the palarch foundation’s newsletter · news on the activities of the palarch foundation 2...

www.PalArch.nl Newsletter 4, 2 (2007)

© PalArch Foundation �

In this issue:

News on the Activities of the PalArch Foundation 2Publications in the April Issue 3Egypt in Photographs Zbigniew Kosc 5Natural History Museum Rotterdam: the

History and Collections of a Museum Natasja den Ouden 6

What is a palaeontologist? A Field Identification Guide Carlos Grau 10

Colophon 11 Call for papers 11

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Edited by I.J.J. Nieuwland, A.J. Veldmeijer, E.N.A. Heirbaut, H.J.M. Meijer, N. den Ouden

& B.L. Beatty; Illustration Editing by M.H. Kriek © 2007 PalArch Foundation (ISSN 1872-4582)

The Natural History Museum in Rotterdam (© NMR 2007)


© PalArch Foundation 2

News on the Activities of the PalArch Foundation

André J. Veldmeijer

To start with the remark that there is not much news seems weird but still it is true. There are no major changes in editorial boards and this is very good, as this provides stability and continuation. On the other hand, not many people found their way with their manuscripts to the Foundation, but the interest for e-publishing is in our fields, as explained before, not overwhelming anyway. We are still discussing how to make people aware of the possibilities and advantages of our system. We continue doing this by presenting ourselves on meetings as much as we can with representatives but since we are not a wealthy foundation, often we see ourselves forced to send a poster or flyers or both. Not ideal, but at least we can in this way confront people with our Foundation and show them that we are still existing. Thus flyers and posters have been sent to the Annual meeting of Archaeologists in Krakow, Poland, the annual Cur-rent Research in Egyptology meeting in Swansea, Great Britain and the annual meeting of the Amer-ican Research Center in Egypt.

Some manuscripts have been submitted but a large portion of it has been rejected. For problems that we encounter as an e-journal I am happy to refer to Brian Beatty’s contribution in the January issue. Moreover, three other papers met serious problems and Brian is still working on it to sort things out and make them ready for publishing, which means a longer process than we anticipate.

Two papers from the previous issue are still online. Mariska van der Plas’ paper on the new model of Homo sapiens is important and we would like to offer the scientific community easy access for at least one more issue. Also, the paper on Berenike’s leathework remains online for another period. As explained on the infor-mation pages, after the papers have been taken from the website, they can be requested through [email protected] and we will email them for free.

We have decided to format our scientific pub-lications in Adobe InDesign as well. As you know, the Newsletter is made with InDesign already and although it met some problems in the beginning, it works well. Ilja Nieuwland introduced it to us and is the main force behind it. This means that the layout will change slightly, have a more pro-fessional appearance, but will still be recognisable as a PalArch publication. It is hoped that the first ‘InDesign’ papers will appear in the July issue.

Due to the busy lives of all of us, the, in the previous Newsletter promised, more elaborate ac-count on e-publishing and the Foundations role in it, is postponed; it is not yet clear when this will be finished, but we are still working on it. For compa-rable reasons, authors who promised to submit an account on museology, could not meet the dead-line and the museology special of the Newsletter is postponed to October.

This year, the talks with the National Library on the longterm storage etc. (see Newsletter July 2006 (volume 3, number 3) will be continued.

This issue of the Newsletter features a beautiful picture on Egypt by Zbigniew Kosc. Furthermore, you can find Carlos’ column. Finally, I would like to thank Jelle Reumer and Kees Moeliker of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam for allowing us to publish the article on the museum. The wa-termark (see picture above) is a photograph of Ra-mon, the skeleton of an Indian elephant, housed in the NMR.

Enjoy!



News on Vertebrate Palaeontology

Brian L. Beatty

First, I am pleased that PAJVP is publishing in this issue a critique of a paper published in our journal back in 2005 (See Everhart, 2005 and Noè & Gó-mez-Pérez, 2007 in this issue). A critical and open discussion is an important, and often too rare, fea-ture of many journals and we are proud to have that as a priority. Valid arguments for and against interpretations of data should always be heard, no matter if the writer is well established or not. In this case all authors concerned are well known in their fields and considered authorities on the sub-ject at hand, but I would like to emphasize that it is not their stature that got these papers published, but the quality of their work as determined by the peer review process. I hope that this will be seen as a call for those out there with perhaps unpopu-lar ideas that are suppressed by the ‘authorities’ in their fields to submit to PAJVP. It is not that we want to invite poorly executed research, but that we want to alleviate the suppression of good data.

