Understanding how evolution shaped the insect visual system

February 25, 2021

Marjorie Liénard and MCZ Faculty-Curator of Entomology, Naomi Pierce, led a study to develop an in vitro method for probing what colors an insect sees. The research was pulished in PNAS and featured in the... Read more about Understanding how evolution shaped the insect visual system

Can a fin become a limb?

February 19, 2021

M. Brent Hawkins, a recent doctoral recipient in the Hanken Lab, and colleagues from Boston Children's Hospital, examined what is occurring at the genetic level to drive different patterns in the fin skeleton versus the limb skeleton. The research is published in Cell and featured in ... Read more about Can a fin become a limb?

image of Royall House, once home to the largest slaveholding family in Massachusetts

Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery: Reckoning with the Past to Understand the Present

February 18, 2021

Join the Harvard Radcliffe Institute on Tuesday, March 9, 2021 for an online lecture, Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery: Reckoning with the Past to Understand the Present.

The presidential initiative on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery, anchored at Harvard Radcliffe Institute, is an effort to understand and address the enduring legacy of slavery within our...

Upcoming HMSC virtual programs

February 18, 2021

Harvard Museums of Science and Culture (HMSC), in partnership with others, has two upcoming virtual programs that may be of interest to the MCZ community. Registration is required and can be accessed by the links below.

Reimagining Museums: Disruption and Change
Thursday, February 25, 2021, 6:00pm to 7:00pm

Responding to keen interest in last fall’s ...

Mansi Srivastava received the 2021 SDB Elizabeth D. Hay New Investigator Award

January 21, 2021

Congratulations to Mansi Srivastava, MCZ Faculty-Curator of Invertebrate Zoology, on receiving the 2021 SDB Elizabeth D. Hay New Investigator Award from the Society for Developmental Biology for her work developing the acoel worm, Hofstenia miamia as a model to study whole-body regeneration and uncovering its gene regulatory network. Read more about Mansi Srivastava received the 2021 SDB Elizabeth D. Hay New Investigator Award

The therocephalian Gorynychus masyutinae. Credit: Matt Celesky

Researchers take closer look at serrated teeth of ancient predator

December 17, 2020

Megan Whitney, postdoc in the Stephanie Pierce lab, published findings supporting convergent evolution of complex teeth structures previously thought to have originated with dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex. The work is published in...

illustration showing Two Late Devonian early tetrapods coming out of the water to move on land

MCZ researchers reconstruct the evolution of terrestrial movement in early tetrapods

December 1, 2020

Stephanie Pierce, MCZ Faculty-Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, and Blake Dickson, Ph.D. ’20 analyzed 40 3D fossil humeri to better understand the transition from fin-to-limb and reconstruct the evolution of terrestrial movement in early tetrapods. The work is published in Nature and featured in the... Read more about MCZ researchers reconstruct the evolution of terrestrial movement in early tetrapods

Tiago R. Simões gathered information from 50 museums, including Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology.

New study refutes 75-year-old belief in reptile evolution

October 7, 2020

Research by MCZ postdoctoral fellow Tiago R. Simões has provided an extensive database that is helping scientists better understand the evolution of reptiles. Along with MCZ Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology,...

Mansi Srivastava awarded a Smith Family Foundation Odyssey Award

September 21, 2020

Congratulations to MCZ Faculty-Curator of Invertebrate Zoology, Mansi Srivastava, awarded a 2020 Smith Family Foundation Odyssey Award for her project Comparing development and regeneration to uncover mechanisms for maintaining regenerative ability in adult animals.

"The Smith Family Foundation Odyssey Award was created in...

Researchers Dayou Zhai (from left), Yu Liu, and Javier Ortega-Hernández, looking at the 3D model of Ercaicunia. Photo by Dayou Zhai

Micro-CT lets scientists see telling 3D details in arthropod evolution

September 15, 2020

For the past five years, MCZ Faculty-Curator Javier Ortega-Hernández has been collaborating with colleagues in China to learn more about arthropod evolution by using micro-CT scanning to create 3D models of fossils and view details that would be impossible to see otherwise. Read more about the ongoing project in the...

News

Understanding how evolution shaped the insect visual system

Can a fin become a limb?

Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery: Reckoning with the Past to Understand the Present

Upcoming HMSC virtual programs

Reimagining Museums: Disruption and Change
Thursday, February 25, 2021, 6:00pm to 7:00pm

Mansi Srivastava received the 2021 SDB Elizabeth D. Hay New Investigator Award

Researchers take closer look at serrated teeth of ancient predator

MCZ researchers reconstruct the evolution of terrestrial movement in early tetrapods

New study refutes 75-year-old belief in reptile evolution

Mansi Srivastava awarded a Smith Family Foundation Odyssey Award

Micro-CT lets scientists see telling 3D details in arthropod evolution

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Reimagining Museums: Disruption and ChangeThursday, February 25, 2021, 6:00pm to 7:00pm

Reimagining Museums: Disruption and Change
Thursday, February 25, 2021, 6:00pm to 7:00pm