Fish Feet

Sarda Sahney on Twitter

2012-01-20T19:07:00.003Z

I noticed today that though I haven't been an active blogger for over three years, the posts on this site still receive a lot of traffic. So if you would like to keep up with me in an abbreviated format, you can follow my twitter feed at SardaSahney.

Fish Feet Word Cloud

2010-12-30T15:16:00.004Z

Word clouds are a simple visualization tool used to display text. Words that appear more frequently in the source text greater prominence in the cloud. This is a word cloud created for Fish Feet.

Word clouds can be easily creating using online tools such as Wordle which allows you to make clouds from text or URLs with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes.

Rainforest collapse: Good for reptiles, bad for amphibians

2010-11-30T05:12:00.009Z

A quick blurb about a paper published in Geology this week by myself and colleagues, Michael Benton of the University of Bristol and Howard Falcon-Lang of Royal Holloway, University of London.

300 million years ago in the Carboniferous, the Continent of Euramerica (Europe and North America) lay over the equator and steamy tropical rainforests supports a great abundance of life. The primary vertebrates were amphibians, overshadowing recently evolved reptiles.

As the climate changed and became drier, rainforests fragmented, forming isolated 'islands' of forest. The changing climate, specifically the loss of humidity was bad for amphibians since they are tied to waterside habitats. However, reptiles, which have specific features allowing them to live in drier conditions began to dominate communities. Additionally, the fragmented nature of the landscape created endemism, that is unique populations of reptiles which increased their diversity.

Changes in climate and environment through slow earth process gives animals time to adjust and thrive in a new environment, shifting balances and even increasing diversity, but the rapid changes in our environment driven by human impact must be regarded with great caution since animals are often driven to endangerment and extinction before they have a chance to adjust to the change in conditions.

Read more at:

By the way, if you are interested in reading the paper for yourself it is available to download at my academia.edu page.

Sahney, S., Benton, M.J. & Falcon-Lang, H.J. 2010 Rainforest collapse triggered Pennsylvanian tetrapod diversification in Euramerica. Geology. 38: 1079-1082.
Download PDF

Again, thank you to everyone who has provided feedback and some critical thinking towards the research.

Arghhhh!!! Us vs. Darwin

2010-08-26T16:38:00.009Z

What a week! We hadn't expected for the publicity on our paper in Biology Letters to be quite so extensive and controversial. And we certainly hadn't intended to be cast opposite to Darwin.

On the one hand we have had some unfortunate exaggerations, most notably the Huffington Post which writes Darwin May Have Been WRONG (Seriously does the editor think putting it in all caps makes it true??!!!?)

But on the positive end we have had some more fair minded reporting of the research, a few examples:

By the way, if you are interested in reading the paper for yourself (readers will note we did not mention Darwin once in our paper) it is available to download at my academia.edu page.

Thank you to everyone who has provided feedback and some critical thinking towards the research.

Sahney, S., Benton, M.J. and Paul Ferry 2010. Links between global taxonomic diversity, ecological diversity and the expansion of vertebrates on land. Biology Letters 6:544-547.
Download PDF

Earth’s biodiversity is driven by more than just Survival of the Fittest

2010-08-22T17:02:00.011Z

Sahney, S., Benton, M.J. and Paul Ferry 2010. Links between global taxonomic diversity, ecological diversity and the expansion of vertebrates on land. Biology Letters 6:544-547.
Download PDF

Published in Biology Letters today by myself, Michael Benton and Paul Ferry at the University of Bristol. Also an article at the BBC.

New research suggests that biodiversity is closely tied to the niches animals occupy, and the rich biodiversity we see on Earth today has grown out of expansion, not competition. Darwin cited competition among animals, coined ‘survival of the fittest’, as a driver of evolution in his book, On the Origin of Species; since then competition has been considered key to having grown Earth’s biodiversity. But while competition has been observed on a small scale, (eg. between species), there is little evidence of competition guiding large-scale shifts in biodiversity, such as the dominance of mammals and birds over reptiles and amphibians in today’s world. Our new research supports the idea that animals diversified by expanding into empty ecological roles rather than by direct competition with each other.

When vertebrates moved onto land millions of years ago, they filled empty niches further away from the water, and then they continued to invade new habitats evolved by other organisms such as forests, canopies, and grasslands. These animals began to burrow, climb, fly and take advantage of new food sources.

Our research shows that tetrapods (amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds) have explored only one third of habitable ecological space and that without human influence, biodiversity would continue to increase exponentially.

Examining the biodiversity of tetrapods, we realized that their taxonomic diversity (the number families) closely matched their ecological diversity (the number of niches they occupied) through their 400 million years of evolution, and that there appears to be little evidence for competition as the driving factor for their great diversity.

Diversity was driven by the dominant animals at the time, which expanded into empty niches. Competition did not play a big role in the overall pattern of evolution. For example, even though mammals lived beside dinosaurs for 60 million years, they were not able to out compete the dominant reptiles. But when the dinosaurs went extinct, mammals quickly filled the empty niches they left and today mammals dominate the land.

Growing and shrinking biodiversity is closely tied to the niches animals occupy, so habitat destruction is a key aspect of extinction. In Earth’s past there have been incentives for animals to move into new modes of life, where initially resources may seem unlimited, there are few competitors and possible refuge from danger.

However, if niches are destroyed more often than created because of man’s influence on the environment, animals won’t have the opportunity to adapt and biodiversity won’t continue to grow.

Ecosystems took 30 million years to recovery from the Permo-Triassic Mass Extinction

2008-01-19T08:08:00.000Z

Most people are familiar with the extinction that killed the dinosaurs but another series of extinctions, at the end of the Permian, about 250 million years ago, were far worse, killing off over 90% of life on earth, including insects, plants, marine animals, amphibians and reptiles. A new study, published by myself and Michael Benton in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, indicates that it took ecosystems 30 million years to recovery from this devastating event.

The Permian extinctions occurred in three waves, the largest being at the boundary between the Permian and Triassic periods, 252 million years ago; an event that was exacerbated by two earlier extinctions. This was the most devastating ecological event of all time, thought to be caused by large scale volcanism in Russia which produced the ‘Siberian Traps’, covering over 200,000 square kilometers (77,000 square miles) in lava. Ecosystems were destroyed worldwide, communities were restructured and organisms were left struggling to recover. Disaster taxa, which are opportunistic organisms filling in the empty ecospace left behind by the extinction, insinuated themselves into almost every corner of the sparsely populated landscape.

