Marsden Fund
Newsletter
July 1999
Contents
- Study shows baby remembers at
six months
- Kiwi cracks maths super-puzzle
- Position of Manager confirmed
- Kaikoura hosts meeting on evolution
- News from Marsden Cottage
- Marsden Committee: feedback on
preliminary proposals
- Fossil find opens window into
climate history
- How the printing press helped
shape a nation
- Massey physicists unlocking mysteries
of polymers
- DNA discovery yields a new kind
of whale
- Marsden at a glance
- Marsden Fund committee members,
Marsden staff, and contact details
Study shows baby remembers at
six months
New findings from a pioneering early learning
research project at Otago University are challenging many fundamental
assumptions about the way infant learning and memory develops.
Results based on experiments with more than 1200
Dunedin infants show that by the age of six months, babies not only
imitate actions, but apparently remember them 24 hours later - provided
the circumstances are exactly the same as they were a day earlier.
Using hand puppets and toys, researchers have
also found that the older the infant, the longer they remember. A 12-month-old
can recall actions performed with a hand puppet for as long as a week,
and by the age of two, toddlers can remember for as long as 3 months.
Researchers found that older infants were more
likely to use their memories when they were tested with new toys or
in different places. The researchers have argued that memory becomes
increasingly flexible with age in infants, allowing them to transfer
knowledge from one situation to another.
The studies are part of a three-year Marsden
project carried out by a team of researchers in the Psychology Department
at Otago University, led by Associate Professor Harlene Hayne. They
drew on a range of imitation techniques where an unfamiliar adult models
a behaviour with a new toy. The infant is then given the opportunity
to imitate it after delays ranging from several minutes to several months.
The new results confirm earlier findings from
the project that babies who have not yet learned to speak can learn
from television, storing information and using it as their cognitive
skills develop.
According to Dr Hayne, debate continues to rage
about the way human memory develops. Some argue it takes place in a
discrete, stage-like manner; others claim it is a gradual and continuous
process. The results of present studies are more consistent with the
notion that memory develops gradually during the infancy period.
The Otago University research represents the
first attempt to document developmental changes in memory processing
across infancy and early childhood using a single task. "Our primary
focus in this project is the development of learning and memory during
the infancy period," Dr Hayne explains.
Dr Hayne said the fact that six-month-old infants
could remember a day later was particularly impressive, given that the
babies only observed the action performed on one occasion for a total
of 60 seconds.
"Our studies suggest that one hallmark of
memory development is an increase in the range of situations in which
early learning experiences can be recalled and expressed. This finding
may help us explain why most of us cannot remember the events of our
infancy and early childhood."
Dr Hayne added that from a practical perspective,
the findings indicated that interactions between adults and children
were an essential ingredient for intellectual growth.
"Our findings add to a growing body of evidence
showing that human infants are essentially 'born to learn', rapidly
gleaning and processing information about their world long before they
can actually tell us what they know."
Above: Dunedin toddler Cameron Allan works with
Otago University research assistant Jacqueline Clearwater during a test
session, as mother Heather looks on. Denis Page
For further information, contact Dr Harlene
Hayne in the Psychology Department,
University of Otago.
Phone: (03) 479 7636
Email: hayne@psy.otago.ac.nz
Address: PO Box 56, Dunedin
Kiwi cracks maths super-puzzle
It is the most celebrated maths test ever put
together. In 1900, German mathematician David Hilbert compiled 23 mind-bogglers
for the international maths congress in Paris to challenge his colleagues
and set out a research programme.
Close to a century later, with the help of a
Marsden grant, Auckland mathematics professor Gaven Martin has announced
a proof for an important part of the fiendishly complex fifth problem
on Hilbert's master list.
Martin took the final step of this discovery
while lecturing in Finland last year. It has been published in the prestigious
journal Research Announcements of the American Mathematical Society.
