laelaps | October 20, 2009[Note: Once again I have found myself with too many writing projects and too little time. Expect something substantial to appear here tomorrow, but for now enjoy an old tale about the "Nevada Giant."]
The role petrified bones and footprints have played in the origin of myths and legends has been recognized since the 19th century, but it has only been recently that the connection between fossils and mythology has been appreciated as a subject worthy of careful scrutiny. (See The First Fossil Hunters, Fossil Legends of the First Americans, and American Monster). It should be kept in mind,…
laelaps | October 20, 2009
A lizard (perhaps the common side-blotched lizard, Uta stansburiana?), photographed at Antelope Island, Utah.
laelaps | October 19, 2009How our species appeared on this planet has traditionally been a touchy subject. For centuries different religions pushed their creation myths as the answer to the persistent question "How did we come to be here?", but as naturalists examined the world around them the less the "Book of Nature" fit with the classic stories. Now, through our understanding of evolution, we know that our species was not produced in some divine fiat but represents a lonely twig inextricably connected to all other life through our ancestry.
Despite what we have come to learn about the origin of our species, however…
laelaps | October 19, 2009
The Riverside Geyser in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park.
laelaps | October 18, 2009
A chipmunk gnaws on a sun chip in a parking lot in the Mount Naomi Wilderness in Utah. Free range cattle were also a common sight along the trail.
laelaps | October 16, 2009
Three restorations (top, left side, and bottom) of the skull of Andrewsiphius. From the Journal of Paleontology paper.
During the past 30 years the evolution of fully aquatic whales from terrestrial ancestors has gone from one of the most enigmatic evolutionary transitions to one of the best documented. Evidence from the fossil record, genetics, and embryology have been combined to document how early whales walked into the sea, but what often has gone unnoticed is the diversity of early whales. In a new paper published in the latest issue of The Journal of Paleontology, cetacean experts J…
laelaps | October 16, 2009
North American river otters (Lontra canadensis), photographed in the Lamar Valley at Yellowstone National Park
laelaps | October 15, 2009
My new favorite illustration from the technical literature; a baseball player compared to the glyptodont Doedicurus clavicaudatus. From the Proceedings of the Royal Society B paper.
In the introduction to his most famous work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, the Victorian naturalist Charles Darwin began by writing;
WHEN on board H.M.S. 'Beagle,' as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts seemed to me…
laelaps | October 15, 2009
An arabesque orbweaver spider (Neoscona arabesca) photographed on Antelope Island, Utah. This species, about the size of a quarter, was a common sight among the sunflowers.
laelaps | October 14, 2009
Things have been a little slow around here this week, but for good reason.
As you might expect I have been hard at work on my first book, Written in Stone. It is a challenge, but the process has its own little rewards, and I am putting the majority of my effort into making it the best book that I possibly can. This leaves time for little else.
In fact, my experience thus far as a freelance science writer differs substantially from the "Life of a Freelance Writer" as described by writer Caroline Hagood. Hagood's routine involves many cups of coffee, shuffling around the apartment in pajamas,…
laelaps | October 14, 2009
A female grouse (I'm not sure of the species), photographed in Yellowstone National Park.
laelaps | October 12, 2009
I love flipping through old paleontology textbooks. Many times the text and images inside them have been reproduced from other sources or bear a close resemblance to similar titles published at about the same time, but every now and then I find something really unusual. Such was the case while I was skimming through H.F. Cleland's 1916 Geology: Physical and Historical.
While looking for out-of-date ideas on the origin of the first tetrapods I came across a very strange restoration of Dimetrodon (illustration to the left). Dimetrodon was a spenacodontid synapsid, an odd creature that, despite…
laelaps | October 12, 2009
The partial remains of a large animal entombed in a thermal feature in Yellowstone's Mud Volcano Area.
laelaps | October 11, 2009
The battered skull of a cougar (Puma concolor), photographed at the Utah Museum of Natural History.
laelaps | October 9, 2009
Chucking stones at baboons; the first hominin passtime? From The Making of Man.
For the Australian anatomist Raymond Dart, the fossilized bones scattered among the caves of South Africa were testimonies to the murderous nature of early humans. The recovered skulls of baboons and our australopithecine relatives often looked as if they had been bashed in, and Dart believed the bones, teeth, and horns of slain game animals were the weapons hominins used to slaughter their prey. (He gave this sort of tool use the cumbersome name "osteodontokeratic culture.") Our origins had not been peaceful;…
laelaps | October 9, 2009
Sunset over the Great Salt Lake, as photographed from Antelope Island, Utah.
laelaps | October 8, 2009Today marks two years since I started writing here at ScienceBlogs. To tell you the truth, I lost track of how long it had been. I did not know it was my own blogiversary until other people reminded me this morning. Nevertheless, many thanks to all my readers, regardless of whether you have been with me since the beginning or have only just discovered this blog. I hope you will be with me for some time to come.