Previous work indicates that life on Earth bounced back quickly after the Permian extinctions, but this was mostly in the form of disaster taxa, such as the hardy Lystrosaurus, a barrel-chested herbivorous animal, about the size of a pig. However, this new research indicates that specialized animals forming complex ecosystems, with high biodiversity, complex food webs and a variety of niches took much longer to recover. It is thought that this long recovery was due to the successive waves of extinction, which never gave life a chance to recover as well as prolonged environmental stress which continued into the Early Triassic.

It would not be until the great diversity of the Late Triassic, which included dinosaurs, pterosaurs, crocodiles, archosaurs, amphibians and mammals, some 30 million years after the big event, that diversity in terrestrial communities was restored.

So long and thanks for the fish!

2007-10-30T16:51:00.000Z

I have enjoyed writing Fish Feet but unfortunately have not been able to keep up with being a new parent and writing up my thesis. While I won't be writing regular posts please feel free to visit for occasional updates to my research and some shameless self promotion:)

For those of you that are still around, Thanks for reading! Sarda

I was supposed to go see James Watson talk today ...

2007-10-25T08:55:00.000Z

...and quite frankly I am pretty pissed off that his lectures have been cancelled. James Watson, Nobel Prize winner and cofounder of the structure of DNA told the Times of London that "there is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically." So guess what? Most venues hosting Watson have decided to cancel his forthcoming public engagement talks.

Unfortunately such comments have often been made by Watson and while I don’t agree with him, I certainly defend his freedom of expression. I also don’t think he has a special ‘responsibility’ being a Nobel Prize scientists to censor himself. It is unfortunate that a man with so much knowledge and experience is drawing such conclusions but sweeping his remarks under the rug doesn’t help people. The organizers of events across the country are sticking their heads in the sand. By canceling these talks and making the decision that we shouldn’t be subject to his perspectives, they have denied us the opportunity to see a great scientist and to question him on his views.

Do we discard the great contributions of scientists, politicians, artists, because of their views? Clearly we haven’t. Personally I admire the work of Marie Stopes, known for her contributions to palaeobotany and advancement of women’s issues, but often not remembered for her views on race and eugenics. Another big contributor to my field of work was Swiss-American zoologist and geologist, Louis Agassiz who is known in other circles for his perspectives on racism and eugenics. Sir Winston Churchill, a man who was once chancellor of my own university and also who lent his name to my secondary school, was very vocal about his views on sex, race and the mentally disabled.

Unfortunately, an easy scapegoat has been made of Watson. The man’s contributions to science are a different matter than his personal views. If you’re on facebook and feel strongly about this issue, The Ministry of Love (a reference to Orwell’s 1984), is a group formed in protest of canceling Watson’s lectures.

Boneyard #6

2007-10-01T14:51:00.001Z

Welcome to Fish Feet, host of the 6^th Boneyard blog carnival!

Mysterious Fossils
• Visit The Other 95%, where Kevin and Christopher have composed a beautiful melody about Receptaculites, a problematic Palaeozoic fossil.

• Chris at the Catalogue of Organisms, debates the true nature of the same organism, the enigmatic Receptaculites. Is it a plant or an animal?.

Vertebrate Palaeontology
• Neil at Microecos examines the challenges that faced the first vertebrates which crawled onto land, specifically in regards to developing auditory capabilities.

• Julia at the Ethical Palaeontologist describes an amazing find: a Psittacosaurus Dinosaur Nursery from the Cretaceous Yixian Formation in NE China.

• GrrlScientist at Living the Scientific Life takes a look at features on a Mongolian Velociraptor fossil which reveal that this dinosaur was indeed, feathered.

• Brian Switek of Laelaps celebrates the Golden Age of Paleontology with a comprehensive posting on feathers, nests and dinosaurs.

Human Evolution
• Eric at The Primate Diaries has identifies an original cast member of Survivor, Homo floresiensis, a 3-foot tall hominin cousin that lived on the Indonesian island of Flores 18,000 years ago.

• Kambiz of Anthropology.net discusses Early Homo Postcranial Fossils from Dmanisi, specifically, the cranial remains.

I’m glad to have hosted the carnival and have enjoyed reading all of the great submissions! Visit the Boneyard again in two weeks.

Where did all of the chicks go?

2007-09-21T13:02:00.000Z

A little controversy has been started up this week about The Scientist's vote for favorite life science blogs. The Scientist asked some of the most popular bloggers to give their opinion on the best science blogs and as many people have pointed out, including Chris at Highly Allochthonous, Julia at The Ethical Palaeontologist, and Brian at Laelaps, there are no women on this list.

Well I am sure I would get shot down by many of my female colleagues for saying this but let’s be honest, there just aren’t as many female scientists as male scientists, especially as you climb the ‘academic ladder’. Why not? As an undergraduate I noticed that the ratio of women to men is actually greater in biology and geology was reasonable even. A quick survey of my graduate colleagues shows a ratio of 12 men to 7 women over the last four years. And as you continue, the proportion of women gets smaller, we have 10 men listed in our department as staff and postdoctoral researchers and only 4 women. And check out how many members of the Royal Society are female (5%). So where do all the women go to?

Is it true that many women still give up their careers for a life at home? Is academia still heavily weighted against them and women leave the field because they don’t feel their career advance as fast as those of their male colleagues? I don’t know to be honest. But there is no doubt there are fewer female role models in academia especially in the fields of physics, math, computing and engineering where their ratio often dwindles to less than 10%.

So anyway, back to The Scientist, I am sure they didn’t deliberately mean to exclude female science bloggers. Looking at my own blogroll I realize most of the science blogs I read are written by men, I think it is representative of the ratio of the sexes in academia, something to think about.

If you like this blog...

2007-09-20T19:01:00.000Z

If you like this blog please leave a comment about it at The Scientist's vote for favorite life science blogs.

Thanks!!

Polar Bears Hunt Belugas

2007-09-20T05:17:00.000Z

Feeling a little uninspired today, I hope you don't mind a repost from March on an amazing topic that few people believe until they see the footage (the most popular source is David Attenborough's Planet Earth).

Polar bears live a feast and famine lifestyle. They are large animals (an adult males weighs 300-600kg) that live in the freezing tundra so they have huge metabolic needs. They normally prey on ringed seals but will eat almost anything they can catch, including walruses, birds, eggs and occasionally they supplement their diet with a big, juicy, beluga whale!

