: Casgliadau ac Ymchwil

A Day in the Life of a Natural History Curator

My name is Jennifer Gallichan and I am one of the natural history curators at National Museum Cardiff. I care for the Mollusc (i.e. snails, slugs, mussels, and octopus) and Vertebrate (things with backbones) collections. Just like everybody else, museum curators are adapting to working from home. But what did we use to do on a 'normal' day, before the days of lockdown?

Caring for the National Collections

Most of our specimens are not on display. Amgueddfa Cymru holds 3.5 million natural history specimens and the majority are held behind the scenes in stores. Caring for the collections is an important part of our role as curators. We have to meticulously catalogue the specimens to ensure that all of the specimens are accounted for. As you can imagine, finding one object amongst 3.5 million could take a while.

Natural history collections cover a whole range of materials including shells, dried plants, minerals, fossils, stuffed animals, bones, pinned insects and fluid preserved specimens (this includes things in jars).

These collections are vital for research, education, exhibitions and display. Some have been in the museum for well over a century, and it is our role to ensure they last into the next century and beyond. We work with specially trained Conservators to monitor the collections and highlight anything that might be at risk, needs cleaning or repair.

Answering your Questions

We spend a lot of time working with you, our fantastic visitors. Much of our time is spent answering the thousands of enquiries we receive every year from families, school children, amateur scientists, academics of all kinds, journalists and many more. We also host open days and national events throughout the year which are another great opportunity to share the collections. Many of us are STEM (Science, Technology Engineering & Mathematics) ambassadors, so an important part of our role inspiring and engaging the next generation of scientists.

Working with Volunteers

Our museums are crammed full of fascinating objects and interesting projects to inspire and enjoy. We spend a lot of time with our excellent volunteers, helping them to catalogue and conserve the collections, guiding them through the often intricate and tricky jobs that it has taken us decades to perfect.

Working with Other Museums

Museums across the world are connected by a huge network of curators. We oversee loans of specimens to all parts of the globe so that we can share and learn from each other’s collections. We have to be ready to deal with all manner of tricky scenarios such as organising safe transport of a scientifically valuable shell, or packing up and transporting a full sized Bison for exhibition.

Working with Visitors

Despite the fact that a large part of the collections are behind the scenes, they are open to visitors. Researchers from across the globe come to access our fantastic collections to help with their studies. We also host tours of the collections on request.

Making Collections Bigger and Better

Despite having millions of specimens, museum collections are not static and continue to grow every year. Be it an old egg collection found in an attic, or a prize sawfish bill that has been in the family for generations, it’s an important part of a curator’s job to inspect and assess each and every object that we are offered. Is it a scientifically important collection or rare? Has it been collected legally? Do we know where and when it was collected? Is it in a good condition? Do we have the space?

Creating New Exhibitions

A fun part of the job is working with our brilliant Exhibitions department to develop and install new exhibitions. We want museums to be exciting and inspiring places for everyone so we spend a lot of time making sure that the information and specimens we exhibit are fun, engaging, inspiring and thought provoking.

Being Scientists

Last but definitely not least, when we aren’t doing all of the above, we are doing actual science. Museums are places of learning for visitors and staff alike. Many of us are experts in our field and undertake internationally-recognised research. This research might find us observing or collecting specimens out in the field, sorting and identifying back in the lab, describing new species or researching the millions of specimens already in the collections.

Museums from Home?

Despite lockdown, we are working hard to keep the collections accessible. We’re answering queries, engaging with people online, writing research papers and chipping away at collection jobs from home. And like all of you, we are very much looking forward to when the museum opens its doors once again.

If you want to find out more about the things we get up to in the museum, why not check us out on Twitter or follow our blog? You can also find out more about all of the members of the Natural Sciences department here.

Roedd Augusta Hall, Arglwyddes Llanofer ( 21 Mawrth 1892 – 17 Ionawr 1896) yn eiriolwr ac yn gefnogwr brwd i Ddiwydiant Gwlân Cymru a thraddodiadau ein Cenedl. Yn Eisteddfod Genedlaethol 1834 cyflwynodd draethawd yn dwyn y teitl `Y Manteision yn Deillio o Gadw'r Iaith Gymraeg a'r Wisg Draddodiadol' ac ennillodd y wobr gyntaf. Cymerodd yr enw barddol "Gwenynen Gwent".

