paleontology
laelaps | September 17, 2008
"Leonardo," the mummy dinosaur, courtesy of the HMNS.
Although it got a brief treatment in the book Horns and Beaks, many people have been waiting for more information on the exceptionally-preserved Brachylophosaurus skeleton named "Leonardo." Due to be unveiled next week at the Houston Museum of Natural Science (the date was pushed back due to Hurricane Ike; the museum and Leonardo were unharmed), the fossil provides a unique look at the soft tissues of this particular dinosaur.
Dinosaur "mummies" have been found before, dating back to the 19th century, but in many cases little more than…
laelaps | September 15, 2008
An illustration of a Brontotherium mount on display at the AMNH. Notice the healed rib. From Osborn, H.F.; Wortman, J.L.; Peterson, O.A. (1895) "Perissodactyls of the Lower Miocene White River beds." Bulletin of the AMNH; Vol. 7 (12), pp. 343-375.
Brontotheres have long been among the most recognizable of ancient mammals, even appearing in recent films like the Ice Age series, yet scientifically they haven't received very much recent attention. While they were of great interest to pioneering paleontologists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the last "great" work on them was…
laelaps | September 14, 2008I haven't seen this one yet, but here's the BBC Horizon program "Mystery of the Jurassic" about discoveries made in Jurassic-age rocks in Agentina by Oliver Rauhut and others;
laelaps | September 12, 2008I've been on about the history of science quite a bit lately (see here, here, and here), and as I've aired my gripes one point in particular keeps coming up again and again.
For various reasons the development of science (particularly those connected with evolution) in Victorian times has been extensively studied. There is still work to be done, but generally speaking there is an immense body of literature on science during the 19th century. This is particularly the case with geology & paleontology, associated sciences that came into their own during the 1800's and were important to the…
laelaps | September 12, 2008I was really looking forward to attending the annual SVP meeting in Ohio this year, but after mulling things over I don't think it is possible for me to go. I simply can't afford the cost of the trip. I am very much saddened by this, particularly since I was looking forward to meeting so many people (and a owe a few folks a beer for their kindness to me over the past year), but it looks like I'm going to have to sit this one out.
If you are a paleo blogger and are attending, though, head on over to Julia's blog as there are plans to organize a plaeo-blogger breakfast. I'll be sad to miss it,…
laelaps | September 11, 2008Here's another paleo video by the Houston Museum of Natural Science, this time about gluing fossils. The hadrosaur featured in it is "Peanut," a skeleton found in the same area as "Leonardo" (who we'll see more of this weekend on the Discovery Channel). Now they just have to make a video about all-purpose paleontological paper...
laelaps | September 9, 2008"... for in all the boundless realm of philosophy and science no thought has brought with it so much pain, or in the end has led to such a full measure of the joy which comes of intellectual effort and activity as that doctrine of Organic Evolution which will ever be associated, first and foremost, with the name of Charles Robert Darwin." - Edward Poulton, "Fifty Years of Darwinism" (1908)
Edward Poulton and T.C. Chamberlin may have been impressed by evolution by natural selection during the centenary celebration of Charles Darwin's (portrait on the lower right) birth in 1908, but…
laelaps | September 7, 2008I loved all the Gary Owens & Eric Boardman dinosaur documentaries (see here, here, and here) when I was a kid, but I think my most favorite was their special on prehistoric mammals. Called "Prehistoric World," the show took a look at the Page Museum in LA and even featured a bit on Dougal Dixon's After Man creatures (including everyone's favorite, the Nightstalker).
The stop-motion mammals seen at the beginning of the show brought back fond memories, as well. They were part of another documentary I saw as a child, although I can no longer remember what it was called. What I do remember,…
laelaps | September 5, 2008For those of you in the New York City area, paleo artist Ray Troll and paleobotanist Kirk Johnson will be presenting a lecture on their wonderful book Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway (see my review here, pick it up here) on October 21 at the AMNH. It looks like it will be a lot of fun, and I'm going to make sure that I catch this one.
laelaps | September 3, 2008
Fun with stock footage and a blue screen, from Shark Attack 3.
