Brian Switek
Brian Switek is an ecology & evolution student at Rutgers University.
laelaps
Posts by this author
April 17, 2008
When Linnaeus was attempting to organize "the Creation," he gave the chimpanzee the binomial Homo troglodytes. Since Edward Tyson's 1699 dissection of a "pigmie" (a juvenile chimpanzee [see Gould's essay "To Show An Ape" in The Flamingo's Smile]), the close resemblance between apes and humans has…
April 17, 2008
Today is going to be another day of putting work into my book. Last night I read The War of Art from cover to cover, and while it waded into some vague notions of spirituality here and there (angels, muses, and the like), it still was a worthwhile read. It's put together as a collection of little…
April 17, 2008
"The Spine" by Michael Spence (collected in The Spine) [hat-tip to Vasha for sending this along]
"The fossilised vertebrae of a large dolphin-like reptile dating from 150 million years ago were recently discovered in this mining town." -- Australian travel brochure
The ichthyosaur,
Like ancient…
April 16, 2008
They just keep coming. A few hours ago I posted about a lukewarm review of Expelled that appeared on the Variety website, and rottentomatoes.com has pointed me to a few more reviews of the film. A Slant review by Nick Schager skewers the film for the hypocrisy within it;
For a film about American…
April 16, 2008
The extinct "saber-toothed" creodont Hyaenodon.
During the middle Eocene, about 49 to 37 million years ago, the largest meat-eating mammal from what would become of the Wind River Formation of Wyoming was Malfelis badwaterensis. Although a cursory glance at the fossil remains of this animal…
April 16, 2008
So far most of the reviews that have popped up about Expelled have been negative, and the creators of the film have increasingly come under fire for plagiarizing cgi-reconstructions of the cell from two sources (even though the company that produced the film has now filed suit, claiming that the…
April 15, 2008
I'm not really plugged in to the Rutgers community; I rarely read the newspaper, I don't have many friends on campus, and I don't have much (if any) "school spirit," but some rather disturbing news has been making the rounds over the past few days. I haven't been able to find any news reports or…
April 15, 2008
True to my word, I worked for about 5 hours on my book today. As always, I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but I figure another 2 and 1/2 pages in Word isn't too bad. The main difficulty with the writing I did today involved correcting some mistakes and incorrect interpretations in…
April 15, 2008
The NCSE website Expelled Exposed has now gone live, and it's full of great information debunking the conspiracy theories in the film. There will also be an anti-Expelled blogswarm and a "To Hell With Expelled" blog carnival this Friday for those who have posts critiquing the film.
April 15, 2008
Things may be a little slow on the blog today. After lamenting my lack of progress writing my book, I've decided to take most of the day to do something about the situation. Hopefully I'll be able to update my progress sometime tonight.
April 14, 2008
As for the the little furballs around here, Little Foot has gone back to the adoption center. Beatrice is now with us, although she seems to be suffering from spring allergies. We'll probably have some kittens in the rotation soon, though, as the summer-long wave of kittens starts not too long…
April 14, 2008
Spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) have a bad reputation; they look strange, they have an unnerving repertoire of yips and yowls, the females have a pseudo-penis, and they are often portrayed as ruthless scavengers. I actually like hyenas quite a bit, and although not much can be done about their…
April 14, 2008
Has it really been over a month since I last worked on my book? That's what the calendar tells me. Between the cat eviscerating the keyboard of my laptop, said laptop being stolen, midterms, and other activities, I haven't done much of anything since March 9. Last night, for example, I intended to…
April 13, 2008
It has sometimes been said that the leaders of creationist ministries and advocates of intelligent design are charismatic, charming people who know how to play to the crowd. I don't believe it. Creationists are often just as loud, judgmental, and terse as the stereotype of evolutionary scientists…
April 13, 2008
Sasha, a male Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) at the Bronx zoo.
April 12, 2008
The skeleton of Daeodon (Dinohyus), an entelodont.
There are few fossil mammals that are as scary-looking as entelodonts. Justifiably called "Hell Pigs" in the book Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway, the long, toothy skulls of entelodonts are certainly imposing. This extinct group of pig relatives…
April 12, 2008
Over the last few months I've tried to keep up to date on "Aetogate," and those of you who have been following the subject know that there has yet to be any satisfactory resolution to the problem (see here, here, here, and here to catch up, as well as the Aetogate information hub here). The…
April 11, 2008
Dr. Jack Horner is one of the most recognized paleontologists working in the field today, and is presently the Ameya Preserve Curator of Paleontology and Montana State University Regents' Professor of Paleontology. He has authored numerous books, papers, and popular articles, and during his career…
April 11, 2008
Presently only two genera of sloths exist, the two-toed sloths (Choloepus) and the three-toed sloth (Bradypus). They are the remaining vestiges of a much great past diversity, including many of the giant forms like Megatherium that occupied niches both in the trees and on the ground. As with most…
April 11, 2008
Over the past week I've been trying to bring some resolution into my plans for the next year by straightening out the remainder of my coursework and my writing goals for the year, but there are still a few things that are up in the air. As it stands now, though, I'm probably not going to make…
April 10, 2008
This has been a big week for Laelaps. On Monday I posted an interview with Bob Bakker, and I'll close out the work week with an interview I just conducted with Jack Horner. I'll have it up early tomorrow, so be sure to check back here to see it for yourself!