Beluga whales are distinctive for their pale skin and large melon shaped head. These animals can grow up to 5m (16ft) in length and live in large pods, mainly in the Arctic and Canadian Subarctic. Belugas live close to coastlines and in winter they occasionally become trapped in savsatts, small openings in ice packs. Belugas can find themselves the victims of shrinking savsatts, which they use to breath. Each animal will take a turn coming up for air and in the worst of winter, their movement is all that keeps the savsatt open.

Hence an opportunity that a wandering polar bear may chance by and certainly one he can’t resist. The bear will jump in the water, clubbing the trapped whale with his paw and gorging it with his claws. It may take several attempts but the bear usually succeeds in his catch and drags the whale’s carcass on to the ice for a feast. Other polar bears will share in the prize and any leftover kill will be happily devoured by scavenging arctic foxes and gulls.

If you find this post interesting I encourage you to also check out Darren Naish’s very cool post on Wolf-Hunting Eagles

More information can be found at Polar Bears International.

Announcement: Blogroll Enrollment

2007-09-18T09:39:00.000Z

Well I haven't been very diligent in keeping up my blogroll. If you would like a link to your site from Fish Feet, please leave a comment on this post with your blog’s name and URL and I will add your link to my blogroll (probably – no spam please). I appreciate links back also.

Oekologie #9

2007-09-15T08:34:00.000Z

Welcome to Fish Feet, host of 9th Oekologie blog carnival!

Population & Extinction
• GrrlScientist of Living the Scientific Life talks about Bluefin Tuna, will they soon be the Dodos of the sea?

• Jeremy at The Voltage Gate writes about the decline of antelopes in African national parks.

• John at A DC Birding Blog reviews the IUCN Red List 2007 and its implications.

• James at Direction not Destination researches ‘The Tyranny of Power’ phenomenon in white-tailed deer distributions.

Species Interaction
• Corey at 10,000 Birds explains why a blight on conifers can be a boon for certain birds.

• Jenn at Invasive Species Weblog describes the impact of invasive plants in Massachusetts.

• Kevin at The Other 95% explores the fascinating world of jumping spiders and wolf spiders.

• Madhusudan at Reconciliation Ecology contributes a riveting article on the annual commute of the Bar Tailed Godwit, 11,570 km from Alaska to New Zealand.

Microbial Ecology
• Tara at Aetiology imagines the possibility of using E. coli as a cavity fighter.

• Christina at Deep Sea News considers the importance of studying deep-sea coral microbial ecology.

Disease & Disaster
• Christian of Med Journal Watch shares new research on malaria pest control 45 years after Silent Spring.

• Greg at Evolution ... not "just a theory" anymore examines different cultural perspectives on building homes in disaster prone areas.

Humans & Environment
• Eric at the The Primate Diaries investigates the downstream effects of biopiracy.

• Devon at Ask the CareerCounselor gives readers invaluable advice on switching to a career in environmentalism.

• Shaheen at GNIF Brain Blogger relates the biochemistry of genetics and stress.

I’m glad to have hosted the carnival and have enjoyed reading all of the great submissions! Next month visit Oekologie at Laelaps.

Twins: Identical, Mirror Images, Fraternal and Chimeras

2007-09-01T15:42:00.000Z

Cloning is not a human invention; nature has been creating clones for millions of years, among all organisms including humans. Nature’s clones, identical twins, are born in approximately 1 / 1000 births. Identical twins come in two varieties: identical and mirror images. Both share 100% of their DNA and but in mirror image twins, small differences are ‘reflected’. Examples include skin variations such moles, dental patterns, hairlines and handedness.

The development of a truly identical twins versus mirror image twins comes down to timing. A single sperm will fertilize a single egg and begins development by splitting into more cells. If this group of cells, now called blastocyst splits into two separate parts in the first 9-12 days, identical twins will be born. But if the split occurs after that, they will be mirror-images of each other.

Fraternal twins are an entirely different matter. Fraternal twins are no more identical than any other sibling pair and are the result of two separate sperm fertilizing two separate eggs. This is can occur naturally, the result of the mother releasing more than one egg at ovulation. It may also be the result of medical intervention as many women take fertility drugs to improve their chances of conception. There is also a hereditary link as the incidence of fraternal twins do occur more often within a family.

Many people have seen the popular American television show CSI (Crime Scene Investigators) and may recall the episode with the Chimera, a man who had two sets of DNA. This phenomenon occurs when the blastocysts of developing fraternal twins fuse, resulting in a single individual with two sets of DNA. This condition usually results in a fully functional individual and is not detected unless a clear abnormality prompts testing. Though it has been considered a rare condition, it is found to be more common than originally thought in a variety of animals, including humans. And the condition is more common among children conceived through in vitro fertilization than naturally.

By the way, you can read about the amazing birth of identical quadruplets from my hometown, Calgary, Canada here.

A spin around the blogosphere this week…

2007-08-30T14:04:00.000Z

You may remember Darren Naish’s post on wolf-hunting eagles. Well Darren has recently posted a video on his blog in which an unfortunate young deer gets killed by big bad eagle.

Also, Carl Zimmer has created a photo album of geeky scientific tattoos and you can even explore even more at Street Anatomy.

And don't forget that Fish Feet will be hosting the Oekologie blog carnival in September.

Why does my baby have a tail?

2007-08-20T14:48:00.000Z

As I’m having a baby my mind has recently been turned to thoughts of the very weird and wonderful world of developmental biology. As a new parents tracks the progress of their child, you can’t help wonder about some of the really bizarre stages it goes through.

Some of the odd developments (gill slits and tails as examples) can be explained by the research of a 19/20th century German researcher, Ernst Haeckel. This eminent man was more than a scientist, he was a, physician, philosopher, artist and teacher. Haeckel’s contribution to biology was immense, in addition to naming and identifying thousands of new species (one his beautiful colour plates is displayed on the right), he contributed many large-scale concepts to the fields of ecology and biology. His most controversial theory is often referred to as Recapitulation Theory.

