December 29, 2007
Category: conservation
There is no doubt among biologists that the world's 6000-odd amphibian species are in trouble: about 1600 are classified as 'threatened', around 430 are listed as 'critically endangered', and at least 100 species - probably more than 160 - appear to have become extinct within the last couple of decades. This isn't because amphibians are crap and hated by god, it's because the results of our actions are killing them. What can be done?
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Posted by Darren Naish at 6:50 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 23, 2007
The fossil record convincingly demonstrates that pterosaurs became extinct at the end of the Maastrichtian in the Late Cretaceous (65 million years ago). However, sightings of unusual winged animals around the world have led some people to suggest that pterosaurs might have survived to the present. How realistic are these claims, and can they be taken seriously?
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Posted by Darren Naish at 7:11 PM • 61 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 22, 2007
Category: mammalogy
Thanks to everyone for their comments on the previous article about island-endemic otters and canids. I was going to add a brief response to the comments section, but eventually the comments reached the length you see here, hence my...
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Posted by Darren Naish at 9:30 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 20, 2007
Category: mammalogy
The affinities and origin of the Warrah have been the subject of much discussion. Its tameness, its presence on the Falkland Islands (a place devoid of other terrestrial mammals), and several of its morphological features (white tail-tip, enlarged frontal sinuses and wide muzzle) have led some workers to argue that it a domesticated form bought over to the islands by the Yahgan people.
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Posted by Darren Naish at 7:30 PM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 18, 2007
Category: mammalogy
Like the moose, the Eurasian lynx is not a prehistoric animal in wild Britain: we now know that it was still here until about 1500 years ago, so the argument that it has only been extirpated recently and really should still be here is a good one. A feasibility project led Hetherington & Gorman (2007) to conclude that Britain has enough space and wild animal prey to accommodate introduced lynxes, and there is much discussion as to whether such a project should go ahead.
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Posted by Darren Naish at 6:47 PM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 17, 2007
If you're on my hallowed List of Correspondents you'll already have received the image here as an attachment (and at slightly higher resolution: email me if you want a higher-res version). For the other several thousand of you, happy...
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Posted by Darren Naish at 6:26 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 15, 2007
Near-complete pliosaur skeletons indicate that the skull was about 17% of total body length, suggesting that the whole animal might have approached 18 m. As Naish et al. (2001) said: 'The caveat, however, is that this assumes that this skull-to-total-length ratio remains constant throughout growth, and it may well not do'. And, yes, it's specimens like this that led to the totally speculative 25 m given for Liopleurodon in the BBC's Walking With Dinosaurs...
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Posted by Darren Naish at 2:30 PM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 14, 2007
Though imagined by some to have been a sort of cookie-cutter that took chunks out of ammonites or big vertebrates, Simolestes is interpreted by Leslie as a cephalopod specialist and indeed the Dogsthorpe specimen contained a large number of cephalopod hooklets...
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Posted by Darren Naish at 11:16 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 13, 2007
Category: cryptozoology
In, as usual, a desperate effort to bring in the hits, I thought I'd go nuts and see what posting about the Loch Ness monster might do for my stats. Hey, maybe I could throw the word sex in...
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Posted by Darren Naish at 2:10 PM • 40 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 12, 2007
You can knock it You can rock it You can go to Timbuktu But you'll never find a nessie in the zoo You may see an anaconda, or giraffe and kangaroo But you'll never see a nessie in a...
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Posted by Darren Naish at 12:00 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
With six years of phd work on theropod dinosaurs behind him, Darren Naish mostly spends long hours in the library, hunched over his laptop. But he gets out sometimes, and picks up litter and pursues exotic lizards across the British countryside, aiming all the while to publish his technical work on obscure Cretaceous dinosaurs. He also messes around with pterosaurs, swimming giraffes, British big cats and stuff like that. He has given up on the stupid idea of being a dedicated academic and ekes out a living as a technical consultant, editor and author. He can be contacted intermittently at eotyrannus (at) gmail dot com. For more biographical info go 