"Hilbert's famous list has shaped most of
modern mathematics," says Martin. Hilbert's fifth problem asks
"to develop Lie's theory of continuous groups without the assumptions
of differentiability".
"In the late 19th century, the famous Norwegian
mathematician Sophius Lie developed a theory of continuous groups. This
has turned out to have enormous importance in science," Martin
explains.
"The symmetries of physical theories are
always Lie groups. Examples are the Lorentz group in relativity, Bieberbach
groups in crystallography and the Unitary groups in field theory. Lie
was looking for a way to unify and discover common themes in these groups.
Martin says that Hilbert's question has been
interpreted to ask if every continuous transformation group of a nice
space is a matrix group after a change of co-ordinates. "Such transformation
groups often arise as the symmetry groups of non-linear theories and
the question suggests that we really know these symmetries, but they
are disguised by their interaction with such things as the curvature
space.
"A more technical version of the problem
was solved by Von Neumann in 1933, and Gleason and Montgomery-Zippin
in 1952. This was regarded as one of the major accomplishments of the
first half of this century," he says.
"However, Lie was concerned with continuous
groups of transformations of finite dimensional spaces, such as manifolds."
A more appropriate version of the fifth problem
is known as the Hilbert-Smith Conjecture (HSC), named after Hilbert
and the topologist P. A. Smith.
The question it asks mathematicians is whether
among locally compact groups only Lie groups can act effectively (nontrivially)
on manifolds, says Martin.
"In 1943 Bochner and Montgomery solved HSC,
assuming some a priori degree of differentiability. A discovery made
in 1960 by Yang implied a counterexample must be very wild, increasing
dimension when you divide by it."
In 1997, the Russian mathematicians Repovs and
Scepin finally used Yang's result in an effective way to give a new
proof of HSC in a restricted setting.
"When we became aware of their work we began
to attack the technical difficulties in generalising it to the setting
of quasiconformal (QC) mappings. These maps are needed to transform
and handle the Fractal objects which arise in the proof.
"QC-transformations have important applications
in many areas including non-linear elasticity and the theory of non-linear
partial differential equations, an area where we had been working.
"While lecturing about applications of the
result I found a way to prove that QC-actions could not increase dimension.
This yielded the following version of HSC: Theorem. Let G be a locally
compact group acting effectively and quasiconformally on a manifold.
Then G is a Lie group." Martin says the applications and ramifications
of this theorem are currently being vigorously investigated.
For more information, contact Professor Gaven
Martin at the School of Mathematics and Information Science,
University of Auckland
Phone: (09) 373 7599 x 8740
Email: martin@math.auckland.ac.nz
Position of Manager confirmed
Dr Valda McCann has been confirmed as Manager
of the Marsden Fund. She has been at the Royal Society since March 1997,
first as Assessment and Monitoring Officer and then as Acting Manager
since April last year. Previously she was Senior Lecturer in the Department
of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Canterbury.
Kaikoura hosts meeting on evolution
A day-trip to woodside creek, one of the first
known sites of the Cretaceous-Tertiary "(K-T)" boundary, was
a highlight of an international meeting on evolution held in Kaikoura
recently.
The week-long meeting brought together experts
from 12 countries, and four disciplines - biology, mathematics, statistics
and computer science Ü to address contemporary problems in evolutionary
molecular genetics.
The subjects discussed ranged from highly theoretical
developments to specific biological questions such as dating the divergence
from a common ancestor of birds and mammals, or modelling the structure
of RNA by using ideas developed initially from linguistics.
One main topic studied considered new ideas for
reconstructing and analysing phylogenetic (evolutionary) trees from
genetic data, an area where New Zealand researchers at Massey and Canterbury
Universities are regarded as leaders.
The meeting, held at the Edward Percival Marine
Laboratory in March, was organised by Mike Steel and Charles Semple
from the University of Canterbury's Biomathematics Research Centre as
part of their Marsden-funded research.
Highlights of the meeting included a keynote
address by Professor David Penny and a demonstration of new software
for phylogenetic analysis developed at Princeton University that includes
several features developed recently in New Zealand.
