Support for STEMM and Diversity at McGill
Congratulations to the team of graduate students who have received funding support from McGill Science Outreach and from an NSERC Student Ambassador Award for the development and implementation of a lesson plan to accompany the popular STEMM Diversity @ McGill colouring and activity book!
Thanks SPF for supporting the Museum!
This summer the McGill Sustainability Projects Fund (SPF) turned ten years old and it marked the occasion by giving the 130 year old Redpath Museum some funding help. Thanks SPF for subsidizing our new outreach project to create a "Museum in a Box" and for help to buy photography equipment so that we could create virtual StoryMap tours such as the McGill Tree Tour and the McGill Stones and fossils tour.
Museum and Dawson family - news from our connections
The Dawson family and McGill have a long and storied connection. Sir John William Dawson, founder of the Museum in 1882 and Principal of McGill for 38 years died in 1899. His great grandaughter Kathleen Godfrey, graduated in 2019 with Masters in Anthropology. You can read about her conservation and social justice work here. On August 10, 2020, Kathleen's grandmother, Joan Harrington, died at the age of 101.
New species of ancient swimming reptile discovered by Museum student
The Hauffiopteryx altera, a new species of Ichthyosaur discovered by a McGill student Dirley Cortés, a PhD candidate in paleontology with Dr. Hans Larsson, Director of the Redpath Museum, has been described iPalaeontologia Electronica, 23(2):a30. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26879/937 here.
Some dinosaurs could fly before they were birds
New research using the most comprehensive study of feathered dinosaurs and early birds has revised the evolutionary relationships of dinosaurs at the origin of birds.
Remembering Henry Reiswig - the sponge specialist
Henry Reiswig, the former Biology professor and curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the Redpath Museum, died on July 4, 2020. You can read his obituary here:
His daughter Amy says: "He died in his lab in the garage, with microscope slides on the warmer, doing what he loved: science."
New species of Ichthyosaur discovered in museum collection
Hauffiopteryx altera (Latin for different from) has been identified as a new species of Ichthyosaurs by researchers from McGill University and the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in Germany.
Rock On! Erin Gibbons
The Redpath Museum Society Vice President External, Erin Gibbons, has won the prestigious Vanier Scholarship.
Museum researcher warns of increased growth in Quebec tick populations
According to Virginie Millien, an assistant professor at McGill and curator of zoology and paleontology at McGill's Redpath Museum, warmer temperatures preferentially benefit one of the Lyme diesease tick's most important hosts, the white-footed mouse, which has expanded its range northwards, and outcompeted other mice. The result is that Lyme disease has become a far more pressing health issue in southeastern Canada than ever before.
Make the Museum VIRTUAL - donate now!
Here at the Redpath Museum, we are wishing you good health during this challenging time as we all learn to manage the significant challenges we’ve faced since the COVID-19 pandemic. Through it all, it has become clear that the world needs its museums to educate and connect us to each other.
We need help from all of our Friends to deliver Redpath to you at home!
Thanks for your donations!
The McGill 24 Seeds of Change project to create a Virtual Fossil and Dinosaur kit closed at midnight on May 26, 2020, and raised $2,069.78 from 9 donations (including $290 in McGill24 Matching Funds).
Only a few days left to donate to the Redpath Museum's Virtual Fossil kit!
Thanks very much for your donations to the Museum during McGill24 to create a:
T. rex was a champion walker, super-efficient at lower speeds
While smaller dinosaurs needed speed, huge predators like T. rex were optimized for energy-efficient walking, according to a study published in PLOS ONE.
Captain Catalyst wins Youth Mentor Award
Captain Catalyst (aka Steve Rosenstein from Montreal) has won the 2019 Youth Mentor Award from the Canadian Wildlife Federation. This award honours an individual who has made significant contribution in creating and/or presenting programs that introduce young people to the importance of conservation, habitat or wildlife.
Two lives lived through a paleontological window
Two people connected to the Redpath Museum died on April 8, 2020: Robert “Bob” Lynn Carroll, vertebrate paleontologist, aged 81 years old and Joan Clark, patent lawyer, aged 90 years old.