laelaps | April 9, 2008I haven't yet been up to write personal responses to everyone who e-mailed me yesterday, but I deeply appreciate the support many of you provided. I'm feeling a bit better now that I can at least see a glimmer of light at the end of the undergraduate tunnel, and I most certainly keep on writing no matter what I do.
On that general topic, I wanted to set out a few goals for myself. Right now what I'm going to be doing this summer is up in the air, and writing for a few hours a day might end up becoming my "job." Even if it doesn't, I definitely want to outdo myself in 2008 and make the most of…
laelaps | April 9, 2008
Zalophus californianus
This photo was taken two years ago during a visit to Sea World, Orlando. The sea lion pictured here must have been an old animal that used to perform, as when my wife and I waved to it as a joke, it waved back. Indeed, the best part of the day was throwing of few sardines to the seals and sea lions in the enclosure, although I was deeply saddened by the way most of the marine mammals in the park were kept.
laelaps | April 8, 2008In honor of the centennial anniversary of 1908 Conference of Governors, governors from around the country are going to meet at Yale on April 18 for a conference on global climate change, the group hoping to solidify local and federal initiatives to combat global warming. Among those present will be Jon Corzine (Governor of New Jersey), Chet Culver (Governor of Iowa), Jim Doyle (Governor of Wisconsin), Deval Patrick (Governor of Massachusetts), Jodi Rell (Governor of Connecticut), Arnold Schwarzenegger (Governor of California), and Kathleen Sebelius (Governor of Kansas). More information can…
laelaps | April 8, 2008
The skull of Raeticodactylus filisurensis. From Stecher 2008.
On April first I wrote about heterdonty in lizards, dinosaurs, and crocodylians, but it was no April Fool's Day joke; mammals aren't the only animals that have differently-shaped teeth throughout their jaws. I should have waited just a little bit longer to write the post, though, because a new genus of Upper Triassic pterosaur from Switzerland named Raeticodactylus filisurensis has just been announced in the Swiss Journal of Geosciences.
Raeticodactylus is certainly a strange creature. It has heterodont teeth, a crest, and shows…
laelaps | April 8, 2008
The other day I wrote about reconstructions of Camarasaurus made in the 1920's by H.F. Osborn, C.G. Mook, and W.K. Gregory at the AMNH based upon previously collected material obtained by E.D. Cope. Dan Varner was kind enough to send me an image of the reconstruction and to point out that copy of it is in the Rutgers geology museum. When I eventually obtain a new camera I'll take some photos.
laelaps | April 7, 2008
Dr. Robert Bakker is one of the most famous paleontologists working today, an iconoclastic figure who has played a leading role of rehabilitating our understanding of dinosaurs from the inception of the "Dinosaur Renaissance" through the present. He is currently the curator of paleontology for the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the Director of the Morrison Natural History Museum in Colorado, and has recently been involved in the study of the hadrosaur mummy "Leonardo." In 1986 he published the classic book The Dinosaur Heresies, fully bringing his revolutionized vision of dinosaurs to…
laelaps | April 7, 2008According to this CNN report, a 27-year-old man hurled a hedgehog at a 15-year-old-boy for some reason that is left opaque in the article. The man is being charged with assault, although it's unknown if he'll also face animal cruelty charges (the hedgehog was dead when the police picked it up).
laelaps | April 7, 2008The latest edition of The Boneyard is up at Greg Laden's blog. The next edition will be at Archaezoology on April 19.
[Thanks to Will for the correction]
laelaps | April 6, 2008I'm nearly finished with Lucy, but before I close the book I thought I would share Owen Lovejoy's hypothesis about the extinction of dinosaurs as related by Don Johansen. Keep in mind that the book was first published in 1982 when ideas about what killed the dinosaurs were legion;
[Also, for some of the terminology here to make sense, organisms are sometimes referred to being r-selected or k-selected in terms of their reproductive strategies. A r-selected organism produces lots of offspring with little investment in each, like corals that release egg & sperm in great quantities.…
laelaps | April 6, 2008A random selection of what I've been listening to lately;
Thrice - "Stare at the Sun"
Jack's Mannequin - "Dark Blue"
Mae - "On Top"
Over It - "Siren on the 101"
Bad Religion - "New Dark Ages"
laelaps | April 6, 2008The New York Times has a new article out looking at stress and bloggers, particularly in the case of professional bloggers who pull down five and six figure salaries. When you're publishing things yourself, it's hard work to provide high-quality content quick enough so that you're first to a story. Otherwise, you'll just have to hope for some link love and try to be the first on the scene the next time.
I assume that professional political and technology bloggers are the most stressed, but as far as my own habits go I don't feel particularly strung out or under pressure. If anything, I find…
laelaps | April 6, 2008Camarasaurus is an unappreciated sauropod. It wasn't the heaviest or longest of the earth-shaking dinosaurs, but the blunted skull and large teeth of the Jurassic sauropod indicate that it had a different lifestyle than the more famous Diplodocus and Apatosaurus. In 1920, paleontologists at the AMNH created a skeletal and muscular reconstruction of the dinosaur, Camarasaurus being proportionally bulkier for its size than other sauropods then known.
The reconstruction of a model of Camarasaurus had another purpose, as well. In 1908 Oliver Hay published a paper advocating a sprawling, crocodile…
laelaps | April 5, 2008Last week I looked at reconstructions of Diplodocus (both humorous and scientific) by Oliver Hay and G.G. Simpson. After rifling through my collection of papers, I came upon a description of Diplodocus by H.F. Osborn and thought I would continue the trend I had set earlier.
In 1897, the AMNH sent a field crew to look over the famous Como Bluff quarries that were so productive for O.C. Marsh in previous years, and although the site was considered exhausted Barnum Brown quickly came across a Diplodocus femur. There was more than just a femur, however, and soon J.L. Wortmann was supervising the…
laelaps | April 5, 2008
This coming Monday I'll be putting up the first in what I hope will be a long series of interviews with paleontologists, and I'm setting the bar high with Bob Bakker. The predatory habits of Tyrannosaurus, the relationship of Dracorex to Pachycephalosaurus, and the current evolution v. creationism controversy are all discussed (plus much more), so be sure to check back on Monday to see the full interview.
I don't know how often I'll be able to post interviews (that will depend on the paleontologists), but I've got a few other people in mind. Who else would you like to hear from? I'm…
laelaps | April 4, 2008The next Boneyard is going to be up at Greg Laden's place on Sunday, so if you've got something you want to be included get it to him or me within the next 24 hours. The carnival is also in need of a host for April 19th, so if you're up to it just let me know in an e-mail or here in the comments.
laelaps | April 4, 2008Between 2005 and 2007, USGS scientists studying black and grizzly bears captured video footage of the carnivores rubbing up against trees. Scent marking might be part of why the bears are exhibiting this behavior, but they probably just need a good scratch every now and then, too;
LiveScience also covered this behavior in a new article, saying the bears are "dancing," although it's definitely not as elaborate as this;
[ReBecca also covered this story in a bit more detail.]