Brian Switek
Brian Switek is an ecology & evolution student at Rutgers University.
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Posts by this author
December 3, 2007
"What is that thing?" "Says here it's a bearcat." "Well which is it, a bear or a cat?." "I don't know, it's just weird." Short conversations such as this seem to pop up every few minutes around the Binturong (Arctictis binturong) enclosure at the Bronx Zoo's "Jungle World" exhibit, many people not…
December 2, 2007
As some of you might remember from my sporadic notes on my old blog, I'm in the middle of writing a book about evolution, the first draft of which I hope to have completed by the time I turn 25 on February 26 of next year. I was fairly productive for a few weeks but then hit a bit of a lull, but…
December 2, 2007
This is one of the three Amur Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) born this past year at the Philadelphia Zoo. Despite such breeding success in captivity, however, it is difficult to release captive bred tigers back into the wild and animals bred in zoos do not contribute to replenishing depleted wild…
December 1, 2007
Most of my nightmares aren't rated PG, but if they involved a crazed and shirtless Leslie Neilson, they would be pretty terrifying indeed. Throw in a few cougars, birds, bears, wolves, a pack of purebred German Shepards, a motley crew of campers, and a mysterious hole in the ozone layer and you've…
December 1, 2007
If there is any phrase that is sure to raise the hackles of an evolutionary biologist, it is that evolution is "just a theory." This rallying cry of creationists plays off of the public misuse of the term "theory" to mean "Any wild guess that comes to mind which doesn't have substantial evidence to…
December 1, 2007
I absolutely love this photo of a male Amur Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) having a quick drink at the Philadelphia Zoo; the only thing that spoils it is the fact that it's drinking out of a bowl, making it look more like a housecat and one of the Great Cats. As I've noted here before,…
November 30, 2007
I'm officially an old man; I intended to finish On the Origin of Phyla tonight and write about evolution as fact and theory, but instead I fell asleep at 7 PM after a trip to the grocery store. Lame... In lieu of anything substantial, then, here's one of my favorite Simpsons moments satirizing some…
November 30, 2007
I'm hard at work on my sail-backs vs. buffalo-backs post (as well as another piece for later today about evolution as fact and theory), but if you're looking for some interesting reading here's a smattering of links I think you should check out;
My friend Kate has written up a thoughtful reply to…
November 30, 2007
Indricotherium, the largest land mammal that ever lived as far as we know, must have been an impressive sight as it browsed among the trees of the early Miocene landscape of central Asia. Back then it didn't have a scientific name, though, as taxonomists had yet to evolve, and that was probably…
November 29, 2007
Here's a gift idea for any Monty Python fans you might know (and another here). Now if only there were a Night of the Lepus life-sized plush...
November 29, 2007
A few weeks ago I posted a picture of Hermes, a kitten that I was fostering in my apartment and has found a loving home. When Hermes left, though, another kitten needed a home and his name was Cole, and he likes being a shoulder cat. He also likes to scream his little head off if you have food…
November 29, 2007
According to a new article in The Times, an extremely productive Cretaceous bone bed has been found at Lo Hueco near the city of Cuenca (somewhere between Madrid and Valencia) in Spain, diggers for a rail project stumbling across the site. They're in a bit of a rush, though; they only have until…
November 29, 2007
A close-up of the Triceratops mount on display at the AMNH.Ornithischian dinosaurs don't often get much attention, perhaps because some groups (i.e. hadrosaurs) are often viewed as the "cows" of the Mesozoic, having almost the exact same body plan only differing in head ornamentation. Members of…
November 29, 2007
I had some amount of difficulty finding information about this animal, Blastocerus, because the plaque describing it at the AMNH called it "Blastoceros" and that was the name I attempted to look up. Once I learned of the mistake, though, much more information became available, although it was not…
November 28, 2007
Tyrannosaurus rex is by far the most famous of dinosaurs, a creature that looms large in the field of paleontology as well as in the media. This amount of attention has caused plenty of controversy but it has also resulted in many studies of various aspects of one of the largest and most well-…