Gwisg Telynor o Stâd Llanofer

Yn 1865 comisiynodd adeiladu Melin Wlân Gwenffrwd ar ystâd Llanofer ger y Fenni. Cyflawnodd y felin yr holl weithrediadau ar gyfer cynhyrchu gwlân a chynhyrchu brethyn trwm a oedd yn cael ei wneud yn ddillad i'r gweithwyr yn y tŷ ac ar y stad.

Gwisg Telynor o Stâd Llanofer

Gwnaed deunydd o'r felin hefyd yn ddillad i Arglwyddes Llanofer a'i ffrindiau, wedi'u steilio ar ei syniadau ei hun o wisg draddodiadol Gymreig. Parhaodd y felin i gynhyrchu tan y 1950au gan ddefnyddio offer a osodwyd gan Arglwyddes Llanofer.

Gweithiwr ym Melin Wlân Gwenffrwd

Most gardeners regard horsetails or scouring rushes (Equisetum) as one of their worst enemies – once this invasive weed is in your garden or allotment, it will spread everywhere and is almost impossible to get rid of (Fig. 1). But of course from the plant’s perspective this is a success story – they are doing what is best for them, not for us!

Today, this genus of highly invasive plants consists of only 15 species (Fig. 2), but they are found throughout the world except in Antarctica. They also have an immensely long evolutionary history spanning over 350 million years.

Fossils of horsetails are commonly found in the Carboniferous age coalfields such as in South Wales. The star-shaped leaf whorls (Annularia) are among the iconic fossils found in these rocks. We now know they were parts of tree-sized plants up to 10 metres or more tall – I have often wondered what today’s gardeners would think if they encountered a living one of these giants!

A couple of years ago, my colleague Pedro Correia sent me a photograph of a fossil Annularia that he had found in Portugal (Fig. 3). In itself, this wouldn’t have been too unusual, but this one had a strange structure attached among the leaves. It almost looked as though it was a seed but of course that was impossible – horsetails do not have seeds, but reproduce by spores, in the same way as ferns. We shared this photograph with other European colleagues and a debate ensued as to what on Earth this could be. For a time it remained a puzzle. But then we showed it to another colleague, Conrad Labandeira from the Smithsonian Institution (Washington DC), who is one of the world’s leading palaeontological experts on insect – plant interactions. He suggested that this was probably a structure known as a gall.  Most galls today are produced when an insect injects chemicals into the plant to produce a swelling, in which it lays an egg. The resulting larva then develops within the gall.

There is evidence of Annularia leaves having been eaten by insects, such a chew-marks around the leaf edge. Conrad had also published evidence some years ago of an insect gall in a Carboniferous tree fern stem. But a gall on a Carboniferous horsetail is most unusual.  For a time we thought this example might be unique. But we then found a paper published back in 1931 by the American palaeobotanist Maxim Elias, who claimed to have found a seed attached to an Annularia. But it is now clear that Elias hadn’t in fact discovered a seed-bearing Annularia, as he had thought, but an insect gall similar to ours.

Fossil galls of this age are extremely rare. What insect produced this one is unknown. The organism was not preserved and most of today’s gall-producing insect groups do not have a fossil record extending this far back in time. All that we can say is that it was probably caused by a member of a now-extinct insect group that presumably produced larvae as part of its life cycle (Fig. 4).

Most horsetails have thick, almost leathery stems and I still find it rather strange that insects produce galls on them. But they do today on at least some horsetails, and it has clearly been of benefit to insects for millions of years. We haven’t yet found one in the Welsh coalfields but, now we know what to look out for, we will be keeping our eyes open!

Correia, P., Bashforth, A.R., Šimůnek, Z., Cleal, C.J., Sá, A.A. & Labandeira, C.C. 2020. The history of herbivory on sphenophytes: a new calamitalean with an insect gall from the Upper Pennsylvanian of Portugal and a review of arthropod herbivory on an ancient lineage. International Journal of Plant Sciences, 181(4).

In my previous blog I explained what rafting bivalve shells are and how Caribbean bivalves are ending up on British and Irish shores attached to plastics. There are numerous records of non-native bivalves on plastics in the southwest of Ireland and England but nothing has yet been reported in Wales, which is something that I’m trying to rectify. To encourage recording I’m enlisting citizen scientists – volunteers from the general public – who can help to spot and identify these rafting species in Wales. But first of all, I want to check to see if there are rafting species turning up on our shores so I began talking to groups who already go out on the shores to survey, beach clean or educate.

