Cabinets of Curiosities

When I was a kid, I wanted to own a museum when I grew up. Not the politically correct, corporate sponsored museums we have today, but the kind of museum in the drawing above. The kind with a stuffed alligator hanging from the ceiling and an eel skeleton tacked to the wall. My grandmother had a big old house with high ceilings that would have been perfect for this.

This type of museum is known as a Cabinet of Curiosities. These were popular when "cabinet" meant "small room", or "small cabin", like a "cigarette" is a "small cigar".

Cabinets of curiosities were built by the privileged class in Europe beginning in the 16th century. They were the predecessors of today's natural history museums, created during a time when nobody knew what to make of all the strange stuff they found outdoors. This was a time before Linnaeus, Darwin and others had enlightened us to how these seemingly unrelated oddities should be properly arranged in their cases.

In a previous post, I wrote about a trip to the Rutgers University Geology Museum. This museum began as a cabinet of curiosities late in the development of this type of collection, when colleges began to establish them for teaching purposes. This was in the 1840s, after Darwin had returned from the second voyage of the HMS Beagle but before he had published On the Origin of Species.

Before this mastodon joined Rutgers' cabinet of curiosities in 1870, it was on tour with a circus. Such indignities were common before widespread public awareness of fossils.

The man standing next to the mastodon is William S. Valiant, who discovered the first fossils of trilobites with their soft tissue preserved. His find led to a much greater understanding of trilobite anatomy.

Here is the mastodon 140 years later. If you compare these two photos, you will see that the mastodon's tusks have been rotated. Since they went through the trouble of doing this, I have to assume that the later, inward curving tusks are correctly mounted.

This makes sense since it is believed that the tusks were used in an upward thrusting motion during battles for mates. With inward curving tusks, a mastodon could impale an adversary with his head centered and engage both tusks. With outward curving tusks, he would have to turn his head to the side and could only use one tusk at a time.

Here are two Rutgers geologists in 1930, inspecting a dinosaur footprint that had recently been discovered in Woodbridge, NJ. It came from a trackway of footprints that are the only known Cretaceous age dinosaur prints east of the Mississippi River. It is from a carnivorous dinosaur known as Megalosauropus.

By this time, Rutgers' cabinet of curiosities had developed into a legitimate geological museum.

And here is that footprint 80 years later.

I never did build that museum in my grandmother's house. The last I heard, her house was being used as a convent by a local church. Maybe someday...

House of Herps #4 - St. Patrick's Edition

Welcome to the 4th edition of House of Herps, the monthly celebration of all things herpetological (i.e. amphibian and reptilian). This issue is dedicated to St. Patrick, the first herpetologist. Above we see him pointing out some of the ophiological fauna (snakes) of Ireland.

More about St. Patrick later. First the marvelous musings of the herpetologists who have followed in Patty's footsteps:

Since we are on the subject of amusing pictures of snakes, check out this Western Hognose from Ted MacRae at Beetles in the Bush. It is doing an excellent impersonation of a dead hognose, including some unbelievable and gross details you can read about here. This is also an important herpetological find, since the Western Hognose was previously unknown in this area.

Here is another amusing snake photo, this one a Garter Snake from Nate at The Drinking Bird. Not only is it fun to see his son discover herpetology, but the whole trip sounds like it was fun. Especially since Nate was on his Bird-a-Day Challenge and not really looking for snakes.

The final entry in the amusing snake category is from one of the House of Herps carnival coordinators, Jason Hogle. OK, maybe this photo is not so amusing, but Jason's reaction when he came across this Diamondback Water Snake is pretty funny. That is, if you are the kind of person who laughs at the misfortunes of others. Anyway, read about Jason's adventure here, at his blog Xenogere.

Next we move to another part of the reptilian world, the turtles. As far as I know, St. Patrick had nothing to do with turtles, so we lose track of the theme here. But that's OK, we pick up a new track with JSK's post on turtle tracks. These are some well-preserved tracks. The ones I see are usually all smooshed and smeared. See more at Anybody Seen My Focus?


