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BEN # 202
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No. 202 September 12, 1998
aceska@victoria.tc.ca Victoria, B.C.
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Dr. A. Ceska, P.O.Box 8546, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 3S2
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DANIEL ISAAC AXELROD (1910 - 1998)
Prof. Daniel Isaac Axelrod, paleobotanist in the University of
California, Davis, a Research Associate of Berkeley Museum of
Paleontology, and a founding member of the Southern Connection
passed away on the 2nd of June 1998 of heart failure at the age
of almost 88. He was born July 10, 1910, in New York, moved soon
to Guam and then Hawaii, where he became familiar with tropical
plants (and surfing on long, heavy redwood planks!). He then
returned with his family to Oakland, California, where he joined
the Boy Scouts and roamed the Oakland-Berkeley hills with his
life-long friend, Cordell Durrell. Cord played a major role in
Ax's life, first in school at Berkeley, then at UCLA, and
finally by bringing him to UC Davis in 1967.
Axelrod was known for his extremely careful collection and
documentation of fossil floras from throughout the western
United States and his stimulating theoretical and synthetic
papers on topics as diverse as angiosperm evolution, climate and
evolution, dinosaur extinction, early Cambrian animal radiation,
Quaternary mammal extinctions, plate tectonics and paleobotany,
and many, many more. His work always involved careful com-
parisons to modern vegetation, which he studied in many parts of
the world. Although he was not always right, he understood
clearly how science and the method of multiple working
hypotheses worked. He was excited to propose alternative
hypotheses and knew from Darwin (who Ax said had it all right to
begin with) that it was very valuable to do so and to reject
those that failed. For example, in 1963, he had the guts to
publish a paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research called
"Fossil floras suggest stable, not drifting, continents". His
timing was bad, in that the plate tectonic revolution was about
to begin, but when it was apparent that his hypothesis was
disproved, he quickly reanalysized his data and fully embraced
the alternative idea that fossil floras suggest drifting, not
stable, continents! He was a superb scientist!
He began publishing papers while a student at the University of
California, Berkeley, in 1934. His publications were numerous
and continued to the day he died, for he was working on several
monographs on western North American floras that he collected or
recollected in recent years. His work was supported largely by
the Carnegie Institution and the National Science Foundation
over most of his career. He collected tens of thousands of
fossil plant specimens during this time, and recently donated
them to the UC Museum of Paleontology, including a huge number
of types. In recognition of his accomplishments in paleobotany,
the Paleontological Society presented him with it's highest
honor, the Society's Medal, in 1990 (Journal of Paleontology,
65:520-523). It was only one of several honors he received
throughout his career.
Axelrod received his B.A. at Berkeley (1933), and returned after
working with the California Forest Service for 2 years to do a
M.A. (1936) and Ph.D. (1938) on Tertiary floras under the
guidance of Professor Ralph Chaney. He spent two years as a
post-doc at the National Museum and the Carnegie Institution in
Washington, D.C. He then joined the service and did photo inter-
pretation for American operations in the Pacific. Axelrod began
his academic career in the Geology Department at UCLA right
after WW II, and moved to the Geology and Botany Departments at
UC Davis in 1967. He served for a year as Chair of the Geology
Department, and did a masterful job. But research was his call-
ing and he relished it and teaching research-oriented courses in
paleobotany. After his retirement in 1976, he continued his
studies as if nothing had changed, going into his office/lab
everyday to study and write. He always arrived about 5 in the
morning and worked until 4 pm. I saw him a couple of months ago
in Davis and he told me he had at least "4 major monographs"
that he was working on. His most recent, but not his last, paper
was published in January of this year. He never slowed down, for
he considered his research "exciting and much fun!"
Once I was honored to co-teach ecology at Davis with Ax. Al-
though he only gave a few lectures, the class broke into spon-
taneous applause each time he finished (the only times I ever
saw that happen anywhere!). The same thing happened at profes-
sional meetings with his peers. He was through and through a
paleobotanist (and botanist and geologist) extraordinaire.
Jere H. Lipps, Professor
Department of Integrative Biology--VLSB 3060
University of California
Berkeley, California 94720 USA
jlipps@ucmp1.berkeley.edu
http://ucmp1.berkeley.edu/jlipps/jlipps.html
MOONWORT ALERT: BOTRYCHIUM BOREALE FOUND IN NORTH AMERICA
From: Drs. Herb and Florence Wagner, University of Michigan,
Department of Biology, 830 N. University, Ann Arbor,
MI 48109-1048
Long confused with the well known Botrychium pinnatum St.John of
northwestern North America, B. boreale Milde has been known in
the past from Greenland and northern Eurasia, especially in
Scandinavia. Much to the surprise, during our study of collec-
tions of moonworts we turned up two collections of this species
in British Columbia. These are as follows:
Canada, British Columbia: 15 miles S of Valemount, 22 June 1985,
52 deg. 50' N. 119 deg. 15' W. Gerald Straley, s.n. (MICH)
Canada, British Columbia: Kootenay National Park, Route # 93 at
the junction of Marble Canyon Road, 12 July 1980, W.H. Wagner
80101 (MICH)
This is an amazing discovery and range extension. Moonworts, in
their elusive way, have a habit of turning up this way, as
apparently sporadic populations, but often, once recognized,
field workers find that a given moonwort is more common and
widespread than previously believed. Remember the situation with
Botrychium pallidum which is now being found over an enormous
range. [Plants of B. pallidum resemble B. minganense, but they
are diminutive and whitish. - AC]
The characters can be compared as follows:
BOTRYCHIUM BOREALE - Sporophore 1 to 1.5 time length of
trophophore; trophophore broadly or narrowly deltate; lobes
shallow, angular, with pointed tips; apical lobes with 2-3
segments; lateral lobes on basal pinnae 1-2; segments ascend-
ing; pinna midribs short, weakly developed.
BOTRYCHIUM PINNATUM - Sporophore 1 to 2 time length of
trophophore; trophophore narrowly deltate to oblong; lobes
deeper, with rounded or truncate tips; apical lobes with 4-5
segments; lateral lobes on basal pinnae 2-3; segments only
slightly above horizontal; pinna midribs longer, more
strongly developed.
We urge you to look through your collection for specimens of the
true Botrychium boreale. In the field, watch for this species,
especially in the north and southward in higher elevations. It
is very commonly associated with B. lunaria and sometimes B.
lanceolatum. There are many questions that we need to answer
about this plant. For example, no one has ever counted its
chromosomes. Is it diploid? Does it have any habitat
peculiarities?
ROCKY MOUNTAIN LICHEN PRIMER
From: Dr Weber <weberw@spot.colorado.edu>
I don't know whether or not I had sent you the info on our new
little book. It is by James N. Corbridge and W. A. Weber. A
Rocky Mountain Lichen Primer. Univ. Press of Colorado, P.O.Box
849, Niwot CO 80544 (1-800-268-6044). 6x9, 56 p., 72 color
photographs, ISBN 0-87081-490-7 [paper]. US$19.95 + $3.00 ship-
ping for first copy, $1.00 for each additional.
This is not a book designed to create lichenologists, but it has
been very much needed here for ordinary people, hikers, gar-
deners, boy scouts, etc. It illustrates 72 of the most easily
recognized lichens. It's amazing to learn how many people wished
for such a thing. Corbridge was our Chancellor of the University
and I seduced him into lichenology.
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