The Rock Art Of Western Montana

Abstract

Western Montana rock art comprises 29 pictograph sites scattered throughout the mountainousPacific-drained portion of the state. The sites, composed of panels of simple red, yellow or black pictographs, cluster along the major streams in the region. A variety of zoomorphic, anthropomorphic and geometric designs predominate. Traditionally Western Montana rock art has beenassumed to be related to the rock art of the Northwestern Plains, however, this study demonstrates that functionally and stylistically its closest relationships are with Columbia Plateau rock art. Two style zones, each reflecting a different cultural influence, are recognized in theregion. The majority of sites apparently served as vision quest sites for Salishan tribes that inhabited the area during the Late Prehistoric Period. A few sites in the extreme southern portion of the region are attributed to Shoshoneans, and relate most closely to the pictographsof central and southern Idaho.     

The Fort Smith Medicine Wheel,Montana

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present information on a stone configuration in southeastern Montana, the Fort Smith Medicine Wheel (Site 24BH220), and to briefly review information on other known medicine wheels in an attempt to discover the function for which it was constructed.     

The uses of genome-wide yeast mutant collections

We assess five years of usage of the major genome-wide collections of mutants from Saccharomyces cerevisiae: single deletion mutants, double mutants conferring 'synthetic' lethality and the 'TRIPLES' collection of mutants obtained by random transposon insertion. Over 100 experimental conditions have been tested and more than 5,000 novel phenotypic traits have been assigned to yeast genes using these collections.     

New species of Prepseudatrichia Kelsey from Thailand (Diptera, Scenopinidae)

A new species of Prepseudatrichia Kelsey, 1969 (Prepseudatrichia tigersp. n.) is described from Thailand, the first record of the genus from the Oriental region. A key to world species of Prepseudatrichia is given.     

Culture collections of microfungi

The various methods for the preservation and storage of fungal cultures are described. Type, reference and standard collections are maintained at the Commonwealth Mycological Institute at Kew, Surrey. The documentation procedures adopted at C.M.I, and the uses made of these separate collections are outlined.     

The role of natural history collections in documenting species declines

Efforts to document the decline of extant populations require a historical record of previous occurrences. Natural history museums contain such information for most regions of the world, at least at a coarse spatial scale. Museum collections have been successfully used to analyse declines in a wide range of plants and animals, at spatial scales ranging from single localities to large biotic and political regions. Natural history museum collections, when properly analysed, can be an invaluable tool in documenting changes in biodiversity during the past century.