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
May 30, 2009
Category: from the archives
The proofs for one of my books arrived the other day, so I have been busy busy busy. This (in part) explains the lack of action here on the blog, and the preponderance of recycled stuff. Sorry about that. In...
Posted by Darren Naish at 7:13 AM • 35 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 27, 2009
Category: Mesozoic dinosaurs
Today sees the publication of a new paper by Michael P. Taylor, Mathew Wedel and myself in which we make a bold and controversial claim: based on data from living animals, we contend that the necks of sauropod dinosaurs -...
Posted by Darren Naish at 4:41 AM • 91 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 26, 2009
Category: Mesozoic dinosaurs
No time to produce anything new, so here's another recycled book review... While the Mesozoic strata of Patagonia are particularly well known for their diverse and often spectacular dinosaurs, they have also yielded a phenomenally rich record of other Mesozoic...
Posted by Darren Naish at 9:40 AM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 23, 2009
Category: ornithology
Historically, an apparent absence of transitional forms has made it difficult to reconstruct the evolutionary affinities of the different modern avian 'orders'. As you'll know if you've been keeping up with the results of the various big molecular and...
Posted by Darren Naish at 7:37 PM • 51 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 22, 2009
Category: ornithology
Here is a Secretary bird Sagittarius serpentarius skeleton I photographed some time ago: as usual, apologies for my terrible photography. The bird is lying on its back, and both its wings and legs are folded up. I would like you...
Posted by Darren Naish at 6:42 AM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 21, 2009
Category: cryptozoology
Like most scientific communities, the world of academic tetrapod zoology is an incestuous place. Inspired by a comment made here at Tet Zoo by Matt Wedel - co-author, colleague and one of the three SV-POWsketeers - Cameron McCormick (who works...
Posted by Darren Naish at 6:21 AM • 19 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 20, 2009
Category: Mesozoic dinosaurs
Few dinosaurs are as well studied as the Upper Cretaceous tyrannosaurid theropod Tyrannosaurus rex. It might be easy to assume that this intense focus has been driven by the fame and glory associated with working on this dinosaur. That...
Posted by Darren Naish at 6:36 AM • 74 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 18, 2009
Category: herpetology
It might not be well known outside of palaeontology that the south-west of England is famous for its marine reptile fossils. But it is: some of the best, most historically significant, plesiosaur and ichthyosaur specimens have come from Street in...
Posted by Darren Naish at 8:48 AM • 32 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 17, 2009
Category: ornithology
I try not to under-estimate the intelligence of my readers, but couldn't you be just a little more clueless? I mean, come on: virtually every person who left a comment realised that the 'mystery animal' from yesterday was a...
Posted by Darren Naish at 7:40 AM • 21 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 16, 2009
Category: frivolous nonsense
Last weekend I went out, and saw this. What could it be? Warning: this is not meant to be easy. Answer tomorrow....
Posted by Darren Naish at 5:48 AM • 30 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
