Brian Switek
Brian Switek is an ecology & evolution student at Rutgers University.
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Posts by this author
April 2, 2009
Even if it is only due to repetition almost everyone is familiar with a few geological dates. That the non-avian dinosaurs became extinct about 65 million years ago and the earth is around 4.5 billion years old are figures that are at least familiar to many. (There are a few folks who would prefer…
April 2, 2009
A scimitar oryx (Oryx dammah), photographed at the National Zoo. This species may be extinct in the wild.
April 1, 2009
A model of the skull of Megaladapis From A Guide to the Fossil Mammals and Birds in the Department of Geology and Palaeontology in the British Museum (Natural History).
At a meeting of the Royal Society in 1893 the English geologist Henry Woodward read a communication from his Swiss colleague…
April 1, 2009
A Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi), photographed at the National Zoo.
March 31, 2009
A cast of the lower jaw of Dryopithecus available through Ward's Natural Science Establishment.
For most of anthropology's history tools had been thought to be the exclusive hallmark of humanity. That only our species could use and manufacture tools was a sign of our superiority, be it the…
March 31, 2009
A small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinerea), photographed at the National Zoo.
March 30, 2009
The "reincarnated" Cohoes Mastodon. You can see him today at the Cohoes Public Library. (From Natural History)
For decades we have been hearing of the designs of some ambitious scientists to bring the woolly mammoth back to life. I first heard of such plans in the 1980's when I was a young child…
March 30, 2009
Rokan, a male Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) really wants to go inside. Photographed at the National Zoo.
March 29, 2009
The skull of Dorudon, photographed at the National Museum of Natural History.
March 28, 2009
Earlier this week Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum moved their blog, The Intersection, over to Discover. I think it was a good move for them, but their fresh start was immediately marred by a horde of hooting numbskulls. Many others have already covered this story, but in case you haven't heard…
March 28, 2009
The skeleton of a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), photographed at the National Museum of Natural History. Notice the bone pathology around the roots of the teeth in the upper jaw.
March 27, 2009
A giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), photographed at the National Zoo.
March 26, 2009
A mother gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) and her child. Photographed at the National Zoo.
It may not be accurate to call our species "the third chimpanzee", but there can be no separation between apes and humans. We are apes. This realization has only come recently. There has been a long tradition of…
March 26, 2009
A mother gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) and her child. Photographed at the National Zoo.
March 25, 2009
Last week I spent some time writing about Dimetrodon and the various functions paleontologists ascribed to its sail (from a literal sail to a sign of coming extinction). It can be easy to forget that no two sails were exactly alike, though, and paleo-artist Michael Skrepnick (see my interview with…
March 25, 2009
A cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) marking its territory. Photographed at the National Zoo.
March 24, 2009
Last week I wrote about the shuffling and reshuffling of relationships between whales, hippos, pigs, and an extinct group of mammals called raoellids. One aspect of the paper I did not comment on, however, was the problematic placement of the enormous predator Andrewsarchus.
In November of 1924…
March 24, 2009
Tai Shan the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), photographed at the National Zoo.
March 23, 2009
You may recall that last December I shared a clip or two from Isabella Rossellini's delightful short film series on the mating habits of insects called "Green Porno." Some viewers were fascinated, others horrified, but regardless of your reaction you might be interested to know that on April 1st…
March 23, 2009
A number of people have been asking me about the status of my book lately. I only wish I had something interesting to report!
By mid-January I had completed about 100 pages, or roughly one third of the book. With that goal reached I began to draft my proposal but I began to feel discouraged. How…
March 23, 2009
A Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer), photographed at the National Zoo.
March 21, 2009
Hi, everyone. I noticed that many of the people who originally expressed interest in meeting up at the National Zoo tomorrow will not, in fact, be able to make it. As such I have decided to cancel the meet-up tomorrow. Don't fret, though. I hope to be back in the area sometime later this year and I…
March 21, 2009
Maiacetus.
I am having a lot of fun visiting the various museums and landmarks in Washington, D.C. this weekend, and while I don't have much time for blogging I wanted to share a photo from my brief stop at the National Museum of Natural History. Even though I spent most of the day talking to…
March 21, 2009
The Capitol building, photographed around 7:30 AM.
An earlier attempt at the same photo, taken while crossing the street.
March 20, 2009
An Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), photographed at the Bronx zoo.
March 19, 2009
The big news in this week's issue of Nature was the discovery of a small ornithischian dinosaur covered in bristles, but there was another, shorter paper that caught my eye. In December 2007 Nature printed a short communication on Indohyus, a small artiodactyl that seemed like a good candidate for…
March 19, 2009
A red panda (Ailurus fulgens), photographed at the Bronx zoo.
March 18, 2009
A very unusual reconstruction of Dimetrodon from the textbook Geology, based on a reconstruction by E.C. Case. Dimetrodon and other sail-backed creatures were once considered to have become too "spiny" to survive.
According to the old, if inaccurate, aphorism ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, or…
March 18, 2009
Sasha the Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), photographed at the Bronx zoo.