 

In December 2019 I met with a fantastic group of people at PLANED in Narbeth. PLANED have excellent coastal community links and everyone I spoke to was enthusiastic and willing to incorporate the rafting bivalves project into their usual activities of beach cleans, foraging, outdoor activities or education.  They were keen to help record any rafting species that they discover and we talked about how to identify any bivalves found. Since then I have been working on an identification guide that I plan to develop with the help of these community groups.

 

In February 2020 I met up with 35 people at the Pembrokeshire Coast National Parks offices in Pembroke Dock. They were eager to learn more about non-native bivalves on plastics. After lunch, those daring enough braved the freezing temperatures and gales to carry out a mini beach clean at Freshwater West beach. We found a lot of large plastic items in less than half an hour which we brought back to the car park for a closer look. Even though there were a lot of pelagic goose barnacles (stalked crustaceans related to crabs and lobsters that attach to flotsam) on some items, proving that the items had been floating in the ocean for a long time, no non-native bivalves were found.

In early March two colleagues and I attended the annual Porcupine Marine Natural History Society’s

conference where I presented the project and had several more offers of eyes on the ground to record and test the identification guide, which is great news.  I’ve also set up a Facebook page where volunteers can post images of any suspected non-native bivalves for me to identify. I’m hoping to meet up with several more groups later in the year to ask them to look for these pesky hitchikers so we can find out if and where they are attempting a Welsh invasion!

If you would like to help record non-native bivalves on plastics on Welsh beaches then do contact me at Anna.Holmes@museumwales.ac.uk

 

Mae Amgueddfa Wlân Cymru yn Nrefach Felindre yn gartref i gasgliad cynhwysfawr o offer a pheiriannau sy'n ymwneud â hanes prosesu cnu gwlân yn frethyn. Mae yno hefyd gasgliad tecstilau gwastad cenedlaethol a'r casgliad gorau o flancedi gwlân Cymreig gyda lleolbwynt wedi'i dogfennu sy'n dyddio'n ôl i'r 1850au. Mae'r rhain yn amrywio o flancedi tapestri brethyn dwbl mawr sydd bellach yn gasgladwy iawn, i flancedi iwtiliti sengl, gwyn o'r Ail Ryfel Byd. Yn y blog hwn, mae Mark Lucas, Curadur Casgliad y Diwydiant Gwlân ar gyfer Amgueddfa Cymru, yn rhannu ei wybodaeth am dreftadaeth blancedi Cymreig a rhai enghreifftiau gwych o'r casgliad pwysig hwn.

 

Yn draddodiadol roedd blancedi Cymreig yn rhan o ddrôr waelod priodferched. Roedd pâr o flancedi Cymreig hefyd yn anrheg briodas gyffredin. Byddent yn teithio pellteroedd mawr gyda’u perchnogion yn ystod y Chwyldro Diwydiannol, wrth iddynt chwilio am waith. Felly, mae blancedi Cymru wedi ffeindio’u ffordd ledled y byd, gan ychwanegu ychydig o esthetig cartrefol i ystafell yn ystod y dydd, cynhesrwydd yn y nos a chysylltiad pwysig i adref.

 

Blancedi Lled Cul

Blanced Lled Cul - dau hyd cul wedi'u pwytho gyda'i gilydd.

Blancedi lled cul oedd y cynharaf, wedi'u gwehyddu ar wŷdd sengl. Fe'u gwnaed o ddau led gul wedi'u gwnïo gyda’i gilydd â llaw i ffurfio blanced fwy. Blancedi gwŷdd sengl o'r math hwn oedd yn gyffredin cyn troad yr ugeinfed ganrif pan ddatblygwyd gwŷdd dwbl a oedd yn galluogi gwehyddu lled ehangach o ffabrig. Fodd bynnag, ni throsodd llawer o'r melinau llai i’r gwŷdd dwbl, ac o ganlyniad, roedd blancedi lled cul yn parhau i gael eu cynhyrchu mewn symiau sylweddol yn ystod y 1920au, 30au a hyd yn oed yn ddiweddarach.   

