the scientific name erected for the Loch Ness monster by Peter Scott in 1975 as only officially named taxa are able to be added to a British register of officially protected wildlife.

3) Nessiteras rhombopteryx is the largest known species of dragonfly from 300 million year old deposits in France. With a wingspan of 2 foot (60cm) it has been proposed they fed on other insects and even amphibians

Suggestions, thoughts and bluffs of your own in the comments please!

We’d also like to thank Mark Isaak’s wonderful Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature which has been a staple bookmark since my undergraduate days and a great source of inspirations for questions and suggested bluffs for our event.

On the basis of the wonderfully, hot, sunny, and bright bank holiday weekend we are having (I really hope you’re not the kind of audience that doesn’t appreciate extreme levels of sarcasm) I thought we should celebrate one of the most summery animals known to Britain. Never seen in winter (unless it is having a really bad day), this species is furry, beautiful, and is most often seen enjoying the flowers in the sunshine of summer. This week’s specimen of the week is…

 

***!!The bumble bee!!***

 

1) Bumblebees don’t drink alcohol, smoke, or eat fast food, yet sadly most of them only live for a year. The queen kicks the annual cycle off in the spring when she begins construction work on a new nest. She then flies around stockpiling pollen and nectar, before laying her first (of many) batch of eggs.

 

2) Once the queen has laid her eggs she will sit over them and ‘shiver’. Not solely because British summers are so cold, she does this to incubate the eggs. Rapidly contracting and relaxing her muscles produces enough warmth for the eggs to develop. The fetching white grubs that hatch, eat the stockpiled pollen and nectar before pupating and transforming into the more aesthetic buzzy bee stage of its life that we all know and love.

 

3) The newly hatched bees are workers and immediately set about continuing the queen’s building plans by expanding the nest. They also gather more food to feed the next wave of hatchlings. By mid-summer, the nest can contain more than 400 worker bees. Not bad going Ms Queen.

 

4) So, it is all going well, and then the end of the summer comes. As we pull out our umbrellas and wellies (no need to dust them off as we probably used them both the week before), the female workers fly off as newly graduated queen bees. The males and the original queen however, will die by Autumn. Ooooh. Sad face.

 

5) Due to their tireless efforts of pollen collection, bumblebees are integral for the pollination of flowers and subsequently extremely important to our ecosystem. Within the last 70 years however, two species of bumblebee have become extinct within the UK, and sadly, other species are currently in dramatic decline. So if you are looking for a new hobby, bee-keeping would be a good’un and given that most of our food is grown, or eats things that are grown, it is not just the marketers of Valentine’s Day that would thank you.

On Friday I gave you this skull to identify: As you can see, it’s smaller than the smallest carnivore or ungulate and it lacks the characteristics you would expect from a rodent – for example, although the teeth are not actually visible, there is no sign of rodenty incisors and you can see where there [...]

John Barran & Sons

As a volunteer at Leeds Museum Discovery Centre, I get the chance to work some of the fascinating objects within the vast collection. Recently, I came across a box containing this small but very special collection of childrenswear.


The group of six smocks and one coat were produced between 1910 and 1920 by John Barran & Sons – a pioneering Leeds-based firm which manufactured ready-to-wear clothing. John Barran moved to Leeds and set up business as traditional tailor and clothes dealer in 1842. In the early 1850s, he opened a shop on Briggate, where he stocked reasonably priced ready-made menswear as well as clothing for children.



The rapid growth of the ready-to-wear tailoring business was made possible by technological developments; such as sewing by machine and advances in the process of pattern cutting. Barran’s expansion of the manufacturing side of his business helped the Leeds tailoring industry evolve to produce larger quantities of better quality garments.


From an early stage Barran took a special interest in childrenswear. Clothing manufactured for boys became a major part of the business and John Barran &Sons Ltd. eventually went on to become makers of school uniforms. Orders for ready-to-wear miniature suits and coats arrived from as far as Canada, Australia, South Africa and South America.


John Barran was so well known for producing these garments especially for children, that he came to be recognised as ‘The little boy’s tailor’.

By Shauni Sanderson

This week I haven’t had a chance to photograph a new mystery object, so here’s an old image I took of a specimen from a while back: Any idea what this skull might belong to? I’ve deliberately omitted the scale bar to make it a bit harder, but if you want to see the scale [...]

My traineeship was extended for mainly one reason: like all museums, Hereford’s has a documentation backlog that needs to be tackled. I am glad to lend a hand getting some of the valuable data on the system. I am specifically working on two areas: sorting out and adding to the geology information on the database; and working on the backlog with both the Natural History and Costume & Textiles curators.