Participants also travelled out to Woodside Creek
to view the K-T boundary - the thin iridium layer caused by a giant
asteroid that struck Mexico 65 million years ago Ü and a long disputed
explanation for the extinction of the dinosaurs.
The meeting was the fourth in a series that has
been held in New Zealand over the last decade, including a similar conference
in Kaikoura in 1996.
Excursion to Woodside Creek to view the KT boundary.
For further information, contact Mike Steel at
the Biomathematics Research Centre, University of Canterbury.
Phone: (03) 366 7001 x 7688
Email: m.steel@math.canterbury.ac.nz
News from Marsden Cottage Funding
The most significant news of late is that Marsden
has been granted an extra $1 m in the Budget, bringing total funding
to $22.8 m for the 1999/2000 financial year. This is a very welcome
increase and will come into effect in the funding for the application
round currently in progress.
Blueprint for Change
The Government's policies for its Research, Science
& Technology investments have been widely circulated. In common
with other funding agents the Royal Society through the Marsden committee
must ensure that Marsden research contributes to the target outcomes.
It is also obliged to map existing contracts on to those outcomes and
to provide an analysis of the funded research. The major contribution
will be to the target outcome "People with knowledge, skills and
ideas but of course the research may contribute to other target outcomes.
Where possible, the committee will also identify gaps in any research
skills that may be important to New Zealand. This information will be
shared with other institutions responsible for development and training
of researchers.
"New-economy" research fund
Recent Budget announcements included a new fund
that will interest those involved in basic research in areas that can
help create high-technology business opportunities. The fund, Creating
Innovation Opportunities, involves an investment of $5.625 million in
the year to 30 June 2000. Indicative funding moves to $11.25 million
for each of 2000Ü2001 and 2001Ü2002. The fund is a response
to ideas arising from the Foresight Project. In consultation with the
wider science community MoRST will be announcing the terms of reference
and the administering organisation later this year.
1999 preliminary proposal round
This year the Marsden Fund received 773 applications,
similar in number to last year (767). Applicants were asked to consider
panel choice very carefully and, as each panel covers fairly broad areas
of research, to choose more than one panel only if their research proposal
genuinely had aspects relating to more than one panel. This meant that
the number of applications being assessed by several panels has been
reduced, the total assessments being reduced to about 90% of last year's
total. However the Mathematics and Information Sciences applications
show a real reduction in number Ü to 60% of last year's total.
The Committee hopes to be able to understand the reasons for the change
and to encourage the MIS researchers to keep up their participation
in the Marsden Fund. There were a few more applications in Humanities
this year but the number is still low given the number of researchers
in these fields. The Marsden Committee invited 132 researchers to submit
full proposals. These will be assessed by external referees as well
as by panellists. Two of the proposals are being submitted to both the
Humanities and Social Sciences panels. The Committee hopes to fund 40Ü50
percent of the full proposals. They are analysed in Table 1.
Preliminary proposal panel meetings
Following the guidelines, panellists assessed
the applications according to the criteria in the terms of reference
for the Marsden Fund. Briefly these included the merit of the proposed
research, the researchers' record (in relation to their time in research),
and the fostering of emerging researchers Ü the major influence
being the first criterion. The panellists came to the meetings with
the applications assessed into three categories Ü "must, "should
if possible" or "should not" go forward to a full proposal,
with a high medium or low grading within each of the top two categories.
These assessments produced an initial ranking of proposals. About 15
percent of the proposals could go forward to the next round, so vigorous
discussion ensued on the proposals which were near the cut-off or those
for which there was a wide divergence of views. The final rankings were
arrived at after these discussions, with recommendations forwarded to
the Marsden Committee.
Conflicts of interest were dealt with in the
usual manner. Panellists who were also principal or associate investigators
left the meeting while their proposals were assessed by the other panellists
and were informed of the result at the same time as other applicants.
