Carnegie Museum Research Articles

Imaging Pittsburgh: Creating a shared gateway to digital image collections of the Pittsburgh region

Imaging Pittsburgh: Creating a shared gateway to digital image collections of the Pittsburgh region by Edward A. Galloway The University of Pittsburgh’s Digital Research Library received a two-year grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to provide online access to multiple photographic collections held by the University’s Archives Service Center, Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. When the project ends in October 2004, the project team will have mounted over 7,000 visual images depicting the people, places and events of the greater Pittsburgh region during the mid–nineteenth and mid–twentieth centuries. Although the beta version of the Web site was released in February 2004, the project team will continue to develop the site and offer creative avenues for exploring the collections. This paper summarizes remarks made at Web–Wise 2004 Conference in Chicago.

SURVEYS FOR TERRESTRIAL AMPHIBIANS IN SHASTA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, WITH NOTES ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF SHASTA SALAMANDERS (HYDROMANTES SHASTAE)

As part of a larger effort to manage rare, forest-associated species on United States Forest Service [USFS] lands, we conducted surveys to examine the terrestrial amphibian fauna in the region north of Shasta Lake in Shasta County, California. Our goal was to assess species diversity of terrestrial amphibians in this area and attempt to identify new localities of the Shasta salamander (Hydromantes shastae). We chose our survey area based on the distribution of USFS lands, the known range of H. shastae, and past survey efforts (Fig. 1). We selected 40 Public Land Survey Sections from USGS 7.5' topographic maps for sampling. Sections within the study area were selected for survey based on the presence of a road or trail that allowed sufficient access for travel to and from the site and for sampling to occur in a single day. In each selected sectionr the largest stream crossing the primary access road or trail was chosen as the initiation point for surveys. Two surveyors searched 5-m wide meandering belts roughly parallel to the stream, 1 that began approximately 5 m and the other approximately 50 m from the stream edge. At the conclusion of 2 h search time or 0.8 km stream length the crew crossed the stream and repeated the procedure working in the opposite direction. An additional 1 person-hour opportunistic search (30 min/surveyor) was conducted in areas adjacent to the transects that the surveyors deemed most likely to harbor terrestrial salamanders. Searches were conducted by turning cover objects such as rocks and down wood. All surveyors had previous experience surveying for terrestrial amphibians. Surveys were conducted from January to March 2002, when air temperatures were between 1 and 19°C and substrates beneath cover objects were moist. Because a main target of our surveys was H. shastae, a known population was visited weekly as a reference site. All H. shasfae captured at newly discovered sites were deposited in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California at Berkeley, for use in assays of genetic diversity. All H. shastae captured at the reference site were released at the point of capture. All other captured reptiles and amphibians were identified to species, measured, and released. A map of historic H. shastae sites was compiled from museum collection records (American Museum of Natural History, California Academy of Sciences, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Field Museum of Natural History, Humboldt State University, Los Angeles County Museum, Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Sciences, Milwaukee Public Museum, Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collection, University of California Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of Texas Arlington, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology), observational reports from the ShastaTrinity National Forest, and unpublished observations (P Lewendal, Environmental Planner, State of California, Eureka, CA; L Lindstrand III, Fisheries/Wildlife Biologist, North State Resources, Inc., Redding, CA). We combined records that appeared to be from the same locality. If the precision of the observation was not sufficient to differentiate the location of 2 sites, they were considered 1 site. The known site information contains localities ranging from the recent detection of a single individual

Kid Size: The Material World of ChildhoodKid Size: The Material World of Childhood. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, April–August 2004; Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, December 2004–March 2005; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, April–September 2005.Alexander von Vegesack, Jutta Oldiges, and Lucy Bullivant, eds. Kid Size: The Material World of Childhood. Milan: Skira editore; Weil am Rhein,

<i>Kid Size: The Material World of Childhood</i><i>Kid Size: The Material World of Childhood</i>. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, April–August 2004; Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, December 2004–March 2005; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, April–September 2005.Alexander von Vegesack, Jutta Oldiges, and Lucy Bullivant, eds. <i>Kid Size: The Material World of Childhood.</i> Milan: Skira editore; Weil am Rhein,

