laelaps | March 7, 2008The Trilobite Blog has part one of a three part series about birds & dinosaurs, featuring a famous paleontological legend involving T.H. Huxley.
John Wilkins wasn't impressed with Richard Dawkins (although Jim Lippard has presented a kinder summary of the ASU event).
If you haven't seen it yet, the second edition of the journal Evolution: Education and Outreach is now available.
Welcome the two newest members to the Sb community; Josh Donlan at Shifting Baselines and Jane at See Jane Compute.
Jessica delves into the D&D bestiary at Bioemphemera.
Garfield, minus Garfield. Trust me, it'…
laelaps | March 7, 2008
I forgot to upload another of the better-quality pictures from my trip to the Bronx Zoo last weekend, but here is one slightly out-of-focus shot of a pair of African wild dogs, Lycaon pictus (I somehow managed to get the tree behind them in focus, but not the dogs...). I'll have something better up later today when I can get back to my computer, but this will have to do for now.
laelaps | March 6, 2008Given how much time I spend writing at a computer (be it for this blog or my book), I thought I'd indulge in a little more navel-gazing about my writing habits. What I write is usually dictated by my surroundings and the time of day, and as much as I might like to change things a bit I can't help my own quirks & predilections.
When I write about peer-reviewed research or any post involving a number of technical papers, I'm usually writing at a desktop PC connected the university system. The ability to type a search term into google scholar, download a slew of papers, and glue everything…
laelaps | March 6, 2008Today I had the pleasure of giving an interview to a local NPR radio station about the infamous Hesperopithecus, and I'll provide you all with a link as soon as the feature is up. I was a little bit nervous, but I think I did alright.
[As an aside, if things have been a little light on here lately it's because this past week has been, in no uncertain terms, hellish. Between midterms, being sick, writing a few pages of my book every night, and still fighting the university to let me major in evolutionary anthropology, I've been feeling a little drained. Spring break is coming up soon, though,…
laelaps | March 6, 2008This is definitely the most interesting thing I've seen this week. And you can even make your own...
laelaps | March 6, 2008
There's a new paper out in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B about the ever-controversial Homo floresiensis, the authors of the paper arguing that the fossils representing this new species are actually "myxoedematous endemic cretins," of the species Homo sapiens. The condition the authors propose is expressed by the Flores hominid is generally caused by a lack of iodine in the diet, such a deficiency causing the thyroid gland to produce improper amounts of hormones associated with bone growth and brain size, resulting in mentally-impaired individuals of small stature. So far the paper…
laelaps | March 5, 2008In July of this year, 16 hand-picked scientists will meet at the Konrad Lorenz Institute in Altenberg, Austria to discuss the current state of evolutionary theory. The papers presented at the meeting will be published next year and I'm sure it will generate some amount of discussion, but I have to wonder just how significant this event is going to be. We shouldn't expect 16 scientists to get together, pick each others brains for a bit, and then emerge from the meeting carrying with them a shiny new "Extended Evolutionary Synthesis" that will rewrite everything. The development of the "Modern…
laelaps | March 5, 2008Yesterday the Department of Cultural Affairs announced its conclusions in the ongoing academic integrity case involving paleontologist Spencer Lucas. According to the panel, which included two "objective" scientists (both of which have collaborated with Lucas in the past, one of which had issued a letter three days prior to the hearing expressing that he had already deemed Lucas innocent) Lucas is not guilty of claim-jumping research being carried out by Bill Parker and Jeff Martz on ancient archosaurs called aetosaurus (see Darren's original posts for more information on these animals).
The…
laelaps | March 5, 2008
In the above photograph a female Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) named Taurus displays a flehmen response; she was sniffing the scat of another tiger in the enclosure and repeatedly made this face. As silly as it looks, this type of grimace helps pheromones and other natural chemicals come in contact with the vomeronasal (or Jacobson's) organ, and it allows animals like tigers to ascertain whether another animal is in estrus, what their physical condition is, how long ago they passed by, etc.
