Science Writer

Matt Bille
Colorado Springs, CO
Email: MattWriter@AOL.com

Science Writer

Specialties: Aerospace, Space History, Microsatellites, Zoology, Cryptozoology

Author, Rumors of Existence (book on the world's rarest animals), Hancock House, 1995, and The First Space Race, (a hitory of the efforts to launch the first satellites in the 1950s), Texas A&M University Press, Fall 2004.  A second zoology book, Shadows of Existence, will be out in Fall 2005.
Editor, Exotic Zoology newsletter (1994-1999)
Author of many articles and professional papers on space history, policy, and technology.

Member:

Science Writers Association of the Rocky Mountains

National Association of Science Writers
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Senior Member)                                                     American Astronautical Society (History Committee)                                                     

Professional background: I'm a resident of Colorado Springs, where I work as an associate for the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, and as a freelance science writer. I've published a book (Rumors of Existence) on the rarest and least-known animals in the world. From 1994 to 1999, I edited a quarterly newsletter, Exotic Zoology, which covered new, rediscovered, and unconfirmed animal species around the world. I had to close EZ so I could focus on books, including a sequel to Rumors. That sequel, Shadows of Existence, has been picked up by Hancock for the Fall 2005 list.

I regularly publish professional papers and articles on space policy and technology. I have one book on space history completed, co-authored with satellite engineer Erika Lishock.  The NASA History Office sponsored publication of The First Space Race: Launching the First Earth Satellites, a book on the "satellite race" between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. in the late 1950s.  The First Space Race was published by Texas A&M University Press in Fall 2004.  

I have chaired tracks on microsatellites at conferences sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).  NASA invited and sponsored me to attend a November 1999 history symposium on the interconnectedness of the military and civil space programs.  The paper I presented at that symposium, "History and Development of American Small Launch Vehicles" (co-authored with Erika Lishock, Robyn Kane, and Pat Johnson), was published as Chapter 5 of a NASA-sponsored book on launch vehicle history, To Reach the Final Frontier, which came out from the University of Kentucky Press in August 2002.

Those interested in zoology and cryptozoology are welcome to Email me for a free sample copy of Exotic Zoology and a back issue list. While the newsletter is no longer published, all issues from its six-year run will continue to be available.  Please provide a mailing address.

Personal background: I have degrees in public administration and space systems management, having attended the University of Southern California, Webster University, and the University of North Dakota. I served 12 years as an Air Force officer before moving in 1994 to Colorado, where I spent seven years with the nonprofit research firm ANSER before moving to Booz Allen in 2001.  I am married with two daughters.

• The First Space Race, Texas A&M University Press, Fall 2004.

• "Small Launch Vehicles: Technology and Economics," AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites, August 2003.

• Persistence of the Grizzly Bear Ursus horribilis in Colorado: Likelihood and Implications," Colorado-Wyoming Academy of Science, April 2001.

• "Microsatellites and the Acquisition of Space Systems," AIAA Space 2000 Conference, September 2000.

• "Racing to Valhalla," Quest, issue 8:1, August 2000.

• "Little Lifters: America's Small Launch Vehicles," AD ASTRA, March-April 2000.

• "Cost in Space," Defence Procurement Analysis, Summer 1999.

• Columnist and staff writer for Peak Computing magazine, 1996-99.

• "Future Military Applications of Small Satellites," AIAA Defense and Civil Space Programs Conference, 1998. 

• "Space Operations and Support," Aerospace America, December 1997 and December 1999.

• "Smallsat Launch Options: Choices and Challenges," AIAA/USU Small Satellite Conference, 1996.

• Rumors of Existence , Hancock House, 1995.

• Biographies of ten engineers and astronauts for reference book Notable 20th-Century Scientists, Gale Research, 1994.

• "The Case for International Cooperation in Hypersonic Technology Development," AIAA International Aerospace Planes Conference, 1992.

• "External Tanks - Instant Space Stations," AD ASTRA, July 1991.

Web page with more writing samples:

www.mattwriter.com

NASA History Office

Cryptozoology

Small Satellite Home Page

Let me know what you think about my page. Send mail by clicking here.