This theory is often stated as "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny", simply meaning that as an organism develops, it replays its evolutionary history. His theory is closely tied to the figure below (redrawn by Romanes in 1892), which shows striking similarities in the various stages of development of some vertebrates. We now know that Haeckel, perhaps in an attempt to bolster his theory or perhaps because his specimens were incomplete, embellished the drawings to some degree; so these examples must be taken with a grain of salt but hey are correct in a generalized sense. Haeckel, a great believer in the works of Charles Darwin, used this illustration and many of his other drawings to support the theory of evolution and argued that as an individual develops, it repeats the full evolutionary development of its species.
Now strictly speaking, Haeckel wasn’t exactly right, and a developmental biologist would set you straight about exactly how wrong Haeckel was, but I’m not going to be debating this point because no modern biologist would taken his theory to be literally true. What I would like to focus on is the broader picture that Haeckel’s observations support. We are all fundamentally related and simply, those of us that share a closer common ancestor will look more alike. So it is not a surprise that we resemble other mammals more closely than we resemble a fish, frog or reptile. Also, evolutionary steps are often like ‘additions’, adding new features to the developing form, so again it is not a surprise that our own human embryos go through stages resembling that of other animals.

If Haeckel were to be taken literally, at some point a growing human embryo would be a viable fish, amphibian, reptile, or early primate. But in fact a human embryo can only ever be a human. The commonalities we share with other animals that Haeckel discovered are indicative of our common ancestry and his theory helps us understand that stages in our embryonic development reflect these connections. Some of the weird things human embryos go through include:

• Early on the embryo develops gill slits (more correctly called pharyngeal arches) in its neck. In a human, the first gill bar (which supports the pharyngeal arch) develops into the lower jaw as well as the ear bones (malleus and the stapes). The gill slits will then close, leaving just one open for the development of the ear opening

• By the fourth week a clear tail is seen in the human embryo. It recedes after a few weeks and these tissues form what is commonly known as the tailbone (coccyx).

• Around the fifth month of gestation the embryo develops lanugo, a fine, downy hair, which covers its entire body. It provides some insulation, as the child has little in the way of fat reserves. This hair is usually lost by birth, though is often seen on premature infants.

Tangled Bank #86

2007-08-14T00:29:00.000Z

Welcome to Fish Feet, host of the 86th Tangled Bank blog carnival!

The Scientific Process
• Kevin of The Other 95% discusses metrics of scientific advancement and their impact on progress.

• Sunil at Balancing Life gives readers invaluable advice on writing grant proposals.

• Christian of Med Journal Watch writes about the artificial settings of diet trials and the value of their findings.

Evolution
• Shalini at Scientia Natura debates the impact of a recent palaeoanthropological discovery on the theory of evolution?

• CAD of VWXYNot? describes how the progression of tumorigenesis mirrors the process of evolution by natural selection.

• Eric of The Primate Diaries discusses offspring abandonment in the ancient and natural world.

Ecology
• Jeremy at The Voltage Gate contributes a riveting article on the ecology of fear in Yellowstone National Park.

• Scott of Dammit Jim! I’m a biologist not a… posts a cool youtube video and explores the curious mating rituals of jumping spiders.

• Mike at 10,000 Birds explores the diversity of Waxwings.

Agriculture and Environment
• Matthew of Behavioral Ecology muses about how even parasite-resistant sheep avoid eating shit!

• Jeremy of Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog discusses variation in the glycaemic index of various crops.

• Emmett from The Natural Patriot shares his perspective on the writing and philosophy of author and environmentalist, Richard Louv.

• Martin of Aardvarchaeology reviews Alan Weisman’s book, the The World Without Us

Human Biology, Diet and Medicine
• Paddy of Swedish Extravaganza writes a balanced discussion on the ethical aspects of vegetarianism.

• Cathy of Lab Cat talks about pre and probiotics.

• GrrlScientist of Living the Scientific Life talks about a bone hormone, which is linked to obesity and Type 2 Diabetes.

• Alvaro of Sharp Brains has submitted a podcast interview with neuropsychologist Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg who talks about brain improvement research.

• FitBuff of Total Mind and Body Fitness reports on a recent study which examines the unconscious signals we use to find Mr. or Mrs. Right!

Genetics
• Hsien of Eye on DNA imagines the possibility of genome sequencing being available to the public.

• Lev at Ouroboros writes an article about protein abundance in long-lived worm mutants.

• Jeremy at Another Blasted Weblog discusses restriction endonucleases, the molecular scissors that allow biologists to cut DNA.

I’m glad to have hosted the carnival and have enjoyed reading all of the great submissions! Two weeks from now on August 29, visit Tangled Bank again at Balancing Life.

Long Absence

2007-08-12T12:29:00.000Z

Sorry I have been absent for so long. Life has been getting pretty busy, with grad school and a new baby on the way. But I hope to be back to blogging (at least once a week, if not more often) and Tangled Bank has given me the kick in the pants I need to get back to it! Visit us on August 15 to check Tangled Bank #86!

Monster Pig Debuked!

2007-06-13T11:10:00.000Z

Apparently this 'Monster Pig' shot by an 11-year old boy in rural Alabama is a fake (big surprise) Check out the full story of photo manipulation here.

The cat with 26 toes

2007-06-12T10:56:00.000Z

Thanks to Janine for sending in this story about a VERY polydactyl cat. Last month I wrote about the evolution of five fingers and toes and the constraints on this arrangement. Though loss of digits is not an uncommon evolutionary change, gaining digits is very rare. It is a phenomenon seen in polydacyl cats; however, I don't think anyone understands why cats are able to increase the number of their digits without 'repercussions' to the rest of their patterning. Anyway, click here to read about the polydactyl cat who has 26 fingers and toes!

Cretaion Museum reveals Adam's sordid past

2007-06-11T10:57:00.000Z

I took a long weekend so I guess this story is a few days old but I had to rely it because it is so funny! Thanks to Hank Campbell who organizes Scientific Blogging for sending it along.

The Creation Museum of Petersburg, Kansas has been wrought with criticism since before it even opened, but most recently, they have been embroiled in a ‘moral scandal’ by an employ hired to tell the story of the fall of man.

A variety of actors were hired to play out scenes from the bible and the man chosen to play God’s golden boy, Adam, has now been revealed to have a ‘sordid’ history. Eric Linden, owns a website called Bedroom Acrobat, on which he is (allegedly -I cannot say this myself as the site has apparently crashed due to traffic overload) pictured. Linden, a graphic designer, model and actor purchased the domain name for this site which mostly sells clothing.

Museum administrators were swift in removing the 40-second video in which he appeared from the display. “We are currently investigating the veracity of these serious claims of his participation in projects that don’t align with the biblical standards and moral code upon which the ministry was founded,” Answers for Genesis spokesman Mark Looy said in an electronic statement.

T. rex didn't turn on a dime

2007-06-05T12:49:00.000Z

Scientists now say that the "Terror of the Cretaceous" may not have been that bad after all. A new study indicates that T. rex had a hard time getting its jaws into fast, agile prey.

