PEOPLE ATTHEAMNH 



Liz Johnson 



Manager, Metropolitan Biodiversity Program 

 Center for Biodiversity and Conservation 



If anyone can coax city dwellers to 

 I appreciate worms and other wood- 

 land creatures in the world hidden 

 underfoot, it's Liz Johnson, Manager 

 of the Metropolitan Biodiversity Pro- 

 gram for the Museum's Center for 

 Biodiversity and Conservation. Her 

 enthusiasm for the richness of life in 

 the region is infectious. 



"There's nature in the City. It's all 

 around us," she said in a recent inter- 

 view. "What we have in New York is 

 pretty amazing and just as important 

 to conserve as something in the trop- 

 ical rain forest." 



And Liz would know. Since arriving 

 at the Museum nine years ago — armed 

 with degrees in ecology, geology, and 

 wildlife biology — she's been involved in 

 both gathering and disseminating infor- 

 mation, from fieldwork that literally 

 unearthed a new species of centipede 

 in Central Park to coauthoring Life in 

 the Leaf Litter, a popular guide to urban 

 invertebrates. She's currently editing 

 New York State's first biodiversity con- 

 servation book and a primer on sprawl 

 in New Jersey aimed at local officials on 

 the front lines of land use. 



A New Jersey native, Liz lives doors 

 from the Delaware River with her hus- 

 band, an endangered species biologist 

 for the state of New Jersey, whom she 

 met when previous work led her to 

 consult him about the plight of piping 

 plovers and least terns at the Jersey 

 Shore. Not surprisingly, their 4-year- 

 old daughter Karla is already "becom- 

 ing a good field biologist. She's curi- 

 ous about everything," Liz said 

 proudly. "She'll even hold snakes, 

 caterpillars, and worms." 



It's what's for dinner: 

 A fly in the genus Microphorites 

 (at left) is trapped in the amber 

 section with the most complex 

 web fragment. 



Ancient "Web Site" Holds Clues 

 to Insect Evolution 



Entomologists have long suspected that spiders' eat- 

 ing habits played a role in early insect evolution but 

 proof was elusive, given the rarity of fossilized spiders 

 or their silk. Until now. A pencil-thin rod of amber 

 found in Spain has preserved within it a 110-million- 

 year-old spider web — the oldest ever found — and, 

 snagged in its silk, the telltale remains of the weaver's 

 prey: a fly, a mite, a beetle, and a wasp. 



"The advanced structure of this fossilized web, 

 along with the type of prey that the web caught, indi- 

 cates that spiders have been fishing insects from the 

 air for a very long time," said David A. Grimaldi, Cura- 

 tor in the American Museum of Natural History's Divi 

 sion of Invertebrate Zoology and coauthor of a report de- 

 scribing the discovery in the journal Science. 



The fossilized web, which has at least 26 

 strands, was most likely spun by an orb-weaving 

 spider. Tangled within it are ancestors of the same 

 creatures that are the most common prey of today's 

 orb-weaving spiders and are numbered among the 

 most diverse groups of flying insects in existence. 



This latter fact is key as the web dates from the Early Cretaceous Period, a time of 

 explosive diversification of both flowering plants and pollinating insects. Spider pre- 

 dation could have influenced evolutionary improvements in the insects' ability to 

 navigate and forage among the flowers. 



"Spiders today have a huge impact as predators on insect populations, along 

 with birds and bats," explained Dr. Grimaldi. "This new finding suggests that spi- 

 ders exerted a similar selection pressure on insects no million years ago." 



Taking the Show on the Road 



Millions of visitors to Manhattan enjoy the American Museum of Natural 

 History's special and permanent exhibitions each year. But there are also 

 millions of people who never come to New York City who take advantage of the 

 Museum's unique content — through the Museum's traveling exhibitions. 



The Museum launches two to three major special exhibitions annually, relating to 

 paleontology, anthropology, biology, astronomy, and more. Once the exhibition closes 



at the Museum, it travels to other natural 

 history museums, science centers, and plan- 

 etariums around the world. Currently travel- 

 ing are Darwin; Einstein; The Genomic Revo- 

 lution; and others; as well as three of the 

 Museum's planetarium shows: Passport to 

 the Universe; The Search for Life: Are We 

 Alone?; and SonicVision. 



These traveling exhibitions have a tremen- 

 dous reach: they have appeared in over 20 



cities in the United States, 5 cities in Canada, 

 Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discover- , . , .. . . .. 



, ... ... ....... . and m numerous other locations mternation- 



ies, a huge hit at the AMNH, is currently 



showing at the California Academy of a %- Visit www.amnh.org to find out what 

 Sciences in San Francisco. may be coming to your neighborhood. 



OINO 



DISCOVERIES 



SAURS 



The contents of these paces are provided to Natural History by the American Museum of Natural History. 



