paleontology
laelaps | June 9, 2008In a very interesting post about agamids and chameleons at Tetrapod Zoology, my fellow ScienceBlogger Darren states the following;
One of the greatest fallacies held about evolutionary theory is that fossils are essential in demonstrating the existence of change (don't believe me? Look at 'creation science' books like Duane Gish's Evolution: the Challenge of the Fossil Record and Evolution: the Fossils Say No!). Of course fossils do indeed show how characters were accrued and modified over time, and it's that 'time' aspect of the data that they shed crucial information on. But we most…
laelaps | June 7, 2008The 21st edition of the Boneyard snuck up on me (I was planning on putting up some polynomial-eating theropods that I sketched during the breaks in my math class), but Glendon was on the ball and has put together an awesome list of recent posts. Definitely give it a look.
The carnival is now recruiting for a host for June 21st, as well; if you are interested let me know. Also, I feel bad that I have not kept up a home site for the carnival as I should have. Rather than setting it up on another blogging service I've decided to add an info page about the Boneyard on this blog (it will be with…
laelaps | June 5, 2008
The skull of Machairodus, from Owen's A History of British Fossil Mammals, and Birds.
Digging through the seemingly endless mass of 19th century paleontological literature that I have collected via Google Books, I happened across a very interesting quote from Richard Owen in his 1846 textbook A History of British Fossil Mammals, and Birds. Earlier in the week, while researching William Buckland's relationship to the bewitching "Red Lady" during the 1820's, I was struck by some of the rhetorical techniques used by Buckland to diminish the importance of the skeleton. Among them was the…
gregladen | June 1, 2008Dinosaur tracks are reported for the first time on the Arabian Peninsula. These new tracks are located in Yemen. This find is interesting and important for several reasons.
You can place all the dinosaur remains from Arabia on one table, which is what they used to say about human fossil before several tens of thousands of human ancestor bits and pieces were eventually accumulated. But this does not mean that we don't know much about Arabian Dinosaurs. Back in the days of dinosaurs, the big triangular-shaped piece of land known as Arabia was firmly attached to, and indeed, totally part of,…
laelaps | May 30, 2008The probable role of fossils in giving rise to myths and legends has been recognized since the 19th century, but it has only been recently that the connection between giant bones & footprints and mythology has been appreciated as a subject worthy of detailed study (see The First Fossil Hunters, Fossil Legends of the First Americans, and American Monster). It should be kept in mind, however, that there are modern legends just as there are ancient ones, and even during the age of major discoveries some fossils still seemed to throw support that the ancient world was inhabited by giants and…
laelaps | May 30, 2008Finding old technical literature can be maddeningly difficult. There are many important papers that are not readily available as journals have gone under or access to those publications is limited despite the research being so old that copyright no longer applies, but thankfully there is a move to make older work more freely available. One such effort, just launched, is The Theropod Archives, a collection of classic papers and links to more recent ones. My hard drive has already become saturated with the available material and I'm sure there's more to come, so make sure you keep checking back…
laelaps | May 30, 2008Like rotting, festering zombies, some creationist tricks just won't die. Even though every case of supposed "human tracks" found near dinosaur tracks in Mesozoic rock that I can think of has been disproved (the tracks often being little more than the result of some creative chiseling) the idea that traces of humanity have been found alongside non-avian dinosaurs continues on. The most famous case is that of the tracks found near Glen Rose, Texas (see the numerous Talk Origins pages about the find and the book Bones for Barnum Brown by R.T. Bird), the human tracks being sculptures or…
laelaps | May 29, 2008Over the past several months many people (myself included) have been anxiously awaiting the ruling of the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology ethics committee on the controversy informally known as Aetogate, and on May 23 the SVP committee released their decision (if you need to catch up, see Mike Taylor's site and my posts here, here, here, here, and here). The ruling was a mixed bag, although it does have some broader implications for how paleontologists conduct research and publish their work. (You can see the documents released by the committee, including recommendations as to "best…
laelaps | May 29, 2008The next edition of the Boneyard will go up on June 7th at The Flying Trilobite. Rumor has it that it may be a special paleo-art-themed edition, although I'll post more details as we approach June 7th.
Also, not all the winning contestants in the Boneyard XX competition have e-mailed me to claim their prizes. If you're a winner, please e-mail me asap if you haven't already done so.
laelaps | May 28, 2008I really wish I had time to do some blogging on two new peer-reviewed papers that have just come out, one in PLoS and the other in Nature. Unfortunately I start a summer math course this evening and can't give all the cool new discoveries my full attention. That doesn't mean that you can't check them out yourself, though.
