laelaps | August 7, 2009
By the spring of 2008 Rutgers University was overflowing with undergraduates. In an attempt to lessen the sting of the budget crisis Rutgers admitted more students than it had room for even though everyone knew this was not a permanent solution. Hotels acted as makeshift dorms, and the few buses that shuttled students between campuses brought the individual members of the student body a bit too close for comfort.
Given that I lived in New Brunswick, though, I could afford to walk. Walking between the Cook and College Avenue campuses took about as long as it did to take the bus, and on same…
laelaps | August 7, 2009Over at Dinosaur Tracking I have an interview with paleontologist extraordinaire David Hone. Among other things he talks about working in the field, science blogging, and why large predatory dinosaurs might have preferred tasty young herbivores at mealtime. This interview has been a long time coming, and I appreciate David's enthusiasm and patience during the process. Go check it out!
laelaps | August 6, 2009
I will try to keep this short, especially since the combined length of all the reviews of Unscientific America probably outstrips the length of the book itself.*
I did not particularly like Unscientific America. Running a scant 132 pages, it is a scattershot survey of how scientists (according to authors Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum) have not pulled their weight in communicating important issues to the public. It is not an in-depth study of America's science culture wars but rather an extended op-ed whose content will be familiar to anyone who followed the various "framing" skirmishes…
laelaps | August 6, 2009
A mother mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and her three ducklings, photographed in Cape May, New Jersey.
laelaps | August 5, 2009I have been writing a lot about extinct proboscideans lately, but when it comes to essays about elephants and their extinct relatives John McKay can't be beat. His latest is about various representations of mammoths locked in ice and is a must-read. (He even references one of the worst movies I have ever seen, Mammoth.) John promises that he has "lots more to say about this topic", too, so keep your fingers crossed for a sequel to his wonderful essay.
laelaps | August 4, 2009Today Greg Laden mentioned a paleontology-based creationist novel that was bundled in with the Expelled marketing campaign called Fossil Hunter. Some of you may recall that I mentioned the book about a year ago but never got around to reading it/posting about it. Since I went to all the trouble of getting a used copy from an independent bookstore (so the money would go to the bookstore, not the people behind the book), though, I figure I might as well make good on my promise to review it. It couldn't be any worse than Monster, right?
laelaps | August 3, 2009After a number of false starts, I have finally started work on a "best of Laelaps" anthology. I am going to call it Tales From Deep Time, and it is going to be a sort of "b-sides" compilation that will complement my other, professional book-in-progress about paleontology and evolution. This blog has thrived on material I wanted to include in the other book but had to leave on the cutting room floor, and I look forward to presenting these miscellaneous tidbits in a more professional manner.
I am doing more than just cutting and pasting blog entries, though. Right now I am in the process of…
laelaps | August 3, 2009
An osprey (Pandion haliaetus), photographed while I was kayaking in Cape May, New Jersey.
laelaps | August 2, 2009
An osprey (Pandion haliaetus), photographed while [I was] kayaking in Cape May, New Jersey.
laelaps | August 1, 2009
The skeleton of a black caiman (Melanosuchus niger), photographed at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. [H/T to Thomas Holtz for the correction.]
laelaps | July 31, 2009I'm going to be quite busy this weekend (what with two papers to write, an anthology to edit, packing for the big camping trip, and a much-delayed trip to Cape May), so I've decided to open this de-lurking thread. Who are you, and what do you like about Laelaps? I have a general idea of how many people stop by this blog on the average day, but I would love to better get to know you all. By telling me what you like about this blog, as well, you are not only giving me encouragement but also providing important feedback so that I can keep this blog going strong. Whether you wish to introduce…
laelaps | July 31, 2009
The remains of a fish in a tree, photographed near High Point, New Jersey. Damned if I know how it got there.
laelaps | July 30, 2009
A restoration of the head of Pyrotherium. From W.B. Scott's A History of Land Mammals in the Western Hemisphere.
I do not remember much from my elementary school education, but there are a few fragments that have stuck with me. One day in 6th grade geography, for example, Mr. McCutcheon asked the class what we thought the continents of South America and Africa looked like. Africa was easy, it looked like the head of an African elephant (northwestern Africa being the right ear and Madagascar the tip of the trunk), but there was a greater diversity of opinion about South America. The…
laelaps | July 30, 2009
A red eft (Notophthalmus viridescens), photographed near High Point, New Jersey.
laelaps | July 29, 2009
Color-coded diagram of a small bone bed containing at least twelve individuals of the Permian synapsid Suminia. From Frobisch and Reisz (2009)
When I hear the phrase "early human relative" I cannot help but think of an ape-like creature. Something like Sahelanthropus fits the bill nicely; it may not be a hominin but it is still a close relative from around the time that the first hominins evolved. That is why I was a bit puzzled to see MSNBC.com parroting a story written by the Discovery Channel which proclaimed "Early human relative predates even dinosaurs"! Was this another fossil that…
laelaps | July 29, 2009
Another purple organism I saw growing on the forest floor near High Point, NJ. Does anyone know what it might be?
Thanks for the responses in the comments! The photo is of an Amethyst Coral (Clavulina amethystina), which appears to be some sort of mushroom.
laelaps | July 28, 2009
When I was a kid the movie Alligator seemed to be on television almost every other weekend. It was one of the first movies I can remember seeing, although truth be told I probably should not have been allowed to watch it. The pool scene alone was enough to give me nightmares.
For those who have not seen it, the film features an enormous, marauding alligator that grew to such prodigious size by feeding on test animals a biomedical corporation dumped in the sewer. It was a pretty clever explanation for how an ordinary alligator could become so gigantic, but long before Hollywood…