Brian Switek
Brian Switek is an ecology & evolution student at Rutgers University.
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Posts by this author
July 17, 2008
Ok, maybe the name isn't as catchy as Jurassic Fight Club but that's what it's all about; ancient critters ripping the guts out of other ancient critters and how we know they did it. I'll have a review of the first episode, featuring Majungasaurus, up next week, but in the meantime the History…
July 17, 2008
Nine reasons not to date a Tyrannosaurus rex.
Also check out Zach's post refuting Jack Horner's hypothesis that Tyrannosaurus was an obligate scavenger. The piece was inspired by the new symposium book Tyrannosaurus rex, The Tyrant King; I can't wait to get my claws on a copy of my own (but I…
July 17, 2008
A male cougar (Puma concolor), photographed July 15th, 2008 at the Philadelphia zoo.
July 16, 2008
[Note: Apparently Emma Marris didn't like Sizzle either, and you can read her review in Nature. I'm definitely interested in seeing more reviews of the film from various sources as we get closer to the release date.]
After reading Chris Mooney's hyperbolic review of Sizzle this morning I have to…
July 16, 2008
It's been nearly a month since I posted my last book progress update. When I posted the last update the summer still seemed to stretch ahead of me, yet now it's the middle of July with the beginning of the fall semester feeling imminent. What's worse, I don't think I'll be able to hit my goal of…
July 16, 2008
I've never liked the term "Darwinism." To me it has always been more of a watchword that might indicate that I was talking to a creationist, a term I generally do not encounter unless I'm reading or hearing an argument against a straw-man version of evolution. (I'm not a big fan of "evolutionist,"…
July 16, 2008
Two of the three male Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) born at the Philadelphia Zoo last year. Photographed July 15th, 2008.
July 16, 2008
Bora has got the first edition of the history of science carnival The Giant's Shoulders up at A Blog Around the Clock. There's lots of great stuff, and I certainly recommend that you give it a look.
Speaking of carnivals, after giving it some thought I'd decided to pick up The Boneyard again,…
July 15, 2008
Today my wife and I celebrated two years of marriage, which meant heading to the Philadelphia zoo in the morning, tubing on the Delaware River in the afternoon, and a nice dinner when we got home. I've got plenty of new shots to share, but I'll start things off with one of the most unique ones, a…
July 15, 2008
Small-clawed otters (Aonyx cinerea), photographed July 5th, 2008 at the Bronx zoo.
July 14, 2008
Sizzle, the new documentary by Flock of Dodos creator Randy Olson, describes itself as "a movie you'll feel passionate about (even if you don't know why)." This description is particularly apt, although perhaps not in the way that the team behind the film expected.
Randy Olson is concerned. An…
July 14, 2008
Remember my Spore critter, Anomalonychus? Well now it's up on the SporeVote webpage, along with creations from other Reed Cartwright and Craig McClain. Apparently I'm not cool enough to be featured on the front page with Adam West, MC Hammer, and Carlos Santana, but it's still good to have my…
July 14, 2008
The type skull of Velociraptor mongoliensis. From Osborn, et al. 1924.
By the summer of 1993 Velociraptor had become a household name. Although Deinonychus had long been my fleet-footed favorite the olive-green "clever girls" of Speilberg's film soon outshone all of their relatives and gave…
July 14, 2008
John Wilkins recently announced that he has an article about science blogging in press over at Trends in Ecology & Evolution, and many congratulations to him. The piece is definitely worth a look, appraising science blogs in terms of how they impact science communication and may benefit…
July 14, 2008
A series of photos of gulls, photographed at Ocean Grove, NJ on July 13th, 2008.
July 13, 2008
Sorry for the lack of posts today, everyone. I spent most of the afternoon at the beach, taking pictures and reading Rex Appeal. I did manage to get a few pretty good shots, although I'm saving a series of them for tomorrow. Here's a little something for now (and thank you to whoever added today's…
July 13, 2008
A female snow leopard (Panthera uncia). Photographed at the Bronx zoo on July 5th, 2008.
This snow leopard is another female, the sister of the one pictured above.
July 12, 2008
Majungasaurus is one cool theropod. Not only does is have a neat, knobby skull but the numerous remains of this dinosaur allowed for an entire series of papers on it to appear in the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Memoirs. Although it is hardly a household name quite a bit is known about this…
July 12, 2008
It's only been in the last year that I've obtained a deeper appreciation for the history of science. Natural history is utterly enthralling, of course, but the history of the naturalists that have shaped our understanding of the world are just as fascinating. For my own part, the essays of Stephen…
July 12, 2008
A Przewalski's horse (Equus ferus przewalskii). Photographed at the Bronx zoo on July 5th, 2008.
July 11, 2008
Feeding "the littles" that were here a few weeks ago.
I think I have confused Charlotte, a diminutive female cat my wife and I adopted about two years ago. She was just a little runt when we took her in and she never had kittens, yet she has been acting a lot like a mother as of late. Given that…
July 11, 2008
Dun, dun. Dun, dun...
A Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus). Photographed at the Bronx zoo on July 5th, 2008.
July 10, 2008
They don't make commercials like this anymore. There's probably a good reason for that;
July 10, 2008
Although creationists try hard to be media-savvy, relying on rhetoric to make their arguments, I can't help but laugh at who qualifies as a star in creationist circles. While documentaries about evolution often feature people like Liam Neeson and Kenneth Branagh, z-listers like Kirk Cameron and Ben…
July 10, 2008
A gelada (Theropithecus gelada, right) and a rock hyrax (Procavia capensis, left). Photographed at the Bronx zoo on July 5th, 2008.
July 9, 2008
It's getting to be that there are more transitional fossils than I have time to blog them. Back in February I wrote about Aetiocetus, an ancient toothed mysticete whale that also had baleen. Then, just a few weeks ago, I put up a few words on Ventastega, a genus that confirms the origin of…
July 9, 2008
The latest issue of Evolution: Education and Outreach features a few thoughts from Gordy Slack on AiG's Creation Museum, which just passed the 1-year mark back in May. The controversy surrounding it has largely died down in the last year, particularly given the shenanigans involved with the release…
July 9, 2008
Hot on the heels of the ScienceBlogs Book Club comes another special, limited-run blog all about alternative energy called Next Generation Energy.
The blog will be another active group discussion, with multiple authors (from Sb and beyond) throwing in on energy technologies and policy. The first…
July 9, 2008
Is the National Geographic Society hurting science more than helping it? In December of 2007 the group launched a media blitz (including two books, a documentary, and a speaking tour) surrounding the exquisitely preserved specimen of "Dakota," purported to be an as-yet-undescribed species of…