Brian Switek
Brian Switek is an ecology & evolution student at Rutgers University.
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Posts by this author
Last week I reviewed part 1 of the upcoming NOVA miniseries, "Becoming Human." It was a fair introduction to early human origins even if it was marred by persistent references to an illusory onward-and-upward march of human progress. Where the first episode primarily concerned itself with…
A cast of Dimetrodon in the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, Utah.
A storm approaches Dinosaur National Monument in northern Utah.
The view behind our campsite at the Green River Campground at Dinosaur National Monument, Utah.
The stench emanating from the putrefying mammoth carcass carried for miles.
Though kept out of the sun by the long shadows of the surrounding pine trees, the corpse reeked as the flesh, sinew, and bone of the mammoth's body were slowly parceled out into the ecosystem by scavengers. The woolly…
A black bear (Ursus americanus), photographed in Grand Teton National Park. It was the first of two my wife and I saw walking along the Leigh Lake trail that afternoon.
If you have not heard enough about fossil primates in the past month already, I will be on today's edition of BBC Radio 4's "Material World" to talk about Ida and Afradapis. My interview will follow one about Ardipithecus ramidus with Tim White and Yohannes Haile-Selassie, so if you are interested…
With a park ranger so close, this Yellowstone bison (Bison bison) makes sure to cross at the intersection.
The restored lower jaw of Afradapis. From the Nature paper.
This past May a 47 million year old fossil primate named Darwinius masillae, better known as "Ida", burst onto the public scene. The lemur-like creature was proclaimed to be the "missing link" and the "ancestor of us all", but the…
Mudpots at the Artists' Paint Pots area in Yellowstone National Park.
[Note: Once again I have found myself with too many writing projects and too little time. Expect something substantial to appear here tomorrow, but for now enjoy an old tale about the "Nevada Giant."]
The role petrified bones and footprints have played in the origin of myths and legends has been…
A lizard (perhaps the common side-blotched lizard, Uta stansburiana?), photographed at Antelope Island, Utah.
How our species appeared on this planet has traditionally been a touchy subject. For centuries different religions pushed their creation myths as the answer to the persistent question "How did we come to be here?", but as naturalists examined the world around them the less the "Book of Nature" fit…
The Riverside Geyser in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park.
A chipmunk gnaws on a sun chip in a parking lot in the Mount Naomi Wilderness in Utah. Free range cattle were also a common sight along the trail.
Three restorations (top, left side, and bottom) of the skull of Andrewsiphius. From the Journal of Paleontology paper.
During the past 30 years the evolution of fully aquatic whales from terrestrial ancestors has gone from one of the most enigmatic evolutionary transitions to one of the best…
North American river otters (Lontra canadensis), photographed in the Lamar Valley at Yellowstone National Park
My new favorite illustration from the technical literature; a baseball player compared to the glyptodont Doedicurus clavicaudatus. From the Proceedings of the Royal Society B paper.
In the introduction to his most famous work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, the Victorian…
An arabesque orbweaver spider (Neoscona arabesca) photographed on Antelope Island, Utah. This species, about the size of a quarter, was a common sight among the sunflowers.
Things have been a little slow around here this week, but for good reason.
As you might expect I have been hard at work on my first book, Written in Stone. It is a challenge, but the process has its own little rewards, and I am putting the majority of my effort into making it the best book that I…
A female grouse (I'm not sure of the species), photographed in Yellowstone National Park.
A view across the Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park.
I love flipping through old paleontology textbooks. Many times the text and images inside them have been reproduced from other sources or bear a close resemblance to similar titles published at about the same time, but every now and then I find something really unusual. Such was the case while I…
The partial remains of a large animal entombed in a thermal feature in Yellowstone's Mud Volcano Area.
The battered skull of a cougar (Puma concolor), photographed at the Utah Museum of Natural History.
Chucking stones at baboons; the first hominin passtime? From The Making of Man.
For the Australian anatomist Raymond Dart, the fossilized bones scattered among the caves of South Africa were testimonies to the murderous nature of early humans. The recovered skulls of baboons and our…
Sunset over the Great Salt Lake, as photographed from Antelope Island, Utah.
Today marks two years since I started writing here at ScienceBlogs. To tell you the truth, I lost track of how long it had been. I did not know it was my own blogiversary until other people reminded me this morning. Nevertheless, many thanks to all my readers, regardless of whether you have been…