An American team of palaeontologists have used detailed computer models to work out the weight of a typical Tyrannosaurus and determine how it ran and turned. The results indicate a 6 to 8-tonne T. rex was unlikely to have topped 40km/h (25mph) and would have taken a few seconds to swivel 45 degrees.

The computer model estimated that a high center of mass and large inertia would have had been responsible for the slow movement and that T. rex could have been out-maneuvered by agile prey.

Dr Paul Barrett, of London's Natural History Museum, commented, "This is another finding that undermines the kind of idea of T. rex as a super-predator. But it has this huge mouth filled with 60-odd, 30cm-long teeth, so it was still a formidable animal."

The research was published in the Journal of Theoretical Biology.

The Starbucker Meme!

2007-06-04T13:47:00.000Z

I have been Memed from PetLvr, who asks:

1) How full is your glass?
2) What kind of glass is it?
3) What’s in the glass?
4) Reasons for #1, #2, and #3

I admit, I am a slave to the large capitalist evil known as Starbucks. Did you know they actually have a Starbucks inside the Forbidden City in Beijing?!?!?

Well my glass is always full on account of me buying venti lattes which take me a while to drink. I get gingerbread lattes, a seasonal drink which Starbucks typically only does around Christmas but the cafe I go to still has ingredients left (Thank God for preservatives!)

If you are a Starbucks lover, consider yourself memed and pass it on!

(Re)burying Dinosaur Tracks in Pinon Canyon, Colorado

2007-06-01T08:22:00.000Z

Dustin on Dysfunctional Analysis posted today about the Pinon Canyon development in Colorado.

The Pinon Canyon training ground is a military facility that will soon be extended, engulfing several townships and ranches. It is also the largest dinosaur track site in North America and the site contains ruins of the Dolores Mission, an old graveyard, and Native American petroglyphs. The historical and scientific value of the canyon is incredible.

Around The World Today

2007-05-29T14:53:00.001Z

To many weird stories to blog about today so here are some links:

Poland inquiry to probe 'gay' teletubbies
Poland's conservative government sees the teletubbies as homosexual propaganda on the small screen, and is taking aim at Tinky Winky and his friends. Ewa Sowinska, government-appointed children rights watchdog, told a local magazine published on Monday she was concerned the popular BBC children's show promoted homosexuality.

Bonnethead Sharks and Komodo Dragons reproduce without sex
Sex is not necessary for all members of the animal kingdom. Of course it has its advantages, primarily, combining genetic material adds to the diversity of a species and makes it more ‘hardy’. But in vertebrates, organisms that are considered ‘more complex’ (ie. fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) asexual reproductions is extremely rare and is thought to be limited because of the complexity of vertebrate genetics and body plans.

New Zealand cows produce skimmed milk
Experts at a biotechnology company in New Zealand have discovered that some cows have a gene giving them a natural ability to produce skimmed milk. The finding could be used to develop a dairy herd that produces low-fat milk. A cow with the "skimmed milk" gene was identified in 2001, and the team have since been able to breed calves that also produce the low-fat variety.

Outcry over TV kidney competition
The show comes from Big Brother creators Endemol. A Dutch TV station says it will go ahead with a programme in which a terminally ill woman selects one of three patients to receive her kidneys. Political parties have called for The Big Donor Show to be scrapped, but broadcaster BNN says it will highlight the country's shortage of organ donors.

Spiders on Drugs: Part 2

2007-05-28T15:08:00.000Z

Some of you may recall the 'Hinterland Who's Who' parody that I posted back in March about spiders on drugs. Well Shelley Batts of Retrospectacle actually found an article on the effects of psychoactive drugs on the web-building activities of spiders published in NASA Tech Brief. Click on the image below to enlarge it and see the crazy webs stoned spiders make.

And in case you missed the HWW parody, here it is:

Snake explodes after swallowing alligator

2007-05-25T13:44:00.001Z

Thanks to Janine for pointing out this story of a python which burst open after gobbling up a Florida gator.

The strange scene was found by park rangers in the Everglades National Park. The Burmese python is likely an escaped pet or perhaps a descendant of one. In recent years many guilt-ridden owners release their exotic pets into the hot and wet swampy environment because they are no longer able to take care of them and do not want them put down.

Because pythons are not natural to the environment, the rangers suspect that they challenge the alligators' position as apex predators in the food chain. Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor, says "Encounters like that are almost never seen in the wild. They were probably evenly matched in size. If the python got a good grip on the alligator before the alligator got a good grip on him, he could win." He also suggested that the alligator may have clawed at the python's stomach, leading it to burst.

This is not the first encounter between the two giant reptiles, at least three other similar incidents have been recorded in the past.

The picture (click to enlarge) depicts a 2m long alligator partially swallowed by 4m long python, whose belly ruptured during the process. The victim's tail and hindlimbs are protruding from the predator’s burst abdomen. The head of the python was missing, perhaps due to scavenging by other wildlife.

Fossil tracks suggest dinosaurs could swim

2007-05-24T14:51:00.000Z

Ancient footprints have provided compelling evidence that some dinosaurs were able to swim. The 15m (50ft) trackway was discovered in the Cameros Basin in Spain, which, 125 million years ago, in the Early Cretaceous was a vast lake.

The unusual-shaped prints suggest the animal clawed at sediment on the lake bottom as it swam in about 3m (10ft) of water. Though it has been suggested that large sauropods occasionally waded through shallow waters, it is thought that these tracks were left by a large, bipedal, carnivorous dinosaur that was not wading, but rather was using the water to support its body.

Dr Loic Costeur, a palaeontologist at the University of Nantes, France, says "The Cameros Basin has thousands of walking footprints from diverse dinosaur fauna, but when we saw these it was obvious straightaway that this was a swimming dinosaur."

The underwater trackway is well-preserved in sandstone and is made up of 12 consecutive prints each consisting of two to three scratch marks. Ripple marks around the track suggest the dinosaur was swimming against a current, attempting to keep a straight path. Dr Costeur also stated that "The dinosaur swam with alternating movements of the two hind limbs: a pelvic paddle swimming motion."

I guess it was a sort of a prehistoric doggie paddle:)

Lion vs. Buffalo vs. Croc

2007-05-24T11:36:00.001Z

Check out this amazing video: a lionesses snags a water buffalo calf but ends up having to fight over it when a hungry croc decides he wants his piece.

