Brian Switek
Brian Switek is an ecology & evolution student at Rutgers University.
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Posts by this author
March 17, 2009
A mount of Dimetrodon at the AMNH. From the Bulletin of the AMNH.
The predatory pelycosaur Dimetrodon has always been a favorite of mine. Though not a dinosaur it has an appearance as bizarre as any dinosaur you care to name, and the function of the huge sail on its back is remains an enigma.…
March 17, 2009
A white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), photographed in suburban New Jersey.
March 16, 2009
A visual summary of horse evolution published in 1921 (derived from an earlier diagram by W.D. Matthew). From An Introduction to the Study of Fossils.
When Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859 he faced a substantial problem. His evolutionary…
March 16, 2009
A black leopard (Panthera pardus), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
March 15, 2009
Ancestors are important. We like to know where we came from and what sort of legacy our forebears left, but it has only been recently that we have been able to trace the concept of "ancestor" through the depths of geological strata. I may not know the detailed history of my family during the last…
March 15, 2009
Ebony langurs (Trachypithecus auratus), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
March 14, 2009
As I mentioned earlier this month I will be heading down to Washington DC next weekend. On Sunday (March 22) I will be visiting the National Zoo and would love to meet anyone who would like to come by. Let's meet at 11 AM at the dining hall right near the giant panda exhibit (map here).
I apologize…
March 13, 2009
An adult woolly mammoth and offspring, brought to you by the National Film Board of Canada (1979);
I love stop-motion animation, but I have to say the style of this short made me wonder if Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer or the Heat Miser were suddenly going to show up...
March 13, 2009
I am no fan of the "March of Progress", but I know it isn't going anywhere. It is too readily recognizable as an evolutionary image for its use to be discontinued. That is why I wasn't surprised to see it in a new commercial for Extra spearmint gum. What I was surprised by, however, was that the…
March 13, 2009
Why did the turkey vulture cross the road? [Warning: The answer isn't pretty]
To get to the deer carcass on the other side, of course.
March 12, 2009
Everyone is talking about Atlas Shrugged in reference to current economic woes, but to me the arguments of the Faux News crew are more reminiscent of those made by Herbert Spencer and other "social Darwinists" in the latter half of the 19th century. (Check out Banquet at Delmonico's for more…
March 12, 2009
This is pretty cool. The new website Academic Earth has posted real college lectures from a variety of courses for free viewing. Since they are videos of actual courses it is just like being in class. There are only a smattering of subjects presently available but it might be a good resource if…
March 12, 2009
I cannot write a full review of it yet as I am only about 70 pages in, but so far I am very impressed by Sigrid Schmalzer's new book The People's Peking Man: Popular Science and Human Identity in 20th Century Science. Most of what I have previously learned about "Peking Man" (Homo erectus specimens…
March 12, 2009
An African wild dog (Lycaon pictus), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
March 11, 2009
I am not sure when it was recorded, but here is the audio (with pictures added by "CosmosFan1") from a lecture Stephen Jay Gould delivered at Wittenburg University in Ohio. There are a few unintentional flubs involving the dates Gould cites (that's 1859, not 1959...) but otherwise it's an…
March 11, 2009
Good news from the Beagle Project. The British Council has funded plans for a Beagle Project research network aboard the Brazilian tall ship Tocorime (or Adventure, the name of the sister ship of the Beagle) during its proposed exploration of South America. According to the Beagle Project blog this…
March 11, 2009
It has been a week since ABC's Nightline ran footage obtained by the Humane Society of primates being abused at the New Iberia Research Center in Louisiana. Even though the ethics of animal research has been big news on the blogs in the past week, with a poorly-argued article in last week's…
March 11, 2009
A snow leopard (Panthera uncia), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
March 10, 2009
In 1857 Richard Owen proposed that our species, Homo sapiens, belonged to a distinct subclass separate from all other primates. He called this new group the Archencephala and based it as much upon human powers of reason as minute neuroanatomical differences between apes and humans. What's more,…
March 10, 2009
Sasha, the Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
March 9, 2009
From Life.
Starting on May 1, 1901 the great Pan-American Exposition delighted visitors for six months in Buffalo, New York. Organized to "promote commercial and social interests among the States and countries of the Western Hemisphere" the show displayed the modern wonders of art, science, and…
March 9, 2009
A red panda (Ailurus fulgens), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
March 8, 2009
If I ever have the chance to deliver a lecture on evolution again I may just have to use this clip (from Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder);
March 8, 2009
On November 8, 1882 the paleontologist O.C. Marsh, popular minister Henry Beecher, industrialist Andrew Carnegie, and other influential men of the late 19th century converged on Delmonico's Restaurant in New York. They were there to toast Herbert Spencer, the social scientist who had gone beyond…
March 8, 2009
African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
March 7, 2009
This morning I decided to make the most of the unusually warm weather by heading to the Bronx Zoo. I will post some of the photos I took during the coming days and weeks, but I couldn't wait to share this shot of a snow leopard.
March 7, 2009
A grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
March 6, 2009
The Warren mastodon as originally mounted in the Warren Museum of Natural History. Note the size of the tusks. From The Story of Nineteenth-Century Science.
It is rarely crowded in the "Hall of Advanced Mammals" at the American Museum of Natural History. People stroll through on their way to see…
March 6, 2009
Thomson's gazelles (Eudorcas thomsoni), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.