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 Calendar of Events
JANUARY—Biodiversity in The Neotropics
About one quarter of all the plant and animal species on Earth occur in the tropics of Central and South America. Why are these habitats so diverse? Join Field Museum scientists as they explore this and other questions.
Share their excitement as they discover new species, and see how their discoveries have helped preserve Neotropical habitats through the formation of national parks and reserves.
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FEATURED SCIENTIST
 Michael Dillon, Ph.D.
Botany Department
Curator and Head of Vascular Plants
Michael Dillon is an expert on the flowering plants of the Neotropics, a region from Mexico down to the tip of South America that holds some of the most diverse plant life in the world. In the past 30 years, Dillon has conducted more than 40 expeditions to look for flowering plants in unexplored places—most recently along the Andes Mountains in Chile and Peru.
Dillon catalogs the flowering plants he finds, determines which ones are threatened, and helps local citizens and scientists learn more about their natural resources. In 1995, he launched the Andean Botanical Information System (www.sacha.org), a website with more than 1,000 photographs and 2,000 pages of information on Andean plants in English and Spanish.
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PUBLIC PROGRAMS
January 10
9 – 11 a.m. |
Adult Behind-the-Scenes Tour: “Plants and Animals of the Neotropics”
9 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
$18, members $15
Registration Required (312) 665-7400
Come discover the Neotropics! Explore the tropical vegetation and unique animals of Central and South America. View a slide show of these rare finds, including poison-dart frogs, hummingbirds, and new world monkeys. Then, take a behind-the-scenes tour through the Museum’s Botany department. |
| 2 p.m. |
Scientist Roundtable: “Biodiversity in the Neotropics”
Barry Chernoff, Bruce Patterson, Doug Stotz, and Robin Foster
Adult and Family Program
Free with Museum Admission
Did you know that the New World tropics—from Mexico down to the southern tip of South America—are home to approximately a quarter of Earth’s plant and animal species, with dozens of new species discovered each year?
See slides of field expeditions and hear about the work of three Field Museum scientists who work in the Neotropics. Scientists will discuss the challenges of inventorying species in the hyper-diverse tropics. The process of assessing the conservation status of the region’s habitats, emphasizing its bird faunas, will also be a focus of the lecture.
In addition, scientists will talk about a unique project to understand the workings of a tropical rainforest. Where they have tracked up to 300,000 individual plants through time at each of 14 different sites throughout the Tropics.
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| 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. |
Scientists at The Field: Jim Louderman
Adult and Family Program
Free with Museum Admission
Stanley Field Hall
Meet Field Museum scientists to learn about their research! See rarely displayed specimens from our collections and ask on-the-spot questions. Learn about the abundance of butterfly and moth species that can be found throughout the Neotropics. |
Year-round
Thursday & Fridays
12:30 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday
11:30 a.m.
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Gallery Tour—All Things Living: Explore Biodiversity
All Ages
Free with Museum Admission
Explore fragile ecosystems as you learn about Field Museum scientist’s latest research.
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FEATURED EXHIBITION
Plants of the World
See the world’s largest museum exhibition devoted solely to plants. Explore plant life from its simplest form—algae—to its most complex—orchids. View a magnificent collection of plant and flower models and large dioramas of five different botanical scenes: the seacoast of Maine; an Illinois woodland in spring; the Rocky Mountain alpines in summer; water lilies of the Amazon River; and the rare Welwitschia plants of the Namib Desert in Africa.
Permanent Exhibition
 Eviction and Homecoming: The Story of Brazil’s Panará Indians
Follow one indigenous community’s triumphant struggle to reclaim their homeland and cultural identity. Dramatic photographs document the inspiring story of persistence and perseverance of the Panará Indians of Brazil, who nearly disappeared in the 1970s when construction of a Transamazonian highway brought close contact with the industrialized world.
Exiled to a reservation, the community endured devastation and displacement for 20 years, until the surviving members won a landmark court battle to reclaim their rainforest homeland.
Open September 12, 2003 – February 8, 2004.
This exhibition was developed by Instituto Socioambiental, Brazil, in collaboration with The Field Museum.
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RELATED LINKS
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Introduction | Investigate Biodiversity | YBC | Meet the Scientist | Explore Global Diversity | Events and Programs | Take Action! | Teaching Biodiversity | Biodiversity Exhibition | Credits
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