Brian Switek
Brian Switek is an ecology & evolution student at Rutgers University.
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Posts by this author
A sample slide from the Your Inner Fish teaching resources.
Just in time for Christmas, paleontologist Neil Shubin has given us a real treat. Neil has composed PowerPoint slides of the illustrations used in each chapter of Your Inner Fish and made them freely accessible to all. I don't have any…
One of Charles R. Knight's wonderful paintings of woolly mammoths walking through the snow of ancient Europe. On display at the Field Museum in Chicago.
When did the last woolly mammoths die?
There is no easy answer to the question. In its heyday the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) was…
A pair of playing grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
A female gharial (Gavialis gangeticus), photographed at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.
Rock formation at Dinosaur National Monument, Utah.
A Tyrannosaurus rex, photographed at the Museum of Ancient Life in Utah.
A mother mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and her three ducklings, photographed in Cape May, New Jersey.
Trailer for Jurassic Fight Club II Clash of the Dinosaurs
This year saw the release of Unscientific America and Don't Be SUCH a Scientist, two books that aimed to take scientists to task for not being media-savvy enough. Whatever "it" is scientists are clearly not "with it", the books argue,…
A giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), photographed at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.
A comparison of the third molars from three species of Pakicetus as viewed from the back. (From Cooper et al., 2009)
Crack open just about any recent popular overview of evolution (namely Why Evolution is True, The Greatest Show on Earth, and Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters)…
A giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), photographed at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.
After spending a long weekend hammering away at the text, I am now happy to say that the first formal iteration of Written in Stone is nearly complete.
It has been difficult work. Making sure that the narrative flows smoothly throughout the book has been among the top challenges, especially since I…
Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), photographed at the Central Park Zoo, NY.
A great egret (Ardea alba), photographed in Cape May, New Jersey.
An American avocet (Recurvirostra americana), photographed at Antelope Island, Utah.
On the way down to the reservoir to see the dinosaur tracks at Red Fleet State Park in Utah. My wife Tracey leads the way.
A male pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), photographed on the side of a Wyoming highway.
A ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
Long before I signed up with ScienceBlogs.com I started blogging on the website ProgressiveU.org as part of the "Blogging For Progress" scholarship contest. I was one of the winners selected for the fall of 2006, and some of the folks at ProgressiveU recently caught up with me about what I have…
Via PHD comics.
Blogging might be a little light here over the next few days. I have only one week left to tune-up the initial draft of Written in Stone before sending it off to my editor for comments, so the pressure is on. The entire manuscript will be finished by the end of January (and then…
No doubt you have heard the news by now. ScienceBlogs is teaming up with National Geographic "for a big, sciencey love-in." We ScienceBloggers will get access to some NG photos and video while NG will get some cross-promotion here, though I am not sure when all of this will start to be put in…
A young Rhim gazelle (Gazella leptoceros), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
Much of my forthcoming book is steeped in insights about evolution that have been derived from the new paleobiological synthesis, and in doing a bit a background reading I came across an interesting tidbit.
In 1980 numerous authorities on evolutionary science converged in Chicago for a conference…
A marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
The December 2009 issue of the journal Evolution: Education and Outreach has just been released, and among the new offerings is a paper on "Print Reference Sources about Evolution" by Adam Goldstein. It seems to be a spinoff of Goldstein's paper on evolution blogs published in the same journal…