In addition to the new paper, I am also pleased to announce the addition of a new member to our editorial board, Dr. Shundong Bi (Assistant Profes-sor, Department of Biology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania). Dr. Bi is a graduate of Howard Uni-versity and has many years of experience with Ter-tiary mammals of China. I am sure he will make an excellent addition to our editorial board!

Publications in the April Issue

Papers in PalArch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology (ISSN 1567-214X)

Naguib, S.-A. 2007. The shifting values of authen-ticity and fakes. – PalArch’s Journal of Archae-ology of Egypt/Egyptology 2, 1: 1-8.

Wild, J.P. & F.C. Wild. 2007. The textiles from Sikait (Egyptian Eastern Desert). – PalArch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology 2, 2: 9-17.

Still online:Veldmeijer, A.J. 2007. Preliminary report on the

leatherwork from Roman Berenike, Egyptian Red Sea Coast (1994–2000). – PalArch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology 1, 1: 1-36.

Book reviews in PalArch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology (ISSN 1567-214X)

Mairs, R. 2007. Book review of: Hughes, G.R. (with contributions by B.P. Muhs & S. Vinson). 2005. Catalog of Demotic Texts in the Brooklyn Mu-seum. (Chicago, The Oriental Institute [Oriental Institute Communications No. 29]).

Chauvet, V. 2007. Book review of: Kanawati, N. & M. Abder–Raziq. 2005. Mereruka and his Fam-ily. Part I: The Tomb of Meryteti. (Oxford, Aris and Phillips [The Australian Centre for Egyptol-ogy: Reports 21]).

Papers in PalArch’s Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology (ISSN 1567-2158)

Noè, L.F. & M. Gómez-Pérez. 2007. Postscript to Everhart, M.J. 2005. “Elasmosaurid remains from the Pierre Shale (Upper Cretaceous) of western Kansas. Possible missing elements of the type specimen of Elasmosaurus platyurus Cope 1868?” in PalArch’s Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology 4, 3. – PalArch’s Journal of Verte-brate Palaeontology 2, 1: 1-9.

Still online:Van der Plas, M. 2007. A new model for the evo-

lution of Homo sapiens from the Wallacean is-lands. – PalArch’s Journal of Vertebrate Palae-ontology 1, 1: 1-121.



Book reviews in PalArch’s Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology (ISSN 1567-2158)

Meijer, H.J.M. 2007. Book review of: Erwin, D.G. 2006. Extinction. How life on earth nearly end-ed 250 million years ago. (Princeton, New Jer-sey, Princeton University Press).

Jeffery, J.E. 2007. Book review of: Hammer, Ø. & D. Harper. 2006. Paleontological Data Analy-sis. (Oxford Blackwell Publishing).

Reumer, J.W.F. 2007. Book review of: Martin, A.J. 2006. Introduction to the Study of Dinosaurs. Second Edition. (Oxford, Blackwell Publish-ing).

Papers PalArch’s Journal of archaeology of northwest Europe (ISSN 1573-3939)

Still online:Turrittin, T.H. 2006. An annotated bibliography

of the Piltdown Man forgery, 1953-2005. - PalArch’s Journal of archaeology of northwest Europe 1, 1: 1-50.

Book reviews in PalArch’s Journal of archaeology of northwest Europe (ISSN 1573-3939)

Veldmeijer, A.J. 2007. Book review of: Kite, M. & R. Thomson. 2006. Conservation of leather and related materials. (Amsterdam, Elsevier).

Crombé, P. 2007. Book review of: Milner, N. & P. Woodman. 2005. Mesolithic Studies at the Be-ginning of the 21st Century. (Oxford, Oxbow Books).



Midan Tahrir, Cairo 2001, silver print, 20 x 50 cm. Photography by Zbigniew Kosc © 2007 (see http://members.chello.nl/zkosc.).

