Journal Entry 9

4/24- Burke Museum
Today class took place at the Burke Museum, where we looked at the collections of organism the curators and biologists of the museum have acquired over many decades of research. We went down to the taxidermist in the basement first to see how the animals are studied and skinned, and whose constituent parts like bones and fur are studied. Then we looked at the extensive bird collection, which contains specimens from as much as about 100 years ago. One interesting practice is that the birds are placed in identical positions when stored, so they do not reflect the actual stature of the birds in life, but are instead a uniform upright position.
Characteristics of birds:
Breast plate width denotes flight capability. Birds with thinner breasts tend to have smaller and therefore weaker muscles, so they are often more terrestrial birds. Birds with thicker breastplates are much more suited for flying.
Molting is the process by which birds replace the feathers of their body. Canada geese lose all their flight feathers after making their long migration, and are landlocked until the feathers are grown back.
Albatrosses replace just 3 feathers at a time to conserve energy, as creating these feathers are energetically expensive, and as seen with the Canada geese, potentially “crippling”. While the Canada goose has adapted to living for a portion of its time terrestrially, fewer birds follow this same pattern, and therefore probably follow patterns closer to the albatross where only a few feathers are replaced each molting period in order to conserve energy and maximize utility.

A marbled murrelet collection has been in progress at the Burke Museum for many years, with the earliest specimen being found in 1890 and continuing until present day specimens are found. Through this extensively collected species, biologists can analyze changes in the behavior of the birds by taking samples from their feathers and decoding their chemical makeup, which reveals the diet of the birds at the time of their death. Through analysis of specimen throughout the last 120 years, it was determined that the diets of the marbled murrelets of 1890 was quite different from both the marbled murrelets of the mid 20th century, and the marbled murrelets of today.

Posted on 01 May, 2012 18:47 by keenan44