The museum has had a productive and busy semester. Our collective efforts have allowed us to put on successful museum events, improve the museum exhibits and programs, and reach out to the community as a whole. During this Fall Semester, we have accomplished the following: A reusable display was made for traveling advertisement and for …
Continue reading Wrapping Up The Semester: Overview and Accomplishments
If you visit JMM this week, you will be able to see three very meticulous scientists, covered in scrubs, gloves and lab coats (and colourful crocs), working in the Ancient DNA lab located in the basement. Working with ancient DNA requires a lot of care and precision. As this kind of DNA is very old, …
Continue reading Don’t sneeze! We are in the Ancient DNA lab!
In our third week of research we headed to the paleontology collections room looking for the actual giant beaver specimens. We found 12 specimens apart from the mounted individual on exhibit in the museum. The specimens consist of a variety bones including a skull, ulna, vertebra, and assorted teeth. As we photographed the specimens we …
Continue reading DNA Degradation and Destructive Drilling
It was a challenge to work during the power outage at JMM. But, we were determined to design our primers for the giant beaver ancient DNA. Heather, Rachel and I spent a day at Roscoe’s trying to get our primers right. And after a lot of switching between software and manipulation, we finally found a …
Continue reading A Power Outage Can’t Hold Us Back
There are several new research projects going on behind the scenes at the Joseph Moore museum. Sonia Kabra and I, Rachel Wadleigh, are working with the museum director, Heather Lerner, and will be posting once a week about what we are working on. We will be here for four weeks and we have a lot …
Continue reading Students Prepare for Extraction of Ancient DNA
I am fascinated by how DNA is present in every known organism, especially in archival specimens. Using specific regions in the genome to compare and establish phylogenetic relationships between the living and the dead shows us that this code of life can help us travel back in time. Wikipedia suggests that the extinct Giant beaver …
Continue reading The Giant Beaver is not actually a beaver?
Giant Beavers and Moore 