Author Archives: hlprestridge
Public Exhibit Opening Soon!
The Collection of Birds from the Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections will host an exhibit including original photography, specimens, data visualizations and more at the SEAD Gallery in downtown Bryan, read more here: https://brtc.tamu.edu/collections/ornithology/vitality/
Application of the collection’s biodiversity data to the VertNet database
Mary Casillas, Undergraduate WFSC Student During the summer and fall of 2017, I interned at the Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections (BRTC) at Texas A&M University (TAMU). The BRTC is a natural history collection, housing specimen data from a variety of organisms from all over the world. I have helped organize data and materials for the collections so that this information can be made available to the scientific and public communities. This material can be organized in files that are sent to a large collective database, VertNet. VertNet… Read More →
oVert Thematic Collections Network
Texas A&M’s Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections will play an integral role in the new oVert Thematic Collections Network (TCN). The project is supported by a $2.5 million National Science Foundation grant and will utilize specimens from the BRTC and other collections to make data-rich 3-D images available on-line. Texas A&M University is one of 16 institutions to be involved in this groundbreaking project, which will scan and make available museums specimens in a unique way – capturing not only external, but internal morphology. In total, 20,000 specimens… Read More →
Dr. Ira F. Greenbaum Collections
Story by Student Intern Rick Orozco I had the opportunity to sit and talk to Dr. Ira F. Greenbaum about his research on Peromyscus maniculatus (deer mice) in the Pacific Northwest region. First, a little bit of background on Dr. Greenbaum: he attended Hofstra University where he acquired his Bachelor’s degree in Biology in 1973. After that, he worked on his Master’s and PhD in Zoology at Texas Tech University in 1975 and 1978, respectively. He then joined the Department of Biology at Texas A&M University and is… Read More →
New species of clingfish discovered!
Dr. Kevin Conway, Curator of Fishes at the Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections, and Dr. Phil Hastings, Professor and Curator of Marine Vertebrates at SCRIPPS, describe a new species of clingfish from the Los Frailes canyon in the southwestern Gulf of California. This group of fishes is best known for occurring in rocky intertidal and shallow subtidal reef areas in the western Atlantic. The discovery of this new species the “Canyon Clingfish” is additionally noteworthy because the specimen was collected at a greater depth than most species of… Read More →
Collection of Birds at Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections adds a rare bird and reaches 24,000 specimens.
The Collection of Birds at the BRTC now contains over 24,000 specimens! Historically the collection has focused on specimens from the United States and Texas (63% of the collection) and Mexico (14%), but it also includes specimens from 64 additional countries. Over the past eight years, the collection has grown from ca. 14,500 specimens, and has added material not only from Texas, but from expeditions to Armenia, Benin, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy, and South Africa. In fact, 5% of the collection is now from South Africa. These… Read More →
WFSC Departmental Newsletter
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Fall Newsletter – check it out here: WFSC Fall Newsletter!
3 New Species of African Forest Robin
WFSC team discovers three new species of African forest robins in the genus Stiphrornis! The paper describing these new species has been published online in Systematics and Biodiversity (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14772000.2016.1226978). The three species are named Stiphrornis inexpectatus, the Ghana Forest Robin; Stiphrornis dahomeyensis, the Dahomey Forest Robin, and Stiphrornis rudderi, Rudder’s Forest Robin. The latter, Rudder’s Forest Robin, is named in honor of James Earl Rudder, former president of Texas A&M University. The type specimens for dahomeyensis and rudderi (pictured below) are housed in the Collection of Birds at the… Read More →