Now on ScienceBlogs: And so, driven on ceaselessly toward new shores
"It is - still - the best zoological blog out there, period"
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 here.
You've read the blog, now buy the books....
The Great Dinosaur Discoveries (US edition)
The Great Dinosaur Discoveries (UK edition)
Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life
Walking With Dinosaurs: The Evidence
Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight
February 28, 2008
Category: herpetology
Herbivory has probably evolved more times within Liolaemus than it has within any other group of squamates, and about 66 times more rapidly than in has in non-liolaemid squamates...
Posted by Darren Naish at 7:20 AM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 26, 2008
Category: herpetology
This is Ermentrude, or Ermie, the best lizard I ever kept. Despite his name he was a male (I think). He got used to being handled but didn't like having his claws clipped. Strangely, he liked banana and once...
Posted by Darren Naish at 6:33 PM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 25, 2008
The third Big Cats in Britain (BCiB) conference is almost upon us: it happens from 7th-9th March 2008 at Tropiquaria (Watchet, Somerset). This time round, I'm speaking, and most of my research time is currently being eaten up as...
Posted by Darren Naish at 5:31 AM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 22, 2008
Category: mammalogy
It's always interesting when individuals of two different species strike up a relationship. This might be a hunting partnership (raptor species have been reported co-operating to flush prey, as have coyotes and American badgers), an alliance where species warn...
Posted by Darren Naish at 7:14 AM • 57 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 19, 2008
Category: herpetology
The three Chamaesaura species (Transvaal grass lizard, Cape grass lizard and Large-scaled grass lizard), usually called grass lizards (a dumb namb: it's used around the world for various entirely different types of lizard), recall other reduced-limbed, serpentiform lizards (like certain skinks for example) in that they represent a continuum, with one species having five clawed digits on all four limbs, another having only one or two clawed digits on its very much reduced limbs, and a third lacking forelimbs, and only have a single clawed digit on its tiny, spike-like hindlimbs...
Posted by Darren Naish at 8:27 AM • 19 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 18, 2008
Category: conservation
Taylor's salamander is another neotenous, perennibranchiate species, and like the Axolotl it is extremely restricted in distribution, being unique - so far as we know - to one body of water, Mexico's saline Laguna Alchichica. Yes, saline: what makes Taylor's salamander particularly remarkable is that it is specialised for life in saline water. It's still true that lissamphibians cannot tolerate the sorts of salinities that amniotes can, but it is not true that anurans or caudates are thoroughly unable to deal with at least some salinity. Brackish water can be tolerated by the larvae and adults of some species: some frogs have even been reported to briefly swim in the sea as an escape tactic.
Posted by Darren Naish at 7:37 AM • 28 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 16, 2008
Category: Mesozoic dinosaurs
The holotype was discovered by retired University of Utah radiology technician Ramal Jones using a scintillometer (a device which detects atmospheric disturbances caused by temperature, pressure or humidity) in an area where no bone was exposed on the surface. This makes Animantarx the only dinosaur that's been discovered 'remotely', and by the use of technology rather than human observational skills alone...
Posted by Darren Naish at 1:45 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 15, 2008
Category: Mesozoic dinosaurs
I call this the 'pretty picture syndrome' - it explains why life restorations of Silvisaurus, Nodosaurus and Polacanthus are in all the kid's books, while those depicting Hierosaurus, Pawpawsaurus and Hylaeosaurus are not...
Posted by Darren Naish at 6:16 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 14, 2008
Category: Mesozoic dinosaurs
Welcome to day 5 of ankylosaur week. This time, we look at Panoplosaurus' sister-taxon Edmontonia. Edmontonia was a large (6-7 m long) Campanian-Maastrichtian nodosaurid that lived right across North America......
Posted by Darren Naish at 7:01 AM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 13, 2008
Category: Mesozoic dinosaurs
Panoplosaurus mirus was a large nodosaurid (reaching 6 m) and a particularly close relative of the even larger Edmontonia (for a quick intro to nodosaurids see the day 2 article). One of several Canadian dinosaurs from the Campanian Dinosaur...
Posted by Darren Naish at 5:33 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Highly Allochthonous 11.05.2009
Eruptions 11.05.2009
Not Exactly Rocket Science 11.05.2009
Corpus Callosum 11.05.2009
Starts With a Bang 11.04.2009
