laelaps | July 23, 2008
At Zooillogix Benny tells us about cuckoos that can change their cries and frogs that can selectively hear different sounds.
John Lynch just co-authored a great paper about the importance of the history of science to education. Head on over to Stranger Fruit to congratulate him and have a look (I'll be blogging about this one soon, too).
John tackles the question of "If humans evolved, why are there still monkeys?" at Evolving Thoughts. Coincidentally I'm off to photograph some of our primate relations today so I'll soon have some photos to compliment his excellent essay.…
laelaps | July 23, 2008
A young prairie dog (probably Cynomys ludovicianus), photographed July 15th, 2008 at the Philadelphia zoo.
laelaps | July 22, 2008
The first time I cam face-to-face with a dinosaur I was so scared I ran around the corner and hid, peeking out to see my parents try to reassure me that I would not be gobbled up, impaled, trampled, or otherwise harmed by the roaring robots. I had bugged the hell out of them to go see the animatronic dinosaurs traveling exhibit at the Morris Museum but when I finally got to see them it was too much for me to handle. I don't remember how old I was exactly, probably about five or six, but even though the synthetic creatures were downsized they still towered over me. The Natural History…
laelaps | July 22, 2008... a ring-tailed lemur;
I found Chris Mooney's latest piece about Sizzle so aggravatingly condescending that I was set to pen a lengthy, ill-temptered response. I thought better of it, especially since it is clear that any negative comments or criticisms about the film will be ignored. (Instead you're just getting a shorter ill-tempered one and a photo.)
Apparently anyone who didn't like the film is a boring, humorless soul who can only find joy in endless streams of scientific data. The notion is absurd, but that's what's coming from the Sizzle soapbox, Randy Olson telling audiences that…
laelaps | July 22, 2008Writing a post about feathered dinosaurs yesterday gave me the shot in the arm I needed to jump back into my book project. I've spent so much time reading old papers and concerning myself with the thoughts of Victorian scientists that I had almost forgotten that I needed to bring the chapter up to date with the latest information. Sifting through the literature on dinosaurs like Dilong and Sinosauropteryx allowed me to set up the end-point that I want the birds/dinosaurs chapter to reach (it does help to know where you're going). I will have to do a little more research on Mesozoic birds as I…
laelaps | July 22, 2008Last year I missed the super-secret ScienceBlogger seance; by the time I found out that some of my favorite bloggers were in the city I already had other plans. Little did I know that just a few months later I'd get assigned my own personal brain slug and be assimilated into the ScienceBorg so I don't have to worry about missing it this year, but since so many of the Sb horde will converge on NYC we wanted to schedule something special for anyone who might want to meet us.
I'm a little fish in the blogging pond compared to some of the folks who will be there but if you stop by on Saturday,…
laelaps | July 22, 2008
A male Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis), photographed July 15th, 2008 at the Philadelphia zoo.
laelaps | July 21, 2008John and Chad both have updates about their books, and even though I'm tempted to join the club I figure there's been enough meta on here lately (I wrote two different posts about the current status of my writing but scrapped them both). Instead I thought I would ask what you have been reading lately. It is the summer, after all, and I hope that those inclined to do so have had some time to take in some good books.
This past weekend I polished off Rex Appeal and Tyrannosaurus Sue, a bit of a digression from what I should have been reading but it was difficult to resist. Reading Tyrannosaurus…
laelaps | July 21, 2008Is it just me or is the History Channel mutating? I guess they've covered just about everything there is to cover in human history as I keep seeing more announcements for programs about natural history, particularly involving extinct creatures. On July 29 the new series Evolve will premiere along with Jurassic Fight Club and Prehistoric Monsters Revealed; it seems like the whole day will be full of prehistory-themed documentaries. (And I hasten to add that Darren recently appeared on an episode of MonsterQuest, too.)
As I promised I'm holding back on the crankiness, but the History Channel…
laelaps | July 21, 2008For a long time feathered dinosaurs just looked weird to me. Seeing fuzzy Deinonychus or some other dromeosaur with a splash of plumage never looked quite right and I didn't understand why in the course of a few years predatory dinosaurs went from being scaly to being covered in down. Most of the books I had seen didn't explain it beyond "These dinosaurs were closely related to birds," something I didn't dispute but was not enough to make me feel comfortable with feathered raptors. Even after I started taking a greater interest in paleontology I still had problems with reconstructions of…
laelaps | July 21, 2008Anyone who has spent time watching Discovery Channel's "Shark Week" knows how frightening sharks can be when biting into their prey. Their jaws are not attached their their skull, allowing the jaws to come forwards and out in the process of biting (the lower jaw often coming up first to impale prey before the upper teeth crash down to do their dirty work). I have never seen any bite quite as grotesquely impressive as that of the goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni), though;
laelaps | July 20, 2008
A Plains zebra (Equus quagga), photographed July 15th, 2008 at the Philadelphia zoo.
laelaps | July 20, 2008
If I got paid to do reviews of books, movies, websites, and products I definitely could turn it into a full-time job. Almost every day something turns up in my inbox telling me about a new website or product that someone wants me to take a look at and plug here. I end up deleting most of them (sometimes wondering why some of these people think I'm fit to review websites about herbal remedies and other such things), but a few are interesting enough that I do want to take a look. Some things I know I'm going to like before I even receive the materials, others I end up being pleasantly…
laelaps | July 20, 2008
I didn't quite know what to expect when I entered the theater to see The Dark Knight last evening, I just knew it was going to be good.* I was absolutely blown away. This isn't the sort of film where you walk out saying "It was good for a comic book movie." It is a great movie, period, something that changes what a comic-based mythology can be with careful planning (even if the Joker's love of chaos seeps into the mix). Unlike so many other films there's not the sense of obligation to hardcore comic book fans that results in endless streams of in-jokes, cameos, and crossovers; much like it…
laelaps | July 20, 2008
A young Verreaux's Sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi), photographed July 15th, 2008 at the Philadelphia zoo.
laelaps | July 19, 2008
A giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis), photographed July 15th, 2008 at the Philadelphia zoo.
laelaps | July 18, 2008Over the course of the past year I've had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of many paleontologists and illustrators of prehistoric life, people who have helped me with their comments, criticism, and support. One such person whose work I admire is Matt Celeskey, the artist (and blogger) behind the Hairy Museum of Natural History.
A few months ago I asked Matt to come up with a brand new banner for this blog, something unique that would capture the character of Laelaps. Although I gave Matt some initial direction, that I wanted an articulated skeleton Dryptosaurus (previously known as "…
laelaps | July 18, 2008
You all are way too good. The "mystery creature" from yesterday is indeed a fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus), photographed July 15th, 2008 at the Philadelphia zoo.
laelaps | July 17, 2008First, thanks to all of you who have been adding my posts to StumbleUpon.com. Over the past three days my traffic has been double, even triple, of what it normally is, and as far as I can tell much of it is coming from StumbleUpon. Thank you, and I hope some of you who are new to Laelaps like what you see and stick around.
Second, here's a little teaser of the creature that will appear in tomorrow's "Photo of the Day." Any guesses as to what it is?