First up is a new PLoS paper by Darren Naish and Mark Witton on the weird and wonderful Azhdarchid pterosaurs. Rather than being skimmers (see a PLoS paper published last year on skimming pterosaurs here) or aerial predators at least some of these ancient creatures may…
clock | May 28, 2008
The Pterosaur paper is really hitting the media and blogs today. Of course, it is kind of a blogospheric "baby". One of the authors is my SciBling Darren Naish, the other author is Mark Witton, and even the Academic Editor who handled the manuscript is a scienceblogger.
Darren first broached the idea on his old blog two years ago. He got feedback (the modern version of peer review) in the comments of his post and set out to work on it. Two years later, the paper has passed the 'traditional' peer review and got published.
In short, the idea is that gigantic adult pterosaurs did not fly…
gregladen | May 27, 2008 A very large Azhdarchid shown with a human for scale. Azhdarchids were pterosaurs (flying reptile-like creatures) of the Cretaceous. These included some gigantic critters with up to a 10 meter wing span, but also some little ones (2.5 meters or so). Most reconstructions of these flying animals have them skim-feeding across the surface of bodies of water, grabbing near-surface animals with their beaks.
A new paper in PLoS criticizes this view suggesting that there is very little evidence in support of it, and offers an interesting alternative interpretation of Azhdarchid morphology.…
laelaps | May 27, 2008
Paleo-artist Michael Skrepnick
It is difficult for me to pick up a book about dinosaurs and not find some gorgeous artwork by artist Michael Skrepnick gracing the pages, if not the cover, of the book. He has created beautiful restorations of the distant past for Nature, National Geographic, Project Exploration, and many books about prehistoric life, making him one of the most hard-working and well-known paleo-illustrators around today. (For those who have been itching to see some of his new artwork, Michael has some good news for you. His website is going to be rebuilt and stocked up with…
laelaps | May 27, 2008The running for the top three entries of the Boneyard XX contest was extremely close, so close that I really had no idea who was going to win until I could add up all the votes. The winners are;
1st Place: Traumador
2nd Place: Tie! Emile and Scarlet Seraph
3rd Place: Nemo Ramjet
Congratulations to all the winners, and many thanks to everyone who participated in making the Boneyard XX a special event. If the winners would e-mail me I will soon have their prizes on their way to them.
laelaps | May 26, 2008Tomorrow I'll be putting up the next installment of my series of paleo interviews, this time with artist Michael Skrepnick. In the meantime, why not check out his website for a look at some of his work, which includes a restoration of the recently announced Gerobatrachus hottoni.
laelaps | May 21, 2008 When I think about taphonomy, the science that studies what happens to an organism after death (often summed up as "the laws of burial"), my thoughts most immediately turn to large scavengers, wind, and water. When an elephant dies on the African savanna, for instance, the carcass is sure to attract carnivores that will strip some of the flesh from the bones and depending on the location of the body parts of it may or may not end up being preserved. It's easier to ignore the chemical changes and smaller organisms that contribute to the breakdown of a carcass, but the action of these…
laelaps | May 20, 2008[Note: I've received all the papers but one, which I may be able to get directly from the author. Many thanks to everyone who sent in papers; hopefully I'll soon be able to share some good news about the end to which I'm using these resources.]
Many thanks to everyone who sent me the Ichnos paper this past weekend; I will be blogging about dinosaurs and dermestid beetles soon enough. At the moment, though, I have a somewhat bigger project that I'm working on (but that must remain under wraps for the moment) involving T.H. Huxley and his thoughts on the relationship between birds and dinosaurs…
laelaps | May 19, 2008[Note: I believe I have all the entries that have been submitted for this edition of The Boneyard. If yours is missing please let me know asap and I will put it in immediately.]
Early Saturday morning, before the sun burned off the last bit of moisture left by the previous night's rainstorm, my wife and I struck off for the beach of Cape Henlopen State Park. In May and June, when the tide is high and the moon is full, horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) crawl out of the surf to spawn. Not all of them make it back to the water, however, and the beach was littered with slowly drying dead…
laelaps | May 19, 2008
Last month I posted an interview with paleontologist Bob Bakker, and while the scientific questions I asked stirred some discussion (including a response to some of the points from Jack Horner) a number of readers got hung up on the last part of the interview dealing with science & religion. Many of the comments on the original post disagreed with Bakker's criticism of Richard Dawkins, while creationists elsewhere on the web quote-mined the interview to support of their own views (see here and here, for example).
Just this past weekend Bakker sent me a reply to the comments that centered…
grrlscientist | May 18, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, Aves, Psittaciformes, Pseudasturidae, parrots, Palaeogene, Eocene, Denmark
An artist's impression of the parrot-like bird, Mopsitta tanta, dating back 55 million years. The fossils indicate that parrots once flew wild over what is now Norway and Denmark.
Image: David Waterhouse [larger view].
A team of researchers, including a former postdoctoral colleague of mine, recently described fossils from two Lower Eocene parrot-like birds that were discovered in Denmark. The analysis of the fossils reveals that one of the ancient parrots, named Mopsitta tanta, is the…