The Smithsonian staff publications below are those that have generated the most media and online 
activity for 2015. Congratulations to those authors whose work has been picked up by news, bloggers and other social media users and whose ideas therefore are propagated beyond readership of the source publication.
This group was culled from among 1500 publications tracked by the online service, Altmetric and assigned a score based on online attention paid by interested parties. Those with the top 25 Altmetric scores are shown here.
Among the research efforts represented by these works are:
- Extreme long distance migration by a very tiny (12 gm) bird
- The influence of climate on the evolution of crocodiles (crocodylians)
- Cooperative decision-making and resulting movements among groups of wild baboons
- The water table and its stability in an ancient lake on Mars
- Trends in the use of technology to track animal movements
The collection of such data about research publications is still new and it is not clear what conclusions we can draw about these talked-about papers other than they were noted by professional and amateurs in science and media.
But the Smithsonian Libraries feels that this is an area worth investigating and that this data may become valuable to staff of the Institution who work outside of scholarly research domains.
Smithsonian staff who are interested in exploring this rich resource can visit altmetricexplorer.com while within the Institution’s network to see for themselves. (Please contact Alvin Hutchinson or Richard Naples for more information or guidance.)
Brienen, R. J. W., Phillips, O. L., Feldpausch, T. R., Gloor, E., Baker, T. R., Lloyd, J., Lopez-Gonzalez, G., Monteagudo-Mendoza, A., Malhi, Y., Lewis, S. L., Vásquez Martinez, R., Alexiades, M., Álvarez Dávila, E., Alvarez-Loayza, P., Andrade, A., Aragão, L. E. O. C., Araujo-Murakami, A., Arets, E. J. M. M., Arroyo, L., Aymard C., G. A., Bánki, O. S., Baraloto, C., Barroso, J., Bonal, D., Boot, R. G. A., et al. 2015. Long-term decline of the Amazon carbon sink. Nature, 519(7543): 344-348. doi:10.1038/nature14283 Altmetric Data
Strandburg-Peshkin, Ariana, Farine, Damien R., Couzin, Iain D. and Crofoot, Margaret C. 2015. Shared decision-making drives collective movement in wild baboons.Science, 348(6241): 1358-1361. doi:10.1126/science.aaa5099 Altmetric Data
Grotzinger, J. P., Gupta, S., Malin, M. C., Rubin, D. M., Schieber, J., Siebach, K., Sumner, D. Y., Stack, K. M., Vasavada, A. R., Arvidson, R. E., Calef, F., Edgar, L., Fischer, W. F., Grant, John A., Griffes, J., Kah, L. C., Lamb, M. P., Lewis, K. W., Mangold, N., Minitti, M. E., Palucis, M., Rice, M., Williams, R. M. E., Yingst, R. A., Blake, D., et al. 2015. Deposition, exhumation, and paleoclimate of an ancient lake deposit, Gale crater, Mars. Science, 350(6257). doi:10.1126/science.aac7575 Altmetric Data
Schoch, Rainer and Sues, Hans-Dieter. 2015. A Middle Triassic stem-turtle and the evolution of the turtle body plan. Nature, 523(7562): 584-587. doi:10.1038/nature14472 Altmetric Data
Koepfli, Klaus-Peter, Pollinger, John, Godinho, Raquel, Robinson, Jacqueline, Lea, Amanda, Hendricks, Sarah, Schweizer, Rena M, Thalmann, Olaf, Silva, Pedro, Fan, Zhenxin, Yurchenko, Andrey A, Dobrynin, Pavel, Makunin, Alexey, Cahill, James A, Shapiro, Beth, Álvares, Francisco, Brito, José C, Geffen, Eli, Leonard, Jennifer A, Helgen, Kristofer M, Johnson, Warren E, O’Brien, Stephen J, Van Valkenburgh, Blaire and Wayne, Robert K. 2015. Genome-wide Evidence Reveals that African and Eurasian Golden Jackals Are Distinct Species. Current Biology, 25(16): 2158-2165. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.06.060 Altmetric Data