Sample Article from Exotic Zoology:

AN EXPLOSION OF LIFE: MAMMAL DISCOVERIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

The string of discoveries involving large hoofed mammals in Southeast Asia is continuing, seemingly with no end in sight. A series of expeditions, sponsored mainly by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) (a.k.a. the World Wildlife Fund) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), has uncovered one new or "extinct" species after another from the family Bovidae (which includes the antelopes, cattle, sheep, and goats) since 1992. Many of the discoveries resulted from the classic method of asking the inhabitants of remote regions about their wildlife and following up to search for hard evidence. The results shatter the skeptical belief that the major land fauna of the world has long since been cataloged. While none of the scientists involved may call themselves cryptozoologists, their spectacular results validate the basic premise of cryptozoology: that many animals, including some totally unexpected and amazing ones, still await discovery.

The latest news involves the rediscovery of a long-lost deer and (this is almost getting monotonous) the naming of a new deer species.

The story began in 1929, when a young male muntjac was collected in Laos. It was described as a new species, Muntiacus rooseveltorum. As decades passed without another specimen, the species was assumed to be extinct. It might have faded into history had not visiting scientists including zoologist George Schaller observed an unusual deer in a menagerie in the Laotian village of Lak Xao. The Lak Xao specimen, with its dark coat, resembled the known "black muntjac," (M. crinifrons), but that species does not occur in Laos. Also, this animal was larger and had different cranial characteristics – similar, in fact, to the almost-forgotten M. rooseveltorum.

Intrigued, Schaller and others sought and obtained several muntjac skulls they were told came from the same type of animal. Comparing these to the 1929 holotype, now in the Field Museum in Chicago, they pursued the matter to a final identification. The conclusion, published by George Amato, Schaller, and others, is that science has rediscovered Roosevelt's muntjac, a.k.a. Roosevelt's barking deer.  An interesting footnote is that  it now appears likely the animal in the menagerie was not Roosevelt's muntjac, but an unusual example of the Truong Son muntjac (see below).  A genuine discovery had been made starting with a mistake!

New muntjac discoveries in this region of the world have been almost absurdly common in the last few years. First, there was the giant muntjac, also found in a private zoo in Laos. The always-busy Alan Rabinowitz of the WCS, who played a role in this discovery (and whose photographs were the basis for the drawing of this species shown below) has helped find another new species, the leaf muntjac Muntiacus putaoensis, from northern Myanmar. While he was at it (in his spare time, perhaps?) he collected Myanmar specimens of the black muntjac (M. crinifrons), proving that species was not endemic to China as had been thought. There is also the Truong Son muntjac (Muntiacus truongsonensis) described in 1998 by John MacKinnon, et. al., from central Vietnam.

In their article on Roosevelt's muntjac in the Journal of Mammology (80:639-43), the authors note, "This study highlights the importance of continued field surveys in remote regions and the utility of diagnostic DNA characters in identifying species." Indeed, they were able to sort out a number of muntjac mysteries. Their DNA work confirmed MacKinnon's description of the Truong Son muntjac as a separate species, while suggesting one older description, M. gongshanensis, might not be valid.

The muntjac finds have been spectacular, but they're only part of the herd of new and rediscovered large hoofed mammals from this region. For now, the score on such mammals in Southeast Asia over the last decade stands like this:

NEW SPECIES:

Saola (Vu Quang ox):

Easily the zoological find of the decade, if not the find of the half-century. Formally described in 1993 as Pseudoryx nghetinhensis. In May 1992, John MacKinnon led an expedition to Vu Quang, an area on the Vietnamese-Laotian border so rugged it was almost totally bypassed during the wars that swept through this region. Vietnamese zoologist Do Tuoc, after interviewing local hunters, turned up several skulls with long, straight horns kept as trophies in the homes of the area's few residents. He showed these to MacKinnon, who immediately recognized them as belonging to a new animal but was thoroughly puzzled about what it might be. He thought it might be related to the anoa, a dwarf buffalo. When skins of the whole animal were collected, it looked more like an antelope. Briefly called the Vu Quang oryx, the animal Vietnamese call saola ("spindle horn") was eventually given its genus name, which means "false oryx." This handsome cinnamon, black, and white mammal appears to be the sole living species of a heretofore-unknown branch of the bovids. The total population of this species, whose adults may weigh 100 kg, is estimated in the hundreds. The first living specimen was caught in June 1994. Unfortunately, all specimens kept in captivity have lived for a few months at most.