An international legacy: selections from the Carnegie Museum of Art

An international legacy: selections from the Carnegie Museum of Art

PAINTED TURTLES (CHRYSEMYS PICTA) OF VERMONT: AN EXAMINATION OF PHENOTYPIC VARIATION AND INTERGRADATION

The painted turtle, Chrysemys picta Schneider (family Emydidae), has been divided into four subspecies (with differing morphological characteristics), two of which intergrade in the northeastern United States. The intergradation of C. p. marginata (midland painted turtle) and C. p. picta (eastern painted turtle) has been well studied in some areas, but has been poorly studied in Vermont, an area that could contribute important information on this species and the process of intergradation. Turtles were trapped and released from three different watersheds in Vermont, and others were examined from collections at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History from within the center of the ranges of the two parent subspecies to investigate the hypotheses that Vermont's turtles are intergrades, and that the amount of influence from each subspecies differs with drainage in Vermont. For the external characteristics of scute disalignment, scute border width, and plastral figure, many of Vermont's turtles were determined to be significantly different from typical marginata and picta, and were intermediate to them, strongly suggesting that they are intergrades. Samples from the southeast corner of the state were determined to be picta.

C. V. Hartman and Museum Anthropology a Century Ago

Dave Watters (Section of Anthropology, Carnegie Museum of Natural History) and Oscar Fonseca Zamora (University of Costa Rica, retired) are exploring aspects of the life of Carl Villielm Hartman (1862-1941), a Swedish botanist who changed careers to anthropology during the decade of the I 890. Hartman's transition began on Carl Lurnholtz's expedition (1890-1892) to the Sierra Madre region of Mexico. He took over responsibility for archaeological research from the expedition's first archaeologist, A. M. Stephen (Lurnholtz used only the initials) who almost certainly was Alexander McGregor Stephen, a somewhat mysterious early Southwestern anthropologist discussed by Don Fowler in A Laboratory of Anthropology (our gratitude to Don for making that connection). After that expedition, Hartman worked for F. W. Putnam and Pranz Boas at the World's Columbian Exposition for six months. He returned to Sweden and acquired superb archaeological field training under Hjalmar Stolpe who was working on Iron Age cemeteries. In 1896 he went to Central America on a three-year Swedish.sponsored anthropological expedition, spending about a year and a half conducting archaeological research in Costa Rica and an equivalent amount of time doing ethnographic research in El Salvador and Guatemala. He returned to Sweden in 1899 and worked as Stolpe's assistant at the Royal Ethnographical Museum, mounting an exhibit of his Costa Rican artifacts and publishing his first monograph (Hartman 1901) on Costa Rican archaeology. From this time forward, Hartman based his professional career exclusively in museums.

Bone wars: the excavation and celebrity of Andrew Carnegie's dinosaur

Less than one hundred years ago, Diplodocus camegii - named after industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie - was the most famous dinosaur on the planet. The most complete fossil skeleton unearthed to date, and one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered, Diplodocus was displayed in a dozen museums around the world and viewed by millions of people. Bone Wars explains how a fossil unearthed in the badlands of Wyoming in 1899 helped give birth to the public's fascination with prehistoric beasts. Rea also traces the evolution of scientific thought regarding dinosaurs, and reveals the double-crosses and behind-the-scenes deals that marked the early years of bone hunting. With the help of letters found in scattered archives, Tom Rea recreates a remarkable story of hubris, hope, and turn-of-the-century science. He focuses on the roles of five men: Wyoming fossil hunter Bill Reed; paleontologists Jacob Wortman - in charge of the expedition that discovered Mr. Carnegie's dinosaur-and John Bell Hatcher; William Holland, imperious director of the recently founded Carnegie Museum; and Carnegie himself, smitten with the colossal animals after reading a newspaper story in the New York Journal and Advertiser. What emerges is the picture of an era reminiscent of today: technology advancing by leaps and bounds; the press happy to sensationalize anything that turned up; huge amounts of capital ending up in the hands of a small number of people; and some devoted individuals placing honest research above personal gain.

