Ricerca
Risultati della ricerca
-
Journal article
Range-wide whole-genome resequencing of the brown bear reveals drivers of intraspecies divergence
Population-genomic studies can shed new light on the effect of past demographic processes on contemporary population structure. We reassessed phylogeographical patterns of a classic model species of postglacial recolonisation, the brown bear ( ), using a range-wide resequencing dataset of 128 nuclear genomes. In sharp contrast to the erratic geographical...de Jong, Menno J ; Niamir, Aidin ; Wolf, Magnus ; Kitchener, Andrew C ; Lecomte, Nicolas …
-
Journal article
Molecular fingerprints resolve affinities of Rhynie chert organic fossils
The affinities of extinct organisms are often difficult to resolve using morphological data alone. Chemical analysis of carbonaceous specimens can complement traditional approaches, but the search for taxon-specific signals in ancient, thermally altered organic matter is challenging and controversial, partly because suitable positive controls are lacking. Here, we show that...Loron , C C ; Rodriguez Dzul, E ; Orr, P J ; Gromov, A V ; Fraser, Nicholas C …
Eukaryote , Biogeochemistry, Palaeontology , and Prokaryote
-
Journal article
Seasonal Adaptation: Geographic Photoperiod–Temperature Patterns Explain Genetic Variation in the Common Vole Tsh Receptor
The vertebrate photoperiodic neuroendocrine system uses the photoperiod as a proxy to time the annual rhythms in reproduction. The thyrotropin receptor (TSHR) is a key protein in the mammalian seasonal reproduction pathway. Its abundance and function can tune sensitivity to the photoperiod. To investigate seasonal adaptation in mammals, the hinge... -
Journal article
Collecting the nation in the museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1832–91
The sixty-year period from 1832 to 1891 was key to the development of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and its museum, during which time its collection was transferred to national ownership and greater emphasis began to be placed on social and cultural history. This article analyses acquisition data to... -
Journal article
Not so hidden messages
The written word is a powerful and persuasive tool that can inspire and revolt in equal measure. Equally, jewellery has the power to spread messages and has been used for generations to declare an individual’s position of allegiance or defiance. By incorporating a message, slogan or symbol, a jewel becomes...Rothwell, Sarah
-
Journal article
Textiles in a Viking Age hoard: Identifying ephemeral traces of textiles in metal corrosion products
This paper presents a novel method and terminology to identify and describe textiles from ephemeral traces in metal corrosion products. Since the 1980s, mineralised textiles (positive and negative casts in Janaway’s terminology) have been an important source of archaeological evidence. A major issue now is the identification of textiles in...Davis, Mary ; Harris, Susanna
Textile , Mineralisation, Silver, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Microscopy, Copper corrosion, Viking age, and Anglo-Saxon
-
Journal article
Abnormal (Hydroxy)proline Deuterium Content Redefines Hydrogen Chemical Mass
Analyzing the δ2H values in individual amino acids of proteins extracted from vertebrates, we unexpectedly found in some samples, notably bone collagen from seals, more than twice as much deuterium in proline and hydroxyproline residues than in seawater. This corresponds to at least 4 times higher δ2H than in any...Gharibi, Hassan ; Chernobrovkin, Alexey L ; Eriksson, Gunilla ; Saei, Amir Ata ; Timmons, Zena …
Biopolymers, Ions, Hydrogen , Peptides , Anatomy, proteins, and isotopes
-
Journal article
Joseph Anderson (1832–1916) and the Scottish historical collection in the Antiquities Museum, 1869 to 1892
Joseph Anderson (1832–1916) was an influential figure within the history of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and Scottish archaeology during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But while Anderson is best known for his contribution to the development of Scottish prehistoric and early medieval archaeology, there has been...Holder, Julie
-
Journal article
Phenotypic plasticity determines differences between the skulls of tigers from mainland Asia
Tiger subspecific taxonomy is controversial because of morphological and genetic variation found between now fragmented populations, yet the extent to which phenotypic plasticity or genetic variation affects phenotypes of putative tiger subspecies has not been explicitly addressed. In order to assess the role of phenotypic plasticity in determining skull variation,... -
Journal article
Edmund Jarzembowski at 70: An appreciation
Edmund Aleksander Jarzembowski (BSc PhD FGS FRES) is currently a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow; Scientific Associate (researcher) at The Natural History Museum London (NHMUK); and Professor at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), Nanjing, specializing in the study of fossil insects (palaeoentomology).Austen, Peter A ; Wang, Bo ; Ross, Andrew J ; Coram, Robert A
-
Journal article
Psittacopedids and zygodactylids: The diverse and species-rich psittacopasserine birds from the early Eocene London Clay of Walton-on-the-Naze (Essex, UK)
The Daniels collection of fossil birds from the early Eocene London Clay of Walton-on-the-Naze (Essex, UK) contains multiple specimens of the Psittacopedidae and Zygodactylidae, which are here for the first time studied in detail. The Psittacopedidae include Parapsittacopes bergdahli, Psittacomimus eos, gen. et sp. nov., ?Psittacopes occidentalis, sp. nov., and...Mayr, Gerald ; Kitchener, Andrew C