This procedure also applied to panellists with close relationships with
an applicant. For other conflicts of interest, such as being a collaborator
with the applicants or in the same department, the panellists involved
either left the room, remained and stayed silent, or answered only technical
questions as the Convenor ruled appropriate.
Referees for full proposals
This year we began contacting potential referees
in April, well before the closing date for receiving full proposals.
We expect this effort to result in more reports being received by the
due date, and a greater proportion of proposals having at least three
referees. The initial request was sent out by email and it is worth
noting that there were errors in approximately one in seven of the email
addresses provided.
What happens to our post-doctoral fellows?
A meeting will be held later this month to decide
how to find out what happens to post-doctoral fellows in New Zealand.
Do they continue in science and technology related jobs, do they leave
the country, or do they follow some other path ? The organisations which
will be represented at the first meeting are the Royal Society, the
Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, the Health Research
Council, Vice Chancellors' Committee and Dr Michael Walker, a member
of the Foundation's Tuapapa Putaiao Maori Fellowship Advisory Committee.
The results of such a study will give valuable information on career
paths and areas gaining or losing skilled people.
Table 1 Applications by panel in 1999.
Note that the "totals" include applications sent to more than
one panel and so these are greater than the number of separate applications.
| Table 1
Applications by panel in 1999. Note that the "totals"
include applications sent to more than one panel and so these are
greater than the number of separate applications. |
| Panel |
Preliminary Proposals |
Full Proposals |
| Biochemical and Biomedical
Sciences |
115 |
17 |
| Cellular, Molecular &
Physiological Biology |
171 |
25 |
| Ecology, Evolution &
Behaviour |
175 |
23 |
| Earth Sciences and Astronomy |
79 |
13 |
| Humanities |
37 |
10 |
| Mathematical and Information
Sciences |
46 |
13 |
| Physical Sciences &
Engineering |
119 |
18 |
| Social Sciences |
92 |
15 |
| Total |
834 |
134 |
Marsden Committee: feedback
on preliminary proposals
A good spread of disciplines was evident within
the general areas of all panels. Again, there were many excellent proposals.
Successful applications were notable for innovative ideas and lateral
thinking, they were set out clearly and concisely, and had a cogent
research proposal with a well-thought-out plan of attack.
Some applications were seeking funding to set
up databases or directories in various fields. The panellists recognised
the merit of many of these projects in their own right, especially in
making resources of an infrastructural kind available for further research
in a particular field. However the nature of the research for such works
of reference tends to place them outside the Marsden criteria for funding.
The panellists also recognised the worth of a
number of projects of an editorial nature. Editorial work may well be
part of a project funded by the Marsden Fund, but applicants need to
define the significant research issues which such work enables them
to explore. Applicants should ask themselves: In what way is this editorial
work going to shift the boundaries of knowledge in a particular field,
and how is this new understanding going to be incorporated in the results
of the research?
The Marsden committee is considering various
ways of assisting applicants with their applications. In general this
advice will appear on the web on the Marsden Fund page of the RSNZ website,
but occasional pointers will also appear in the newsletter.
Pointers for optimising your chances of success
- Be focussed. What is the question? What is
your answer?
- Be realistic. Result in three years?
- Emphasise the novelty aspect.
- What differentiates your work from existing
trends?
- Does it meet the aims of the Marsden Fund?
- Write for a scientifically literate but general
assessment panel.
- Refer to background literature. ´ Include
titles in the bibliography.
- Provide a brief plan of the research to be
carried out.
- Remember the what, why, when, where, how rule.
Fossil find opens window into
climate history
The surprise discovery of unusual microfossils
on land and beneath the South Tasman Sea offers important new evidence
that New Zealand experienced climatic instability during the Late Miocene
period Ü about 9 to 11 million years ago.
Known as bolboformids, they belong to a group
of marine microscopic organisms believed to be related to marine algae.
The finds are providing important new and unexpected insights into plankton
distribution and ocean history in the New Zealand region.