IN MEMORIAM: DAVID B. PEAKALL, 1931–2001

and in 1933, Marguerite Heydweiller (later Mrs. Fred Baumgartner). Twomey's studies of the Bonaparte's Gull (Larus philadelphia) in northern Alberta and at Churchill were published in The Auk (1934). A popular account of his Churchill observations appeared in The Beaver (1937), and ecological studies with V. E. Shelford were published in Ecology. The collecting experience gained at Churchill led to lifetime employment at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh for both Lloyd and Twomey. At the Carnegie Museum, Twomey was an assistant and field collector in ornithology, July 1936 through 1944; associate curator, 1945; curator of ornithology, 1946-47, and then director of education, 1948 through retirement in December 1973. He studied the birds of the Uinta Basin, Utah, in 1937. His first major expedition to western Ungava, beginning in January 1938 and lasting into early September, with spring and summer spent on the Belcher Islands, was chronicled in his book, Needle to the North (1942). He collected in Chile (Tierra del Fuego), Peru and the Galapagos Islands in 1939. He took part in Mellon-financed big game hunting expeditions to Africa in 1960, 1961, 1963, and 1964. In 1948, he inaugurated the Carnegie Institute Society lecture series. Both before and after retirement he showed wildlife and travel movies of exotic places such as Africa, Afghanistan, Mongolia, and Russia. On his son's death, these movies and slides were donated to Carnegie. For information we thank Mrs. Claire Twomey of Fort Lee, New Jersey; Margie Jamieson, Twomey's daughter-in-law of Kimberly, British Columbia; and especially Robin Panza and Bernadette Callery at the Carnegie Museum.

From the Archives and Collections: Remarks on the Annals of Carnegie Museum’s centennial and the introduction of a new feature.

From the Archives and Collections: Remarks on the Annals of Carnegie Museum’s centennial and the introduction of a new feature.

Minerals of the Former Soviet Union in the Collections of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Minerals of the Former Soviet Union in the Collections of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Insect Telepresence: Using Robotic Tele-Embodiment to Bring Insects Face-to-Face with Humans

The Insect Telepresence project combines expertise from the robotics and human-computer interaction communities to create a robot exhibit that enables telepresence in scale. The underlying mission of this work is educational: to promote appreciation for insect life and small-scale complexity through exploration of live insect colonies. In this article we describe the robot hardware and software used to bring students face-to-face with insects. We also summarize the user-centered design process and formal HCI methods used to design and evaluate the Insect Telepresence robot. The complete working exhibit, now installed as a permanent robot-entomology station at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, is presented in this paper in words and pictures.

A Wilderness Apprenticeship: Olaus Murie in Canada, 1914–15 and 1917

In late May 1914, a large, gray Peterborough freight canoe carrying four men outfitted for a summer of scientific field work cleared the bank of Quebec's Bell River, 185 miles east of Cochrane, Ontario, and entered the northbound current heading for Hudson Bay., Among the four was Olaus J. Murie, a twenty-five-year-old American biologist. Murie's fellow travelers were the expedition leader, W. E. Clyde Todd, and Native American guides Paul Commanda and Jack (Jocko) Couchai. Todd, a curator of birds at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which sponsored the expedition, described the guides as Objibwa Indians of ability and intelligence.2 Although professionally unknown at the time, Murie became one of the world's premier biologists and a major environmental spokesperson. He later conducted seminal field studies of caribou and other faunal species in Alaska, performed a comprehensive scientific assessment of the wapiti or American elk in Wyoming's Jackson Hole and surrounding areas, and pioneered in the study of many other mammals and birds before his retirement in 1945. Murie played a local role in the expansion of Grand Teton National Park and later, as president and director of the Wilderness Society, worked to preserve a number of wild areas in the contiguous United States and Alaska including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He also extensively promoted and lobbied for passage of a national wilderness preservation system, which Congress established in the Wilderness Act of 1964, the year following Murie's death.3 Murie became a prolific author and award-winning conservationist. He wrote and illustrated numerous books including Alaska-Yukon Caribou and Fauna of the Aleutians andAlaska Peninsula, scientific monographs based on his fieldwork. The National Wildlife Society judged his comprehensive wapiti study, The Elk of North America, the outstanding publication on terrestrial wildlife in 1951. Murie wrote and illustrated A Field Guide to Animal Tracks in the acclaimed Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide Series. He shared authorship of Wapiti Wilderness with his wife, Margaret E. Murie, who also completed her husband's memoir, Journeys to the Far North, after his death. Writer and historian J. Frank Dobie personally selected

The presence of a calcaneum in a diplodocid sauropod

ABSTRACT Absence of an ossified calcaneum has been suggested as a synapomorphy of Diplodocidae and used to construct sauropod phylogenetic hypotheses. Restudy of sauropod material at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History revealed a diplodocid pes with an unknown ossified pedal element. The relatively complete pes, CM 30767, has been identified as Diplodocus. Comparisons with known sauropod calcanea, carpals, and phalanges, indicate that this element is a calcaneum. The presence of an ossified calcaneum in a diplodocid has important functional and systematic implications. Ossified calcanea may have helped to stabilize the pes during locomotion and assisted in the proper alignment and insertion of lateral plantar musculature. The unusual morphology and unreliable preservation of the sauropod calcaneum suggest that its presence or absence should not be used as a character state, nor should the absence of the calcaneum be used as a synapomorphy of Diplodocidae.

