Research News

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Drill site at night
Human Origins Program, Smithsonian
Turbulent Era Sparked Leap in Human Behavior: Drill Site

In seeking to understand the major evolutionary transition they had uncovered at Olorgesailie in 2018, Potts and his team had been frustrated by a large 180,000-year gap in the region’s environmental record. To learn about how the region changed during that period, they had to look elsewhere.

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Drill sight across grassy plain
Human Origins Program, Smithsonian
Turbulent Era Sparked Leap in Human Behavior: Drill Site

In seeking to understand the major evolutionary transition they had uncovered at Olorgesailie in 2018, Potts and his team had been frustrated by a large 180,000-year gap in the region’s environmental record. To learn about how the region changed during that period, they had to look elsewhere.

Download (1.71 MB)
Workers examining the core sample in the field
Human Origins Program, Smithsonian
Turbulent Era Sparked Leap in Human Behavior: In the Field

In seeking to understand the major evolutionary transition they had uncovered at Olorgesailie in 2018, Potts and his team had been frustrated by a large 180,000-year gap in the region’s environmental record.

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Researchers examine core sample
Human Origins Program, Smithsonian
Turbulent Era Sparked Leap in Human Behavior: LacCore

The drill cores were then shipped to the National Lacustrine Core Facility (LacCore) at the University of Minnesota.

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Detail of drill core
Human Origins Program, Smithsonian; core image courtesy of LacCore, University of Minnesota.
Turbulent Era Sparked Leap in Human Behavior: Drill Core

The team’s analysis suggests that as parts of the grassy plains in the region were fragmented along fault lines due to tectonic activity, small basins formed.

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Rick Potts
Human Origins Program, Smithsonian
Turbulent Era Sparked Leap in Human Behavior: Richard Potts

Richard Potts has been leading the Smithsonian Human Origin Program’s research in Olorgesailie for more than 30 years in collaborati

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Panda cub

Roshan Patel, Smithsonian’s National Zoo

Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s Giant Panda Cub Is Male
10.05.2020
National Zoo & SCBI Research News
Panda cub
Roshan Patel, Smithsonian’s National Zoo
Panda cub is male

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s giant panda cub was born Aug. 21, 2020. DNA analysis confirmed the cub is male.

Photo: Roshan Patel, Smithsonian’s National Zoo

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Book cover
Peruvian Amazonian Shaman Rose to Power in the Early 20th Century on Promises of Liberation and Immortality
Book by SmithsonianTropical Research Institute Anthropologist Describes Life of the Shaman, Tasorentsi
09.14.2020
Tropical Research Institute Research News Education News
Anthropologist Fernando Santos-Granero in his office
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Slavery and Utopia book release: Fernando Santos-Granero

Smithsonian Tropical Research Center Staff Anthropologist, Fernando Santos-Granero.

Photo courtesy STRI

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Indigenous people in Sabbath School
Courtesy of Center for Adventist Research. 
Slavery and Utopia book release: Sabbath School

ASHANINKA PEOPLE ATTENDING SABBATH SCHOOL, CIRCA 1928. 

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Indigenous delegation posing for group photo
Courtesy National Museum of the American Indian
Slavery and Utopia book release: Ashaninka Delegation

ASHANINKA DELEGATION IN METRARO, UPPER PERENÉ, CIRCA 1928. 

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Researcher catchin gfish

Beth King

Fish Invasions Follow Panama and Suez Canal Expansions, but Research Halted by Pandemic
09.01.2020
Tropical Research Institute Research News
researchers catching fish in canal lock
Beth King
De Leon and Robertson

STRI dive officer, Raul De Leon (in the water) hands a fish to STRI marine biologist, D. Ross Robertson in the Pedro Miguel locks, Panama Canal.

Credit: Beth King

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Scientist looking for fish in almost empty lock
Beth King
Pedro Miguel locks

D. Ross Robertson, staff scientist at the Smithsonian in Panama, collecting fish in the Pedro Miguel locks on the Panama Canal.

Credit: Beth King

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Gustavos Castellanos neck deep in lock
Leila Nilipour
Miraflores locks

Gustavo Castellanos-Galindo in a pool of water formed during draining of the Panama Canal locks for cleaning. He will catch fish in the locks to better understand what fish species are in the freshwater coming from Lake Gatun.

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Ship in Miraflores locks
Gustavo Castellanos-Galindo
Miraflores locks, Pacific side

A ship transiting the Panama Canal through the Miraflores Locks.

Credit: Gustavo Castellanos-Galindo

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Empty Panama Canal lock
Gustavo Castellanos-Galindo
Empty locks

Empty locks of the Panama Canal.jpg

Panama Canal locks are periodically emptied to perform routine maintenance.

Credit: Gustavo Castellanos-Galindo

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Ship moving through Panama Canal lock
Gustavo Castellanos-Galindo
Cocoli locks

Panama Canal locks at Cocoli, built during the recent expansion to accommodate larger ocean-going vessels.

Credit: Gustavo Castellanos-Galindo

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chinchorro coral

Andrea Quattrini

Warmer, Acidifying Ocean Brings Extinction for Harder Reef-Building Corals, Renewal for Softer-Bodied Relatives
Human Carbon Emissions Already Devastating Coral Reefs, While Softer-Bodied Relatives Will Persist and Diversify for Millions of Years
08.31.2020
Natural History Museum Research News
bleached coral
James Reimer
Bleached coral

A highly bleached coral reef in the Pacific Ocean. 
(Photo courtesy James Reimer)

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Partiallyliving coral reef
James Reimer
Stony corals

A partially living coral reef composed of primarily of stony corals.
(Photo courtesy James Reimer)

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Divers and bleached reef
James Reimer
Bleached reef

Divers swimming over a bleached coral reef.

(Photo courtesy James Reimer)

 

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Healthy corals
David Paz-Garzia
Healthy coral

A healthy coral reef with both hard corals and softer-bodied relatives at Chinchorro Reef in the Mexican Caribbean Sea.

(Photo courtesy of David Paz-Garcia)

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