July 5, 2007
To date, I would say that all the 'mystery pictures' I've posted have been way too easy, as is demonstrated by the fact that the vast majority of visitors are able to guess them correctly straight away...
A baboon skull. Frogmouth bristles. A paca's head. The problem is, when you're preparing such…
July 4, 2007
Today I submitted another one of those long-delayed manuscripts. Yay. I also got to work preparing one of the three conference talks I'm supposed to be giving this year - how the hell I'm going to pull off all three I'm not sure. Anyway, leaving well alone the whole picture-of-the-day debacle, it'…
July 3, 2007
Ok, the game is up - let's all just pretend that that ugly little paca episode never happened (it has been consigned to 'below the fold': view at your peril). Just so you feel you're getting your money's worth, here's another picture, but not one where you're supposed to guess what it is, as of…
July 2, 2007
No temnospondyls for you: mystery pictures strike back! Congratulations in advance to the bright spark who can successfully identify what's shown above - and you don't have to get the identification down to the species, the genus will do. To the rest of you, commisserations in advance. No time for…
June 29, 2007
Like plethodontid salamanders, Wealden dinosaurs, and rhinogradentians, the remarkably successful and diverse tetrapods known as temnospondyls have been riding the Tet Zoo wagon right since the earliest posts of ver 1. But, to my shame, I've never gotten round to completing one of the ten or so…
June 27, 2007
Many, many thanks to everyone who took the time to think about, and comment on, the Erongo carcass (featured on Tet Zoo yesterday). As you might know if you checked the news article, this naturally mummified carcass was discovered in 2002 (or so) in a cave in the Erongo Mountains, Namibia. Local…
June 25, 2007
Another mystery photo for everyone to guess at. And in fact this specimen isn't just any old dead animal...
... it's internationally famous, having been widely discussed in the news media [see article here], and the subject of correspondence between mammalogists across the USA. It has variously…
June 25, 2007
During recent weeks, I've written on a couple of occasions about my intention to get through the list of long-promised and nearly-finished articles: they include Amazing social life of the green iguana, Beluwhals and proto-narwhals, more on sebecosuchians, Triassic crurotarsans, Whence the onza,…
June 21, 2007
Given all the fun that everyone had recently with the Southern sea lion skull, I thought you'd all enjoy the chance to have a go with another specimen. This one's a lot easier, no prizes for getting it right. Let battle commence!
PS - yesterday's artice on sea lions was ver 2's 100th entry - wahey!
June 21, 2007
Well done and many thanks to everyone who tried identifying the mystery skull published on the blog yesterday. And as several people correctly worked out...
.... it belonged to a pinniped, and more specificially to an otariid, and to a sea lion. Well done in particular to Andrés Rinderknecht and…
June 20, 2007
I can't see that I'm going to have the chance today to post an article, so here's another picture. Sorry it's not the best photo in the world. But the question is...
... whose skull is it? Well, I know what it is of course - but do you? Invariably the reaction from laypeople has been that it must…
June 18, 2007
In an effort to get through all the blog posts I've started but have yet to finish, I thought I may as well start with this one on, of course, plethodontid salamanders (aka lungless salamanders). It started life as part of the same article as the ver 1 post here: this was essentially an…
June 15, 2007
Among the most surreal snakes are (in my opinion) the turtle-headed sea snakes, or Aipysurus-group hydrophiids...
