laelaps | August 5, 2008
A female Western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla). Photographed at the WCS-run Bronx zoo.
Nature still holds fascinating secrets that have yet to be discovered. Yesterday saw the announcement of the world's smallest known snake, for instance, but today a discovery of greater magnitude has been announced by the Wildlife Conservation Society. According to a recent census there are approximately 125,000 Western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) in two adjacent areas of northern Congo, more than doubling the number thought to be present previously.
This is certainly welcome news, yet we should not let it…
laelaps | August 5, 2008Thanks to a number of you purchasing books from amazon.com via this blog (every time someone clicks a link to an item on amazon and buys something I get a small percentage of the sale) I've got a substantial gift certificate to pick up a few new titles. During the past month, though, I've been literally waist deep in books at times and haven't given much thought as to what I should pick up next. I already have plenty that I'm interested in to choose from but I thought I would open up this thread for any recommendations you might have. What should I round out the summer reading before heading…
laelaps | August 5, 2008Last week I wrote about how Rutgers university engaged in some secret dealings to retain head football coach Greg Schiano and some poor decisions that put the financial stability of the institution at risk by dumping over 100 million dollars into the football program. Investigations have been promised and everyone is very upset (either at the press for running the stories or at Rutgers for their chicanery), but something strange has happened. In interviews held over the past few days Bob Mulcahy, athletics director at Rutgers, has denied that Schiano was ever given a hush-hush "escape clause…
laelaps | August 5, 2008For those of you who are planning on coming to the Sb Reader Meet-Up this weekend in New York City, there's been a change in venue. The new details are;
2pm-4pm on Saturday, August 9
Social
795 8th Ave (close to 48th St.)
New York, NY 10019
I'll definitely be there, and I'm looking forward to meeting whoever shows up!
laelaps | August 5, 2008
Western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla), photographed July 23th, 2008 at the Bronx zoo.
laelaps | August 4, 2008If I believed what my high school teachers taught me, from them I received the distilled wisdom of the ages. The knowledge was compartmentalized and packaged; there was no need for history in science class, at least outside of snarky little asides like how foolish Lamarck must have been to think evolution involved the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Everything involved the bare minimum, disparate notions offered up for consumption and near-immediate regurgitation, but very little understanding. There was no context, no narrative, and no sense.
There is very little I remember from my…
laelaps | August 4, 2008On Saturday it was announced that Polish paleontologists have uncovered the remains of an ancient predatory animal, heralded as an ancestor to Tyrannosaurus in the mass media accounts. Nicknamed "the Dragon" the fossil remains were recovered from Lisowice and are of Triassic age, the large size of the animal (~16 feet) suggesting that it ate almost anything it wanted. Yet there are some questions about this fossil, especially since it has not yet been published in the technical literature. Is it really a Triassic representative of the Tyrannosaurus family tree?
If you take a look at the…
laelaps | August 4, 2008
Grace, a female lion (Panthera leo), watches the geese and kudu in the adjacent enclosure. Her mate George dozes nearby. (Photographed on July 23, 2008 at the Bronx Zoo.)
laelaps | August 3, 2008When I petsit for friends I get a chance to see what's on television. Most of the it is crap, but I did catch a NOVA special on "The Car of the Future" featuring the Tappet brothers from "Car Talk." It was a pretty interesting show, outlining a number of competing technologies that may (or may not) change the way we get from A to B. What I found most interesting, though, was the disparity between what independent researchers & companies are doing vs. big time auto makers.
I was first struck by this big difference while watching Who Killed the Electric Car? (and, to a lesser extent, one of…
laelaps | August 3, 2008
Nubian ibex (Capra ibex nubiana), photographed July 23th, 2008 at the Bronx zoo.
laelaps | August 2, 2008I'm a bit ambivalent about what I wrote yesterday. On the one hand I'm glad I finally got down to covering early tetrapods and think I came up with a pretty good foundation for the chapter (I wrote ~6 pages). On the other hand I'm not happy with most of what I wrote. I was writing away from my library so everything I generated was vague (and I'm sure some of it is wrong). At least I've got a place to start from, though.
Rather than continue adding to the list I had created, dropping clues, I've decided to make a new Wordle for each update so I can see how the book evolves as I keep working on…
laelaps | August 2, 2008Forms Most Beautiful has an absolutely excellent interview with Kevin Zelnio. It's one of the best I've read in a long time and I urge you to check it out. Now where's my interview?
laelaps | August 2, 2008When I was a kid remembering "all" the dinosaurs was pretty easy. In the Jurassic you had Allosaurus going after "Brontosaurus" and Ceratosaurus trying to take a bite out of Stegosaurus, and the epic battles between Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops were the "main event" of the Cretaceous. As I sunk deeper into dino-mania I learned more and more names but there still seem to be more than I can keep track of. Thankfully Thomas Holtz has just issued an update to his list of dinosaur genera (a supplement to his lavishly-illustrated encyclopedia, Dinosaurs, released last year).
I think I learned more…
laelaps | August 2, 2008
Two zebras, photographed July 23th, 2008 at the Bronx zoo. Any guesses as to what kind they are?
[Update: Those that said Grevy's zebra were right on the money. The think stripe pattern is a dead giveaway.]
laelaps | August 1, 2008
Small-clawed otters (Aonyx cinerea), photographed July 23th, 2008 at the Bronx zoo.
laelaps | July 31, 2008Things have been a little slow here on the ol' blog as of late, but for good reason. Outside of a schedule change that has thrown my writing off, I've been hard at work on my Huxley paper (which I actually just finished). Many thanks to everyone who helped by offering encouragement, sending papers, and answering questions; I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product in print in the near future.
Little did I know that working on the paper would give me enough self confidence to look for other opportunities, however, and now I've got a few other projects. I found a home for my piece of…
laelaps | July 31, 2008
Western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla), photographed July 23th, 2008 at the Bronx zoo.
laelaps | July 30, 2008In 2005 the unexpected occurred; researchers reported what appeared to be preserved soft tissues inside the femur of a Tyrannosaurus rex excavated from the Hell Creek Formation. Structures that looked like blood vessels and blood cells were seen under the microscope, and although it is still unknown whether this is original organic material or material that has somehow been preserved the structures provided some tantalizing clues. What the researchers have been more confident about, however, is that they were able to detect the presence of preserved collagen proteins in the material. (Indeed…
laelaps | July 30, 2008
A snow leopard (Panthera uncia), photographed July 23th, 2008 at the Bronx zoo.
laelaps | July 29, 2008Tonight the first episode of the History channel program Jurassic Fight Club will air (I reviewed it here) and I definitely want to know what you think about it. Have at it in the comments.