laelaps | June 8, 2008Even though T.H. Huxley proposed that whales had evolved from terrestrial carnivores as late as 1870, the origins of whales was exceedingly problematic until the 1980's. For about a century Basilosaurus, Dorudon, and Protocetus represented the oldest known stage of whale evolution, and the general lack of fossil evidence for the origins of whales and the common ancestor for modern baleen & toothed whales caused some to propose that the living cetaceans had separate origins. All of this makes the recent explosion of information about whale origins all the more exciting.
Like some of the…
laelaps | June 8, 2008Even though I still have less than 100 pages left to go, I thought I would share a few thoughts about Ann Gibbons' recent book The First Human (specifically since Pierce asked for my thoughts on it). I do have a few criticisms, but outside of a few minor points of contention the book is highly enjoyable and serves as a good primer for anyone interested on catching up on some of the major discoveries of fossil hominids in the last two decades.
Prior to a class about African prehistory last fall I had never heard the names Ardipithecus, Orrorin, Sahelanthropus, or Australopithecus anamensis,…
laelaps | June 7, 2008The 21st edition of the Boneyard snuck up on me (I was planning on putting up some polynomial-eating theropods that I sketched during the breaks in my math class), but Glendon was on the ball and has put together an awesome list of recent posts. Definitely give it a look.
The carnival is now recruiting for a host for June 21st, as well; if you are interested let me know. Also, I feel bad that I have not kept up a home site for the carnival as I should have. Rather than setting it up on another blogging service I've decided to add an info page about the Boneyard on this blog (it will be with…
laelaps | June 7, 2008As I sat on the beach reading Ann Gibbons' The First Human this morning, I couldn't help think of the summer that could have been. For months I had a professor and some friends tell me "You really need to come out to Kenya" (specifically the Koobi Fora Field School). I attempted to stay positive, trying to figure out some way to put together the money to go, but as the spring semester got underway it soon became clear that I was not going to make it to Africa.
Being that I did not have the money or opportunity to go to Kenya I thought that I would try to start up my own research project…
laelaps | June 7, 2008
A close-up of the underside of a horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus). Photographed May 17, 2008 at the Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.
laelaps | June 6, 2008I have no idea where it came from (I assume it was made by PBS), but I just happened to stumble across this program all about Stephen Jay Gould called "This View of Life."
Watching the documentary is a bit strange because I never knew the young, gangly Gould. The first time I ever saw him on television (although I had no idea who he was), he was a stouter man talking about paleontology in a European museum, Palaeotherium being associated with the memory although I can't really recall how. In any case, it's definitely interesting to watch this program now, and I do appreciate the brief…
laelaps | June 6, 2008One of the joys of working on this book has been discovering little tidbits of information that have been overlooked. I haven't turned up anything especially earth-shattering, but I have found a few things that overturn some of the "received wisdom" so often repeated in textbooks and technical paper introductions. For example, it is commonly said that the little perissodactyl Hyracotherium got its name because Richard Owen thought it looked like a hyrax when he named it in 1839. This piece of information has been repeated for over 150 years, yet Owen himself took a moment to correct this…
laelaps | June 6, 2008
Even though I'll miss the little guy, I'm pleased to say that Huxley was adopted last night. Being that Beatrice, Emma, and Elise were all recently adopted as well, that means that with the exception of two (Littlefoot and Kit) every cat that my wife and I have fostered has found a home.
There's a new little fuzzball in residence now, though; a 3-month-old long-haired kitten named June. She was found covered in concrete dust at a construction site and was going to be euthanized because she was "feral." She is so timid that I don't know how anyone could have thought that, but fortunately the…
laelaps | June 6, 2008
A reconstruction of Archaeopteryx. Photographed May 18, 2008 at the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
For those of you who wanted the original, super-sized image, you can now download it here. If there are any other pictures that you would like the original, large versions of, please don't hesitate to ask.
laelaps | June 5, 2008
The skull of Machairodus, from Owen's A History of British Fossil Mammals, and Birds.
Digging through the seemingly endless mass of 19th century paleontological literature that I have collected via Google Books, I happened across a very interesting quote from Richard Owen in his 1846 textbook A History of British Fossil Mammals, and Birds. Earlier in the week, while researching William Buckland's relationship to the bewitching "Red Lady" during the 1820's, I was struck by some of the rhetorical techniques used by Buckland to diminish the importance of the skeleton. Among them was the…
laelaps | June 5, 2008As I've been working on my book on evolution I've been posting updates about my progress (most of those updates can be found here), and I am certainly pleased to note that reactions have generally been positive. I am truly grateful for all the support I've received from readers, fellow bloggers, writers, and friends, the encouragement definitely motivating me to keep working. I have received some critical comments, however, and I feel that one in particular requires a detailed response. Responding to my last update, commenter James wrote;
Brian, what are you thinking? You don't even have an…
laelaps | June 5, 2008
A pair of laughing gulls (Larus atricilla). Photographed May 17, 2008 at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.
laelaps | June 4, 2008In the course of rooting through the literature for more information on Eohippus, Hyracotherium, and the various associated genera (it's been a chore to find out their names, much less the relevant papers!) I stumbled across this 1927 poem by Richard Ashman, published in The Science News-Letter. It is obviously not meant to be accurate, but I have to say that the concluding verses made me laugh.
The Diplo-doclodipus
A sad young Eohippus, once,
Who pattered through the gorse,
Was sobbing as he pattered, for
His fondest hopes were shattered, for
He'd failed in all that mattered, for
He wasn't…
laelaps | June 4, 2008Even though I said that I had more pertinent material to read than discourses about the perceived clash of science & Christian theology, I contradicted myself by picking up John Hedley Brooke's Science and Religion last night. As I have become increasingly aware during the course of my reading, the present climate of argument around science & religion carries a tone of conflict and warfare that has been maintained for over 100 years the more. It is fashionable to invoke such imagery, religion slowly crumbling under the weight of science, but a historical perspective reveals…
laelaps | June 4, 2008Given that I have 23 single-spaced pages written for my human evolution chapter (which is about as long as the essay I wrote that was included in The Open Laboratory) I suppose I should be fairly pleased with myself. The truth of the matter is that I am not; I still have to get to major discoveries of fossil hominids post-1920, integrate evidence from primatology, and explain the genetic similarity between our species and living apes. It would be all-too-easy to let the chapter become a book by itself, and the sheer volume of information that needs to fit within a chapter will definitely test…
laelaps | June 4, 2008
A horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) that was stranded on the beach. My wife turned it over and helped it back into the bay. Photographed May 17, 2008 at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.
laelaps | June 3, 2008
Jennifer Ouellette is disappointed with the conspicuous lack of science books at Book Expo America. Is science being "put in the corner"?
The brothers Bleiman have an old NSF ad that brings back some memories. Now I'm going to have that tune stuck in my head all day.
Many of us science bloggers (myself included) spend a lot of time complaining that mass media is the suxxors when it comes to science communication. Bora has a few snippets from a study that might suggest that accurate reporting of science stories in mainstream outlets might not be as much of a problem as we say they…