laelaps | January 25, 2008I know some of you, like me, were pretty sad when Kate of The Anterior Commissure decided to stop blogging back in December. As it turns out, it was all just a ruse to make her move over to Pure Pedantry all the more exciting (you know, like how Coke was invented just to make everyone run back to "Classic Coca-Cola"). Ok, well maybe I've exaggerated a little, but it's still great to have Kate's blogging skills on board. (And for those of you who are in the NYC area like me, Kate has done a lot of work on the Science Communication Consortium, the next meeting of which is going to take place…
laelaps | January 25, 2008I may or may not be able to get to all this stuff in detail today, but here's a smattering of some paleo news to start your day with;
Paleontologists have known for a number of years that the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan peninsula is likely the "smoking gun" for the end-Cretaceous meteor impact, but new research suggests that the bolide struck the earth in water deeper than originally thought. This would modify ecological effects in the wake of the impact, and it was good to read that a variety of short-term and long-term effects of the event were considered in the new research;
[Sean]…
laelaps | January 25, 2008
As visually striking as the may be, peacocks (males of Pavo cristatus) have become the equivalent of pigeons at many zoological parks. Surely they seem out of place when compared to the more usual avian fauna of New Jersey the chickadee or Canada goose, but they have become so familiar that they've nearly ceased to be exotic. Still, it's not every day that I see a bird so garishly adorned, and I'll be curious to see how a number of peacocks placed in the renovated Astor Court at the Bronx zoo get along when mating season comes along.
laelaps | January 24, 2008
While the most popular dinosaurs have names like Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops few people know one of paleontology's great secrets; the most numerous remains of a large vertebrates found in rocks of Mesozoic age carry the title "Chunkosaurus." Scraps of bone that may be difficult to ascribe to a particular species are far more common than articulated skeletons, and nearly any find where the bones of an individual animal are found together in association is significant, indeed. Given the natural history of bone during fossilization it's a wonder we have any remains of extinct creatures at all…
laelaps | January 24, 2008
By now regular readers of this blog know that I have a definite affinity for saber-toothed critters, a rather motley assemblage of unrelated animals which include a large number of extinct and extant animals. Many primate species, somewhat surprisingly, fall into this category. Some representatives like baboons have extremely impressive canines (complete with a specialized molar to sharpen their teeth on), but lemurs also have some formidable dentition. In many primate species enlargement of the canines is a sexually dimorphic trait, males having larger canines than females. Gibbons are an…
laelaps | January 23, 2008Modern geology is dictated by uniformitarianism as proposed by Charles Lyell in his Principles of Geology, a book that rightly displaced the "armchair speculations" of catastrophists.
In nearly any book about 19th century science, Charles Darwin, paleontology, or geology, the name Charles Lyell shows up at least once, even if only to state his connection with the idea of uniformitarianism. This important concept, often summarized as "the present is the key to the past," has often been described as triumphantly kicking catastrophist explanations out of geological science, researchers like…
laelaps | January 23, 2008The latest edition of The Accretionary Wedge is up at Green Gabbro, although I wasn't able to get my uniformitarianism vs. catastrophism post finished in time (it's almost done though; it'll be up later today). There's some great stuff over there, so be sure to check out the myth-busting entries submitted by a number of geo-bloggers.
laelaps | January 23, 2008Not long ago I wrote about some of the potential risks for scientists who do much of their work in the field rather than the lab, and according to the Salt Lake Tribune there's a new danger to be on the look-out for; a predator-control device known as a M-44. In 2003 Dennis Slaugh was riding an atv in Utah when he saw what looked like a survey stake stuck in the ground, but what he didn't know was that the "stake" was really a M-44. When he bent down to brush off the device it fell over, and when he righted it again Slaugh received a blast of the poison sodium cyanide in the face, an event…
laelaps | January 23, 2008
According to a news item posted on CNN.com yesterday, at least 50 gharials have died due to unknown causes since early December in the area of the Chambal river in India. Pollution and parasites seem to be the main contenders for a culprit, conservation biologists reporting that the livers and kidneys of the dead animals were swollen and seemed to be affected by an unknown parasite, although lead and cadmium were also found in the bodies of the gharials. At present the gharial is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN, and the problems in the Chambal river area are especially worrisome…
laelaps | January 23, 2008
Josephoartigasia monesi may now be known as the largest rodent to have ever lived, but it still has a number of super-sized extant relatives. The fourth largest of living rodents is the mara (Dolichotis sp.), of which there are two species (the one pictured above is the Patagonian mara, Dolichotis patagonum). Although maras don't look quite like their relatives, perhaps seeming closer to rabbits than guinea pigs, they are true members of the Caviidae, and they are easily kept at zoos. Wild populations of maras are somewhat threatened by habitat loss and competition with introduced rodents,…
laelaps | January 22, 2008That's the advice my wife gave to me, anyway. It's the first day of classes here at Rutgers, and things got off to a rather hellish start. After driving back and forth to North Carolina over the course of the past weekend without any major problems, my car decided to stall out in the middle of a major intersection here in New Brunswick. I was able to start the unwieldy behemoth, cursing the sputtering and shaking giant as it barely made it around the corner to safety, but this problem really was all my fault. Even though I was toasty beneath the covers last night the temperature outside…
laelaps | January 22, 2008There's a new blog carnival in town; Berry Go Round, a botanical carnival organized by the blogger behind Seeds Aside. The first edition is coming up soon, so if you've got something to add to the garden of posts be sure to check it out!