Zbigniew Kosc & Islamic CairoIslamic Cairo is an historic area of the city, surrounded by medieval walls, which in earlier times was regarded as the cultural, intellectual and religious centre of the Arab world. There are still monumental palaces and mosques to be found there - and also the oldest university in the world. At the same time, it is an urban area in decline, infested with ruins and stinking alleys in which the poorest inhabitants of Cairo try to sell their merchandise.

Originally from Poland, photographer Zbigniew Kosc (1951) has a predilection for classic cultures, an-thropology and architecture. He studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and travels to the Middle East regularly for photo series. He has budgeted fifteen years for making his panoramic and poetic portrait Islamic Cairo (from catalogue NAZAR Photographs from the Arab World by W. Melis (ed.), Aperture, New York 2005). For more information, visit http://members.chello.nl/zkosc/islamic%20cairo.html and http://www.noorderlicht.com/eng/fest04/manege/kosc/

Egypt in photographs



Natural History Museum Rotterdam: The history and collections of a museum

Natasja den Ouden*

The Natural History Museum of Rotterdam is the only one of its kind in the Rijnmond region (Rot-terdam area, the Netherlands). The museum focus-es on nature – in the broadest sense – in this very urban region, without losing sight of the rest of the world and the geological past. The museum also plays a role in the promotion of biological sciences and scientific communication. Its name stands for collections, exhibitions, activities, research and in-formation concerning nature, environment and life sciences. For more than three quarters of a century the museum has been active, professional, dynamic and innovative, and it serves a leading role within the Dutch museum world.

pendent existence was desired and a new founda-tion was started. This time including not only the foundation that owned the collection, but also the Rotterdam city council and businesses. This new coalition foundation ensured that the monumen-tal Villa Dijkzigt became available to the museum. The mansion once served as the living quarters of the Hoboken family, and until 1986 it housed the Rotterdam adult education centre. In 1988 the doors opened to the public and under the new

A turbulent historySince being founded in 1927, the museum has had a turbulent history. It began in the attic of a girls’ school, but the ever-growing collection of birds, mammals, insects, shells, fossils and other objects soon had to find a larger space. After a short stay on the Dirk Smitsstraat, it settled in a character-istic building in the Mathenesserlaan, opposite Museum Boijmans van Beuningen (art museum). Here the museum found fame with the inhabit-ants of Rotterdam.

In 1959, however, the museum was forced to move again, this time to a former bank in the Kas-tanjesingel. But the move did not serve the mu-seum well and it was forced to lead a peripheral ex-istence. A change for the better came in the 1970s, when the museum became an independent part of Diergaarde Blijdorp (Rotterdam Zoo). This loca-tion was not permanent either, however. An inde-

Villa Dijkzigt in the 19th century (© NMR).

Villa Dijkzigt nowadays (© NMR).

name of ‘Natuurmuseum Rotterdam (Nature Mu-seum Rotterdam), the museum organised exhibi-tions and other museum activities.

Ever since the move to Villa Dijkzigt, the muse-um has thrived, and this final move also provided the vital spark for the new design of the Museum Park. Next to the museum, the Kunsthal (a museum for modern art) was built and the park itself un-derwent a metamorphosis. The NAi (National Ar-chitecture Institute) was built, Museum Boijmans (art) added a new pavilion and the Chabot muse-um (focussed on the work of painter and sculptor Henk Chabot) moved into one of the park’s white villas. Following these upgrades, the Nature Mu-seum itself expanded by attaching a modern glass pavilion to the existing villa in 1995, and in 1996 the villa itself was refurbished.

Visitor numbers are ever growing, regularly exceeding 40,000 per year. As of the first of Janu-ary 2006, the museum regained its original name: Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam (Natural History Museum Rotterdam).