Giant muntjac:

Also called the Mang Lon muntjac, this species was described in 1996 as Megamuntiacus vuquangensis. Rob Timmins and Tom Evans, two British ornithologists, began the search for this animal by noticing that some muntjac horns displayed in Laotian homes in the Nakai Nam Theun reserve (adjacent to the Vu Quang reserve across the border in Vietnam) were unusually large. Laotian hunters described the animal these horns came from as a unique type of muntjac, larger than the red muntjac they hunted most often. The expedition members collected skulls and antlers of the unusual deer, then happened across a live specimen in a the now-famous menagerie in Lak Xao. MacKinnon had also collected a skull of this animal across the border in Vu Quang. It was he who first called it the "giant muntjac." George Schaller and Elisabeth Verba wrote the formal description. Its status in a separate genus is not universally accepted, but all agree it's a very distinct species.

Mountain goat:

Pseuodonovobis spiralis was described in 1994. The description is based entirely on the animal's peculiar horns. The horns are about 45 cm long and twist dramatically, so they resemble high-rise motorcycle handlebars. All the horns show spirals, but some are round in cross-section, others oval. This may be a sexual characteristic. The first set of horns was found by biologist Wolfgang Peter in a Ho Chi Minh City market stall. Despite the paucity of evidence, the horns were so different from those of any known animal that Peter felt justified in describing a new species and genus. Its range extends into Kampuchea (Cambodia), where it is called kting voar, or "jungle sheep." The animal's Vietnamese name, linh dong, is usually translated as "mountain goat."  A widely publicized claim that this animal is a myth and its horns artifacts made from cattle horns has been disputed by a prominent American mammologist, Dr. Robert Timms.  While some of the horns sold to Western biologists apparently are imitations, Timms maintains the type specimen is genuine.

Truong Son muntjac

Muntiacus truongsonensis was described by John MacKinnon and others in 1998. One of the smaller muntjacs, it weighs about 15 kg. Its remains were collected in April 1997 by WWF scientists and their Vietnamese counterparts from the Ministry of Agriculture and Danang University. Eighteen skulls were obtained from local hunters. The coat is black (one early description called it the "black muntjac," which is confusing since the well-known M. crinifrons has the same moniker). It lives in the Truong Son mountain range in western Vietnam, in the province of Quang Nam. Its horns lack the brow tine sported by most muntjac horns. Both sexes have long canine teeth, which in most species are borne only by males.

Leaf Muntjac

Muntiacus putaoensis was described by George Amato, Alan Rabinowitz, and Mary G. Egan in 1998. Its story began in the spring of 1997, when Rabinowitz encountered the animal in northern Myanmar. Once again, local hunters provided the physical evidence for this chestnut-colored mammal. The common name derives from the fact that hunters can carry its body on a large type of leaf.

REDISCOVERIES:

Roosevelt's muntjac

In the same menagerie in Lak Xao where the first live giant muntjac had been observed, members of the same expedition spotted a new acquisition in January 1995. While larger than M. crinifrons, which it resembled, it was still a small muntjac, with distinguishing marks which included a tuft of orange hair between its antlers and a black chin. WCS biologist William Robichaud obtained a skull that provided the material for the DNA testing establishing this as M. rooseveltorum.

Vietnamese warty pig

The warty pig Sus bucculentis had been described in 1892 when Father Pierre-Marie Hende, a Jesuit missionary, literally drew the attention of science to the animal by publishing a sketch of its skull. Eventually, two skulls were obtained from southern Vietnam. No live specimen was ever seen by a Western scientist. The species seemingly disappeared in the wild, and was long considered extinct or even invalid. On the same WCS survey that produced the giant muntjac and Roosevelt's muntjac, George Schaller and Laotian scientist Khamkhoun Khounboline were told of a yellowish-furred pig with a long snout. After turning up a partial skull and a tissue sample in 1995 and locating one of the long-missing type skulls in Beijing in 1996, George Amato and Colin Groves matched the evidence to the 1892 description of S. bucculentis. The species may be extinct in Vietnam, since the rediscovery took place in Laos, farther north along the Annamites (the mountain range that runs along with Vietnamese-Laotian border, taking in the Nakai Nam Theun and Vu Quang reserves).