They are specialist predators of fish eggs: with their reduced compliment of stiffened labial scales, they scrape the eggs off rocks, and also use the spike on the snout tip to dig…
June 14, 2007
The gigantic mystery coelurosaur alluded to here in one of the ornithomimosaur articles - yes, you heard it here first - has at last been published, and it is an immense long-legged oviraptorosaur, as big as a tyrannosaur. But it is just one of three fantastic new discoveries from the world of…
June 13, 2007
Regular visitors will no doubt have noticed the failure of my promise to post a picture a day. Well, alas, I'm going to have to take a much more relaxed approach, as it has proved impossible to find time even for that. So, I might post a new picture every day on the blog, and I might not. My…
June 11, 2007
My plan at the moment (in terms of blog-related writing) is to do nothing other than complete all those nearly-finished articles that I've been promising to do over the last weeks... or months... We begin with the second post on sheep, thereby completing what I started in the first sheep post (the…
June 8, 2007
Here is a cool photo, taken by either Steve Salisbury or Dino Frey, and previously published in a short article of mine on crocodilians. Initially I was going to use a really neat photo I have of a Cuban crocodile Crocodylus rhombifer leaping vertically from the water to grab a dead hutia, but…
June 7, 2007
Today's image shows the ever-interesting Maned wolf, the so-called 'fox on stilts' Chrysocyon brachyurus, kindly supplied by Anne-Marie of Pondering Pikaia. Anne-Marie studies these animals for her honors thesis. Maned wolves are well known for being predators of large rodents (like pacas) and…
June 5, 2007
When most people (and that includes palaeontologists and dinosaur specialists) think of Brachiosaurus, they think of the east African taxon B. brancai, named by Werner Janensch in 1914. But they shouldn't: the 'real' Brachiosaurus is B. altithorax from the Morrison Formation of Colorado [later…
June 5, 2007
Today, a new picture by my good friend Mark Witton, shamelessly stolen from his flickr site. And, yes, it shows the Campanian ceratopsid Styracosaurus albertensis eating a theropod carcass. If you think that the idea of a bristly omnivorous ceratopsid is odd and requires some justification, I will…
June 4, 2007
If you've read the series of posts on Marc van Roosmalen's new Amazonian mammals, you should, by now, be fairly open-minded to the possibility that large terrestrial mammals await discovery and description. And if you follow rumours about new mammal species, you'll have heard of the alleged new…
June 3, 2007
A Chinese goose: the domesticated form of the Swan goose Anser cygnoides (that's right, more than one species of goose has been domesticated: this was always assumed based on morphological features, but was confirmed genetically in a 2006 study [abstract here]). The Swan goose is also the ancestor…
June 3, 2007
What the hell, thought I may as well do more books before getting back to animals. Here is part of the 'mostly mammals' section of the library. Dan will be pleased, as there is a Carrington and a Swinton in there. Also L. Harrison Matthews, Hans Hvass, Kingdon, Guggisberg, and C. J. Harris. Spot…
June 2, 2007
Given that it seems to be such an oh-so-fashionable thing to do in the blogosphere, I thought I may as well join the party and post random photos of some of my bookshelves. This collection is in the unsorted/random section of the library... clearly. Note the run of Palaeontology journals, Cogger's…
June 1, 2007
Yet more on Marc van Roosmalen's new Amazonian mammals, first disclosed on his excellent website. Before proceeding, you will need to have read part I, part II and part III first. Here in part IV we get to the most important stuff and wrap things up. But before that, there are yet more new animals…
June 1, 2007
Yet more on the multiple new Amazonian mammals that have been discovered or documented by Marc van Roosmalen. If you haven't already done so, please read part I and part II. Here in part III we're going to look at the monkeys, as Marc has continued to discover various forms that don't match any…
June 1, 2007
More on Marc van Roosmalen's new Amazonian mammals: in the previous post I introduced the new dwarf tapir, as well as the whole topic of Marc's discoveries and the coverage that they get on his new website. Part I is required reading. Here in part II we look at yet more of these animals: this time…
June 1, 2007
Arguably the most exciting concept in the entire field of zoology is the thought that new large terrestrial tetrapod species await discovery. And despite statements from journalists and scientists, history demonstrates that the continued discovery of such animals is not an extraordinary or…
May 31, 2007
Yet another rhino - there is an inadvertent theme going here. This amazing fossil is an embryo of the diceratheriine Subhyracodon occidentalis from Upper Eocene-Lower Oligocene USA (Subhyracodon often went by the name Caenopus in the older rhino literature). Discovered in rocks of the Brule…
May 31, 2007
It has always been rumoured that some snakes grow to sizes that exceed the 10 m record generally accepted as the authenticated maximum: this was for a Reticulated python Python reticulatus shot on Sulawesi in 1912. Numerous stories and anecdotes discuss Reticulated pythons and anacondas Eunectes…