The fossils were discovered in a section of deep-sea
core from a drilling project during the course of a Marsden-funded project
into ocean climate history and zooplankton evolution in the Southwest
Pacific region.
"A high resolution study of microscopic
shells in the Tasman Sea core revealed a well-defined sequence of short-lived
bolboformid appearances and disappearances, from 9.4 to 11.4 million
years ago," explains Martin Crundwell, a student with a team of
researchers from the Department of Earth Sciences at Waikato University.
The 15 bolboformid types identified at the oceanic
site included 5 new species and subspecies. The same sequence was also
found in rock locations on land in New Zealand, improving the ability
of researchers to correlate rocks of this age throughout the region.
"Although we know little about the life
cycle of bolboformids, there is sufficient evidence to show that these
simple organisms lived a free-floating planktonic lifestyle in cold
subpolar oceanic waters. These conditions are quite different from the
relatively warm temperate seas bathing New Zealand and the Tasman Sea
core site at the present day", explains Crundwell.
The occurrences of bolboformids alternate with
occurrences of warm subtropical foraminifera, another group of shelled
planktonic micro-organisms. The two groups appear to be almost mutually
exclusive in the core section.
"This rapid alternation between warm-water
foraminifera and cold-water bolboformids provides the first evidence
of instability in plankton distribution patterns in the southern Tasman
Sea, during this time period", Crundwell adds.
"The most likely cause of this is pronounced
north-south fluctuations in the position of the Subtropical Convergence
Ü a major oceanic front which in the modern ocean separates cold
(Southern Ocean) and relatively warm (Tasman Sea) waters."
Ornate cold-water subpolar bolboformid shells
from an 11 to 9 million-year-old section of deep sea core from the southern
Tasman Sea. The graph at right shows the distribution and relative abundance
of bolboformid species found at this oceanic site.
For further information contact Cam Nelson in
the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Waikato
Email:c.nelson@waikato.ac.nz
How the printing press helped
shape a nation
A revealing snapshot into how colonial readers
perceived the exotic and faraway islands of New Zealand can be found
in the travel writing of the 19th century.
Dr Lydia Wevers spent most of 1998 in Wellington's
Alexander Turnbull Library, poring through hundreds of travel accounts,
shipboard diaries, published letters, brochures, guidebooks, advertising
for shipping lines and hotels, and other material from the period.
Her research is part of a major national programme
examining the history of print culture in New Zealand. Hosted by the
Turnbull Library and sponsored by the Humanities Society of NZ, it relates
to similar projects under way in the United States, Great Britain, Australia,
Canada, Europe and elsewhere.
The programme involves a number of specialist
New Zealand scholars in a collaborative inquiry into the significance
of printing in the development of New Zealand society and culture. The
aim is to study how texts have been produced, published, disseminated
and received, and what these processes reveal about New Zealand society
and culture.
Marsden funding is supporting several research
projects within this larger national programme. The aim of the Wevers
project is to survey the 19th century print record as variously as possible
to suggest the role of print objects in mediating a complex field of
relations including colonisation, nationhood, imperialism, literacy
and the representation of the land and its indigenous people. It explores
how the 'authenticity' of New Zealand is represented and how changing
readerships can influence texts.
In the second project, Dr Sydney Shep from Victoria
University is studying the history of the local paper industry, and
its key relationship to the development of print culture in the 19th
century.
Dr Wevers says the material unearthed at the
Turnbull is helping her compile an extraordinary record of New Zealand
as a travel destination, society and landscape.
"The mechanics of travel Ü transport,
accommodation, sightseeing, food, costs and charges Ü are of particular
interest. They allow a picture to develop of the social and commercial
conditions in which travel writing and tourism occurred," she explains.
"Reactions to the landscape and to Maori
from the 1820s to 1900 build an informal and anecdotal history of imperialism,
suggesting why New Zealand attracted large numbers of tourists in the
late 19th century."