I have mainly been doing the former over the last two months and it’s been an interesting process. Fully getting to grips with the database (and all of its fascinating quirks); learning about various hitherto-unknown aspects of geology (mainly Herefordshire specifics); deciphering previous contributor’s cryptic entries; wading through the duplicate terms (on a variety of different hierarchy levels); checking ambiguous information against trusted sources as well as the specimens themselves (if I could find them); and finally being in control of a subsequently robust database that can (hopefully) be added to by anyone, regardless of the level of their geology prowess.

My biggest task so far has been reorganising some of the hierarchies within the geology data; the geological time scale (lithostratigraphy/geochronology) as well as the taxonomic one. Previously, both had multiple entries of a given term (often with many different spellings) at several points within the hierarchy. All of those (and the levels in between) had specimens associated with them. This made searching for material almost impossible.

For example, if you wanted to search for bivalves you would need to look at the following branches within “Mollusca”:

• “Bivalve”;
• “Bivalves”;
• “Bivalvia”;
• “Lamellibranchia”; and
• “Pelecypods”.

The fun bit is that there were two other instances of “Bivalve” elsewhere: one within “Bivalve” itself and the other was unranked. All of these terms contained either: actual specimens attached directly to them; further divisions of the class; or a mix of both (which continues down the hierarchy). I am glad to say that this is no longer the case. Within “Mollusca” there is now simply “Bivalvia”. Within that are the relevant subclasses, then orders, and so on. It’s beautiful.

Now that I have done the same thing to all branches across the geological time scales and taxonomic levels, I am ready to transcribe the paper records onto the database. It’s proving much easier than it was before since everything is in order and organised. When a new term comes up I simply rank it accordingly, continually improving the tidy and clean geology database.

Here are some screenshots of what I’ve been doing (apologies for the poor quality):

Filed under: Collections, Database, Hereford, Palaeontology, Research, Training

I have collected a lot of information about “The Doctor”, T. A. Chapman and have taken a lot of photos of his collections and old stomping grounds. This work has culminated in an online resource for people to look at. There’s not a whole lot of actual information in it (I have a bulging folder full of  his journals, articles, biography and obituary in Hereford Museum Resource & Learning Centre) but I wanted a way to share the bare bones of the project with anyone interested in it as well as those that provided a lot of the content. (Previous blog posts about this can be found in this post.)

Check out the Prezi below to see the images (the photos are all mine but the copyright belongs to the various institutions) and details of the marvelous Dr. Thomas Algernon Chapman. I’m really excited about everyone seeing this. Just click on the dark arrow below and you can keep clicking that to cycle through the pathway of information or you can click and drag to move your way around and use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out. Clicking on any image or frame will zoom directly into it (just scroll out to zoom out or click the arrow to move on). If you click on “More” you can press “fullscreen” and you’ll be able to read the information much better. I hope you find this useful and interesting. If not, I’ve wasted a lot of time! I’m keen to receive comments.

Filed under: Collections, Entomology, Featured, Hereford, NHM, Research

Since my traineeship is technically over, I am wrapping up the Thomas Algernon Chapman project I’ve written quite a lot about (here, here and here).

There is still plenty of work to be done on this and I hope to continue in some way. The last trip I was able take was back to the NHM last month. I went to see Nigel Wyatt, one of the diptera curators, because in addition to lepidoptera and coleoptera, Chapman did a lot of work with diptera. He was fascinated by parasitism in many different groups and so was drawn to the Tachinidae.

I was simply looking to see more specimens that he either described or collected. In many cases he reared insects at home and sent those specimens he wasn’t working himself to researchers or collectors. It’s very difficult to determine which is which. This was the case at the NHM. Nigel showed me a lot of different specimens with Chapman’s name on them. It is unclear in which capacity Chapman was involved (collector, breeder, researcher, all three). One of the specimens I was shown had a label handwritten by Chapman; the others were all typed and presumably weren’t necessarily collected or worked on by him.

I have added these ‘findings’ to my project and attempted to find some context. This project is available online and I will publish the preliminary version on my blog shortly.

In the meantime, here are some images I took at the NHM (© NHM, London):

Filed under: Collections, Entomology, Featured, Hereford, NHM, Research

Apologies for the somewhat tardy answer to the mystery object that I gave you on Friday. Not only is it tardy, it’s not really an answer, as I still haven’t ruled out all of the possible options as to what this skull is from: Now I’m quite happy to say it’s from a member of [...]