Brian Switek
Brian Switek is an ecology & evolution student at Rutgers University.
laelaps
Posts by this author
March 7, 2008
The Trilobite Blog has part one of a three part series about birds & dinosaurs, featuring a famous paleontological legend involving T.H. Huxley.
John Wilkins wasn't impressed with Richard Dawkins (although Jim Lippard has presented a kinder summary of the ASU event).
If you haven't seen it yet…
March 7, 2008
I forgot to upload another of the better-quality pictures from my trip to the Bronx Zoo last weekend, but here is one slightly out-of-focus shot of a pair of African wild dogs, Lycaon pictus (I somehow managed to get the tree behind them in focus, but not the dogs...). I'll have something better…
March 6, 2008
Given how much time I spend writing at a computer (be it for this blog or my book), I thought I'd indulge in a little more navel-gazing about my writing habits. What I write is usually dictated by my surroundings and the time of day, and as much as I might like to change things a bit I can't help…
March 6, 2008
Today I had the pleasure of giving an interview to a local NPR radio station about the infamous Hesperopithecus, and I'll provide you all with a link as soon as the feature is up. I was a little bit nervous, but I think I did alright.
[As an aside, if things have been a little light on here lately…
March 6, 2008
This is definitely the most interesting thing I've seen this week. And you can even make your own...
March 6, 2008
There's a new paper out in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B about the ever-controversial Homo floresiensis, the authors of the paper arguing that the fossils representing this new species are actually "myxoedematous endemic cretins," of the species Homo sapiens. The condition the authors…
March 5, 2008
In July of this year, 16 hand-picked scientists will meet at the Konrad Lorenz Institute in Altenberg, Austria to discuss the current state of evolutionary theory. The papers presented at the meeting will be published next year and I'm sure it will generate some amount of discussion, but I have to…
March 5, 2008
Yesterday the Department of Cultural Affairs announced its conclusions in the ongoing academic integrity case involving paleontologist Spencer Lucas. According to the panel, which included two "objective" scientists (both of which have collaborated with Lucas in the past, one of which had issued a…
March 5, 2008
In the above photograph a female Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) named Taurus displays a flehmen response; she was sniffing the scat of another tiger in the enclosure and repeatedly made this face. As silly as it looks, this type of grimace helps pheromones and other natural chemicals come in…
March 4, 2008
Has there ever been a time when science has been highly valued by the general public? For all our discussions and debates about the popularization of science, framing, and science education, it seems that a sense of history is often lacking. Many of us feel like we're fighting a losing battle,…
March 4, 2008
The next edition of The Boneyard will be right here this coming Saturday. The special effects-driven movie 10,000 BC also comes out this weekend, and although I'll post anything paleontological that is submitted, I would encourage those interested in submitting to write something about any of the…
March 4, 2008
The New York Times has two new articles out today, one involving dinosaurs in Argentina and another about the social life of the spotted hyena. The article about the southern hemisphere dinosaurs is another reminder of the controversy between private collectors, academics, and the public, and the…
March 4, 2008
The Bronx Zoo snow leopards (Panthera uncia) have typically been awake during my visits, but the female pictured above was acting like one of my domestic cats on catnip. Unfortunately I wasn't prepared for what she was going to do so she came out as a bit of a blur, but it was impressive to see a…
March 3, 2008
A pair of male cobras grapple with each other in a clip from Life in Cold Blood;
Oddly enough, I was just thinking about dominance contests between males and various armaments this morning. Although violence is a part of nature, there are many species in which males compete for territories or…
March 3, 2008
The evolution of giraffes has been on my mind quite frequently as of late, although it's been difficult tracking down information about the evolution of the group (it was once much more diverse than it is today, a trend also illustrated by elephants and horses). Along the way, though, I've turned…
March 3, 2008
Gerhard Heilmann's often-reproduced illustration of running Iguanodon. This is the version I am most familiar with, but there was actually an earlier version in which the dinosaurs lacked the crest of scutes they possess in the above drawing.
Last night I picked up Gerhard Heilmann's The Origin…
March 3, 2008
The dynamic duo of Shelly from Retrospectacle and Steve from Omni Brain have now teamed up to bring you Of Two Minds. Also, Josh Donlan has started his stint as a contributor to Shifting Baselines, so there may be more about Pleistocene re-wilding on Sb in the near future.
March 3, 2008
I could hardly believe my eyes this past Saturday; a male black-crested gibbon (Hylobates concolor) swung down from the miniature forest of its enclosure and started to groom the back and sides of a Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus). The tapir stood still while the gibbon picked over its hide for a…
March 2, 2008
I've decided to keep something of a running summary of the progress I've made on my book, my thought being that if I am able to keep a tab of what I've done I'll be more likely to work on it and better organize my ideas. Today marks the first day I'll be doing this, and I hope to update it every…
March 2, 2008
During most of my visits to the Bronx Zoo, the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is usually sleeping or too hot to move around much, but yesterday she was in a much more playful mood. While they certainly are powerful predators, polar bears can be quite playful, and during the winter adult males…
March 1, 2008
A few days ago I mentioned that paleontologist Terry Gates was going to appear on Bill O'Reilly's show to speak on the subject of whether global warming killed the dinosaurs. As we all know, FOX News = Fake News, and I don't understand why Gates agreed to be on the show. It was the absolute worst…
March 1, 2008
I got a lot of great shots today at the Bronx Zoo (including, believe it or not, a gibbon grooming a tapir), and although I plan on spacing them out over the next few weeks I thought I would put up one right away. This is one of the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) twins born at the zoo, now a bit…
March 1, 2008
I took this photograph about one year ago at the Bronx Zoo (coincidentally I'm returning there today), but I don't know what species of bird this is. If you do, please feel free to identify it in the comments.
Update: Thanks to everyone who replied in the comments. It indeed seems to be a Guira (…
February 29, 2008
It looks like more bad news for my bank account; a few days again Gov. Corzine proposed what he called "a very tough budget" that would cut state aid to New Jersey colleges and universities by about $76,000,000 according to the New York Times. Whether the proposed cuts end up as part of the final…
February 29, 2008
Whenever there's a documentary about shark attacks on the Discovery Channel or a popular press article involving the supposed "alarming rise" in shark attacks, the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) is usually mentioned. This project is primarily concerned with data-gathering and statistics,…
February 29, 2008
Today got off to a pretty bad start, so I'm experiencing a bit of blogger's block. In lieu of anything original, I liked Janet's questions about science blogs so much that I've decided to steal them and put up my own answers. John has done the same, and I expect others to soon follow suit. (Abel…
February 29, 2008
I'm always fascinated to see how rapidly the paleo-blogosphere has grown and diversified, and over at The World We Don't Live In there's a wonderful post about one of my favorite fossil phenomena, "Devil's Corkscrews." That's one for The Boneyard, which, by the way, will be right here at Laelaps on…
February 29, 2008
There are a number of large carnivores in Africa, but each obtains prey by different methods. Cheetahs, for instance, make a mad dash after their prey but can only keep up a high-speed chase for a short time, while wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) are endurance hunters. Much like wolves, a pack can chase…