Javan rhinoceros (mainland population)

The species Rhinoceros sondaicus was presumed wiped out on the Asian mainland since the 1960s. Keep in mind, we're talking about a rhinoceros, which can weigh 1400 kg, that went missing until 1998, when some animals were sighted in Lam Dong province in Vietnam. In July 1999, the first photographic evidence, from Dong Nai province (some 130 km north of Ho Chi Minh City) was obtained. Perhaps 20 of the animals – maybe fewer - live in Vietnam, adding to the precarious population of 50-60 in Indonesia. Steve Osofsky of the WWF calls the rhino "the most endangered mammal species in the world."

STILL UNKNOWN:

MacKinnon found evidence of two more large bovids, still unclassified. Vietnamese biologist Ngoc Chinh showed him the skull of the quang khem (slow-running deer). This came form a region called Pu Mat, just north of Vu Quang. MacKinnon found more skulls of the same animal, overlooked for decades, in the collection of a Hanoi scientific institute. The skulls show the animal has simple spikes for horns, and its DNA does not match any known species. Finally, MacKinnon found a pair of antlers in the same collection that didn't match anything discovered so far, including the quang khem. These, he was told, belong to the mangden, or black deer.

Finally, there is the unknown bovid described in a South China Morning Post story dated January 7, 1995. This stated that two animals were captured near the village of A Loui in central Vietnam. The adult specimen escaped, but its calf died and was eaten. This mammal is described as having long ears, a round head, and a stout body covered in black and gray fur. A Vietnamese biologist, Ha Dinh Duc of Hanoi University, was quoted as saying it appeared to be a new species. One wonders if this could have been the engimatic P. spiralis.

The three "mystery species" have still not been tracked down and identified, but they're out there. The greatest mammal "gold rush" of the twentieth century is not over.

Sources: Adler, Hans George, 1995. "Antelope expose," BBC Wildlife, January, p.10 // Amato, George, et. al., 1999. "Rediscovery of Roosevelt's Barking Deer (Muntiacus rooseveltorum)," Journal of Mammology, 80:639-43 // Amato, George, et. al., 1999. "A new species of muntjac, Muntiacus putaoensis (Artiodactyla: Cervidae) from northern Myanmar," Animal Conservation, 2:1-7 // Fisher, et. al., IUCN, 1969. Wildlife in Danger. New York: Viking Press // Giao, P. N., et. al. 1998. "Description of Muntiacus truongsonensis," Animal Conservation, (1: 61-68) // Groves, Colin P., et al. 1997. "Rediscovery of the wild pig Sus bucculentis," Nature, Vol. 386, p. 335 // Hebert, H. Josef, 1999. "Endangered Rhino Somehow Surviving," Associated Press, July 17 // Linden, Eugene. 1994. "Ancient Creatures in a Lost World," TIME, June 20, pp.52-4 // O'Rourke, Kate. 1999. "New Deer Species Found," Discovery Online, http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/brief1.html, accessed July 19, 1999 // Rabinowitz, Alan, 1997. "Lost World of the Annamites," Natural History, April 1997, pp.14-18 // Rabinowitz, Alan. 1994. Personal communication, August 29 // Sautner, Stephen (WCS), personal communication, July 2, 1999 // Shuker, Karl, 1999. Personal communication, July 19 // Shuker, Karl. 1995. "Vietnam – why scientists are stunned," Wild About Animals, March, pp.32-3 // Timms, Robert, 2000.  Personal communcation, August // Torode, Greg. 1995. "Unique Species Eaten Before Proof," South China Morning Post, January 7 // Van Dung, Vu, et al., 1993. "A New Species of Living Bovid from Vietnam," Nature (v.363), June 8, pp.443-5 // Wildlife Conservation Society, "Selected Papers from WCS Conservation Genetics Program," http://www.wcs.org.science.scienceresources/pubs.html, accessed May 31, 1999 // World Conservation Monitoring Centre, "IUCN Red List Database," http://wcmc.org.uk, accessed May 31, 1999.

Thanks to John Moore for several of the papers cited in this article.

NOTE ON SPELLINGS: Some authorities use "muntjak" instead of "muntjac." Also, there are often variations in the way names from Southeast Asian languages are spelled: "Lak Xao," for instance, is sometimes rendered "Lak Sao." I have used the most common forms in each case.

Revised Article copyright 2003 by Matthew A. Bille.