Brian Switek
Brian Switek is an ecology & evolution student at Rutgers University.
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Posts by this author
May 16, 2008
During the past two weeks I've read a number of books, but few of them have been as enjoyable as those written by Martin Rudwick (The Meaning of Fossils) and David Quammen (The Boilerplate Rhino). Serendipitously, there are new articles out about both authors; the History of Science Society has a…
May 16, 2008
I'm sorry to say that things with Rutgers are still a mess, but the spring semester is over and now I've got about three months to work on some of my projects. There's a lot I want to do, but most importantly I want to become a better writer and photographer. Towards that end I have set a few goals…
May 16, 2008
A snow leopard pair (Panthera uncia), photographed at the Bronx zoo in 2006.
I've been lucky enough to get a few halfway-decent photographs of snow leopards during my regular visits to the Bronx zoo, but they're absolute rubbish compared to the photography in the feature "Out of the Shadows" in…
May 16, 2008
A white nosed coati (or pizote, Nasua narica), photographed last year at the Philadelphia Zoo.
May 15, 2008
As regular readers of this blog know, I have an extreme affinity for museums and always welcome the news of a long-lost specimen that was locked away in storage turning out to be something new and significant. In 2006 one such discovery occurred when Mike Taylor (seen left, holding the specimen)…
May 15, 2008
I just realized something; I'm not going to be able to put up the special edition of The Boneyard #20 this Saturday as planned. Being that I'll be somewhere along the shores of Delaware trying to photograph some horseshoe crabs I won't be able to see all the last-minute submissions and put them up…
May 15, 2008
Columbia University Press is presently having it's "White Sale" until May 31, and there's a lot of good books going on sale for cheap. The "Science" section has some particularly good stuff, like Slotten's The Heretic in Darwin's Court: The Life of Alfred Russel Wallace, Agusti and Anton's Mammoths…
May 15, 2008
Later today I'll be posting the next installment of my series of interviews with paleontologists, this time asking Mike Taylor to tell us a little about PhyloCode, strange sauropods, and the present "Aetogate" controversy (just to start). It's another long, detail-rich interview, so be sure to…
May 15, 2008
A greater mouse deer (Tragulus napu), photographed last year at the National Zoo.
[Note]: My brand new Nikon D60 arrived yesterday, so I'll soon have some brand new images to use for this daily photo post.
May 14, 2008
A Plains zebra (Equus quagga), photographed last year at the Philadelphia Zoo.
May 13, 2008
Our understanding of dinosaurs today is a far cry from the massive, crocodile-like beasts envisioned by Richard Owen and William Buckland, but the way in which ideas about dinosaurs held by earlier paleontologists are presented has been troubling me lately. In many documentaries it is fashionable…
May 13, 2008
Since I've got a bit of studying to do for my osteology exam, here's some, erm, "vintage" television to keep things going here. It's an episode of Batman called "How to Hatch a Dinosaur";
May 13, 2008
As some of you may recall, about two months ago my apartment was robbed, my digital slr camera being one of the items that was stolen. Since then it has not been found by the police and I'm still struggling with my renter's insurance provider, but yesterday I got news of when my economic stimulus…
May 13, 2008
An Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis), photographed last year at the Philadelphia Zoo.
May 12, 2008
Standing in front of a small tank of mudskippers in the special "Water" exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History, I heard a gentleman next to me comment to his friend "You know, if evolution is true, it's really amazing how many different kinds of animal there are." I have to admit…
May 12, 2008
Zeff, a female Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), photographed last year at the Bronx Zoo.
May 11, 2008
A female African elephant (Loxodonta africana), photographed last year at the Philadelphia Zoo.
May 10, 2008
I'll be away at the AMNH for most of the day today, but here are a few general "housekeeping" notes until I get back;
A very special edition of The Boneyard (#20) will be coming up next week. (See this post for the full details.) I haven't received any submissions yet, but just keep in mind that…
May 10, 2008
Two female "white lions," photographed last year at the Philadelphia Zoo.
May 9, 2008
Not only does the commercial dare to mention evolution, but it also features a prominent paleontologist and (gasp) some actual science. I have no idea whether it has been broadcast in the U.S., but I would guess not;
May 9, 2008
A mount of Allosaurus in the Grand Rotunda of the AMNH.
May 8, 2008
The articulated skeleton of Gorgosaurus (AMNH 5428) found in the Belly River Formation near the Red Deer River, Alberta, Canada. From Matthew & Brown 1923.
In 1913, an American Museum of Natural History expedition led by Barnum Brown (with P.C. Kaisen and George Sternberg as assistants)…
May 8, 2008
The skull of Gorgosaurus, photographed last year at the AMNH.
May 7, 2008
Mr. Bergh to the Rescue
THE DEFRAUDED GORILLA: "That Man wants to claim my Pedigree. He says he is one of my Descendants."
MR. BERGH: "Now, Mr. Darwin, how could you insult him so?"
This cartoon was published in Harper's Weekly in 1871, the year Darwin's The Descent of Man was first published…
May 7, 2008
A commercial about global climate change;
And there's one with Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich, too;
I haven't had much time to poke around the site as yet, but wecansolveit.org is the homepage of the We campaign, an extension of the Alliance for Climate Protection that Al Gore started in 2006…
May 7, 2008
A lioness (Panthera leo), photographed last year at the Philadelphia Zoo. She is a representative of the "white lions" found in the Timbavati Private Game Reserve and Kruger National Park in South Africa.
May 6, 2008
In case you missed it, my post on paleo-art "'What Rules the World?'" is up at Science Creative Quarterly. I wish I caught some of the typos, but I still think that it's a pretty good piece.
Coincidentally, Reverend H.N. Hutchinson's Extinct Monsters arrived in the mail today and a battered copy…
May 6, 2008
Some cheesy dinosaur carnage, as seen in the film My Science Project.
May 6, 2008
According to a report recently published in TIME, developers in Florida have announced their plans to push back the Miami-Dade Urban Development Boundary so that a new Lowe's and some office buildings can be built. Why the county needs another major home-improvement outlet, no one seems to know,…