Now on ScienceBlogs: "Investigative science journalism" and books I like to read [All of My Faults Are Stress Related]
"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....
Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life
Walking With Dinosaurs: The Evidence
Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight
Category: herpetology
The recent discovery that some Asian microhylid frogs frequent the dung piles of elephants has gotten these obscure little anurans into the news, possibly for the first time ever. Microhylids - or narrow-mouthed frogs - are not exactly the superstars...
Posted by Darren Naish at 6:14 AM • 35 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: herpetology
My mate Bob Nicholls (of Paleocreations) has been producing some awesome artwork lately. Why, for example, there's this......
Posted by Darren Naish at 9:49 AM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: herpetology
For millenia, a battle has raged between alligators and water melons. Who will win? Well, the answer's obvious: one has a bite force of over 15,000 Newtons, and the other one's a water melon. Yes, the alligator vs water melon...
Posted by Darren Naish at 7:00 PM • 46 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: herpetology
It's well known that elephants have a major impact on their environment: indeed, they're what's known as ecosystem engineers. In a new study, Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz of the University of Tokyo reports that Asian elephant dung might serve a hitherto...
Posted by Darren Naish at 12:14 PM • 48 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: herpetology
At some stage, I'll have to write full-length articles on lysorophians, aïstopods, the remaining temnospondyls, nectrideans, microsaurs, and assorted other groups of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic non-amniote tetrapods. Alas, this hasn't happened yet. In the meantime, here are some slides from...
Posted by Darren Naish at 7:33 AM • 73 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Mesozoic dinosaurs
In the previous article we looked at the Birds Come First, or BCF, hypothesis. It goes without saying that BCF has not won acceptance in the community, nor - in fact - is it even familiar to the majority...
Posted by Darren Naish at 7:06 AM • 112 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Mesozoic dinosaurs
A substantial amount of evidence demonstrates that birds are theropod dinosaurs, and that birds evolved during the Jurassic from small, feathered maniraptoran theropods closely related to dromaeosaurids and troodontids (known collectively as deinonychosaurs) [the small dromaeosaurid Microraptor shown in...
Posted by Darren Naish at 4:27 AM • 98 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: conservation
Last year was Year of the Frog (nothing to do with the Chinese calendar, but instead a global effort to raise awareness about the plight of the world's declining amphibian species). I hope that you've not forgotten that the...
Posted by Darren Naish at 7:52 AM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: herpetology
Welcome to one of those annoying teaser posts - I'd post something substantive, if only I had the time. But I don't. The adjacent photo shows Pristimantis charlottevillensis, a strabomantid from Tobago that was named in 1995. Believe it...
Posted by Darren Naish at 9:12 AM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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 • 34 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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