After watching the first episode of Jurassic Fight Club I felt that the show deserved some amount of praise, but I was utterly flabbergasted by the latest episode ("Deep Sea Killers"). (You can see the full episodes yourself, for a limited time, here.)
The new episode featured the famous "mega-tooth" shark, Carcharocles megalodon, popularly called "Megalodon." During the entirety of the episode I don't think the genus name of the shark is ever mentioned; it is always referred to as "Megalodon" (and once as "Meg"). As was…
laelaps | September 3, 2008Zach has got the latest edition of the paleo-carnival The Boneyard up at When Pigs Fly Returns.
laelaps | August 31, 2008
Henry de la Beche's "Duria Antiquior," an image of the carnage along the shores of ancient Dorset.
As I've been reading Jane Davidson's A History of Paleontology Illustration I have been thinking about my favorite paleo artists. Late at night, when I am settling down to sleep, I sometimes just like to pull a few books off the shelf and just look at the work of people who have attempted to "burst the limits of time" with their art. Indeed, we fortunately live in a time when there is a glut of good paleo artists, each with their own style, but before I share my favorites why not share yours…
laelaps | August 29, 2008Just in case you haven't had enough of the "classic" (vintage?) Eric Boardman & Gary Owens dinosaur documentaries, here's the sequel to "More Dinosaurs" called "Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs."
laelaps | August 27, 2008
The famous fold-out plate that accompanied Pre-Adamite Man. Not the "dividing line" between ancient life and modern humans formed by the glaciers.
There is more to understanding the history of science than memorizing the dates when seminal books were published or knowing the names of the founders of particular disciplines. Science must be understood in context, and given the present public arguments about evolution it can be profitable to look back and see how science was being popularized circa 1859. While there were some books by scientists that were accessible to the public, many non-…
laelaps | August 25, 2008The Boneyard #23 will appear on September 2 at When Pigs Fly Returns. Get your paleo-posts from the last month to me or Zach if you want in on the next edition!
laelaps | August 23, 2008I normally don't care when I miss television documentaries, but I'm going to have to find some way to see this when it airs in three weeks;
So... freakin'... cool... And remember some of those exclusive clips (which are not associated with the Discovery Channel program) that I told you about a while ago? The Houston Museum of Natural Science has been kind enough to upload some of them to the web. Here's Bob Bakker on "duckbills";
laelaps | August 18, 2008
I haven't had much time to sit down and watch any movies lately, but this past weekend I did make a little time to watch at least some of the Jurassic Park films. There's a lot I could complain about in each installment, but I have to admit that it's nice to just sit down and watch what almost look like real-life dinosaurs running around on screen. Indeed, the films have had an immense impact on popular culture and ushered in a new wave of dinomania, and 15 years after the release of the first film (and 7 years since the last installment) paleontologists are still fielding questions…
laelaps | August 17, 2008Say what you like about the new History Channel series Jurassic Fight Club, but I have to give the network credit for putting up the full episodes for free viewing.
Sure, you have to wait a few weeks, but at least you don't have to worry about missing it. From what I heard this week's installment featuring Deinonychus was par for the course (which isn't a good thing), but at least now those of us without cable can watch at our leisure and be paleontological pedants.
laelaps | August 13, 2008According to a news report released last night the first confirmed remains of a scimitar-toothed cat have been found in Venezula, a contemporary of the dirk-toothed cat Smilodon. The uncovered remains are said to represent six individual sabercats, called Homotherium, including a complete skull. This makes Homotherium one of the most widely traveled and persistent of all sabercats; it has been found in Africa, Europe, Asia, North America, and South America, and the genus was present from about five million years ago to 10,000 years ago (although it became extinct in different parts of the…