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Amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals - living and extinct
Darren Naish is a science writer, technical editor and palaeozoologist (affiliated with the University of Portsmouth, UK) who mostly works on Cretaceous dinosaurs and pterosaurs. He also studies such things as the swimming abilities of giraffes and fossil marine reptiles. An avid interest in modern wildlife and conservation has resulted in many adventures in lizard-chasing, bird-watching and litter-collecting. I've been blogging since 2006 and a compilation of early Tet Zoo articles is now available in book form as Tetrapod Zoology Book One. Additional recent books include The Great Dinosaur Discoveries and Dinosaurs Life Size. For more biographical info go here. I can be contacted intermittently at eotyrannus (at) gmail dot com. PLEASE NOTE: I am now completely unable to keep up with email correspondence. I do my best to respond to all queries and requests, but please don't be offended if I fail to reply. I blog from and about conferences - please contact me for more info. Follow me on twitter: @TetZoo.
You've read the blog, now buy the books....
The Great Dinosaur Discoveries (US edition)
Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life
"Walking with Dinosaurs": The Evidence - How Did They Know That?
Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight (Guide 10; Field Guides to Fossils Series.) (Palaentology FG Fossils)
Tetrapod Zoology
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September 30, 2008
Category: mammalogy
I've said it before: it isn't that I don't like giraffes - quite the contrary - it's just that they have a nasty habit of dying in the most bizarre, fascinating ways. And, because they're such big, obvious, famous animals,...
Posted by Darren Naish at 6:43 AM • 47 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 29, 2008
Category: herpetology
No time for anything new, unfortunately. But I have a lot of old stuff kicking around: here, I've recycled text from my undergrad thesis on ichthyosaurs. I hope you get something out of it. Ichthyosaurs are famous for preserving impressions...
Posted by Darren Naish at 7:40 AM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 27, 2008
Here are some neat things I saw this week. You get points for identifying stuff or saying interesting things about it. What you see in the adjacent pictures was visible from my back garden within the last few hours....
Posted by Darren Naish at 7:58 AM • 32 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 26, 2008
Category: frivolous nonsense
After a hiatus of several months I attacked Tet Zoo the book during the small hours of this morning (I started while the repeat of Fossil Detectives was on at 1 am... missed the bit with Jeff Liston and...
Posted by Darren Naish at 6:19 AM • 24 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 25, 2008
If you know anything about the literature on marine cryptids - or sea monsters, or sea serpents, or whatever - you will know of the Long-necked seal, a hypothetical mega-pinniped proposed by Bernard Heuvelmans (1968) as the explanation for...
Posted by Darren Naish at 8:37 AM • 47 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 24, 2008
Category: mammalogy
As always, at least a few people got yesterday's picture correctly identified: it was indeed a Giant armadillo or Tatuasu Priodontes maximus, and specifically the animal's right hand and lower arm. I photographed it at the National Museum of...
Posted by Darren Naish at 7:06 AM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 23, 2008
What the hell is it then? I know, I know, dead easy....
Posted by Darren Naish at 3:46 AM • 34 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 22, 2008
Long-time readers will know that I am an unashamed fan of both speculative zoology, and of Dougal Dixon's hypothetical 'alternative' animals. Inspired by a comment made here in August by Jenny Islander, I have been having a re-think about...
Posted by Darren Naish at 4:18 AM • 43 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 20, 2008
Sorry, another teaser - I haven't yet had time to post the full article (am aiming to do this on Monday). Again, all will be explained as goes the above [incoporating artwork by Mark Witton and yours truly]. Many,...
Posted by Darren Naish at 7:37 PM • 31 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 19, 2008
Don't worry, all will be explained in the next article. But first things first: please provide the flightless azhdarchid with a binomial name. The cleverest and most euphonious wins (and I pick the winner). Please explain derivations and etymologies...
Posted by Darren Naish at 12:32 PM • 104 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