A story about a polydactyl cat

2007-05-22T16:03:00.000Z

Well, I have caught a bad cold and been stuck in bed for almost a week. So since I haven't been able to blog much, I thought I would take advantage of Benj Arriola's comment about a polydactyl cat he had when he was young, left in response to my blog about the evolution of five fingers and toes. Benj Arriola writes Global Warming Awareness and off-handedly mentioned that his comment was good enough as a blog post, I agree so I hope you don’t mind me stealing your writing, Benj :)

Benj Arriola writes…
I'm back and was searching about the ostrich people, and found it on Wikipedia. And in my search for photos, I also found this site with a page on polydactyl cats. I remember my own cat having an extra useless "thumb." Useless because they were like dead and was just hanging there. But I think that cat was a real genetic disorder in many ways, since one paw had an extra "thumb." The other paw had two nails on one digit. The cat was pure white that his eyes were very noticeable. One was blue and the other was green.

But just a background on it... when it was still a kitten, it was a stray kitten that took a ride in our car, that seemed to climb under the car and ended it's way near an area near the car battery and was securely there until we got home from a bowling trip that was just about 1 kilometer away. He was kitten although he was big enough not to depend on his mother. For me he was the best cat I had. I had cats since 1978 up to today.

When ever we go back to the bowling alley we kept going to... I noticed by the side of the building, is a big trash can and some trash dumps near it where several stay cats go to. I am not surprised if my cat's mother was probably one of them feeding on all these trash while she was pregnant.

WOW! Is this the longest comment I made in history? Hahaha. This is good enough as a blog post. Haha. Well I guess there is no other place to share it but here.

Sarda sarda

2007-05-14T09:31:00.000Z

This morning my friend John Orcutt sent me this great picture of a boat he and his Dad spotted while wine-touring along the Oregon coast.

Seeing my name always catches my attention because it is so unusual (on account of my Dad misspelling it on my birth certificate). However the boat is probably not named after me but rather Sarda sarda, a species of fish that is commonly called the Atlantic Bonito. It is my understanding that this fish received its name from the island of Sardinia around which it was caught but these days it is more commonly caught by commercial fishermen around New York's coast.

Sarda sarda is often used in cuisine, especially in Japanese food. It has a cosmopolitan distribution though the globe and to my knowledge is not currently threatened or endangered by overfishing.

Complete Book of Life from Aardvarks to Zorilla

2007-05-10T12:56:00.000Z

The Encyclopedia of Life project will detail 1.8 million known plant and animal species in the format of an online archive. Each species will have its own page with descriptions, photographs, videos, and maps, compiled by experts.

It is hoped that the $100m USD (£50m GBP) archive will be complete in 10 years and that in addition to an educational tool, the archive will have value for conservation efforts.

The project will begin by harvesting information from existing databases, such as FishBase, which contains details of 29,900 extant fish species. Data input will begin with animals, then plants, fungi and microbes last. It is not clear when fossil species will be added.

Encyclopedia of Life began development January 2006 and is reminiscent of other ventures such as the Tree of Life, Catalogue of Life and Consortium for the Barcode of Life. The last was launched in 2005 and is attempting to identify all species through unique genetic markers (called ‘barcodes’) found in the mitochondria of cells. This project has so far identified more than 27,000 species.

Proponents claim the Encyclopedia of Life will be much more through and flexible in regards to structure compared to its predecessors and will include dynamic features such as live searches. Fast internet technology has meant that such a large-scale endeavor has only recently become possible.

It is unknown how many species currently live on our planet but estimate range form a modest 2 million to 100 million.

Life on Land: The evolution of five fingers and toes

2007-05-09T11:22:00.000Z

Well it didn’t take long for avid readers to spot the oddity in Friday’s posted picture of the early tetrapod, Acanthostega. This strange animal did not have the ‘usual’ number of digits, instead it had eight. Having more than five fingers or toes is called polydactyly and is a rare condition.

Few examples of polydactyly occur in the animal kingdom today, the panda’s thumb though, is one classic example. The panda has five digits on its paw plus an opposable 'thumb' but this thumb is not a sixth digit like the others, but actually an unusual outgrowth of a wrist bone. Thus even the panda’s thumb is not truly an example of more than five digits.

So what about Acanthostega and his buddies? The Late Devonian was a busy time, plant life was diversifying and insect life was gaining ground on land. Tetrapods, were making their first steps on to land and living semi-aquatic lifestyles about 375 million years ago. These animals had many characteristics advantageous to aquatic life, such as streamlined bodies, webbed feet and tail fins. But they also had weight-bearing limbs with which they could lift themselves out of the water. Acanthostega had eight digits on its front and hind limbs and two other early tetrapods, Ichthyostega and Tulerpeton, also had more than five digits.

So how could these animals have had such a wide variety of limb structures when all of their descendants seem to have a variation upon the five digit structure? It is thought that pentadactyly evolved in an animal that was ancestral to all present day tetrapods (amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) and that this event event happened 340 million years ago in the Lower Carboniferous (about 35 million years after the first tetrapods evolved).

To be honest, we don#t understand how these animals could have been so experimental while their descendants were so conventional. And why 5 anyway? No one knows. And we have no examples to examine. There are few animals who have extra digits. The most common is the novelty polydactyl cat, but this species is the result of selective breeding of animals with a genetic anomaly.

In a general sense, we know that it easier to ‘lose’ a trait then to gain it, hence the large number of animals who have reduced digits. But the striking lack of polydactyl examples in the long history of tetrapods since the Devonian implies there may be an evolutionary constraint at work. For example, pleiotropy is the multiple effects of genes on more than one physical characteristic. Hand-Foot-Genital syndrome illustrates such a condition. This rare disorder malforms limbs and the urinary system because the same defective genes pattern both systems. So perhaps the constraint on tetrapod limb structure is part of a greater pattern.

Sorry I have been absent....

2007-05-08T11:32:00.000Z

Sorry I have taken so long to add my Palaeozoic post but it will be up sometime tomorrow. Thanks for your enthusiastic responses to my Friday post.

BTW I have been posting some of my old posts on the Scientific Blogging website, which you should definitely check out. One of my posts, unfortunately not one of my more intelligent pieces, on T. rex eating coconuts was posted to Digg and racked up a whopping 35,000 hits. Fame and fortune may yet be mine, I just hope it doesn't go to my head!