Watters, Thomas R., Robinson, Mark S., Collins, Geoffrey C., Banks, Maria E., Daud, Katie, Williams, Nathan R. and Selvans, Michelle M. 2015. Global thrust faulting on the Moon and the influence of tidal stresses. Geology, 43(10): 851-854. doi:10.1130/G37120.1 Altmetric Data
Pyenson, Nicholas D., Vélez-Juarbe, Jorge, Gutstein, Carolina S., Little, Holly, Vigil, Dioselina and O’Dea, Aaron. 2015. Isthminia panamensis, a new fossil inioid (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Chagres Formation of Panama and the evolution of ‘river dolphins’ in the Americas. PeerJ, 3 doi:10.7717/peerj.1227 Altmetric Data
Öberg, Karin I., Guzmán, Viviana V., Furuya, Kenji, Qi, Chunhua, Aikawa, Yuri, Andrews, Sean M., Loomis, Ryan and Wilner, David J. 2015. The comet-like composition of a protoplanetary disk as revealed by complex cyanides. Nature, 520: 198-201. doi:10.1038/nature14276 Altmetric Data
Torres-Carvajal, Omar, Venegas, Pablo J. and de Queiroz, Kevin. 2015. Three new species of woodlizards (Hoplocercinae, Enyalioides) from northwestern South America. Zookeys, 494: 107-132. doi:10.3897/zookeys.494.8903 Altmetric Data
Vogl, A. W., Lillie, Margo A., Piscitelli, Marina A., Goldbogen, Jeremy A., Pyenson, Nicholas D. and Shadwick, Robert E. 2015. Stretchy nerves are an essential component of the extreme feeding mechanism of rorqual whales. Current biology: CB, 25(9): R360-R361. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.03.007 Altmetric Data
DeLuca, William V., Woodworth, Bradley K., Rimmer, Christopher C., Marra, Peter P., Taylor, Philip D., McFarland, Kent P., Mackenzie, Stuart A. and Norris, D. R. 2015. Transoceanic migration by a 12 g songbird. Biology Letters, 11(4) doi:10.1098/rsbl.2014.1045 Altmetric Data
Pasquaretta, Cristian, Levé, Marine, Claidière, Nicolas, van de Waal, Erica, Whiten, Andrew, MacIntosh, Andrew J. J., Pelé, Marie, Bergstrom, Mackenzie L., Borgeaud, Christèle, Brosnan, Sarah F., Crofoot, Margaret C., Fedigan, Linda M., Fichtel, Claudia, Hopper, Lydia M., Mareno, Mary Catherine, Petit, Odile, Schnoell, Anna Viktoria, di Sorrentino, Eugenia Polizzi, Thierry, Bernard, Tiddi, Barbara and Sueur, Cédric. 2014. Social networks in primates: smart and tolerant species have more efficient networks. Scientific Reports, 4 doi:10.1038/srep07600 Altmetric Data
Finnegan, Seth, Anderson, Sean C., Harnik, Paul G., Simpson, Carl, Tittensor, Derek P., Byrnes, Jarrett E., Finkel, Zoe V., Lindberg, David R., Liow, Lee Hsiang, Lockwood, Rowan, Lotze, Heike K., McClain, Craig R., McGuire, Jenny L., O’Dea, Aaron and Pandolfi, John M. 2015. Paleontological baselines for evaluating extinction risk in the modern oceans. Science, 348(6234): 567-570. doi:10.1126/science.aaa6635 Altmetric Data
Trakhtenbrot, Benny, Urry, C. Megan, Civano, Francesca, Rosario, David J., Elvis, Martin, Schawinski, Kevin, Suh, Hyewon, Bongiorno, Angela and Simmons, Brooke D. 2015. An over-massive black hole in a typical star-forming galaxy, 2 billion years after the Big Bang.Science, 349: 168-171. doi:10.1126/science.aaa4506 Altmetric Data
Field, Daniel J., LeBlanc, Aaron, Gau, Adrienne and Behlke, Adam D. 2015. Pelagic neonatal fossils support viviparity and precocial life history of Cretaceous mosasaurs. Palaeontology, 58(3): 401-407. doi:10.1111/pala.12165 Altmetric Data
Mannion, Philip D., Benson, Roger B. J., Carrano, Matthew T., Tennant, Jonathan P., Judd, Jack and Butler, Richard J. 2015. Climate constrains the evolutionary history and biodiversity of crocodylians. Nature Communications, 6 doi:10.1038/ncomms9438 Altmetric Data