Establishing vertebrate paleontology at Chicago's Field Columbian Museum, 1893—1898

By the late nineteenth century, as a consequence of the costly, far-flung, labor-intensive, and specimen-centered nature of the discipline, American vertebrate paleontology had become centralized at large collections maintained by a few universities and major natural history museums. Foremost among the latter group were the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia; the American Museum of Natural History, New York; the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC; the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh; and the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago. There is an extensive body of popular and historical literature reviewing the establishment and early development of the vertebrate paleontology programs at most of these institutions, especially the American Museum. The Field Columbian Museum, however, has received relatively little attention in this literature. The present paper begins to redress this imbalance by reviewing the establishment of vertebrate paleontology at the Field Columbian Museum from the museum's foundation in 1893, through the end of 1898, when the museum added a vertebrate paleontologist to its curatorial staff. An account of the Field Columbian Museum's first expedition for fossil vertebrates in the summer of 1898 is included.

An affective mobile robot educator with a full-time job

Sage is a robot that has been installed at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History as a full-time autonomous member of the staff. Its goal is to provide educational content to museum visitors in order to augment their museum experience. This paper discusses all aspects of the related research and development. The functional obstacle avoidance system, which departs from the conventional occupancy grid-based approaches, is described. Sage's topological navigation system, using only color vision and odometric information, is also described. Long-term statistics provide a quantitative measure of performance over a nine month trial period. The process by which Sage's educational content and personality were created and evaluated in collaboration with the museum's Divisions of Education and Exhibits is explained. Finally, the ability of Sage to conduct automatic long-term parameter adjustment is presented.

Recent Distributional Records for Ten Species of Small Mammals in Pennsylvania

We surveyed collections and computerized data bases in the Shippensburg University Vertebrate Museum and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History's Section of Mammals to document noteworthy distributional records for ten species of small mammals of special concern or special scientific interest collected in Pennsylvania. These records are principally from the past 25 years. All records contained herein are documented by voucher specimens in the two museums surveyed. The ten species are: rock shrew (Sorex dispar), pygmy shrew (S. hoyi), water shrew (S. palustris), least shrew (Cryptotis parva), small-footed myotis (Myotis leibii), northern Myotis (M. septentrionalis), sil- ver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans), northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus), rock vole (Microtus chrotorrhinus), and southern bog lemming (Synaptomys cooperi). The number of new voucher specimens ranged from three in Cryptotis parva to 233 in Sorex hoyi. The number of new county records ranged from zero in M. leibii and G. sabrinus to 10 each in S. dispar and S. hoyi.

