Fireflies are a cosmopolitan group of bioluminescent beetles classified in the family Lampyridae. The first catalogue of Lampyridae was published in 1907 and since that time, the classification and systematics of fireflies have been in flux. Several more recent catalogues and classification schemes have been published, but rarely have they taken phylogenetic history into account. Here I infer the first large scale anchored hybrid enrichment phylogeny for the fireflies and use this phylogeny as a backbone to inform classification. Several classification changes are made throughout the group with emphasis on morphological traits that support the AHE hypothesis. Building off of this classification work, and in an effort to help correct taxonomic issues that have plagued the Lampyridae, I also present an electronic identification tool to the firefly genera of the world. This tool is built in Lucid and incorporates 23 characters (features) and 76 character states. These characters are inspired by current and historic literature. Emphasis was given to characters and states that are easily located and do not require complex dissection. The key currently works for 113 of the 146 known lampyrid genera. As such, it should be noted that it is a provisionary attempt at identification, and all identifications should be checked against primary literature. Fireflies, like many organisms, rely on sensory cues from their environment and are an ideal system for studying sensory niche adaptation. This is due in large part to the dependence of many species on bioluminescent sexual communication. Using transcriptomics, I examine the phototransduction pathway and provide some of the first evidence for positive selection in beetles, of components of the phototransduction pathway beyond opsins. Based on preliminary data gathered in several BYU Bio-100 courses for non-majors, I observed that many students come to class with a human-centric view of the world. In addition to this, and perhaps as an explanation, students also come to class without a firm understanding of natural history collections and their roles both to the general public and specifically to science. Therefore, in two sections of BIO-100 at BYU students were given an online module as part of their normal homework. This module was designed to use fireflies from the Monte L Bean Science Museum to introduce students to the concept of natural history museums and to give an example of an organism at risk for extinction. Unfortunately, no gain in pro-environmental thinking was observed post-intervention, however, I did observe gains in student's appreciation of the importance of natural history collections to both the general public and to scientific research.

Hurricane Designed Is a project that deals with advertising graphics, their forms and adaptations, and relates them to their environment. Herein Is an explanation of the development and procedures of this project as It grew out of an interest In natural history and a pursuit of elegance in design. The result is this plan for a community identity based on environmental and historical perspective.

No description available.

Deep in the library stacks, two transgender men unearth a moldy copy of the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey of 1857. The survey, in its dispassionate cataloging of every plant and animal unfortunate enough to be caught in the crosshairs of Manifest Destiny, energizes the nameless narrator and his lover Emilio to pen an alternative field guide to the border. The Book of New Fish rewrites the history of the Rio Grande through the eyes of its fish who—like the two trans men—bear witness to the violent beauty of living in between countries, identities, and genders. Covering ground from the Spanish conquistadors to invasive species and unraveling their relationship in the process, the project demands increasingly steep sacrifices of the main characters as they try to figure out why we hurt those we love most in the search for identity and belonging.

Natural resource agencies are faced with the challenge of educating a public that has become more urban and removed from the resource base, at the same time that agency revenues have declined. This study sought to identify wildlife and environmental education programs that planners for adult organizations in an urban Virginia area were likely to request for presentation to their groups. It was hypothesized that adult organizations would be receptive to programs that were offered on a free and readily available basis, and that programs specifically about wildlife were more likely to be requested than topics on nature or the environment. / Master of Science

As taxidermy increased in prominence in American natural history museums in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the idea of trying to replicate nature through mounts and displays became increasingly central. Crude practices of overstuffing skins gave way to a focus on the artistic modelling of animal skins over a sculpted plaster and papier-mâché form to create scientifically accurate and aesthetically pleasing mounts, a technique largely developed at Ward's Natural Science Establishment in Rochester, New York. Many of Ward's taxidermists utilized their authority in taxidermy practices as they formally organized into the short-lived Society of American Taxidermists (1880-1883) before moving into positions in natural history museums across the United States. Through examinations of published and archival museum materials, as well as historic mounts, I argue that taxidermists at these museums reached an unspoken consensus concerning how their mounts would balance pleasing aesthetics with scientific accuracy, while adjusting their practices as they considered the priorities of numerous stakeholders. Taxidermists negotiated through administrative priorities, legacies of prominent craftsmen, and a battery of instructive materials, all claiming some authority as to what proper taxidermy could—and should—be. The shifts in taxidermy authority revealed truths about what taxidermy could mean, questions of how taxidermists identified themselves within the profession and to outsiders, practices for presenting taxidermy to museum visitors, and techniques for representing nature. This project traces the paths of consensus for developing techniques to construct museum taxidermy from the 1883 end of the S.A.T until the founding of the Technical Section of the American Association of Museums (AAM) in 1929. Two critics who book-end this project—Robert Wilson Shufeldt, an army doctor, naturalist, and museum critic, and Lawrence Vail Coleman, director of preparation and exhibition, American Museum of Natural History, and director of the American Association of Museums—identified similar characteristics that suggest a like-minded approach as to what constituted proper museum taxidermy among museum taxidermists. Museum taxidermy carried with it a set of characteristics: accuracy and a pleasing aesthetic for Shufeldt; feeling, unity, action, balance, reality, and size for Coleman. These two sets of criteria complemented each other as they reified consensus. What complicated this finding was that taxidermists themselves did not acknowledge them specifically, only relating to them in passing, if at all. Regardless, taxidermic practice seemed to be consistent across these decades. This study complicates the nature of scientific representation, in that it focuses a great deal on its artistry. Museum taxidermy is supposed to be an instructional tool, guiding museum visitors in the way they approach nature, and especially how they see animals, and focusing on teaching the science of animal behavior, biodiversity, and habitat, to name a few. It is a scientific object, representing the most up-to-date research in the field, but consensus surrounding it is not scientifically measurable. Instead, taxidermy consensus happened in hallways and back rooms (both literal and metaphorical), with little written down, and the mounts as the most substantial evidence that is had been achieved. Nevertheless, taxidermists negotiated the array of stakeholders present—museum administrators, naturalists, collectors, and the public—as they fashioned mounts that were both accurate and aesthetically pleasing representations of animal lives. / Doctor of Philosophy / In this project I look at museum taxidermy in United States natural history museums, from the 1880s to 1930s. In that 50-year span, taxidermy practices coalesced around a primary technique for mounting animal skins, using a wooden form and papier-mâché as the structure for stretching the skin over it. But there was more to this consensus than using the same techniques, as two critics who book-end this project—Robert Wilson Shufeldt, an army doctor, naturalist, museum critic, etc., and Lawrence Vail Coleman, director of preparation and exhibition, American Museum of Natural History, and director of the American Association of Museums—identified similar characteristics that suggest a like-minded approach as to what constituted proper museum taxidermy among museum taxidermists. I argue in this project that taxidermists reached an unspoken consensus around their craft that balanced scientific accuracy with a pleasing aesthetic, to achieve mounts that would be both scientifically meaningful and not off-putting to museum visitors. Museum taxidermy carried with it a set of characteristics: accuracy and a pleasing aesthetic for Shufeldt; feeling, unity, action, balance, reality, and size for Coleman. And these two complement each other as they reify consensus. What complicated this finding was that taxidermists themselves did not acknowledge them specifically, only relating to them in passing, if at all. Regardless, taxidermy seemed to be consistent across these decades. This study complicates the nature of scientific representation, in that it focuses a great deal on its artistic nature. Museum taxidermy is supposed to be an instructional tool, guiding museum visitors in the way they approach nature, and especially how they see animals. Museum taxidermy generally shies away from terrifying visitors with animal size and ferocity, focusing instead on teaching the science of animal behavior, biodiversity, and habitat, to name a few. In this sense, it is a scientific object, representing the most up-to-date research in the field. Consensus in the realm of taxidermy, and in scientific representation more broadly, is not scientific consensus, but more consistent with an artistic approach, like a posteriori recognitions of characteristics unique to artists or artistic movements. Taxidermy consensus happened in hallways and back rooms, with little written down, and the mounts as the most substantial evidence. Nevertheless, taxidermists negotiated the array of stakeholders present—museum administrators, naturalists, collectors, and the public—as they consistently made these mounts both accurate and aesthetically pleasing. And they still make sense when we see them, as they can be repurposed to tell new stories consistent with current understandings of animal lives.

The purpose of the present dissertation is to study the relationship between travel as a form of knowledge and the natural history pursued at the Royal Academy of Science during the period 1790-1840. Primarily, this dissertation deals with the perception of travel as a form of knowledge which existed at the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, though a number of selected journeys are used to illustrate the era's shifting perceptions on travel. Chapter One compares two variants of scientific travel, Linnean and Humboldtian. While the Linnean saw single objects, the Humboldtian saw "the whole" in the form of places. Places became the new study objects and the conditions reigning there were assumed to explain the special characteristics of the objects. This is what is implied by the "place's glance". Chapter Two provides an historical background to the subsequent debate about the theory and practice of scientific travel by scrutinizing works from the apodemic handbook genre. The purpose of apodemics was to make travel a method for the disciplined, systematic gathering of knowledge, which was achieved by organizing all aspects into categories.. In Chapter Three, the natural history of the day is understood as a multiplicity of research traditions with a common object of study - the specimens found in the three kingdoms of nature. A number of models of scientific collection which were applied by the Academy around 1800 are analyzed. The correspondent model using local amateur collectors is contrasted with the model of the travelling professional scientist. The greatest problem of the travel model was the "route problematic", engendering a haphazardness in the collection of facts and specimens. In Chapter Four, the relationship between travel and the theories of natural history of the age is investigated through a case study of Göran Wahlenberg's travels in 1800-1810. As a result of the insights Wahlenberg achieved during his travels in the mountain regions of the land, the new botanical sub- discipline of plant geography was established. This demanded travel, since it was based on observations of the plants' spatial relationships to one another and measurements of other specific spatial phenomena, such as climate. Wahlenberg saw complex, multifacetted aggregates of plants and vegetation, where the Linnean only discerned separate species. Herein lies the meaning of the "place's glance". Chapter Five analyzes the botanical journeys undertaken by the Academy between 1820 (when a travel grant was instituted) and 1840. Patriotic and utilitarian arguments for domestic travel combined with their results lent scientific travel a new status at the Academy. Chapter Six deals with zoological travel during the same period. The main figures are the curators of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, J. W. Dalman and B. F. Fries, who formulated the zoological travel policy of the Academy. The needs of the museum dictated that the travellers focus on Sweden and Scandinavia, primarily the "Western seaboard", which included Bohuslän and the Norwegian Atlantic coast, and Norrland. The specific needs of marine biology forced Fries to develop new travel practices. Fries' establishment of a provisional research station for year-round zoological research was an important historical breakthrough. His idea of outfitting sea-going vessels as mobile research stations also prefigures the future development of polar travel later in the century. / digitalisering@umu

Thesis (Doctoral)--Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 1982.

The relationship with nature through art has been explored as a two fold bond. The first considers a relationship with nature via art and science, where the history and contemporary application of scientific illustration in art is explored; while the second explores past and present connections with nature via art and the landscape, particularly the panoramic tradition. Historically these relationships have predominately been about dominating nature, mans dominion over the land. Science was seen as the only authority, while our relationships with the land in art, positioned the viewer at a commanding distance above and over the land, as seen in the post colonial panoramic tradition. In contrast, -The Coorong Series- explores a lived history with nature rather than the historical role of dominance. -The Coorong Series" explores a relationship of knowledge, understanding, and the experience of nature; through two parts. The first combines art and science in -The Coorong Specimen Series', to explore the facts and knowledge that science has provided about certain plants, birds and marine life from the Coorong. Inspiration has been derived from 19thC scientific illustrations and the lyrical prints of the Coorong by Australian Artist John Olsen. Part two explores the immersive experience of the iconic landscape in ???The Coorong Landscape Series" providing a relationship that seeks to understand the functionality of the location and to celebrate the unique beauty of this diverse region. Inspiration has been gained from the landscapes by l8th and 19th C artists John Constable and Claude Monet, along with landscapes by contemporary artists, John Walker and Mandy Martin. Through aesthetic notions such as scientific illustration, panoramic landscape, immersive scale, the collection of work, an expressionistic use of paint, and labeling of each piece like a museum display. -The Coorong landscape series" provides an exploration of a region that immerses the viewer in an experience of the location. The series portrays a relationship with nature through art that educates the viewer about The Coorong region. Connections are made between the land, birds, plants, fish, and human interaction; which results in an ecological consideration of the Coorong. Ultimately it is the educational experience that art provides allowing the viewer to explore a plethora of relationships within nature, and to explore how these relationships have changed or continue to exist within this era.

No description available.