Brian Switek
Brian Switek is an ecology & evolution student at Rutgers University.
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Posts by this author
The upturned, sand-filled remains of a horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus). Photographed at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware on May 17, 2008.
As I once commented to Jennifer Ouellette, we science bloggers can be a funny bunch. We whine and complain about the way science is misrepresented in mass media, but many of us want to produce popular science pieces ourselves. Is is because we think that we can do better? (I know that's part of my…
[Note: I know I'm about a month late coming to this one, but it still provided for some good blog fodder. It seems that the initial response at Pharyngula ended up changing the summary I discuss [see comments section], and that's definitely a good thing. The show has also been pushed back to July,…
Photographed at the Prime Hook Natural Wildlife Refuge, Delaware on May 17, 2008.
Over at The World's Fair, David asks readers to share a moment in which they were "humiliated in the name of science." Fortunately I haven't had any "D'oh! I put the head on the wrong end!" moments as yet, but I'll briefly share a recent story of how I almost humiliated myself in a room full of…
In 1864 Jules Verne published the book A Journey to the Center of the Earth, and although the book is a classic the various TV & film versions (1959, 1967, 1976, 1977, 1989, 1993, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2003) are anything but. This summer will see the release of another interpretation of Verne's…
A cast of the skull of Yangchuanosaurus. Photographed May 18, 2008 at the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
Long story short; on the advice of the one dean who actually met with me face-to-face and listened to what I had to say I applied to transfer to the School of Arts and Sciences (where evolutionary anthropology is based) at Rutgers. Almost exactly 24 hours later I received a rejection notification…
When I was 7 almost every smooth, oval stone was a dinosaur egg. I would spent hours in my grandparent's backyard hacking away at the dirt knowing that there just had to be a Triceratops or a Tyrannosaurus just beneath the surface. (I even got in trouble once for trying to clear out some of the…
When I wrote about the new sauropod Futalognkosaurus dukei last October, I noted that the authors of the paper describing the animal also included a brief summary of the other animals found nearby. Remains of crocodiles, fish, and pterosaurs provided some clues as to the paleoecology of the area…
I spent most of yesterday running between different offices and trying to obtain old academic records so my writing time was cut down dramatically, but I still managed to get some work done in the evening. Most of what I have been doing this week has focused on whales, especially since I've been…
Gastropods eating the shell and gills of a horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus). Photographed May 17, 2008 at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.
Paleontologist Xu Xing is featured in a long USA Today article, covering his inspiration in becoming a paleontologist and his current work. Although it draws comparisons with Indiana Jones and Roy Chapman Andrews, the article is careful to separate the facts of Xu's work from popular…
A cast of Tuojiangosaurus on display at the Delaware Museum of Natural History. Photographed May 18, 2008.
Being that I've been working hard on my own book, my thoughts have often turned to the question of "What makes a good book?" As I pace around the track at the park every morning I'm not thinking of what I'm going to write about or what references to pull out. Instead I'm usually thinking about how…
I'm not the only one interviewing paleontologists; David Hone has embarked on his own series, asking researchers about their thoughts on the current state of paleontology. There is more to come, but you can check out the first four installments here; 1 - 2 - 3 - 4.
This past fall my friends Julia and Neil were kind enough to obtain a signed copy of the new book Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters for me from the annual SVP meeting. Although I had not heard of the author, Dr. Donald Prothero, prior to reading the book I was certainly impressed…
Last fall I was saddened to learn that the Yangtze River dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer) is probably extinct. Today it was announced that the Caribbean monk seal (Monachus tropicalis), last seen in the 1950's, is most likely extinct as well. The Endangered Species Protection Act came too late for…
In a very interesting post about agamids and chameleons at Tetrapod Zoology, my fellow ScienceBlogger Darren states the following;
One of the greatest fallacies held about evolutionary theory is that fossils are essential in demonstrating the existence of change (don't believe me? Look at 'creation…
A Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus). Photographed in the spring of 2008 at the Bronx Zoo.
Even though T.H. Huxley proposed that whales had evolved from terrestrial carnivores as late as 1870, the origins of whales was exceedingly problematic until the 1980's. For about a century Basilosaurus, Dorudon, and Protocetus represented the oldest known stage of whale evolution, and the general…
Even though I still have less than 100 pages left to go, I thought I would share a few thoughts about Ann Gibbons' recent book The First Human (specifically since Pierce asked for my thoughts on it). I do have a few criticisms, but outside of a few minor points of contention the book is highly…
Photographed May 17, 2008 at the Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.
The 21st edition of the Boneyard snuck up on me (I was planning on putting up some polynomial-eating theropods that I sketched during the breaks in my math class), but Glendon was on the ball and has put together an awesome list of recent posts. Definitely give it a look.
The carnival is now…
As I sat on the beach reading Ann Gibbons' The First Human this morning, I couldn't help think of the summer that could have been. For months I had a professor and some friends tell me "You really need to come out to Kenya" (specifically the Koobi Fora Field School). I attempted to stay positive,…
A close-up of the underside of a horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus). Photographed May 17, 2008 at the Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware.
I have no idea where it came from (I assume it was made by PBS), but I just happened to stumble across this program all about Stephen Jay Gould called "This View of Life."
Watching the documentary is a bit strange because I never knew the young, gangly Gould. The first time I ever saw him on…
One of the joys of working on this book has been discovering little tidbits of information that have been overlooked. I haven't turned up anything especially earth-shattering, but I have found a few things that overturn some of the "received wisdom" so often repeated in textbooks and technical…