Unfortunately I was unable to get a good shot of the display; the little branch in front of the…
laelaps | March 4, 2008Has there ever been a time when science has been highly valued by the general public? For all our discussions and debates about the popularization of science, framing, and science education, it seems that a sense of history is often lacking. Many of us feel like we're fighting a losing battle, understanding of science having degenerated in recent years. The push towards greater scientific education and government support of scientific endeavors after the launch of Sputnik acts as some nebulous high point in which science as a way of understanding the natural world was more fully embraced, but…
laelaps | March 4, 2008The next edition of The Boneyard will be right here this coming Saturday. The special effects-driven movie 10,000 BC also comes out this weekend, and although I'll post anything paleontological that is submitted, I would encourage those interested in submitting to write something about any of the creatures featured in the film (sabercats, terror birds, mammoths, etc.).
I can already tell that the film is going to be absolutely horrid, but much like Jurassic Park III I'm mostly interested in it to see the restorations of the extinct creatures. I may use the film to resurrect the "bad…
laelaps | March 4, 2008The New York Times has two new articles out today, one involving dinosaurs in Argentina and another about the social life of the spotted hyena. The article about the southern hemisphere dinosaurs is another reminder of the controversy between private collectors, academics, and the public, and the hyena article is a must-read piece about social intelligence by Carl Zimmer. (This piece is even more relevant given that the Berkley hyena research program is in definite danger of being dismantled.) Each of the articles is also accompanied by a slide show.
There is one mistake in the dinosaur…
laelaps | March 4, 2008
The Bronx Zoo snow leopards (Panthera uncia) have typically been awake during my visits, but the female pictured above was acting like one of my domestic cats on catnip. Unfortunately I wasn't prepared for what she was going to do so she came out as a bit of a blur, but it was impressive to see a big cat jump around the enclosure with such agility and speed. The big paws and long tail of these cats help them keep their footing and balance, and as anyone who saw the snow leopard sequence on Planet Earth knows their skills are even more impressive in their natural, craggy habitat.
laelaps | March 3, 2008A pair of male cobras grapple with each other in a clip from Life in Cold Blood;
Oddly enough, I was just thinking about dominance contests between males and various armaments this morning. Although violence is a part of nature, there are many species in which males compete for territories or mate access that have evolved traits or behaviors to minimize risk in such contests (elongated canines, like among the dinocerata, and the horns of kudu were what primarily occupied my thoughts this morning). Mating systems and systems of male competition may vary widely, though, and as strange as it…
laelaps | March 3, 2008
The evolution of giraffes has been on my mind quite frequently as of late, although it's been difficult tracking down information about the evolution of the group (it was once much more diverse than it is today, a trend also illustrated by elephants and horses). Along the way, though, I've turned up a few interesting papers involving the ever-vexing question of how the long neck of the giraffe evolved, the first being a letter to Nature by Chapman Pincher published in 1949. Criticizing Darwin's hypothesis that giraffes evolved long necks to reach higher levels of vegetation during droughts,…
laelaps | March 3, 2008
Gerhard Heilmann's often-reproduced illustration of running Iguanodon. This is the version I am most familiar with, but there was actually an earlier version in which the dinosaurs lacked the crest of scutes they possess in the above drawing.
Last night I picked up Gerhard Heilmann's The Origin of Birds and rediscovered a passage that is one of my favorites in the whole of paleontological literature. Addressing an absurd hypothesis for the origins of birds (and flight), Heilmann sarcastically tears down the fanciful speculation and provides a wise warning about books written by authors…
laelaps | March 3, 2008The dynamic duo of Shelly from Retrospectacle and Steve from Omni Brain have now teamed up to bring you Of Two Minds. Also, Josh Donlan has started his stint as a contributor to Shifting Baselines, so there may be more about Pleistocene re-wilding on Sb in the near future.
laelaps | March 3, 2008
I could hardly believe my eyes this past Saturday; a male black-crested gibbon (Hylobates concolor) swung down from the miniature forest of its enclosure and started to groom the back and sides of a Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus). The tapir stood still while the gibbon picked over its hide for a few minutes, only to leave and do it again (at one point appearing as if it were riding the tapir). I'm sure this was to the tapir's relief to some small extent as it had been rubbing against a branch in the enclosure and appeared quite itchy (that it had some skin problem was definitely evident),…