laelaps | December 23, 2009
A sample slide from the Your Inner Fish teaching resources.
Just in time for Christmas, paleontologist Neil Shubin has given us a real treat. Neil has composed PowerPoint slides of the illustrations used in each chapter of Your Inner Fish and made them freely accessible to all. I don't have any plans to deliver any classroom lectures in the near future, but if I ever do go back I will definitely make use of them!
laelaps | December 22, 2009
One of Charles R. Knight's wonderful paintings of woolly mammoths walking through the snow of ancient Europe. On display at the Field Museum in Chicago.
When did the last woolly mammoths die?
There is no easy answer to the question. In its heyday the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) was distributed across much of the northern hemisphere, from southern Spain to the eastern United States, and the entire species did not simply lay down and die at one particular moment. Some populations (such as the "dwarf" mammoths of Wrangel Island) survived until about 4,000 years ago, but most of…
laelaps | December 22, 2009
A pair of playing grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
laelaps | December 21, 2009
A female gharial (Gavialis gangeticus), photographed at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.
laelaps | December 19, 2009
A Tyrannosaurus rex, photographed at the Museum of Ancient Life in Utah.
laelaps | December 18, 2009
A mother mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and her three ducklings, photographed in Cape May, New Jersey.
laelaps | December 17, 2009
Trailer for Jurassic Fight Club II Clash of the Dinosaurs
This year saw the release of Unscientific America and Don't Be SUCH a Scientist, two books that aimed to take scientists to task for not being media-savvy enough. Whatever "it" is scientists are clearly not "with it", the books argue, and the public's inadequate understanding of science can be traced back to the inability of nerdy scientists to give themselves media-friendly makeovers.
I didn't particularly like either book (and that is putting things a bit mildly), but I have to admit that I am a little biased. Within the field I…
laelaps | December 17, 2009
A giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), photographed at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.
laelaps | December 16, 2009
A comparison of the third molars from three species of Pakicetus as viewed from the back. (From Cooper et al., 2009)
Crack open just about any recent popular overview of evolution (namely Why Evolution is True, The Greatest Show on Earth, and Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters) and somewhere inside you will find a string of skeletal whales. Starting with either Indohyus or Pakicetus, the illustration will feature a graded series of forms that connect modern whales with their terrestrial ancestors. A caveat may be included in the text to say that we cannot be absolutely…
laelaps | December 16, 2009
A giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), photographed at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.
laelaps | December 15, 2009After spending a long weekend hammering away at the text, I am now happy to say that the first formal iteration of Written in Stone is nearly complete.
It has been difficult work. Making sure that the narrative flows smoothly throughout the book has been among the top challenges, especially since I am not using the somewhat worn technique of starting at a point in earth's history and chronologically creeping towards the present. Instead I am using the history of science as a way to introduce what we have come to understand about the history of life from the fossil record. The two narratives…
laelaps | December 15, 2009
Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), photographed at the Central Park Zoo, NY.
laelaps | December 13, 2009
An American avocet (Recurvirostra americana), photographed at Antelope Island, Utah.
laelaps | December 11, 2009
On the way down to the reservoir to see the dinosaur tracks at Red Fleet State Park in Utah. My wife Tracey leads the way.
laelaps | December 9, 2009
A male pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), photographed on the side of a Wyoming highway.