From the Field

Posting by Kirstin Bourne

Mushroom season has only just started and already ROM mycologists have been out in the field conducting research and searching for new specimens to add to the museum collection. Last week I got the chance to join Jean-Marc Moncalvo, the ROM’s Senior Curator of Mycology, along with Ph.D. Candidate Santiago Sanchez and Josie Carding, a summer intern in the Schad Gallery of Biodiversity for a few days of foraging and camping in Ontario’s Awenda Provincial Park.

Submitted by Alexander Muth, winner of the Find the Baby Bison Contest

Alexander loving the view from the top of 70 mile Butte

When ROM Ichthyologist Dr. Hernan Lopez-Fernandez was unable to attend a 2011 expedition to the Cuyuni River in Guyana, he found other creative ways to collaborate with fellow scientists. Dr. Lopez-Fernandez enabled Devin Bloom, a U of T graduate student with extensive experience in Guyana through previous joint expeditions, to attend in his place and share the specimen collections and tissue samples with the ROM.

I’ve just come back from Grasslands National Park with the Grand Prize Winner of the Find the Baby Bison contest, Alexander Muth. I’m the lucky ROM employee chosen to accompany him and his family on the trip (actually no luck involved at all, it was an arm wrestling competition and I’m stronger than I look).

By Alexander Muth, winner of the Find the Baby Bison Contest

Hello, I’m Claire Healy, Associate Curator of Invertebrate Zoology here at the ROM. It’s almost that time again – Curator’s Corner is gearing up to bring you another opportunity to meet a curator (me!) and learn a bit more about the animals here at the museum, and the delightful organisms that I study.

Submitted by David Baxter

As student staff in the ROM Botany Section, my summer work has mostly involved sitting in a basement office updating the plant specimen database, and occasionally working with the herbarium specimens themselves. This last week, however, I’ve been in Montana and Washington searching for Crataegus (hawthorn) trees. Quite a change of pace!

By Brennan Caverhill, Biodiversity Intern

Hello! Joshua See here, Environmental Visual Communication student at the ROM. I am writing from the wild heart of Guyana, where I am documenting the research and education efforts of Burton Lim, Assistant Curator of Mammals.

submitted by the ROM Bioblitz Team