Dr Wevers says an important part of the value
of this research is the connection it makes with the field of print
culture in Britain.
"Accounts of the Tarawera eruption in illustrated
papers such as the Graphic and the Illustrated London News show how
the eruption fits into a worldwide interest in disaster graphics, while
an account of the thermal region becomes a convention for visitors and
writer.
"As the travel literature market became
profitable, an interesting distinction developed between professional
and amateur travel writing, and the role of travel writing as an agency
of colonisation became more complex and powerful. Such writing makes
a very interesting counterpart to that of settlers, 'scientific' recorders
and explorers."
The focus of Dr Sydney Shep's initial research
has been the paper on which seven of the nine versions of the Treaty
of Waitangi / Te Tiriti o Waitangi were written or printed.
Dr Shep says that though the content and contexts
of the Treaty have been intensively studied, far less is known about
the paper on which New Zealand's founding documents were written.
Her study involves tracing the Treaty papers
to their makers in England, tracking how they arrived in the new colony,
and demonstrating how the supply of paper influenced the dissemination
of knowledge.
"The records of the Church Missionary Society
station at Paihia and the print-shop ledgers of William Colleens housed
at the Alexander Turnbull Library have proved invaluable resources,"
she explains.
"As a result of this research, a complete
descriptive catalogue of the papers Colenso used for printing between
1835 and 1843, and a database of the genres and sources of paper available
in the first decade of the colony have been initiated."
The next stage of Dr Shep's research will look
at flax paper manufacture and the development of a papermaking industry.
 |
Nineteenth century guidebook illustration:
'Hotel life at the hot lakes'.
For further information on the History of Print Culture in New
Zealand research programme, contact Penny Griffith, Programme
Manager:
Phone/fax: (04) 235 7107
Email: Penny.Griffith@vuw.ac.nz
Address: P 0 Box 50 587, Porirua
|
Massey physicists unlocking
mysteries of polymers
Why does mozzarella cheese stretch like a rubber
band? What makes rubber elastic? And what makes paint flow easily when
"shearedî by a brush, and yet stick solidly to the wall once
applied? The answers to why so many natural materials seem elastic can
be found by understanding the special properties of giant molecules
known as polymers. These molecules are made up of thousands of identical
chemical units all joined together to make a continuous strand like
a long piece of string.
In a Marsden project at Massey University attracting
international attention, researchers are studying what happens to polymers
when they are squeezed and deliberately deformed. The work is likely
to have important implications for such key areas as the food export
industries.
The Massey team, led by Professor Paul Callaghan,
have developed a unique apparatus combining rheometer (mechanical deformation)
and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology. Their method, known
as Rheo-NMR, allows the instrument to simultaneously map the velocity
of the fluid while studying the molecular deformation and alignment
in the flow.
The work is yielding some surprising discoveries.
Callaghan and PhD student Maria Kilfoil, along with their collaborator
Ed Samulski of the University of North Carolina, have already found
intriguing molecular ordering effects for polymers undergoing shearing
deformation.
This study, which was published in Physical Review
Letters in 1998, describes very unusual molecular alignment effects
measured when a tiny polymer is mixed in with a much larger polymer
of the same chemical composition.
"We studied silicone and managed to selectively
observe the small probe molecule by labelling our probe with heavy hydrogen
(deuterium) atoms, replacing the normal hydrogen. This way we could
focus on the deuterium nuclear magnetic resonance signals from our spy,"
Callaghan explains.
"We used a microscopic shearing cell, just
a few millimetres in diameter. It was placed inside the bore of a superconducting
magnet and then driven by a mechanical shaft which rotates in the bore."
To carry out these experiments, Callaghan and
Kilfoil developed some highly specialised NMR techniques. These enabled
them to learn about the so-called "alignment tensor" of the
molecule.
"To our surprise, we found that while the
main polymer chains deform as expected, with their stretch axis along
the flow direction, the small probe molecule became deformed in an orthogonal
direction, along the so-called "velocity-gradient" direction,"
adds Callaghan.