November 28, 2007
Things have been a little hectic lately, making me put off my long discussion on extinct sail-backed tetrapods, but today I heard about two new papers that definitely need some attention. A few bloggers have already mentioned the papers I have in mind, but I'm going to go ahead with my own thoughts…
November 28, 2007
When we speak of "animal intelligence" chimpanzees and other primates often first come to mind, rats and pigeons used in lab tests coming in at a close second. If we just leave it with those examples, however, we ignore many animals that are highly intelligent but that aren't so easy to study or…
November 27, 2007
Every once in a while the infamous "Mother of the Year" hoax appears in my inbox, the one in which it's claimed that a mother tiger who had lost he cubs instead took in some piglets as substitute children. While the truth behind the photographs is awfully sad, it seems credible because sometimes…
November 27, 2007
Note: I originally wrote this post in a bit of frustration, and so I've drawn a line through much of the latter half that has more to do with science education and not the list. I still find it a bit strange than not one science book made it to the list when there were, in my opinion, some "notable…
November 27, 2007
Since yesterday's photo of Syndyoceras was so popular, I thought I would put up a photo of another protoceratid artiodactyl, this time Protoceras celer. Often found in deposits that were in proximity to streams, this animal showed some sexual dimorphism in its ornamentation, males (like the one…
November 26, 2007
By now I'm sure you've all heard about Ben Stein's upcoming Christian Crusade against us Devilutionists, Expelled, and as February approaches I'm sure we'll be seeing more hype about the films theatrical release. Indeed, just like movies like The Chronicles of Narnia, The Nativity Story, and the…
November 26, 2007
Admittedly, I am often somewhat fixated upon fossil predators, but herbivores can be just as varied and interesting as anything that fed upon them. Syndyoceras cooki, a protoceratid artiodactyl of Miocene age, is one such animal, and the two horns protruding from the front of its snout would be…
November 25, 2007
As I described in the introduction to my more poetic post "There is a grandeur in this view of life...," fossil hunting is one of the most exciting and rewarding activities I've even taken part in. It might not be easy work and it often does not bear petrified prizes, but a few scraps of bone, a…
November 25, 2007
To some, the universe is a place that has been fine-tuned to be "'just right' for life," a place where human beings (or at least organisms that are upright bipeds with binocular vision, large eyes, and grasping hands) are an inevitable consequence of evolution. I've never found such arguments (the…
November 25, 2007
Yet another skull from the AMNH Hall of Primates, this time of a gorilla. This skull is quite different from those of the other apes I've put up recently, especially in the presence of a prominent sagittal crest for the attachment of jaw muscles.
November 24, 2007
I absolutely love this song, "Bastard" by Ben Folds,and Songs for Silverman is one of my most favorite albums of recent years;
The Ben Folds Five song "Best Imitation of Myself" (although this version is actually off the solo album Ben Folds Live) will always be among my favorites as well (don't…
November 24, 2007
Today in 1859 Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life was published (and immediately sold out). While Darwin published many other books during his life (including the very popular The Formation of…
November 24, 2007
The newest installment of The Boneyard is up at Self-Designed Student, and it's a whopper. Amanda has done an excellent job of combing the blogosphere for the best paleo-posts of the last two weeks, and I highly suggest that you do yourself the favor of checking it out!
The next edition will be up…
November 24, 2007
Yesterday I noted how many of the Hominidae pass the "mirror test"; orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and humans all are able to recognize themselves in a mirror. Gorillas, however, fail the test. Why should this be? The following video might give us a clue;
The juvenile in the baboon is scared as…
November 24, 2007
The idea of a lost world, harboring Mesozoic remnants on a plateau in a steaming jungle or in a "hot spot" at one of the poles, has long enthralled writers of fiction, especially when there were truly blank spots on the map that had yet to be explored. The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle…