Natural History & Charles Darwin

Food for Thought @ your library ^®

Food for Thought graphic

February 2006
Food for Thought! Natural History @ your library^®

Library Exhibit

In anticipation of the upcoming, on-campus Natural History speaking event coordinated by Biology Professors Mary Monroe and Alenka Hlousek-Radojcic, the library has created a display celebrating Charles Darwin and the Galápagos Islands. Many of the impressive materials used in the display were supplied by the Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH) by way of Professors Monroe & Hlousek-Radojcic. VMNH is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institute.

This library exhibit features a stunning photographic journal of the Galápagos by Dr. Judith Winston, VMNH Curator of Marine Biology.

Special Event

In honor of the anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth on February 12th, Professors Monroe & Hlousek-Radojcic have arranged the following:

Lecture entitled “Change over Time” by Nick Fraser, Director of Research and Collection, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, Virginia Museum of Natural History
Lecture entitled “Darwin and the Galápagos” by Judith Winston, Curator of Marine Biology, Virginia Museum of Natural History

Date: February 10, 2006

Location: Ernst Lecture Hall

Time: 11:10 am

Dr. LeAnn Binger, who serves on the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Museum of Natural History, made the opening remarks and welcomed faculty, staff, students and communtiy members to the event. Approximately 100 people attended!

Timothy J. Gette, Executive Director of the Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH) and CEO of the Virginia Museum of Natural History Foundation in Martinsville, Virginia, introduces the speakers.

Dr. Nicholas Fraser and Dr. Judith Winston

Dr. Nicholas Fraser discusses a contemporary of Darwin's.

"Birthday Boy" Charles Darwin on the screen; Dr. Fraser in silhouette

Early animals

Darwin Day photo
Dr. Winston begins her presentation.

Darwin Day photo
Dr. Winston

Darwin Day photo
"Birthday Boy" Charles Darwin on the screen; Dr. Winston in silhouette

Darwin Day photo
RBC student Joell Christodonte speaks with Dr. Fraser after the lecture.

Darwin Day photo
Mary Monroe, Dr. Judith Winston and Dr. Alenka Hlousek-Radojcic at the Ernst Hall Darwin Exhibit

Darwin Day photo
Dr. Winston in Ernst Hall

Darwin Day photo
Galápagos Penguin on loan from VMNH

The Galápagos Islands are known for their giant tortoises.
(Standing in for the Galápagos Tortoise is a Hawksbill Sea Turtle from Mexico on loan from RBC Professor Tom Milton.)

Darwin Day photo
Dr. Fraser and Dr. Winston visit the Richard Bland College Library.

Speaker Biographies

Dr. Nicholas C. Fraser received his PhD. in Geology from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1984. He spent the next six years at Cambridge University as a fellow of Girton College studying Triassic reptiles. In 1990 he became the Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH) in Martinsville , Virginia . His research program now centers on terrestrial vertebrate faunal change across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. Just 30 minutes from the museum is a unique Triassic locality, the Virginia Solite Quarry. It has produced remains of curious gliding and swimming reptiles together with a wonderful diversity of insects. Over the past few years Nick has been collaborating with David Grimaldi, Vladimir Blagoderov, Paul Olsen, and Brian Axsmith on the remarkable fauna and flora of the site.

Nick is also very interested in public education, and for the past seven summers, he has taken teachers, students, and other volunteers to the badlands of Bighorn County, Wyoming where VMNH is excavating a very extensive Jurassic dinosaur bone bed. Nick serves as an editor for the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology and the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

An avid supporter of Glasgow Rangers Football Club, Nick still plays soccer but accepts that his chances of playing for Scotland are probably over!

Dr. Judith E. Winston, Curator of Marine Biology, Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville, Virginia, received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1974, and did her postdoctoral work at the Smithsonian Marine Station in Fort Pierce , Florida . She has worked since 1980 as a museum curator and administrator, first at the American Museum of Natural History in New York , and since 1992, at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. Her research interests include bryozoan systematics and ecology, evolution of colonial organisms, marine biodiversity conservation, and taxonomic practice. She has published more than 70 scientific and popular articles and a text/reference book on taxonomic procedure called Describing Species. She is an experienced SCUBA diver who has carried out fieldwork on bryozoans at localities from Alaska to Antarctica. As a curator at VMNH she participates in the education programs of the museum and has been involved in the planning of the new museum building now under construction and the development of its new exhibits.

Address: Virginia Museum of Natural History, 1001 Douglas Avenue, Martinsville, VA 24112. Phone: 276-666-8612, e-mail: jwinston@vmnh.net