"Our explanation is that the polymer main
chains may be organising themselves in layers so as to reduce the energy
of dissipation from drag, and that this larger scale structure may induce
the probe molecule to preferentially occupy the slip plane boundaries."
The Massey work has attracted a lot of international
attention and the findings are currently being further investigated
in X-ray scattering experiments carried out by Professor Geoffrey Mitchell
of Bristol University.
The Rheo-NMR work of the Massey Group is varied.
During 1998, Callaghan and postdoctoral Fellow, Melanie Britton, were
able to show that long polymer molecules made up by joining together
many smaller "soap-like" molecules (known as surfactants)
would flow in a very strange way when sheared.
"A part of the fluid goes though a change
in state so that it exerts very little resistance to the flow deformation,
while the rest of the fluid steadfastly resists. The effect is known
as "shear-banding", and we managed to locate where the shear
bands occur in the fluid and to show that the phenomenon is associated
with very rapid molecular fluctuations.
"One very interesting outcome of our work
is that we observed the same sort of banding in food materials, for
example in butter and in tomato sauce," says Callaghan.
He sees links between the fundamental physics
of these complex fluids, and the many practical problems in biology,
chemical engineering and food processing, which depend upon that physics.
"While our Marsden grant has enabled us
to focus particularly on some of these basic science issues, we believe
some of the outcomes may be surprisingly practical. Given our significant
exports of processed biological soft materials, such fundamental research
could be seen as underpinning some of our most important industries.
The 'Rheo-NMR' shearing shell used by the Massey
team.
For further information, contact Paul T. Callaghan
at the Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Physics, Massey University,
Palmerston North
Phone: (06) 350 5164
Email: P.Callaghan@massey.ac.nz
DNA discovery yields a new kind
of whale
Marsden researchers probing the DNA of whales,
dolphins and sea lions believe they have stumbled upon a hitherto unknown
species of rare beaked whale.
Dr Scott Baker and Merel Dalebout from the Auckland
University School of Biological Sciences recently studied the remains
of what was thought to be Hector's beaked whale, held at the famed US
Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
But DNA extracted from the teeth and dried tissue
of this group of four animals stranded off the coast of California in
the mid 1970s appear to belong to another species altogether.
The beaked whales are among the least known of
all vertebrate groups. Of the 20 species currently recognised, most
are known from only a handful of beachcast or stranded specimens.
Their preference for deep ocean waters, elusive
habits, and possible low abundance means that most are rarely seen alive.
New Zealand, however, has one of the world's highest incidences of beaked
whale strandings, providing researchers with a unique opportunity to
collect information.
Baker and Dalebout have received Marsden funding
to investigate the evolutionary relationships of this rare and enigmatic
family. To help identify beaked whale species, they have worked with
the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, and the Department of
Conservation to establish a database of DNA sequences from reference
specimens.
Over the last few years, they have used this
database to determine the species identity of beaked whales stranded
on the coasts of New Zealand and Australia. Many of these strandings
were badly decomposed or were juveniles lacking the characteristic morphological
features distinguishing adult beaked whales.
"From this work we have found that up to
a fifth of all stranded beaked whales are initially misidentified on
the basis of their appearance," says Dalebout. "By exploring
the international genetic database, Genbank, we have also been able
to include DNA sequences from beaked whales stranded in other parts
of the world. It was as a result of this data-mining that we first uncovered
genetic evidence of a new species held at the Smithsonian."
Based on features of the skull, the four beaked
whales stranded in Southern California were identified as Mesoplodon
hectori, Hector's beaked whale, the first time this species had been
reported from the Northern Hemisphere.
 "However,
comparison of DNA sequences from one of the Californian specimens to
our database showed that it was not, in fact, a Hector's beaked whale,
nor any other species represented in our database," says Dalebout.
