A new NSF grant, and new publications site

I recently received word from the National Science Foundation that VMNH successfully applied for a grant related to our fossil insect collections. The grant is part of a collaborative proposal that includes most of the major fossil insect collections in the United States: American Museum of Natural History, Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, Illinois Natural History Museum, Museum of Natural History at the University of Colorado-Boulder, University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute, and Yale Peabody Museum, as well as VMNH.

There are some big whales in the Eastover Formation

As part of a (woefully overdue) book chapter, I’ve been photographing lots of baleen whales from the Chesapeake Group, the unit which includes the Oligocene, Miocene, and Pliocene formations on the coastal plains of Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. The vast majority of the Chesapeake Group whales have been found in the Calvert Formation, with only a few specimens from the other units. The Eastover Formation, which ranges from approximately 7-9 million years old, has produced enough scrappy remains to demonstrate that there were several baleen whale taxa present at that time, but not enough for definitive identifications. Even so, there are some intriguing remains from the Eastover.

Airigami comes to VMNH

For the last three days, the balloon sculpture artists from Airigami have been in VMNH’s Hall of Ancient Life, installing a temporary extension of our current “Dinosaurs” exhibit. Just as one of the centerpieces of the exhibit is the cast skeleton of Acrocanthosaurus, the Airigami display is built around a life-size, fleshed-out Acrocanthosaurus, made entirely out of balloons.

Yorktown whale wrap-up

On Thursday we finished up our excavation of the Yorktown whale, racing to beat a weather front that was moving into the area and which would have almost certainly destroyed any exposed bone. We took out several jackets, including one that was around 400 pounds and was going to be a real challenge to get up the cliff. Once again, the Navy stepped up to plate.

Yorktown whale day 3; the Navy to rescue!

I’ve been a bit concerned about this excavation. It’s supposed to start raining on Friday, and with the pit already only a few inches above the water table it will rapidly flood. We’ve been getting a lot of help from William and Mary students, but I’ve been worried about getting everything removed before the weather turns bad. The biggest obstacle is the 20-foot cliff that we have to climb to remove every single jacket. Some of the jackets are several hundred pounds, and we weren’t sure how we were going to get them up the cliff.

Yorktown whale day 2

Today was a busy and surprising day for us on the York River, as we continued excavating a large fossil baleen whale from the Eastover Formation. One of the morning’s first activities was a series of interviews with the Navy; the whale is located on Navy property, and they have graciously allowed us to excavate.

The Yorktown whale

When we talk about whales from the U.S. Atlantic coast, we’re usually talking about specimens from the Middle Miocene Calvert Formation, since the vast majority of the whales from this region come from that unit. However, there are other units on the Coastal Plain besides the Calvert, and while they don’t produce a lot of whales, every now and then something turns up.