The Van Deinse Cabinet In the early days of World War I, four finback whales collided with floating mines and beached on the Dutch coast. When biologist Anton Boudewijn van Deinse (1885-1965), a teacher at the Erasmi-aans Gymnasium (higher secondary education) heard about this, he went to the beach and col-lected seven baleens. For the rest of Van Deinse’s life, whales and other marine mammals played a

* Translated from the museum’s web site (http://www.nmr.nl) by the author. Texts © Natural History Museum Rotterdam 2007,



major role. In half a century he gathered an im-pressive natural history collection – the so-called Van Deinse Cabinet. The collection consisted of the skeletal elements of whales and dolphins, the in-alcohol preserved soft tissues of these animals, and all possible relics of the Dutch whaling indus-try. The numerous zoological curiosities he used in his biology classes were also added to his col-lection. Three years after his death, part of the col-lection was transferred to the museum. In 1977 a second transfer followed, this time to the National Natural History Museum (Naturalis) in Leiden. In 1987 the Erasmiaans Gymnasium donated the last remains of the Van Deinse Cabinet to the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam, where it is now part of the permanent exhibition ‘the cabinet of dr A.B. van Deinse’.

The collectionThe collection of the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam comprises hundreds of thousands of objects. An exact count of the number of speci-mens is impossible, because some of the catego-ries (shells for instance) are counted per sample, and a sample can consist of many specimens. The size of the specimens also varies greatly – a col-lection of thousands of foraminifera is housed in just one small filing cabinet, whereas the skeleton of a sperm whale takes up an entire hall. Only a

small portion – less than 5% – of the collection is actually exhibited. The rest is shielded from the in-fluences of light, temperature and movement, and stored in the collection depots behind-the-scenes. Important elements of the collection are:

• 2000 skeletal remains of fossil mammals (mostly Pleistocene in age)

• 2000 mounted birds• 5000 unmounted bird skeletons and loose

skulls• 750 bird skins• 200 mounted mammals• 500 mammal skins• 500 mammal skeletons and loose skulls• 1000 fish preserved in alcohol• 330 reptiles and amphibians preserved in

alcohol• 21000 beetles• 66000 ants, wasps and bees• 30000 butterflies• 1500 spider preserved in alcohol• 5000 crabs, lobsters and crayfish• 60000 samples of shells (e.g. molluscs and

bivalves)• 10000 herbarium leaves (higher plants)• 1000 rocks and minerals• 1000 samples of foraminifera• 550 starfish and sea urchins

The Van Deinse Cabinet in the Erasmiaans Gymnasium, 1939. Inset: Dr. A.B. van Deinse. © NMR.



For the majority of the specimens, it is known where and by whom they were found. Also the species to which it belongs is catalogued. This data is important for the collection, as it makes it possible to use the specimens for research into systematics, taxonomy, comparative anatomy and biogeography.

The specimens in the collections come from all over the world, but every part of the collection has a place of origin that corresponds with the source of the collection (the person that originally gath-ered the collection and donated it to the museum). The collection of stuffed birds consists of species found in the Netherlands; the wasps, ants and bees come predominantly from South America; the ma-jority of the fossil mammals from the North Sea; the shells come from all parts of the world; but the fossil shells are mostly from quarries in the Achterhoek (province of Gelderland, the Nether-lands) and the Antwerp harbour. The herbarium is purely Dutch, with a particular focus on the urban flora of Rotterdam. Research based on the collec-tion is twofold:• research on the regional (mammal) fossils (from

drill cores and the Maasvlakte and Oosterschel-de collections)

• research carried out by collection curators The museum is very suitable for palaeontological research. It is a form of research that does not re-

quire many laboratory facilities and relies heavily on a collection. The Rotterdam area is very rich in fossils dating from two million years ago until the recent age. Honorary researcher Dick Mol spends much of his time working on mammalian palae-ontology. Another one of the museum’s honorary researchers, André Veldmeijer, dedicates his time to the research of flying reptiles (pterosaurs). The Museum’s director, Jelle Reumer, the assistant con-servator, André Slupik, and some of the collection managers, Klaas Post and Erwin Kompanje, are all very active in the palaeontological research field.

Research by our collection managers is regu-larly published in books and journals and includes the taxonomy of beetles (B.J. van Vondel), malacol-ogy (H.P.M.G. Menkhorst and F.J.A. Slieker), whale pathology (E.J.O. Kompanje), Indo-Australian bats (E.J.O. Kompanje and C.W. Moeliker), megapodes (C.J. Heij and J.N.J. Post) and flycatchers (C.W. Moeliker).