"We contacted the researchers who had published
the sequence, and Dr. J. G. Mead of the Smithsonian, who originally
described these animals, to discuss this finding. At Dr. Mead's invitation,
I travelled to the Smithsonian to examine the specimens."
"With the help of our Marsden Fund collaborators,
Drs S. J. O'Brien and N. Yukhi of the U. S. National Cancer Institute,
DNA was extracted from the teeth and dried tissue remains of the specimens
to confirm their genetic distinctiveness.
"However, before we can propose full taxonomic
recognition of the new species (and propose its name), we must first
evaluate the genetic status of the "holotype" specimen of
Hector's beaked whale held at the British Museum of Natural History.
"It is no coincidence that this specimen
was acquired from a stranding in Titahi Bay, New Zealand in 1866,"
Dalebout concludes.
Beaked whales, like this specimen of Cuvier's
beaked whale, strand frequently on New Zealand coasts but little is
known about them. norm marsh
For further information, contact C. Scott Baker
in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland
Phone: (09) 373 7599æx 4588
Email: cs.baker@auckland.ac.nz
Address: Private Bag 92 019, Auckland
Marsden at a glance
The Marsden Fund supports excellent research,
in a wide range of topics covering the sciences, social sciences, humanities
and engineering.
Each year, Government provides funding for projects
that will foster research of the highest calibre. This is work not subject
to Government priorities but which will nonetheless enhance New Zealand's
ability to participate in, and benefit from, research of an international
standard. Set up in 1994, the Marsden Fund is a contestable fund administered
by the Royal Society of New Zealand.
A Marsden Fund Committee of 10 eminent researchers,
chaired by Professor Diana Hill, is appointed by the Minister of Research,
Science and Technology to make recommendations for funding. Selection
criteria focus on the merit of the proposal, the potential of the researchers
to contribute to the advancement of knowledge, and the enhancement of
research skills in New Zealand, especially those of emerging researchers.
Eight panels have been established to help the
Marsden Fund Committee assess proposals. These are:
- Biochemical and Biomedical Sciences
- Humanities
- Cellular, Molecular and Physiological Biology
- Mathematical and Information Sciences
- Earth Sciences and Astronomy
- Physical Sciences and Engineering
- Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour
- Social Sciences
For more information and application forms, contact
the Marsden Fund c/o the Royal Society of New Zealand, 9 Turnbull St,
Thorndon, P O Box 598, Wellington, New Zealand.
Phone: (64Ü4) 472 8345
Fax: (64Ü4) 473 1409
Email: marsden@rsnz.govt.nz
Marsden Fund committee members,
Marsden staff, and contact details
1. Marsden Fund Committee
- Professor Diana Hill - AgResearch/University
of Otago
- Dr Jeff Tallon - Industrial Research Limited
- Professor Bruce Baguley - The University of
Auckland
- Dr Brent Clothier - Hort Research
- Dr Ian Ferguson - Hort Research
- Dr Robert Franich - New Zealand Forest Research
Institute
- Professor Rob Goldblatt - Victoria University
of Wellington
- Professor Paula Jameson - Massey University
- Professor Terry Sturm - The University of
Auckland
- Professor David Thorns - University of Canterbury
2. Marsden Fund staff
- Dr Valda McCann, Manager
Tel: +64-4-472 7421; email: mccann.v@rsnz.govt.nz
- Meredith O'Brien, Administration Officer
Tel: +64-4-472 8345;
- Dr Rachel Averill, Research Assessment
Tel: +64-4-472 7421; email: averill.r@rsnz.govt.nz
3. Contact details
The Marsden Fund, c/o the Royal Society of New
Zealand,
9 Turnbull St, Thorndon, PO Box 598, Wellington, New Zealand.
Tel: +64-4-472 8345; Fax: +64-4-473 1409;
Email: marsden@rsnz.govt.nz
4. Appeals (on procedural grounds only) may
be directed to:
The Chief Executive Officer, the Royal Society
of New Zealand, PO Box 598, Wellington
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