Psittacopasseres, evolution, fossil birds, Aves, and systematics
-
Journal article
Gerhard Bersu in Scotland, and his excavations at Traprain Law in context
Bersu’s excavations on the hillfort of Traprain Law in south-east Scotland are reviewed in the light of his British and Irish digs and other work on the hill itself. It differs from the rest of his British excavations, which mostly focussed on houses, but is entirely in keeping with his...Hunter, Fraser ; Armit, Ian ; Dunwell, Andrew
Scotstarvit, League of Prehistorians, hillfort , O. G. S. Crawford , Traprain Law, Vere Gordon Childe, and roundhouses
-
Journal article
Experiment, Experience and Enchant: Knowledge sharing between museums and contemporary practitioners
Knowledge sharing between contemporary practitioners and museum professionals can be more than just investigating how something is made. It is also about working together to understand why an object was created, and by whom; how each artefact has a story to tell, of its journey through time and the places...Maldonado, Adrián ; Rothwell, Sarah
sculpture, knowledge sharing, The Glenmorangie Commission, contemporary practitioners, museums, and Simone ten Hompel
-
Journal article
GLASS BANGLES IN THE BRITISH ISLES: A STUDY OF TRADE, RECYCLING AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE FIRST AND SECOND CENTURIES AD
Glass bangles are found in southern England and Wales from the mid-first century and become common in the north of England and southern Scotland in the late first century, before their numbers decline a century later. British bangles develop at a time of change, as Roman glassmaking practices were introduced...Paynter, Sarah ; Crew, Peter ; Campbell, Richard ; Hunter, Fraser ; Jackson, Caroline
Late Iron Age , Roman , glass bangle , artefact and material culture studies , archaeometry , and Britain
-
Journal article
Peelhill Farm: a possible Late Bronze Age weapon sacrifice in Lanarkshire
The hoard of bronze weapons found in 1961 at Peelhill Farm in South Lanarkshire remains one of the most remarkable discoveries of Late Bronze Age metalwork from Scotland, its importance reflected in the detailed account of the find published by John Coles and Jack Scott in 1963. In the present...Mörtz, Tobias ; Knight, Matthew G ; Cowie, Trevor ; Flint, Jane
Late Bronze Age, Hoard, Conflict, Ritual, and Weapons
-
Journal article
New records of Diptera from the Republic of Mordovia, Russia
A list of 55 species of Diptera from families Tanypezidae (1 species), Megamerinidae (1), Acroceridae (1), Psilidae (5), Lonchaeidae (8), Strongylophthalmyiidae (1), Ephydridae (21) Scathophagidae (17 species) collected in the Republic of Mordovia is given. Of them Protearomyia withersi MacGowan, 2014 and Lonchaea baechlii MacGowan, 2016 are recorded from Russia... -
Journal article
Enigmatic vertebrate trackway from the Scalby Formation (Middle Jurassic) Yorkshire, United Kingdom, with discussion of archosaur and ‘mammal’ trace fossils
We describe a new and unusual vertebrate trackway from the Middle Jurassic Scalby Formation of the Cleveland Basin, Yorkshire, United Kingdom. The Enigmatic Burniston Trackway (EBT) is the first and only example of such a trackway known from this region. The best preserved EBT print, belonging to a pentadactyl tetrapod,...synapsid, Sederipes, Synaptichnium, Ravenscar Group, and Footprint
-
Journal article
Collecting and displaying the decommissioning of North Sea Oil and Gas at the National Museums Scotland
National Museums Scotland (NMS) has a long history of collecting industrial objects. Our predecessor museum, the Industrial Museum of Scotland, was founded with the intention of collecting the materials and processes of manufacture; that is, contemporary technologies and the tacit skills that went with them [1]. For a lot of...Swinbank, Ellie
museum, Scotland, decommissioning, industry, collection, and oil
-
Journal article
The Tod Head lighthouse lantern. The conservation-restoration of a technical object that has been continuously modified over the years
This paper presents the conservation and reassembly of the Tod Head lighthouse lantern in the storage area of the National Museums Scotland. The Tod Head lighthouse was located on the Scottish east coast, north of Edinburgh. The lantern was dismantled in 2011 and sent to the National Museums Collection Centre....Grima, Marie
lighthouse, Fresnel, lantern, and Stevenson
-
Journal article
Collecting COVID-19 at National Museums Scotland
This opinion piece discusses National Museums Scotland’s first responses to collecting COVID-19. Drawing on perspectives from social history, biomedical science and military history, this short paper contextualizes COVID-related collecting within the contexts of the organization’s programme of contemporary collecting and the nation’s ongoing socio-political journey.Laurenson, Sarah ; Robertson, Calum ; Goggins, Sophie
Scotland, Contemporary collecting, social history, military history, and medical history
-
Journal article
Geomagnetic instruments at National Museums Scotland
In 1981, the sole book about historic geomagnetic instruments was by Anita McConnell. Using it as a timeline, the Royal Scottish Museum’s temporary exhibition ‘The Earth is a Magnet’, was put on to co-incide with an international congress held in Edinburgh that year. The experience emphasised curatorial awareness that this...Morrison-Low, A D
Scottish geomagnetic history, curatorial practice, Temporary exhibitions, and Dr Anita McConnell.