My Research into Palaeozoic Communities

2007-05-04T16:03:00.000Z

Yesterday I began writing a little bit about what I do, so if you want to catch up check out Part 1. My goal while I’m at Bristol is to compile a community-level study of tetrapod diversity and to compare it to Mike Benton’s global pattern of tetrapod diversity. I hope that my research will aid our understanding of some ‘big’ questions such as:
1) Is global diversity a reasonable measure of true biodiversity?
2) How did tetrapods diversify? Did they conquer new niches or expand into new habitats?
3) How did mass extinction events effect community structure?

But even more interestingly, this study has an application to our present situation. We are witnessing a biodiversity crisis right now and it is not clear whether it is simply a part of Earth’s natural cycle or massive impact by human presence (though to be honest I lean towards the latter). Studying past communities helps us understand more about our present situation.

The first part of my research covered the Palaeozoic, from the origin of tetrapods about 375 million years ago to about 250 million years ago. At this time there were no birds, no mammals and no dinosaurs. The landscape was dominated by large amphibians and the first reptiles. Amphibians at the time were not like frogs but more like very large salamanders, and the largest of these superficially resembled crocodiles (For example, see my post of Parotosuchus). This period of time ended with the largest mass extinction event, in Earth’s history, the Permo-Triassic event 251 million years ago, when over 90% of Earth’s species went extinct.

During the 125 million years though, a lot of changes took place. I realize this post has gotten long already so I will continue more next week starting with a look at the first tetrapods, who possessed a strange oddity that we rarely see today and one that has changed our understanding of the evolution of life on land. Can you spot this oddity in the image to the right?

Click to view a larger image at http://universe-review.ca/I10-72-Acanthostega.jpg

A little bit about my job…

2007-05-03T13:03:00.000Z

I’m a palaeontologist at the University of Bristol, currently in the (yikes!) third year of my PhD. But what exactly DO I DO?!?!? Well I don’t fit into the stereotypes of Jurassic Park and Ross from Friends. I don’t spend most of my days in the hot Mongolian desert carefully brushing sand away to reveal amazing and perfectly intact dinosaur skeletons. Sometimes I wish I did though, because to be honest I spend most of my time in the office, counting.

Yes, counting, This is what I do, count animals form different parts of Earths’ past and from all over the world. But to what end? I’m a ‘Macroevolutionist’ so I like to think about the ‘Big picture’, which sounds grand but to be honest can be a bit tedious because big picture stuff often means gathering lots of data, compiling it, and producing graphs. To add a little excitement to my day sometimes I add colour to my graphs and occasionally throw in a pie chart just to be a little crazy.

Seriously though, my supervisor, Mike Benton, has spent a lot of his career counting and has come up with some pretty intriguing insights about biodiversity and Earth’s past. One of his biggest contributions has been the this graph, which is a count of the all of the tetrapods (amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds) that we have found in the fossil record, from their origin, almost 400 million years ago to the present. As you can see the diversity of tetrapods has risen almost exponentially since their origin to the present day, punctuated occasionally by a mass extinction event, such as the Permo-Triassic event 250 million years ago, when over 90% of Earth’s species went extinct.

But the trouble with this graph is that counting the number of fossils we have from different times is Earth’s history reveals a similar pattern, so it is difficult to say whether Mike’s graph is a true reflection of diversity or simply an artifact of the rock record. This is where my research comes in. I am studying the diversity within communities through time, a study that is independent of these artifacts so I will see if community diversity is similar to global diversity and what the implications are. If you’re still with me and haven’t fallen asleep, tomorrow I will discuss some of early research, including (just for you Will:), Romer’s Gap.

Prehistoric Location, Location, Location

2007-05-02T12:13:00.000Z

Human nature doesn’t change. Tour any archeological site and you will find necessities, desires and comforts of life common to all people. In particular this applies to the place we call home. A house buyer today views properties with a mental checklist of desired features and according to recent researchers, prehistoric cave-dwelling Britons did the same thousands of years ago.

A survey of over 400 caves in Northern England shows that people living in this area from 4,000 to 2,000 B.C. selected their homes based on five important features. Caves were favoured if they

*Were located at a higher altitude
*Had an east or west facing entrances
*Had large entrances
*Included deep passages
*Had a level area just outside of the entrance

Archaeologists discovered that the Peak District, a productive area for agriculture today, attracted more prehistoric cave users than the Yorkshire Dales. But caves were also used for more transitory purposes: sometimes caves were employed like roadside motels, where travellers would stop in for a few nights to rest before continuing their journeys

The benefits of this project include the discovery of many previously unexplored caves throughout Britain, a well-practiced methodology for surveying archeological sites, and an excellent compilation of data that will aid future researchers.

Lonesome George isn’t alone anymore

2007-05-01T13:43:00.000Z

Lonesome George, the giant Galapagos tortoise that has become a conservation icon may not be the last of his kind after all. George was thought to be the only survivor of a Geochelone abingdoni, a species of tortoise native to the Pinta isle.

But this week, Current Biology has reported a hybrid of the Pinta tortoise and another species discovered on Isabela isle. So the new tortoise, though not completely like George, is proof that hybrids are possible and the future of the George’s species doesn’t look as bleak anymore.

The new turtle is male so can not mate with George, who seems happy as a hermit. George has snubbed the many opportunities he has been given to mate with female tortoises of closely related species.

Researchers hope that a more thorough sampling of the 2,000 tortoises living on the island could reveal another of Georg’s species but are cautious as the project may be expensive and time-consuming.

It is thought that the collapse of the giant tortoise population on Pinta is due in large part to whaling activities in the Pacific during the 18th and 19th Centuries when sailors would take tortoises to store as food on their ships. They pefered the females, which were smaller and easier targets in lowland areas during the egg-laying season. By the middle of the 20th Century, only one giant tortoise was left on Pinta: George who is thought to have been born in the 1920s.

Why does a platypus lay eggs anyway?

2007-04-30T19:01:00.001Z

Children are taught many ‘rules of thumb’ to help them identify animals, for example: mammals, are furry (or hairy), give birth to live young, make milk and take care of their children. So why does the furry platypus lay eggs? The discovery of this bizarre, egg-laying, duck-billed, web-footed mammal initially baffled naturalists, but now we understand them much better because we know much more about their special place in the tree of evolution.

All animals on Earth are related, even though these relationships aren’t always obvious. The reason these relationships are hard to figure out is that despite the diversity of animals we see, they represent a mere fraction of the life that has ever existed on this planet. In fact, one famous palaeontologist estimated that we know of less then 1% of the Earth’s diversity through time.

To understand the relationships between animals better, we have to look back in time, at the extinct ancestors of the animals alive today (animals living today are called ‘extant’).

