ISM CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS
ILLINOIS STATE MUSEUM
CURRENT RESEARCH
Museum/TASC Collections Curation Project
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has selected the Museum
and TASC, Inc. (information management specialists) to evaluate federal
archaeological collections in the Middle Region of the United States. The
Museum/TASC team will assess federally owned archaeological collections
and associated records housed in repositories in 15 states (North Dakota,
South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois,
Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana) and
develop databases to summarize the information. Assessments will include
an inventory of collections subject to the requirements of the Native
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and evaluation of
the conditions of collections and repositories under the aegis of federal
regulations for the curation of federally-owned archaeological collections
(36 CFR 79). A team of archaeologists, physical anthropologists,
archivists, and computer specialists will conduct the assessments, under
the overall direction of Dr. Michael Wiant, ISM Curator of Anthropology.
TASC will develop an information management system for the entire
collection using new programs that integrate images of significant objects
with descriptions of the specimens. These programs will also be applied
to the Museum's collections, which will make them more accessible to
scholars and the public.
NAGPRA Inventory
The National Park Service has awarded a grant to the Museum to develop an
inventory of the Museum's collections of human remains and associated
funerary objects as required by the Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The grant will support development of the
inventory and consultation with the leaders of six Native American tribes,
including the Kickapoo, Miami, Peoria, Potawatomi, Sac & Fox, and
Winnebago, on the affiliation and disposition of remains. Drs. Michael
Wiant, Curator of Anthropology, and Robert Warren, Associate Curator of
Anthropology, are coordinating this project for the Museum. Inventories
are due on November 16, 1995.
Dragonfly Research
Under the auspices of funding from the United States Fish and Wildlife
Service and the Material Service Corporation, Dr. Tim Cashatt, Curator of
Zoology, and Tim Vogt, Research Associate, are conducting field research
in the Des Plaines river floodplain to estimate population size/abundance
for the federally endangered Hine's emerald dragonfly. These studies will
also help define the dragonfly's larval habitat. Cashatt and Dr. James R.
Purdue, Curator of Zoology, are conducting genetic research to determine
the differences between populations of Hine's emerald dragonflies in
Illinois and Wisconsin. These studies will help to delineate the genetic
variability of local populations within these states.
Cooperative U.S. - Russian Research Program
During June, Tatyana Platonova of the Zoological Institute worked at the
Research and Collections Center to verify translations and finalize
Russian abstracts for the proceedings from a joint Russian-American
workshop on Quaternary Paleozoology held at the RCC in 1992. The volume
is being edited by Drs. Jeffrey Saunders, Curator of Geology; Bonnie
Styles, Director of Sciences; and Gennady Barshynikov of the Zoological
Institute. While at the RCC, Tatyana worked on a draft manuscript that
describes the Zoological Institute and its scientific resources. She also
verified the English translation of a popular booklet,The Exterior of
the Mammoth, by two Russian paleontologists. It summarizes the
spectacular finds of mammoth in Eurasia. Drs. Saunders and Russell
Graham, Curator of Geology, have been invited to present papers at a
special conference on mammoths and other Ice Age animals to be held at the
Zoological Institute in October, 1995.
NATO Workshop on Ecosystem Evolution
In June, Dr. Russell Graham, Curator of Geology, participated in a NATO
Advanced Research Workshop in Perthshire, Scotland, on Past and Future
Rapid Environmental Changes. The international workshop examined the
spatial and evolutionary responses of terrestrial biota. Using the
FAUNMAP database, an electronic database documenting the distribution of
mammal species for the last 40,000 years, Graham presented a paper on the
long-term evolution of vertebrate communities. Research on past
ecosystems provides a better understanding of the processes that might
affect the responses of ecosystems to future environmental changes. The
workshop was attended by ecologists as well as paleoecologists from a
variety of European and North American coutnries.
Chinese Pollen Database
Dr. Eric Grimm, Associate Curator of Botany, was one of three scholars
from the United States selected to advise Chinese scientists on the
development of a national pollen database for China. Fossil pollen
sequences are excellent proxies for past climates. As the developer and
curator of the North American Pollen Databse, he was a critical presenter
at the first workshop held in Beijing, China, in May. The North American
Database and United States participation in the Chinese workshop were
supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Grimm
is also participating in the development of pollen databases for Europe
and South America. All of these databases will follow the basic structure
of the North American Pollen Database and will contribute to a global
perspective on long-term climate change.
Paleoecological Research
Dr. Russell Graham, Curator of Geology, conducted small-scale excavations
at Little Beaver Cave in Phelps County, Missouri. The excavations yielded
an extensive micro-vertebrate record for the period from 12,000 to 10,000
years ago. Sedimentological studies will reveal evidence of landscape
evolution in the Missouri Ozarks. The vertebrate assemblage provides an
excellent paleoenvironmental record for the late Ice Age and includes
remains of extinct mammals such as dire wolf, beautiful armadillo,
Jefferson's ground sloth, and long-nosed peccary. The vertebrate fauna
will be the subject of a Master's thesis by Blaine Schuberth, a graduate
student at Northern Arizona University.
Archaeology of Starved Rock State Park
Museum archaeologists completed a major study of the cultural resources of
Starved Rock State Park. The study, sponsored by the Illinois Department
of Conservation, summarizes the results of an archaeological survey and
limited test excavations in the park. The survey documented 136 new
archaeological sites and 21 previously recorded sites that range in age
from early prehistoric (10,000 - 8,000 years ago) to historic Euroamerican
(ca. 150 years ago). Late prehistoric sites (1,500 - 350 years ago)
predominate. Sites are most abundant on well-drained soils in the uplands
near bluff margins and on alluvial and colluvial slopes at bluff
bottomlands. Jacque Ferguson, Research Associate and senior author for
the report, incorporates analyses of landscape evolution, settlement
pattern, technology, and subsistence in this interdisciplinary examination
of human-land interaction.
Fossils Featured at the Springfield Post Office
To mark the release of a series of commemorative stamps, Drs. Jeffrey
Saunders and Russell Graham installed an exhibit of fossil mammals from
the Museum's collections at the U.S. Post Office facility on Cook Street.
The stamps feature three Ice Age mammals (woolly mammoth, mastodon, and
saber-tooth cat) and an early Tertiary horse (Eohippus). The
exhibit includes remains from all of these animals, as well as fossils of
other Ice Age mammals from Illinois (stag-moose and Jefferson's ground
sloth). Maps showing the distributions of Ice Age mammals produced from
the Museum's FAUNMAP database are also on exhibit. The exhibit will be
available for viewing through August and early September.