Improbable ResearchSince 1991, Harvard-based Improbable Research awards prizes to researchers who carry out ‘re-search that make people laugh and then think’. The European branch of the organisation is based in the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam. It is no surprise that the organisation chose the muse-

Part of the collection at the Natural History Museum Rotterdam. © NMR.



um as base; in 2003 the museum’s own Kees Moe-liker won the award for his research on homosex-ual necrophiliac rape in mallards. Since then Kees developed an eye for improbable research and he even became the chief of the European Bureau of the organisation.

Temporary exhibitions now in the museum

The Grand House Sparrow Exhibition (until the 13th of May 2007)With the world famous Domino sparrow as the centrepiece, the museum presents ‘The big house sparrow exhibition’, an exhibition that focuses on the nature and culture of the house sparrow – Passer domesticus – the world’s best known bird. In the sparrow Hall of Fame the Domino sparrow is accompanied by the sparrow that was killed by a cricket ball in London in 1936, and mounted on

the same ball that killed it – it still forms one of the main pieces of the museum of the Marylebone Cricket Club in London. Another place of honour is reserved for one of the first offspring of a small flock of house sparrows that was released in the city centre of New York City in 1853, which with tremendous speed colo-nised the entire North Ameri-can continent. From Australia

there is the famous Freedom Sparrow – a fledgling that on the 4th of July 1981 (Independence Day in the US) stowed away on PanAm flight 811 and reached Sydney, where its journey was ended by Australian customs officers.

You name it - Linnaeus and the concept of biological nomenclature (March 31st until August 19th, 2007)This exhibition is within the scope of the Linneaus year – 2007 marks 300 years since the birth of Swedish biologist Carl von Linné, or Carolus Lin-naeus.

Type specimens from the collections of the nat-ural history museums of Maastricht, Rotterdam and Leiden form the base of this exhibition. This is unique, because museum directors are usually

not prone to lending out their type specimens. The exhibition aims to answer questions like ‘What is a species?’, ‘How do species get their name?’, Who are the researchers involved?’, Why is it impor-tant?’, and ‘What is the role of natural history mu-seums in all of this?’

Information (www.nmr.nl)Address: Westzeedijk 345 (Museumpark) 3015 AA RotterdamTelephone: (+31) 010 436 42 22 | fax (+31) 010 436 43 99 | e-mail [email protected] P.O. Box: 23452 3001 KL Rotterdam Opening hours: - Tuesday – Saturday: 10.00 - 17.00- Sundays and public holidays: 11.00 - 17.00 uur- Closed: Mondays, 25 December, 1 January en 30 April

Directions to the museum are available through the website.

The type specimen of the tropical mollusk Entemnotrochus rumphii (Schepman). © NMR.


© PalArch Foundation �0

What is a palaeontologist? A field identification guide.

Carlos Grau

Here I am with my second column… To say I was caught completely unawares by the looming dead-line is an understatement of Victorian modesty: in reality, it’s more an irrepressible torrent of exple-tives coursing through the mind. I’m sure at least some of you out there have felt that wonderful adrenaline surge followed by a cosmic feeling of utter helplessness…

So, I did what many great minds have done in the past, and sought the amber muse that is beer. Which is to say I mentioned it to my friends at the pub. The three of us then proceeded to engage in lively free-form association, the results of which I carefully recorded on a torn napkin. I’ll try to re-construct this in some sort of legible manner.

Before we move on to bigger and better topics, let’s start at the beginning and try to define what makes a palaeontologist.

In popular imagery, it very often involves some degree of hairiness. Which doesn’t really apply to me, as I couldn’t grow a full beard if I were left for a year in a desert island or hippy commune… Some palaeontologists are indeed clean-shaven, and many are even female! (which would probably horrify good ‘ol Darwin, but he should get with the times).

