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Happy Birthday to my krusty boi!!!

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Stalking the Freshwater Sponges of Western Pennsylvania

by Marc L. Yergin and Timothy A. Pearce

Yes, some sponges live in freshwater. Before our recent finds, only one species of sponge had been reported from western Pennsylvania.

Figure 1. Ephydatia mulleri found in a run in Somerset County, in the handsof Duquesne University student Emily Simon. In living sponges, water flows in through the small holes called pores and out through the large holes called oscula, visible in the photo.

As you walk along a western Pennsylvania stream, you may notice a tan or brown encrustation on rocks or sticks in the water. The encrustation might superficially look like algae, but if you notice regular holes, you might have found a sponge. Scientists first categorized sponges as plants until it was noticed the organisms were pumping water in and out, which plants don’t do.

Sponges (phylum Porifera) are the simplest multi-cellular animals. They are considered the sister group to all other multi-cellular animals. They don’t have organs or tissues like we do. Nevertheless, we share 70% of our DNA with sponges.

Freshwater sponges account for less than 3 percent of the total 10,000 species of modern sponges on earth, most of which are marine. Only 31 species of freshwater sponges are found in North America.

Our study, so far, found two additional species of freshwater sponges in western Pennsylvania, Ephydatia muelleri (Fig. 1) and Ephydatia fluviatilis. Because our species look alike, we tell them apart by examining their microscopic skeletal elements, called spicules. Spicules are made of silica, the same material found in sand and glass. The shape and form of the spicules are used to identify these sponges.

Figure 2. A microphotograph of spicules from Ephydatia mulleri. The needle-like megascleres are 200 - 350 microns long (0.008 - 0.012 inches) and the smaller dumbbell-shaped gemmuloscleres are 10 microns (0.0004 inches) long. The average width of a human hair is about 100 microns (0.004 inches).

Spicules come in many different sizes and shapes. The larger spicules for the two species we found are called megascleres and look like double-pointed needles. The smaller spicules, called gemmuloscleres, look like dumbbells and provide protection in sponge reproductive structures (Fig. 2).

Sponges eat microorganisms by capturing and ingesting them from the water. Water is circulated through canals lined by cells with flagella (hair-like projections) that trap food particles. The water flows by every cell so oxygen can enter and carbon dioxide can be expelled.

The presence of sponges indicates good water quality with little or no contamination from acid mine drainage or sediment from agricultural field runoff.

Timothy A. Pearce, PhD, is the head of the mollusks section at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

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Desiderio Memorial Park & Korean War Memorial featuring “The Rocket”, (as it is called by the locals) and a cannon. The rocket used to say USAF on it, but when it was repainted by the city, they took it upon themselves to change it to USARMY. The plaque reads that Captain Reginald B. Desiderio was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously on July 9, 1918 for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty.

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Independence Day picnic at the home of James Hunter, Hestonville, PA, 1862

via reddit

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Hidden Treasure of Pittsburgh Found

by Bonnie Isaac

Recently I received a call from a woman who had bought an estate and discovered a hidden treasure in the basement. The basement contained 28 boxes of herbarium specimens. These boxes contained the private herbarium of Charles Boardman. Boardman was a research associate of Botany here at the museum from 1951 until his death on January 5, 1983. He had built his own herbarium space in his basement. These specimens are already mounted and in remarkably good shape for having been stored in a basement unattended for over 30 years.

Herbarium space built in the basement of Charles Boardman’s house with boxes of specimens.

Amazingly enough, there was also a letter with the collection with some details about his life. Charles Boardman was born in Buffalo, New York in 1903. Mr. Boardman attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and became a professional engineer. Charles was especially interested in mosses which led to his affiliation with Carnegie’s own Otto Jennings. Boardman accompanied Jennings on many field trips and collected specimens for the Manual of Mosses of Western Pennsylvania written and illustrated by Jennings. Boardman’s moss collection was donated to Duke University at his request shortly after his death. His vascular plant collection remained hidden in his basement until just a few weeks ago.

Water lily specimen found in Boardman’s personal herbarium.