Continuing on our turtle track, our next post comes from yours truly, John at Kind of Curious. If you would like to learn seven ways that terrapins have evolved to live in brackish (semi-salty) water, this is the place to go. The post contains a link to an article about terrapin conservation, including how to Adopt-a-Terrapin.



Our next post is where we segue from the reptiles to the amphibians. Bernard Brown at Philly Herping manages to find both on a recent herping trip. We also learn from the banner at the top of Bernard's blog that the words herpetology and herpes are both derived from the Greek word herpein, meaning "to creep". I wonder if the virology bloggers have a "House of Herpes" carnival?

Moving to the amphibian world, what better place to start than with sex? Cindy at Dipper Ranch teaches us how male newts are able to hold onto their slippery partners. Learn the details, and more about underwater hanky panky, at Cindy's blog. Oh my, someone please tell St. Patrick to avert his eyes!

While St. Patrick is still looking the other way, we are going to go from sex straight to murder. The other coordinator of House Of Herps, Amber Coakley of Birder's Lounge, brings us "CSI: Toad". As one of her commenters observed, "I kinda figure that anyone visiting a nature blog should be prepared for some real nature. If you can’t stand the gross stuff, you’d better stick with something safer, like scrapbooking." If you really want to see what this snail is crawling on, check out Amber's post.

We leave the amphibian world with a beautiful set of photos of two Pacific Tree Frogs. These are from Jill Wussow at "Count Your Chicken! We're Taking Over!". Jill has some awesome photos on her blog, and on her companion photography website.




As promised, I will close with more about St. Patrick. Legend has it that back in the first century AD, St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. Today this is seen as an allegory for his conversion of many Irish to Christianity. The snake is a common symbol of the devil, and converting people would be seen by Christians as driving out the devil. National Geographic offers a more scientific explanation for why there are no snakes in Ireland.

Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Parque de las Palomas - Pigeon Park

Parque de las Palomas in Old San Juan has been surrendered to the birds. Don't bring any food there unless you want to be perched on and pooped on!

Paloma is Spanish for "dove", as in rock dove, the traditional name for the common pigeon (they are now called rock pigeons, or just pigeons). "Rock" refers to their native habitat, the rocky cliffs of Europe, Asia and North Africa. I don't know who would be more surprised, a sherpa finding a beautiful rock dove scavenging a city street, or a city-dweller on an exotic Nepalese vacation finding a "rat with wings" in the Himalayan mountains.

Pigeons love to roost in areas that resemble their natural, cliffy habitat. The nooks and crannies of buildings fill this bill perfectly. So do "pigeon holes", which are nooks and crannies man-made just for this purpose. Someone has dug pigeon holes into the ancient walls of Parque de las Palomas, and the pigeons love it.

These birds are feral pigeons (as are all city pigeons), meaning their ancestors escaped or were released from captivity and returned to the wild. True wild pigeons are all colored the same, bluish-grey with an iridescent neck, and two black bars on each wing. Pigeon breeders call these birds "blue bars".

Through selective breeding over the years, many other colors and patterns have developed. In the photo above, the cute couple in the upper right is a "spread" and a "red". (Purists might argue with me, but I am using the simplified naming convention developed by Cornell University's PigeonWatch.)

"Red" is self-explanatory. "Spread" refers to the way the pigment molecules are arranged in the bird's feathers. Bluish-grey feathers actually contain the same pigment as the feathers in the black bands. The pigment molecules in the black feathers are just spread out rather than clumped up, causing light to be absorbed more than reflected. So a pigeon that is completely black or dark grey is called a "spread". The bird in the lower right is also a spread.

The bird in the lower left is called a "pied". "Pied" means means "blotched", and in the pigeon world means "blotched with white". So more specifically, this is a "red pied".

To learn how you can help scientists collect data on pigeon colors and courtship displays, visit Cornell University's PigeonWatch. To learn the science behind these varied colors, check out this Pigeon Genetics website.