Two spinal cords in birds: novel insights into early avian evolution

Restricted accessMoreSectionsView PDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Cite this article Woodbury C. Jeffery 1998Two spinal cords in birds: novel insights into early avian evolutionProc. R. Soc. Lond. B.2651721–1729http://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1998.0494SectionRestricted accessTwo spinal cords in birds: novel insights into early avian evolution C. Jeffery Woodbury C. Jeffery Woodbury Department of Ornithology, American Museum of Natural History, 79th Street and Central ParkWest, NewYork, New York 10024, USA [email protected] Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author C. Jeffery Woodbury C. Jeffery Woodbury Department of Ornithology, American Museum of Natural History, 79th Street and Central ParkWest, NewYork, New York 10024, USA [email protected] Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author Published:22 September 1998https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1998.0494AbstractBirds can be subdivided into two large superordinal assemblages based on differences in the dorsal horn of the spinal grey matter. Palaeognaths (i.e. ratites and tinamous), along with a few other orders of neognathous birds, exhibit the primitive dorsal horn state characteristic of other amniotes wherein cutaneous nerves form a single map of the body surface across the dorsal horn. In contrast, the vast majority of neognaths exhibit a novel, distinctly bifid dorsal horn wherein cutaneous nerves form not one, but two separate maps of the skin, each lying side–by–side. This unusual dorsal horn organization, which has been highly conserved and represents the derived state in birds, may identify a novel, major avian clade. These findings shed new light on historically problematic taxa and the early evolutionary branching sequence among living birds. Most notably, they reveal that the traditional orders Gruiformes, Columbiformes, Cuculiformes and Piciformes are unnatural assemblages. Further, in addition to palaeognaths, these findings suggest that most gruiforms, including buttonquails and mesites, as well as pigeons, cuckoos, woodpeckers and songbirds, represent ancient lineages whose ancestry predates the majority of ‘modern’ birds. The phylogeny of living birds may thus be likened more to a dense bush than the traditional tree, with more than half of all living species arising from a basal side branch. Previous ArticleNext Article VIEW FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD PDF FiguresRelatedReferencesDetailsCited by Wild J (2015) The Avian Somatosensory System Sturkie's Avian Physiology, 10.1016/B978-0-12-407160-5.00005-1, (55-69), . Livezey B (2009) Phylogenetics of Modern Shorebirds (Charadriiformes) Based on phenotypic Evidence: I—Characterization, Bulletin of Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 10.2992/013.040.0101, 40, (1-96), Online publication date: 1-Dec-2009. Evrard H (2006) Estrogen synthesis in the spinal dorsal horn: a new central mechanism for the hormonal regulation of pain, American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 10.1152/ajpregu.00930.2005, 291:2, (R291-R299), Online publication date: 1-Aug-2006. LIVEZEY and ZUSI (2006) PHYLOGENY OF NEORNITHES, Bulletin of Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 10.2992/0145-9058(2006)37[1:PON]2.0.CO;2, 37, (1-544), Online publication date: 1-Jun-2006. Posso S and Donatelli R (2006) Análise filogenética e implicações sistemáticas e evolutivas nos Cuculiformes (Aves) com base na osteologia, comportamento e ecologia, Revista Brasileira de Zoologia, 10.1590/S0101-81752006000300003, 23:3, (608-629), Online publication date: 1-Sep-2006. Mayr G and Clarke J (2005) The deep divergences of neornithine birds: a phylogenetic analysis of morphological characters, Cladistics, 10.1111/j.1096-0031.2003.tb00387.x, 19:6, (527-553), Online publication date: 1-Dec-2003. Woodbury C, Ritter A and Koerber H (2001) Central anatomy of individual rapidly adapting low-threshold mechanoreceptors innervating the ?hairy? skin of newborn mice: Early maturation of hair follicle afferents, The Journal of Comparative Neurology, 10.1002/cne.1069, 436:3, (304-323), Online publication date: 30-Jul-2001. Woodbury C, Ritter A and Koerber H (2000) On the problem of lamination in the superficial dorsal horn of mammals: A reappraisal of the substantia gelatinosa in postnatal life, The Journal of Comparative Neurology, 10.1002/(SICI)1096-9861(20000131)417:1<88::AID-CNE7>3.0.CO;2-U, 417:1, (88-102), Online publication date: 31-Jan-2000. Homberger D and de Silva K (2000) Functional Microanatomy of the Feather-Bearing Integument: Implications for the Evolution of Birds and Avian Flight, American Zoologist, 10.1093/icb/40.4.553, 40:4, (553-574), Online publication date: 1-Aug-2000. Homberger D and de Silva K (2000) Functional Microanatomy of the Feather-Bearing Integument: Implications for the Evolution of Birds and Avian Flight1, American Zoologist, 10.1668/0003-1569(2000)040[0553:FMOTFB]2.0.CO;2, 40:4, (553-574), Online publication date: 1-Aug-2000. Tuinen M, Sibley C and Hedges S (2000) The Early History of Modern Birds Inferred from DNA Sequences of Nuclear and Mitochondrial Ribosomal Genes, Molecular Biology and Evolution, 10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a026324, 17:3, (451-457), Online publication date: 1-Mar-2000. Dubbeldam J (2008) The Sensory Trigeminal System in Birds: Input, Organization and Effects of Peripheral Damage. A Review, Archives of Physiology and Biochemistry, 10.1076/apab.106.5.338.4367, 106:5, (338-345), Online publication date: 1-Jan-1998. This Issue22 September 1998Volume 265Issue 1407 Article InformationDOI:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1998.0494Published by:Royal SocietyPrint ISSN:0962-8452Online ISSN:1471-2954History: Published online22/09/1998Published in print22/09/1998 License: Citations and impact Keywordsspinal cordsystematicsphylogenydorsal hornevolutionbirds Large datasets are available through Proceedings B's partnership with Dryad