 

Blancedi Plad

Blanced Plad

Roedd patrymau plad yn boblogaidd yn ystod y bedwaredd ganrif ar bymtheg, fel arfer yn cynnwys lliwiau cryf yn erbyn cefndir hufen naturiol. Roedd cyflwyno llifynnau synthetig ar ddiwedd y 19eg ganrif yn caniatáu i wehyddion gymysgu mwy o edafedd lliw i'r dyluniadau, gyda rhai cyfuniadau lliw yn gynnil, eraill yn drawiadol. Parhaodd llawer o felinau llai i ddefnyddio llifynnau naturiol ymhell i'r 20fed ganrif. Gwnaed y llifynnau naturiol o fadr a cochineal ar gyfer coch, glaslys ac indigo ar gyfer glas, ac aeron a chen amrywiol ar gyfer arlliwiau eraill. Mae gan yr Amgueddfa Wlân Genedlaethol ei gardd llifyn naturiol ei hun ac mae'n cynnal cyrsiau a sgyrsiau trwy gydol y flwyddyn ar liwio naturiol.

 

Blancedi Tapestri

Blanced Tapsistri Cymru

Tapestri Cymru yw'r term sy'n cael ei rhoi i flancedi gwehyddu brethyn dwbl, gan gynhyrchu patrwm ar y ddwy ochr sy'n gildroadwy ac sydd erbyn hyn, yn eicon i ddiwydiant gwlân Cymru. Mae enghreifftiau o flancedi tapestri Cymru wedi goroesi o'r ddeunawfed ganrif ac mae llyfr patrwm o 1775 gan William Jones o Holt yn Sir Ddinbych, yn dangos llawer o wahanol enghreifftiau o batrymau tapestri. Blancedi wnaed gyntaf o frethyn dwbl, ond arweiniodd ei lwyddiant fel cynnyrch ar werth i dwristiaid yn y 1960au, at ei ddefnyddio i wneud dillad, matiau bwrdd, matiau diod, nodau tudalen, pyrsiau, bagiau llaw a chas sbectol. Oherwydd gwydnwch y gwehyddu brethyn dwbl, mae'r deunydd hefyd wedi'i ddefnyddio ar gyfer rygiau cildroadwy a charpedu.   

 

Blancedi Melgell

Blanced Melgell

Mae blancedi melgell yn gymysgedd o liwiau llachar a meddal. Fel y mae'r enw'n awgrymu mae'r wyneb wedi'i wehyddu i gynhyrchu effaith waffl sgwâr dwfn gan roi ymddangosiad melgell i'r flanced. Mae'r math hwn o wehyddu yn cynhyrchu blanced sy'n gynnes ac yn ysgafn.

Gyda'r sylw presennol a rhoir i flancedi Cymreig fel eitem addurniadol yn y cartref, mae yna lawer o ddiddordeb mewn hen flancedi, eu patrymau, a’u dyluniadau. Mae blancedi hynafol wedi dod yn boblogaidd iawn gyda dylunwyr cartref ac maent i'w gweld yn helaeth mewn cylchgronau décor cartref. Fe'u defnyddir fel tafliadau a gorchuddion gwelyau mewn cartrefi modern, gyda llawer o ddylunwyr tecstilau blaenllaw yn ogystal â myfyrwyr yn ymchwilio i hen batrymau er mwyn cael ysbrydoliaeth ar gyfer eu dyluniadau newydd.    

Blanced Caernarfon

Daw llawer o’r enghreifftiau gwych yng nghasgliad blancedi’r Amgueddfa o felinau ledled Cymru a roddodd y gorau i’w cynhyrchu ers talwm. Uchafbwynt yw'r casgliad o Flancedi Caernarfon. Cynhyrchwyd y rhain ar wyddiau Jacquard mewn ystod o liwiau. Dim ond ychydig o felinau a ddefnyddiodd wyddiau Jacquard, a all wneud dyluniadau a lluniau cymhleth. Mae blancedi Caernarfon yn dangos dau lun, un gyda Chastell Caernarfon gyda'r geiriau CYMRU FU a llun o Brifysgol Aberystwyth gyda'r geiriau CYMRU FYDD. Credir i'r blancedi hyn gael eu gwneud gyntaf yn y 1860au, a'u cynhyrchu diwethaf ar gyfer arwisgiad y Tywysog Siarl ym 1969. Mae rhodd ddiweddar i'r Amgueddfa yn enghraifft gynharach o'r flanced sy'n cynnwys dwy ddelwedd o gastell Caernarfon. Wedi'i wehyddu â llaw, mae'n cynnwys gwall sillafu – gyda Chaernarfon yn ffurf Saesneg yr enw: Carnarvon.