A snow leopard (Panthera uncia) cub snacking on a bit of bone at the Bronx Zoo.
The American mastodon (Mammut americanum), illustrated in one of Cuvier's memoirs. I've had a bit of a rough weekend, but I did read something last night that brought a smile to my face. I was reading Paul Semonin's American Monster and I came across an unintentionally amusing quote from Thomas Jefferson, taken from one of Jefferson's letters to Willson Peale. The subject of the letter was what the name of the animal previously known as the "American incognitum," "Ohio animal," or mammoth should be called, Peale being unsure about a new moniker even though Georges Cuvier had shown the…
Greg has the latest edition of the Boneyard up on display, featuring snippets of William Stout's fantastic new artwork on display at the San Diego Natural History Museum. Greg has uncovered a rich assemblage of posts, so be sure to have a look. I was also hoping that fans of the Boneyard might be able to lend me some assistance. I know I haven't been the best about keeping on top of the carnival because it goes up on weekends, and many hosts have to dig around for posts because there aren't many actual submissions. I want to make a more concerted effort to get the carnival on its feet again,…
Like yesterday's photo I was not able to get close enough to this animal to get a better shot, but given the difficulty I had photographing this chipmunk (Tamias sp.) I was still happy I was able to get a shot at all.
The fiberglass skull of Barnum Brown's second Tyrannosaurus rex fitted on the revised mount now standing on the 4th floor of the AMNH. I guess it's appropriate that I just posted the trailer to the new Indiana Jones film, because as soon as I heard that there's a Tyrannosaurus up for auction on eBay my first thought was "That belongs in a museum!" I'm sure that some of you readers are more familiar with this particular case than I am, but according to the eBay listing the individual specimen is about 20% complete, primarily consisting of almost half the skull material, some leg bones,…
When I was younger I wanted to have Indiana Jones' job when I grew up (just going after dinosaurs instead of archaeological relics). I had an official Indiana Jones hat that I wore everywhere I went, and my father used to tell me that he could see me becoming an adventuring professor one day. Now that I'm a bit older I better understand the fiction of the films, but Radiers of the Lost Ark is still one of my most favorite movies, and I'm definitely looking forward to the new Indy film due out in May;
Yesterday's brief post about "impostor syndrome" recalled the following Monty Python sketch. I don't think "aggravated student" would be listed as a profession, but at least I'm good at it;
I don't have a powerful enough lens to take close-up photographs of birds (yet), but I think you can still see how robust this particular red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) is. I photographed him in July of last year, singing to stake his claim to his territory, and I don't think I've seen a male with brighter shoulder-patches before or since.
When I wrote about the new species of predatory dinosaur, Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis, this past December, I made a note of how interesting it was that in Cretaceous Gondwana there seems to be a certain triumvirate of predatory dinosaur groups. According to the data presented in Brusatte and Sereno (2007), remains of spinosaurids, carcharodontosaurids, and abelisauroids have been found near each other in various locations in a range of Cretaceous-aged strata on the African continent, perhaps reflecting a guild structure like that of extant mammalian African carnivores. Approximately 95…
I've been reading so much about mythology & religion as it relates to natural history lately that I've decided to revamp on old post of mine on that very subject. (It was already monstrous to begin with, but given what I intend to add it may get out of control.) I hope to have it up sometime this weekend, but for now here's an old movie trailer that will give you some clues as to what I'll be talking about;
A friend of mine recently passed this along to me; there's a new article in Science Careers about "impostor phenomenon," a general feeling that success is due to luck more than ability among scientists (and Sb's very own ScienceWoman is interviewed in it, too). I'm sure some of you will identify with it, and although I haven't yet embarked on a serious science career as yet the subject of the article is awfully familiar. It's something that goes beyond modesty to a fear that your success is essentially just a fluke and you might be found out at any moment, the Sword of Damocles hanging over…
There has been another tragic school shooting, this time at Northern Illinois University. I don't know what to say about such senseless violence, and although many universities have updated safety protocols in the wake of Virginia Tech. it is still all-too-easy for a disturbed person to walk into a lecture hall and kill whoever happens to be there. As John Lynch reflects at Stranger Fruit, it is sobering to learn of such events, the news making me think about escape routes & what I would do if the unthinkable happened during the course of what would have started as any other normal day. I…
When I think of large, African carnivores, the big cats and spotted hyena come most immediately to mind. Indeed, most of the documentaries I watched growing up focused on the warfare between lion prides and hyena clans, and I had no idea that the African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus) existed until a few years ago. These dogs differ from other canid genera in a number of ways, most prominently the lack of a dewclaw and a set of massive molars. While they do not consume as much bone as spotted hyena, wild dogs are quite capable of cracking bones, and they make good use of their stout distal…
It's Valentine's day, so I'm allowed to put up some videos of excessively cute baby animals. I wouldn't imagine that a baby two-toed sloth (Choloepus sp.) would be at the top of anyone's list, but I'll let you decide for yourself; The giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) is one of my most favorite of all animals, and even though the "baby" in this clip is a little old, mothers carry their offspring piggyback for some time;
Plans for the next annual science blogging conference are already under way, and the 2009 meeting is going to be biggest and best yet. The 2009 meeting will be from January 16th - January 18th, 2009, allowing attendees to double their fun (and bar tabs).
Many, many more dinosaur-themed Valentines (dino-tines?) can be found here.
Banded mongoose (Mungos mungo) are a gregarious animals that, like some of their close relatives, use termite mounds for food and shelter. They are one of the few animals I've featured here that are not presently threatened or at risk of extinction, and a WWF map of the range of the species indicates that banded mongoose inhabit the majority of sub-Saharan Africa.
It just so happens that at the end of next month David Mention of Answers in Genesis is going to be presenting a multi-day creation seminar in Bucks County, PA (which puts the event within driving range). I haven't decided whether I'm going to subject myself to Menton's rendition of crusty, old arguments that I've heard elsewhere, but I'm considering it just to see what goes on at such gatherings. As it happens, I was just perusing a list of quotes I had compiled in search of something else and came across this passage from Francis Bacon's Novum Organum which I felt was quite appropriate; The…
Intelligent design has to be one of the most boring concepts I've ever had the displeasure to be acquainted with. When I first heard about it I thought it was nuts, but at least it was interesting. Two years later I've tired of hearing shrill arguments about how "Big Science" and the "Darwinian orthodoxy" are persecuting the poor creationists, killing puppies, making Jesus cry, etc. Indeed, William Paley argued for design much more eloquently and coherently in Natural Theology, a book that if often referenced but has seldom been read (especially by the intelligent design camp. Paley's book is…
Archosaurs have been making a lot of news over the past day or so. First, there's the diminutive new pterosaur Nemicolopterus crypticus, a toothless Early Cretaceous form that may have been arboreal. As far as dinosaurs go, the hadrosaur Velafrons coahuilensis was described in the December issue of Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, but it's just now getting some time in the limelight. Paul Sereno and Stephen L. Brusatte, fresh from reporting a new species of Carcharodontosaurus, hit us with a double-dose of new theropods in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, describing the…