-
Journal article
When ivory came from the seas. On some traits of the trade of raw and carved sea-mammal ivories in the Middle Ages
Even if it played a part, it is not so much the lesser availability of elephant ivory as the Norse expansion in the Northern Atlantic that brought the success of walrus ivory throughout Western Europe and far beyond. The strength of demand did not only bring the extinction of the...Dectot, Xavier
trade, walrus, Middle Ages, Iceland, narwhal, Ivory, Greenland, unicorn, and khutū
-
Journal article
People and planes: technical versus social narratives in aviation museums
Redevelopment of two Second World War hangars at the National Museum of Flight in East Lothian provided an opportunity to re-interpret the museum collections. This short account of the project looks at the integrated incorporation of oral history recordings. In particular, it looks at the new approach taken to the...Brown, Ian
-
Journal article
Why collect Science?
In this critical assessment of the ‘museology of science’ I cherry-pick recent scholarship and practice to unpack the functions of science collections. Some practices (exhibition, engagement, study) have already attracted considerable attention, others not yet (storage); but all tend to be considered separately as case studies from particular institutions and...Alberti, S J M M
research, science engagement, exhibitions, science and technology museums, storage, and materiality
-
Journal article
Reflecting the Now: project management and contemporary collecting in a multi-disciplinary Museum
Nearly two million visitors a year will pass through the new permanent galleries of the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. This article reflects on the planning and collecting that presaged their redevelopment in the context of twenty-first century museum practice in the UK. We focus in particular on two...Alberti, S J M M ; Allen, Stephen ; Dectot, Xavier ; Gill, Ruth
reflective practice, contemporary collecting, project management, and National Museum of Scotland
-
Journal article
‘Where is the damned collection?’ Charles Davies Sherborn’s listing of named natural science collections and its successors. In: Michel E. (Ed) Anchoring Biodiversity Information: from Sherborn to the 21st century and beyond
C. D. Sherborn published in 1940, under the imprint of Cambridge University Press but at his own expense, Where is the – Collection? This idiosyncratic listing of named natural science collections, and their fates, was useful, but incomplete, and uneven in its accuracy. It is argued that those defects were...Taylor, Michael A
museum, biology, Charles Davies Sherborn, taxonomy, collections, and geology
-
Journal article
Whose Amber? Changing notions of Amber’s geographical origin
This essay explores the issue of cultural identity and cultural identification with respect to one material: amber. Prior to the discovery of the new world and for quite some time afterwards, the primary source of amber in fifteenth-, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe was Prussia. Few Europeans, however, really understood much...King, Rachel
-
Journal article
Synoptic revision of the Silurian fauna from the Pentland Hills, Scotland described by Lamont (1978)
Archibald Lamont (1907-1985) sampled the North Esk Inlier Silurian fauna for almost 30 years. He had amassed a substantial fauna that has been, in part, bequeathed to the National Museums Scotland after his death. Unfortunately, the descriptions of the faunas in his last opus were careless and the illustrations were...Candela, Yves ; Crighton, William R B
systematics, Scotland, museum collections, North Esk Inlier, and palaeontology
-
Journal article
First recorded stranding of a short-finned pilot whale, Globicephala macrorhynchus, in Britain
A male pilot whale, Globicephala sp., was reported as a live stranding on 1st March 2012 at Hazelbeach, near Neyland, Pembrokeshire. It was euthanased and its skull was recovered during an onsite necropsy. Examination of the skull and contemporary photographs of the stranded animal confirm that this is the first...Kitchener, Andrew C ; Hantke, Georg ; Penrose, R S ; Perkins, M W ; Deaville, R
Globicephala melas, Delphinidae, skull, and Globicephala macrorhynchus