Fauset, Sophie, Johnson, Michelle O., Gloor, Manuel, Baker, Timothy R., Abel, Monteagudo M., Brienen, Roel J. W., Feldpausch, Ted R., Lopez-Gonzalez, Gabriela, Malhi, Yadvinder, Ter Steege, Hans, Pitman, Nigel C. A., Baraloto, Christopher, Engel, Julien, Pétronelli, Pascal, Andrade, Ana, Camargo, José Luís C., Laurance, Susan G. W., Laurance, William F., Chave, Jerôme, Allie, Elodie, Vargas, Percy Núñez, Terborgh, John W., Ruokolainen, Kalle, Silveira, Marcos, Gerardo, Aymard C., et al. 2015. Hyperdominance in Amazonian forest carbon cycling. Nature Communications, 6 doi:10.1038/ncomms7857 Altmetric Data
Jarvis, Erich D., Mirarab, Siavash, Aberer, Andre J., Li, Bo, Houde, Peter, Li, Cai, Ho, Simon Y. W., Faircloth, Brant C., Nabholz, Benoit, Howard, Jason T., Suh, Alexander, Weber, Claudia C., Fonseca, Rute R. da, Li, Jianwen, Zhang, Fang, Li, Hui, Zhou, Long, Narula, Nitish, Liu, Liang, Ganapathy, Ganesh, Boussau, Bastien, Bayzid, Md Shamsuzzoha, Zavidovych, Volodymyr, Subramanian, Sankar, Gabaldón, Toni, et al. 2014. Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds. Science, 346(6215): 1320-1331. doi:10.1126/science.1253451 Altmetric Data
Lea, Amanda M. and Ryan, Michael J. 2015. Irrationality in mate choice revealed by túngara frogs. Science, 349(6251): 964-966. doi:10.1126/science.aab2012 Altmetric Data
Bacon, Christine D., Silvestro, Daniele, Jaramillo, Carlos A., Smith, Brian Tilston, Chakrabarty, Prosanta and Antonelli, Alexandre. 2015. Biological evidence supports an early and complex emergence of the Isthmus of Panama. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(19): 6110-6115. doi:10.1073/pnas.1423853112 Altmetric Data
Slik, J. W. F., Arroyo-Rodríguez, Víctor, Aiba, Shin-Ichiro, Alvarez-Loayza, Patricia, Alves, Luciana F., Ashton, Peter, Balvanera, Patricia, Bastian, Meredith L., Bellingham, Peter J., van den Berg, Eduardo, Bernacci, Luis, Bispo, Polyanna da Conceição, Blanc, Lilian, Böhning-Gaese, Katrin, Boeckx, Pascal, Bongers, Frans, Boyle, Brad, Bradford, Matt, Brearley, Francis Q., Hockemba, Mireille Breuer-Ndoundou, Bunyavejchewin, Sarayudh, Matos, Darley Calderado Leal, Castillo-Santiago, Miguel, Catharino, Eduardo L. M., Chai, Shauna-Lee, et al. 2015. An estimate of the number of tropical tree species. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(24): 7472-7477. doi:10.1073/pnas.1423147112 Altmetric Data
Bindi, Luca, Yao, Nan, Lin, Chaney, Hollister, Lincoln S., Andronicos, Christopher L., Distler, Vadim V., Eddy, Michael P., Kostin, Alexander, Kryachko, Valery, MacPherson, Glenn J., Steinhardt, William M., Yudovskaya, Marina and Steinhardt, Paul J. 2015. Natural quasicrystal with decagonal symmetry.Scientific Reports, 5 doi:10.1038/srep09111 Altmetric Data
Jenkins, Jon M., Twicken, Joseph D., Batalha, Natalie M., Caldwell, Douglas A., Cochran, William D., Endl, Michael, Latham, David W., Esquerdo, Gilbert A., Seader, Shawn, Bieryla, Allyson, Petigura, Erik, Ciardi, David R., Marcy, Geoffrey W., Isaacson, Howard, Huber, Daniel, Rowe, Jason F., Torres, Guillermo, Bryson, Stephen T., Buchhave, Lars, Ramirez, Ivan, Wolfgang, Angie, Li, Jie, Campbell, Jennifer R., Tenenbaum, Peter, Sanderfer, Dwight, et al. 2015. Discovery and Validation of Kepler-452b: A 1.6 R? Super Earth Exoplanet in the Habitable Zone of a G2 Star. The Astronomical Journal, 150: 56 doi:10.1088/0004-6256/150/2/56 Altmetric Data
Kays, Roland, Crofoot, Margaret C., Jetz, Walter and Wikelski, Martin. 2015.Terrestrial animal tracking as an eye on life and planet. Science, 348(6240) doi:10.1126/science.aaa2478 Altmetric Data
Tschapka, Marco, Gonzalez-Terrazas, Tania and Knornschild, Mirjam. 2015. Nectar uptake in bats using a pumping-tongue mechanism. Science Advances, 1: e1500525 doi:10.1126/sciadv.1500525 Altmetric Data
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