[Also, remember that the next edition of The Boneyard is going to be up this Saturday over at The Dragon's Tales. Send your links to me or Will to get in on the paleontological fun.]
[Hat-tip to Ian for the news about Berry Go Round.]
laelaps | January 22, 2008
In addition to the blue-eyed black lemur I mentioned yesterday, the golden-crowned sifaka (Propithecus tattersalli) was another lemur I got the chance to see at the Duke Lemur Center. Like many other lemurs, this species is under threat from the development of agriculture and habitat fragmentation, although this species faces a further threat. Gold has been discovered in golden-crowned lemur habitat, mining operations becoming a further threat to the species. Such activities have resulted in this species being critically endangered, and it was sad to think that the lemur I saw at the Duke…
laelaps | January 21, 2008It's amazing how quickly three days can pass by; on Thursday I made a mad dash to make sure everything was in order for my trip to North Carolina and by 10:30 Friday morning I was sitting in an NC hotel room, not sure if I was awake or asleep. I didn't have much time to sort myself out, though, as I soon had to head out again to the Duke University Lemur Center. There I met up with Reed, Josh, Euan, and others for a tour of the facility. It was a fascinating place (even if a little pungent), and although I did happen across a television celebrity the highlight of the day was a face-to-face…
laelaps | January 21, 2008
Most of the animals I post pictures of here are rare, endangered, or otherwise impressive, but I shouldn't be too quick to shun local, common wildlife. This photograph is of a laughing gull (Larus atricilla) taken at Cape May, NJ, although you can find them just about anywhere that there's a free meal. These birds are generally a little more skittish than herring gulls, though; the larger herring gulls are not shy about trying to steal chicken strips or other morsels out of your hand if you're not guarded about your fast food in their presence.
laelaps | January 20, 2008
The Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) is the largest living species of lizard in the entire world, and while the large size of this reptile has often been attributed to island gigantism some research has suggested that varanid lizards gained large size relatively early on in their evolutionary history (see Gould and MacFadden 2004). Komodo dragons are normally featured on nature documentaries, but in 2001 one particular dragon made the headlines because it bit the foot of Phil Bronstein, husband of actress Sharon Stone and San Francisco Chronicle Executive Editor, when Bronstein was…
laelaps | January 19, 2008The 2nd Annual Science Blogging Conference is now over, but the festivities sure aren't; I'll soon be hitting the bar with some of my fellow Sciblings and other wonderful people I've met over the past few days. I really wish I had brought a working laptop to blog this event as it has been unfolding (the one I have is a decade-old monster that doesn't like me), but plenty of other people have been updating things throughout the day (check out some of Ginny's entries on Page 3.14, including a picture of all the Sciblings at the conference and a sighting of PZ). I'll do a more detailed post on…
laelaps | January 19, 2008Today's the big day for the Science Blogging Conference, and it looks like we're probably going to get a reprieve from the winter weather that was threatening to mess everything up (although I shouldn't speak too soon). Last night I got to meet a few of my fellow Sciblings, other bloggers, and folks from various other groups, experiencing the joy of getting lost again (twice) with some wonderful people. I'm sure I'll meet even more today. The group dinner last night was a lot of fun, too, and the food was great; definitely check out the Town Hall Grill if you're in the Durham, NC area. Anyway…
laelaps | January 19, 2008
These bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) were from a group of about twelve that I saw last summer off Cape May, NJ. Recent molecular studies suggest that they may be another species, however; the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus).
laelaps | January 18, 2008
I just made it to NC and am all set at the hotel, although now I'm off again to see the lemurs over at Duke. Unfortunately I forgot my camera cable, but there'll be plenty of pictures to post when I get back. I was also surprised to find out that I've been linked by Andrew Sullivan over at The Atlantic, so welcome to all you new readers!
[Update: My visit to the Duke Lemur Center was a lot of fun, and I got to meet some cool people like Reed and Josh there, too. As promised, photos will be uploaded when I get back home to my trusty USB cable.]