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The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. - Terry Pratchett
Laelaps is the blog of Brian Switek, a freelance science writer based in New Jersey. This blog frequently features his musings on paleontology, evolution, and the history of science. Switek also blogs for Smithsonian magazine's Dinosaur Tracking.
Switek's first book, Written in Stone, will be published next year by Bellevue Literary Press.
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October 31, 2009
Category: Dinosaurs
Dinosaur National Monument, Utah. The glass building houses the famous fossil wall and will soon be replaced with a new permanent visitor center....
Posted by Brian Switek at 9:42 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 30, 2009
Category: Books
Whenever I sit down to write an entry for this blog I remind myself that I might not always speak the same language as the people I am trying to reach. A statement that might be technically accurate, such...
Posted by Brian Switek at 3:01 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Dinosaurs
A reconstruction of the skull of Torvosaurus based upon the few parts of skull material that have been recovered so far. Photographed at the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, Utah....
Posted by Brian Switek at 7:20 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 29, 2009
Category: Mammals
As strange as it might seem, the living African and Asian elephants are only the remnants of what was once a very diverse array of proboscideans. In the not-too-distant past elephants and their closest relatives occupied Africa, Europe, Asia,...
Posted by Brian Switek at 11:59 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Photography
The sun peeks through the clouds of a passing storm. Photographed from the Strawberry Bay campground in Utah....
Posted by Brian Switek at 7:10 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 28, 2009
Category: Evolution
Skeletons of the early horse-relative Eohippus (left) and modern Equus (right). From Animals of the Past by Lucas. During the early 20th century many biologists were considering a variety of mechanisms other than natural selection as the primary cause...
Posted by Brian Switek at 12:30 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Dinosaurs
A restoration of Utahraptor in the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, Utah....
Posted by Brian Switek at 6:15 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 27, 2009
Category: History of Science
An American mastodon, Mammut americanum, from F.A. Lucas' Animals Before Man in North America. Throughout high school and college I was taught the same thing about the history of science. Young earth creationists had a stranglehold on explanations for...
Posted by Brian Switek at 2:10 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Paleontology
A restoration of Archelon in the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, Utah....
Posted by Brian Switek at 6:20 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 26, 2009
Category: Anthropology
Last week I reviewed part 1 of the upcoming NOVA miniseries, "Becoming Human." It was a fair introduction to early human origins even if it was marred by persistent references to an illusory onward-and-upward march of human progress. Where the...
Posted by Brian Switek at 4:39 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Neurophilosophy 11.19.2009
The Island of Doubt 11.20.2009
Greg Laden's Blog 11.20.2009
The World's Fair 11.19.2009
Laelaps 11.20.2009