So it’s clear that the hirsute palaeoguy is a myth that we should set to rest. Whenever I tell people that I’m a palaeontologist (I tend to keep this to myself most of the time), I invariably get that an-noying response “Ooo, like Ross from Friends!”. To which the answer is always a resigned smile and nod… For how can you be so heartless as to taint such child-like innocence with the revelation that a ‘real’ palaeontologist could NEVER be able to af-ford a swank Manhattan bachelor pad? Especial-ly as he never seems to be shown, like, working? Like, ever?…

I’d much rather have that other chestnut, the ‘ol archaeologist confusion “Ooo, like Indiana Jones!”. Now that’s what a proper field scientist should be! Indy could kick Ross’ whiny butt so quick it wouldn’t even be sporting! As a kid, I really, really wanted to be Indiana Jones, if it wasn’t obvious. This of course implied learning to use a bullwhip. Before you start (behave!), I was just 13 and had no idea of any kinky connotations a whip might have. In retrospect, I think I should apologise pro-fusely to my long-suffering parents, as they waited outside the Mexican tourist shop in L.A.’s Olvera Street, while I openly asked the salesclerk if that

was the longest whip they had. How embarrassing, shudder! Undaunted, I got my 5-foot long, black and white souvenir bullwip and applied myself to practicing until I could do everything Indy could. The neighbours were not amused.

Maybe that’s the real definition of a palaeon-tologist… We’re geeky enough to devote ourselves in body and spirit to a topic that we find extremely cool, blissfully unaware of how socially awkward it may make us look to the outside world. And un-like Indy, it’s unlikely we’ll ever find treasures or riches in the traditional sense (finding funding is hard enough!). But we’re the envy of any 6-year old. How many lawyers can say that!


© PalArch Foundation ��

Call for papers

We would like to focus on our ongoing call for pa-pers. Many of our readers are already aware of it, but for those who just to know us we would like to point out that all contributions are welcome that fall within the wider thematic framework of the journal.

This includes papers on archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology, archaeology of northwest Europe and palaeontology and related disciplines such as ar-chaeobotany, archaeozoology, museology, system-atics, taphonomy, the history of science and any subject that relates to these fields.

Contributions can take the form of, for instance, excavation reports, material studies, databases etc. PalArch is especially, but not exclusively, suitable for submission that involves large amounts of data.

Submission of papers

The rules for submissions for our scientific issues can be found under the heading ‘Information’ at the website. Please contact the managing editor of the Newsletter for guidelines on Newsletter ar-ticles.

Colophon

The Newsletter is an initiative of the PalArch Foundation and is edited by A.J. Veldme-ijer ([email protected]), I.J.J. Nieu-wland ([email protected]), H.J.M. Meijer ([email protected]), N. den Ouden ([email protected]), E.N.A. Heirbaut ([email protected]) and B.L. Beatty ([email protected]). The illustration editing is done by M.H. Kriek (http://www.bcl–support.nl/). The Newsletter is free to download for three months; back issues (pdf, sent by email) can be ordered by sending an email to [email protected].

Any questions and reactions regarding the Newsletter, the Foundation or the web-based Neth-erlands scientific journal should be addressed to [email protected]. The address to which cor-respondence can be sent is: PalArch Foundation, Mezquitalaan 23, 1064 NS, Amsterdam, The Neth-erlands.

About www.PalArch.nl (Netherlands scientific journal) copyright

Copyright © 2007 PalArch Foundation

The author retains the copyright, but agrees that the PalArch Foundation has the exclusive right to publish the work in electronic or other formats. The author also agrees that the Foundation has the right to distribute copies (electronic and/or hard copies), to include the work in archives and com-pile volumes. The Foundation will use the original work as first published at www.PalArch.nl.

The author is responsible for obtaining the permission of the use of illustrations (drawings, photographs or other visual images) made by oth-ers than the author. The author can be requested to submit proof of this permission to the PalArch Foundation. Pdf texts (papers and proceedings) are free to download on the conditions that each copy is complete and contains the PalArch copyright statement; no changes are made to the contents and no charge is made. The downloaded (and/or printed) versions of PalArch publications may not be duplicated in hard copy or machine readable form or reproduced photographically, nor may they be redistributed, transmitted, translated or stored on microfilm or in electronic databases oth-er than for single use by the person that obtained the file. Commercial use or redistribution may only be realised after consultation with and with written permission of the PalArch Foundation.

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