laelaps | July 7, 2009I am a little late to the party on this one, but please welcome Eric Michael Johnson of The Primate Diaries to ScienceBlogs. He has already racked up an impressive amount of bloggy-goodness at his new home, and his work is well worth the read. Check it out.
laelaps | July 7, 2009
A patch of Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora), photographed in Mount Kisco, NY.
laelaps | July 6, 2009
A restoration of Eritreum compared to the larger Gomphotherium. From Shoshani et al. (2009).
Before I loved dinosaurs, I loved elephants. I would run around the backyard with my little pith helmet on, firing my "elephant mover" to herd the imaginary pachyderms. (At the time I did not understand what guns did. When they went off in the documentaries I saw that the elephants moved, therefore guns were "elephant movers.") It would only be much later, when I could properly appreciate the stout bones I saw in the halls of the American Museum of Natural History, that I would more fully…
laelaps | July 6, 2009
An Eastern grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.
laelaps | July 5, 2009
A common goldeneye (Bucephala clangula), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.
laelaps | July 3, 2009
On the 31st of May, 1984, the late evolutionary theorist John Maynard Smith appraised the field of paleontology in the journal Nature. The report was a critical summary of a series of lectures Stephen Jay Gould had given at Cambridge, and Gould considered it "the kindest and most supportive critical commentary I have ever received." Smith wrote;
The attitude of population geneticists to any palaeontologist rash enough to offer a contribution to evolutionary theory has been to tell him to go away and find another fossil, and not to bother the grownups.
In the last ten years, however, this…
laelaps | July 2, 2009
A pair of clouded leopard cubs born in Smithsonian National Zoo facilities just a few months ago, via NPR.
laelaps | July 2, 2009During the past month Andy Farke of The Open Source Paleontologist has been considering the rise (and fall) of paleontology-oriented mailing lists (like the Dinosaur Mailing List and the VRTPALEO Discussion List). These lists are good for a lot of things, like quickly disseminating news to a large audience of specialists or requesting papers/information, but more and more in-depth discussions of paleontology are moving onto blogs. Andy has already covered some of the major points, but I wanted to add a few thoughts of my own.
There are advantages and disadvantages to science blogging vs.…
laelaps | July 1, 2009
A somewhat tamarin-like restoration of Ganlea megacania. By Mark A. Klingler of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
It seems that almost every time a new fossil primate is announced the first question everyone asks is "Is it one of our ancestors?" Nevermind that it is all but impossible to identify direct ancestors and descendants in the vertebrate fossil record (including primates). If the fossil can be construed to be a human ancestor it gets plenty of attention and if it is not the reports are left to wither. For a primate fossil to be seen, it must be promoted, and this often…
laelaps | July 1, 2009
A great black-backed gull (Larus marinus), photographed at the Central Park Zoo. Many thanks to everyone for the corrections in the comments.
laelaps | June 30, 2009Earlier this week I had the pleasure of answering a few questions for the Paw Talk blog about dinosaurs, blogging, and kittens. You can check it out here (and many thanks to Ava for inviting me to participate!).
laelaps | June 30, 2009At the end of the day today the University of Wyoming Geological Museum is going to be closed. The museum and the paleontologists who worked there are victims of state budget cuts, and the spirited effort to keep the museum open did not get top-level administrators to change their minds. The closure of the museum is still a shock to paleontologist Brent Breithaupt, who worked hard to make it what it is now. He recently told the Laramie Boomerang:
I can't fathom the concept that I'm not going to be coming in every day to see the dinosaurs. ... I can't fathom the concept that the dinosaurs won'…
laelaps | June 30, 2009A few months ago I had the opportunity to sit down with a professional paleontologist and pick his brain about a few things. One of the questions that I most wanted to ask was about the changing nature of paleobiology. Molecular biology, genetics, evo-devo, and other disciplines appeared to have an increasing presence in discussions of ancient life, and I asked the paleontologist if students of paleontology should strive to receive training in these fields to further expand the scope of paleontology.
I could hardly have been more disappointed by the answer. The gist of his response was that…
laelaps | June 30, 2009Like every other night for the past few weeks my phone rang at about 9:45 PM. It was the same number again. For years the number had intermittently shown up on my caller ID, and I recalled that it was for some sort of Rutgers survey. At this point I just wanted the annoying late-night calls to stop, so I decided to pick up the phone.
I had remembered correctly. It was a survey about my experience at Rutgers. Most of the questions were pretty standard (i.e. "What did you like best about Rutgers?", "Did you participate in any activities?"), but I did not realize their more sinister purpose…
laelaps | June 30, 2009
A California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.
laelaps | June 29, 2009Against all hope I brought my camera along with me. Special exhibitions do not usually let you take photos, and soon after I arrived at the Discovery Times Square Exhibition with Amanda and her boyfriend J I was forced to hand over all my equipment. No cameras, no cell phones, no food, keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times, &c.
Despite my disappointment, however, it was hard to be sad. I was going to see "Lucy", perhaps the most famous hominin fossil ever discovered, and the B-slab of "Ida", a much older fossil primate that kept me rather busy during the past month. I…