Visiting Scientist Feature: Dr. Lu Yao

Last month, we hosted Dr. Lu Yao from the American Museum of Natural History, who was here to examine gibbon specimens from the museum’s Zoological Reference Collection (ZRC).

Dr. Lu is currently looking into hybridisation in gibbons by studying their morphology and DNA.

To do so, she scanned gibbon skulls from the ZRC using a 3D scanner for comparison with images of other specimens, and took tissue samples from the specimens in order to test the DNA for hybridisation.

If it is found that hybridisation can be observed in gibbons just from their skull morphology, similar research on old fossil gibbons may become a possibility as DNA tests cannot be carried out on fossils that are too old.

Unusual Beginnings

Dr. Lu started off as a biology major with a plan to pursue medicine upon graduation, but that plan soon changed.

The reason? She started watching the American crime drama ‘Bones’, a show based on forensic anthropology and archaeology, and was intrigued by the storyline.

“I was watching the show and I couldn’t believe that people actually do all that for a living, it was really cool,” she said with a laugh.

She then decided to pursue a PhD in Evolutionary Biology, basing her research on gibbons due to prior interest in the “really cute” creatures.

However, she warns that monkeys also have their not-so-cute side – when she visited Ubud Monkey Forest in Bali, the monkeys there jumped around, climbed onto her head and even tugged out a few strands of her hair!

Thrill Seeker

Dr. Lu’s research takes her all over the world, on trips to various natural history museums to study specimens. However, she also likes to travel during her free time.

Once, she skiied at the top of the Alps in just a tank top and jeans! According to Dr. Lu, despite there being snow on the ground at that time, it was surprisingly warm at the top.

On another trip to South Africa, she came face to face with a huge venomous black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) in the safari, but thankfully came away unscathed. However, she was not so lucky and was bitten in the knee by a vulture on the same trip while in an endangered animal enclosure.

During her visit here, she took some time to visit the Singapore Zoo, which she really liked, as there is a lot of space in the enclosures for the animals to roam about, and most importantly, because she was able to see many gibbons.

It was also her first visit to our new museum premises, having previously visited our old premises back when we were still known as the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research.

We wish Dr. Lu all the best in her research, and hope to see her again!