laelaps | May 28, 2008I really wish I had time to do some blogging on two new peer-reviewed papers that have just come out, one in PLoS and the other in Nature. Unfortunately I start a summer math course this evening and can't give all the cool new discoveries my full attention. That doesn't mean that you can't check them out yourself, though.
First up is a new PLoS paper by Darren Naish and Mark Witton on the weird and wonderful Azhdarchid pterosaurs. Rather than being skimmers (see a PLoS paper published last year on skimming pterosaurs here) or aerial predators at least some of these ancient creatures may…
laelaps | May 28, 2008
A close-up of yesterday's photo of a laughing gull (Larus atricilla) preparing to dive after a fish (because Neil said he liked it so much). (Photographed May 17, 2008 at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.)
laelaps | May 27, 2008If I only averaged one new page each day, within a year I would have a whole book. My wife has said it over and over again and still I never feel quite satisfied with what I've written, almost as if I would expect myself to simply unload everything I knew in one sitting and have a book by the time I collapsed at the desk. I wish I had more time to read and write, but various errands, meetings, and other events have kept me so busy lately that it's difficult to find time to devote to my non-blog projects.
May isn't even over yet but I'm already starting to feel the pressure; I don't want to…
laelaps | May 27, 2008
Paleo-artist Michael Skrepnick
It is difficult for me to pick up a book about dinosaurs and not find some gorgeous artwork by artist Michael Skrepnick gracing the pages, if not the cover, of the book. He has created beautiful restorations of the distant past for Nature, National Geographic, Project Exploration, and many books about prehistoric life, making him one of the most hard-working and well-known paleo-illustrators around today. (For those who have been itching to see some of his new artwork, Michael has some good news for you. His website is going to be rebuilt and stocked up with…
laelaps | May 27, 2008The running for the top three entries of the Boneyard XX contest was extremely close, so close that I really had no idea who was going to win until I could add up all the votes. The winners are;
1st Place: Traumador
2nd Place: Tie! Emile and Scarlet Seraph
3rd Place: Nemo Ramjet
Congratulations to all the winners, and many thanks to everyone who participated in making the Boneyard XX a special event. If the winners would e-mail me I will soon have their prizes on their way to them.
laelaps | May 27, 2008
I wonder when they're going to stage a similar commercial with Steve Carrell...
Speaking of Harrison Ford, the actor was just elected to the Board of Directors of the Archaeological Institute of America. Ford was elected to the position because of the attention his character Indiana Jones has brought to the discipline of archaeology. When I was younger part of my desire to become a paleontologist was due to the influence of the Indiana Jones films (I used to wear a brown fedora everywhere. In fact, I just bought a new one), and hopefully the exploits of the fictional character will spark a…
laelaps | May 27, 2008
A laughing gull (Larus atricilla) spots a fish and prepares to dive after it. (Photographed May 17, 2008 at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.)
laelaps | May 26, 2008If you happen to be reading this blog, chances are you have at least heard of the "Watchmaker Argument" or "Argument From Design" before. The concept has a long philosophical history, but it is most often discussed in connection to William Paley who invoked the argument to open his book Natural Theology. For those unfamiliar with the work, Paley states that if you were to happen across a watch as you were crossing a field you would immediately recognize it as the product of a designer. So too, Paley argues, is design manifest and detectable in nature. I am not as concerned with Paley's watch…
laelaps | May 26, 2008Tomorrow I'll be putting up the next installment of my series of paleo interviews, this time with artist Michael Skrepnick. In the meantime, why not check out his website for a look at some of his work, which includes a restoration of the recently announced Gerobatrachus hottoni.
laelaps | May 26, 2008
A close-up of a prickly pear, photographed May 17, 2008 at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.
laelaps | May 25, 2008
A close-up of yesterday's "Photo of the Day." (Photographed May 17, 2008 at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.)
laelaps | May 24, 2008
A small group of sandpipers takes off to find a better spot to feed. (Photographed May 17, 2008 at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.)
laelaps | May 23, 2008No, not really, but a new article in Scientific American suggests that what I do here has some physiological benefits. Personally I would think that spending less time at the computer and more time being active outside would be better for me, but I'm not going to get wrapped up in the "blogging is good for you" vs. "blogging is going to kill you!" debate. We've all been through that before with eggs, and the only thing that taught me was "I like eggs." So it is with blogging.
laelaps | May 23, 2008In the process of doing some research yesterday I came across some old books that are available for free download via Google Books. I know not everyone shares my particular affinity for yellowing 19th century science books, but if you do you might want to check out some of these titles;
Georges Cuvier - Essay on the Theory of the Earth (English translation)
William Buckland - Geology and Mineralogy Considered with Reference to Natural Theology
William Buckland - Reliquiae Diluvianae
W.J. Broderip - Zoological Recreations
Robert Chambers - Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, With a…
laelaps | May 23, 2008Time flies when I'm not working on my book. The past month has been especially hectic and, in many respects, nerve wracking, so my goal of being "professional" and writing every day went out the window. I successfully survived the spring semester, however, and now I can devote more of my time to completing this project.
I spent most of yesterday refreshing my memory about horses and their evolution (appropriately enough, a new special exhibit on horses just opened at the AMNH). I knew from the very beginning of the project that I would have to include a chapter on horse evolution, but I could…
laelaps | May 23, 2008
A horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus), crawling along just below the tide line. (Photographed May 17, 2008 at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.)
laelaps | May 22, 2008Today I'm working on my book (hint: Gaudry and Hipparion), but here's a few links and other tidbits of interest for your consumption;
Indy 4 is out today. Now where is my fedora....
This week's issue of Nature is featuring a brand new transitional temnopondyl. I'll be blogging about this one soon.
Someone has put the documentary "My Pet Dinosaur" up on YouTube. Some bits seriously pissed me off (Dinosaurs wouldn't have continued to evolve?! And what's that, the Dinosauroid? Gah!), but I'll save a fuller critique for another day.
Many congratulations to John Wilkins on the…
laelaps | May 22, 2008
A horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) that had previously been stranded starts to make its way back to the surf. (Photographed May 17, 2008 at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.)
laelaps | May 21, 2008I've been using the phrase "textbook cardboard" a lot lately. I first picked it up after reading Gould's Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle, but the concept had been made clear to me even before Gould provided me with something to call it. All too often scientific legends are passed down as fact (i.e. Richard Owen was a creationist, Cuvier rejected uniformitarianism, Huxley debated Wilberforce at Oxford), and a recently published paper in PLoS follows this trend in invoking the example of the infamous Scopes "Monkey Trial."
The paper (Berkman et al. 2008) produces a picture of John Scopes, the…