Most of the specimens are from the 1930’s and 1940’s collected from Pennsylvania and beyond. In the coming weeks and months, we will process this amazing gift to see how many specimens are in this hidden treasure and put them into the main herbarium here at the museum for researchers to use in the future. You never know where a historic treasure may be lurking.

Bonnie Isaac is the Collection Manager in the Section of Botany. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

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It’s been raining nonstop for the past few days.... there’s a lot of flooding all over the area.

These photos via Facebook.

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Bust of George Romero in Monroeville Mall.

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Zeke's Take on his First Show with the Counting Crows

Zeke’s Take on his First Show with the Counting Crows

All concert photos by Zeke

I made the rare trip to Key Bank, Post Gazette, Star Lake place in Burgettstown. I usually skip shows out there but then I was thinking, I’ve gone to west coast to see shows, this is closer.  I made it there in less than an hour.

I went to see The Counting Crows.  I’ve wanted to hear them live for 25 years.  I’ll admit that I’m not a big fan but love their songs on…

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2018, The Northern Appalachian Folk Festival, September 8, Downtown Indiana, Pennsylvania.

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Smoke Scenery

by Pat McShea

Detail from The Apotheosis of Pittsburgh mural by John White Alexander

A museum educator from Norway offered a novel way to interpret We Are Nature: Living in the Anthropocene. “This should be part of the story.” explained Bergsveinn Thorssonas he gestured at century-old steel industry scenes depicted in second-floor portions of the multi-level grand staircase mural painted by John White Alexander.

Thorsson, a PhD student who is studying how museums present current environmental issues, was fascinated by the smoky scenes and their marble pillar frames. “Owning our industrial history is important to understanding our current situation.” he added before conceding that he didn’t have advice for accomplishing such a task.

A copy of When Smoke Ran Like Waterpositioned at the 1948 mark on the population and atmospheric carbon level graph in We Are Nature

Since 2002, an excellent book-form model of industrial acknowledgement has existed in When Smoke Ran Like Water, by Donora, Pennsylvania native Devra Davis. The book, which Davis summarizes as an argument for “a fundamentally new way of thinking about health and the environment,” begins with a recounting of the most significant air pollution disaster in the United States - the build-up in Donora, some 25 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, during a five-day period in late October 1948, of a toxic fog of steel and zinc industry emissions that resulted in 20 deaths and 600 hospitalizations.

In Davis’s account, family histories, with all their hopes, accomplishments, and compromises, are central to the tragedy. A quote from her mother captures a common attitude toward the smoky scenery: “Look, today they might call it pollution. Back then it was just a living.”  

Patrick McShea works in the Education and Visitor Experience department of Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

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Kid at Fritz’s Lanes Lehighton, Pennsylvania Follow me on Instagram: American Squares

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Bowmanstown Diner, Bowmanstown PA Follow me on Instagram: American Squares

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Art at Kaibur Cafe in Polish Hill.

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There was just a train derailment in Station Square in Pittsburgh... Thomas strikes again.

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Boiling Springs

The town of Boiling Springs, PA, has a fairly obvious name. The town was founded and named for its thirty natural springs within a 2 acre area. They release about 22 million gallons of water per day above the surface, and are the seventh largest concentration of springs in Pennsylvania. They are set apart from other springs, however, due to the underground rock formations that contribute to the unique water flow.

The Boiling Springs do appear to be boiling, although they are not hot. This is due to the subterranean igneous rock that holds in the groundwater. When Pangaea broke apart, magma rushed up to fill in the faults in the upper crust. This cooled quickly, forming impenetrable sheets of basalt, or diabase dikes. Diabase dikes cut through the limestone in Pennsylvania, forming a V shape, which comes to a point at Boiling Springs. Because the water can penetrate the limestone but not the basalt, it comes to head at Boiling Springs, forcing itself to the surface, which creates the bubbling, boiling movements as it hits the air. 

The most famous spring in Boiling Springs is the Bubble, which is located directly behind the Boiling Springs Tavern, an 1845-built restaurant that served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. It’s a sight worth the detour. 

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Found in Pittsburgh, PA. This ugly boi looked into my soul and had me hooked.