Carnegie Museum of Natural History Presents: A New Mineral Showcase

Carnegie Museum of Natural History Presents: A New Mineral Showcase

Birds and beasts of ancient Latin America

Elizabeth P. Benson provides an engaging overview of the depiction of animals in the pre-Columbian art of Latin America. Drawing on an extensive set of images (many of them previously unpublished) from the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and the Florida Museum of Natural History, she examines the practical, ritualistic, and mythic importance of animals in pre-Columbian life as well as the meanings that animals still have for the modern descendants of those indigenous peoples. Conveniently arranged by animal groups and beautifully illustrated, Benson's survey encompasses all artistic media and spans the pre-Columbian cultures of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Providing information on animals and the beliefs surrounding them, the cultural contexts of their depiction, and the cultures to which they were important, Birds and Beasts of Ancient Latin America will appeal to archaeologists, cultural hisorians, and anthropologists; to anyone interested in pre-Columbian art and mythology; and to modern-day bird and animal lovers.

Polymorphic Characters in Phylogenetic Systematics

?The use of discrete, intraspecifkally variable characters in parsimony analysis is re? viewed. Seven data sets (two from morphology and five from allozymes) were analyzed to (1) compare different methods for treating polymorphic characters, (2) test for phylogenetic infor? mation in polymorphic characters, and (3) determine if there is a relationship between homoplasy and intraspecific variability. The performance of eight methods was compared using five criteria (number of characters treated as informative, number of shortest trees, phylogenetic signal, num? ber of nodes supported by bootstrapping, and sensitivity to reduced sample size). Approaches that incorporate explicit frequency information perform best overall for all the criteria, although the majority'' method ties for best for the bootstrapping criterion. Levels of phylogenetic infor? mation in the polymorphic characters differed greatly among data sets and methods. Polymorphic characters in most data sets contained significant phylogenetic structure using most methods, but only one, the frequency method, extracted significant signal from the polymorphic characters in all seven data sets. Fixed characters appear to contain more signal than polymorphic characters, and homoplasy is significantly and positively correlated with intraspecific variability. This study supports the traditional view that polymorphic characters are less reliable in inferring phylogeny but does not necessarily support their exclusion. Systematists working with morphological data often do not report intraspecific variation, the frequencies of different traits, or how polymorphic characters are screened and analyzed; this situation should change. [Polymorphic characters; char? acter coding; character selection; character weighting; homoplasy; allozymes; morphology] Polymorphism, used herein as discrete variation within species that is indepen? dent of ontogenetic and sexual variation, is a ubiquitous problem in phylogenetic anal? ysis. If characters evolve, they must vary within species, at least at some point in their history. Yet, there is a long tradition in systematics of excluding characters in which polymorphism is observed. This practice is evident from the scarcity of phylogenetic studies that report intraspe? cific variation but is difficult to document explicitly because systematists seldom mention the characters that are excluded, rarely give explicit criteria for discarding nonfixed characters, and justify this exclu? sion even less frequently. Presumably, the basis for excluding polymorphic characters is that they are less reliable in phylogenetic inference (e.g., Darwin, 1859; Simpson, 1961; Farris, 1966; Kluge and Farris, 1969; Mayr, 1969) and have traditionally been difficult to deal with analytically (e.g., Wi1 Present address: Section of Amphibians and Rep? tiles, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pitts? burgh, Pennsylvania 15213-4080, USA. E-mail: wiens@clpgh.org. ley, 1981). Despite the general stigma as? sociated with polymorphic characters, a number of methods have been developed for their treatment (mostly in the context of analysis of allozyme data), and the rel? ative merits of these methods have been deba ed vigorously (e.g., Farris, 1981; Mickevich and Mitter, 1981, 1983; Buth, 1984; Swofford and Berlocher, 1987; Crother, 1990; Campbell and Frost, 1993; Mabee and Humphries, 1993; Murphy, 1993). Few studies have used analyses of real data sets to examine the properties of polymorphic characters and to compare the different methods for using them (Mickevich and Mitter, 1981; Campbell and Frost, 1993). In this paper, I review the problem of using discrete, intraspecifically variable characters in parsimony analysis. Specifi? cally, I address three questions: (1) What is the best method for phylogenetic analysis of polymorphic characters? (2) Do poly? morphic characters contain useful phylo? genetic information? (3) Is there a relation? ship between levels of intraspecific variability and homoplasy in systematic characters? These questions are addressed