I'll close with a photo of the San Juan wall. San Juan was settled by the Spanish in 1521. They built this wall around the city during the 17th and 18th centuries, to keep out their European enemies and plundering pirates.

The Carnival Midway

I have been participating in blog carnivals for a few months now, almost as long as I have been blogging. A blog carnival is the literary equivalent of the photo above - an eclectic mix of rides (the blog posts), loosely organized around a midway (the host blog), promoted by a crazed barker (the host).

I have enjoyed "meeting" other bloggers through these carnivals. Participating in carnivals has increased my readership, especially when I hosted a carnival myself for the first time.

I didn't realize that blogging etiquette suggests that I should help advertise the carnivals I participate in. Advertising on my fledgling website is not like advertising during the Super Bowl, but every little bit helps.

So step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and take a stroll down this Kind of Curious midway:

Starting with the carnival having the broadest of scopes, Scientia Pro Publica publishes twice per month on science, medicine, the environment and technology. The latest issue is at Reciprocal Space, and includes my post on Thomas Jefferson's arguments against the Theory of American Degeneracy. Click here to see the Scientia issue hosted at Kind Of Curious.

Following the science and environment path, we soon come to a clearing in the woods. All around us are odd creatures in various stages of development. We must be at - The Carnival of Evolution. This month's edition, at Mauka to Makai, also includes my post on American Degeneracy (just doing my part by recycling and reusing old material).

Continuing our stroll, branching off down the Animalia trail, we come to another carnival with a pretty broad scope - the Friday Ark. I missed the launching of last week's ark, but the week before featured my post on coyotes sneaking into Manhattan.

Continuing down the Animalia trail, we stop to study a small insect. That's right, it is an invertebrate, so we must be at Circus of the Spineless! This month's issue, at The Modern Naturalist, starts off with my article on how arachnid lungs evolved from those of horseshoe crabs. Kind of Curious will be hosting Circus of the Spineless in July.

The invertebrate path in our carnival blogosphere has a big hole where "insects" should be. I think I smell an opportunity for a new carnival ... or maybe that's just a stink bug. Anyway, we turn down another branching pathway toward the biggest order of insects. This next carnival has An Inordinate Fondness - for beetles. This carnival set up its tents for the first time last month, and it included my post on the Ponderous Borer.

Next, it's off on a trail toward a sub-order of insects. I have not yet submitted a post to The Moth and Me. But I have a really cool photo of a tomato horn worm (hawk moth caterpillar) being attacked by wasp larvae. This will make a great article - as soon as I can find the photo.

Thankfully the invertebrate path does not branch off any further. Now we hop over to a parallel path for reptiles and amphibians. House of Herps is a new carnival, and issue #4 will be hosted right here at Kind Of Curious in just one week. I missed last month's issue, but the prior month at Beetles in the Bush included my post on diamondback terrapins.

As we tire of casting our eyes toward the ground, we look up to the skies and see - birds. I admit that birds are not my most frequent subject, so I do not submit posts every fortnight to I and the Bird. My last was back in January, uniquely hosted at The Marvelous in Nature. Each post is illustrated by a hand-drawn bird. Mine is the Chukar Partridge on the right edge, about 2/3 of the way down, at the base of the bird feeder.

Next we leave the Animalia path and head over to Plantae. Berry Go Round is a monthly carnival on all things botanical. The latest issue at Foothills Fancies features my article on the Haleakala Silversword.

Our plant-lined path now "branches" off onto a tree-lined boulevard. Trees are another topic I don't blog on very often ... a great goal for 2010. My last post at Festival of the Trees was in the January issue at Xenogere. It is my post on the Indian Kapok tree (look for the trees described as "godlike with their magics and powers and untold beauty").

The tree-lined boulevard finally leads to the water's edge, into the Carnival of the Blue. This month's carnival is at Southern Fried Science, and it includes my post on terrapin evolution.

Thank you for joining me on the carnival midway. Now it's off for a caramel apple ...