This diagram (called a cladogram) shows how the five major groups of vertebrate animals are related:
-Fish gave rise to the first amphibians, which crawled on to land about 400 million years ago.
-Amphibians and reptiles share a common ancestor about 350 million years ago.
-Mammals and birds evolved from reptiles much later at different times during the Mesozoic Era.

Each of these major transitions was slow. It must be understood that a fish doesn’t become an amphibian overnight. There were many different species of animals that formed that transitory stages between these groups and possessed a unique set of characteristics, a sort of ‘mosaic’ between the two groups.

Now let’s look more closely at the evolution of mammals. Mammals evolved from mammal-like-reptiles, a very diverse groups of animals which are all (unfortunately) extinct. Through time three major groups of mammals evolved:
Prototherians - which lay eggs (eg. platypuses and echidnas)
Metatherians - which let young develop in pouches (marsupials such as kangaroos and koalas)
Eutherians – ‘modern mammals’ which give birth to well-developed offspring (this includes many familiar species such as rabbits, elephants, horses, and humans)

The platypus is a prototherian. This ancient group branched off of the mammal tree of life early on before the other two groups. There are many different prototherians in the fossil record but only platypuses and echidnas are still around. So the past there was a great diversity of egg-laying mammals, but sadly, all of those animals except for platypuses and echidnas) are now extinct.

If you are interested in this topic I recommend visiting Date A Clade, which has an excellent (and more comprehensive) cladogram with detailed information on when major groups of animals split away from each other.

Announcement: Blogroll Enrollment

2007-04-27T12:33:00.000Z

Winner of Great Turtle Race Announced!

2007-04-26T12:54:00.000Z

You may recall that a few weeks ago I posted about the Great Turtle Race, which tracks Leatherback Sea Turtles as they head back to their Galapagos feeding grounds. Spectators have been traveling their progress online and today the winner was announced: Billie. I hope the others do well, especially the slow starters, Sunda and Drexelina. Check out their journeys at http://www.greatturtlerace.com.

Earth-like planet discovered

2007-04-25T13:09:00.000Z

Astronomers have found the most Earth-like planet to date and it may have running water

Statistics
Diameter: 1.5x Earth
Mass: 5x Earth
Orbit: 13 days
Temperature: 0 - 40°C
Distance from its sun: 14x closer than Earth
Distance from Earth:
20 light years

Astronomers have found the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, a world which could have water running on its surface.

The planet orbits Gliese 581, a faint star 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra. It is unclear if it is rocky, like our planet, or is covered in an ocean. But its temperature implies that water there could exist in liquid form and so it has raised the idea that it could also harbour life.

Already there is talk of aiming future space missions towards this planet. The first observational missions would put telescopes in place to seek any tell-tale light "signatures" that might be associated with biological processes such as changes in atmospheric gases and markers for chlorophyll, which is used by plants here on Earth to to photosynthesize.

Of the more than 200 planets outside of our solar system discovered so far, most are blazing hot Jupiter-like gas giants. The new Gliese 581 planet is in what scientists call the "Goldilocks Zone" where temperatures "are just right" for life to have a chance to exist.

Shark vs. Dinosaur

2007-04-24T13:15:00.000Z

A recent find in Utah reveals a large prehistoric lake around 200 million years with an amazing fossil cache including an enormous, carnivorous dinosaur and several species of sharks. Anatomical features of the dinosaur suggest it specialized in eating fish, including sharks and huge bony fish, meals which palaeontologist James Kirkland describes as “like biting through chain mail [since] fish in the past were more armored than they are today."

The dinosaur, a relative of the crested dino Dilophosaurus, was about 20 feet long and so would have been a formidable adversary for its ferocious prey. The dinosaur’s slender, serrated teeth are quite unusual and only found in dinosaurs like Spinosaurus and Suchimimus.

Dilophosaurus was well adapted to being a fisherman. Its nasal openings retracted back from the end of its snout so that it could, like today's crocodiles and alligators, still breath when its mouth was underwater.

There are clear tracks and claw scrapes showing the dinosaur wading into the lake to catch its prey. "We have counted over 3,000 individual claw marks and toe scrapes that show incredibly detailed preservation," reveals palaeontologist Andrew Milner. "We can see details of cuticle on the tips of claws, skin impressions, scale scratch lines and where claw cuticle was overlapped by the fleshy toe pads at the end of the toes."

Happy Earth Day!

2007-04-23T10:48:00.000Z

I’m sorry I’m a day behind! I hope that this weekend you were all able to enjoy some good weather and celebrate Earth Day 2007.

I’m not much for New Year’s resolutions but every year on Earth Day I try and make a change in my life that (however small) that will lower my impact on the environment. I have along ways to go towards a green lifestyle. Though I recycle and reuse my grocery bags I still do many, many other things that could be improved upon.

So for this year’s effort I will try to buy more local produce. I love exotic fruits and other foods and while I don’t plan on cutting these out of my diet entirely, I plan to have more seasonal meals and to try to appreciate the variety in which local foods can be prepared. Another advantage to buying locally is that it is often a cheaper option and you can buy directly from farmers and green grocers.

Here are 20 EASY ideas on how to contribute. All it takes is a little imagination and dedication. If you decide to make a change today, please leave a comment! Thank you, Sarda

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
-Use plastic containers instead of cling wrap and aluminum foil
-Take your own bags to the grocery store
-Recycle where facilities exist
-Hold a garage sale
-Shop in used bookstores

Home, Office & Garden
-Turn the light off when you leave a room
-Use energy saving lightbulbs
-Use half as much washing powder
-But eco-friendly washing products (eg. Ecover)
-Purchase bleach free, recycled kitchen roll or use washable tea towels
-Use cloth napkins
-Put a ‘No Junk Mail’ sticker on your post box
-Buy organic
-Buy less meat, more fruits and vegetables
-Buy local
-Start a compost heap
-Use both sides of paper
-Bike, walk, carpool or use public transport to get to work.
-Pass read magazines to friends or give them to the doctor’s office

Holidays
-Personalize Christmas by being crafty and making new cards from old ones

Feathered Dinosaurs

2007-04-22T10:54:00.000Z

A reader sent me this cartoon. Pollen has been found in high concentration with some Neanderthal bodies suggesting they buried their dead with flowers. But what about before flowering plants evolved?

Book Review: Lamb by Christopher Moore

2007-04-21T14:26:00.000Z

A hilarious read, but only if you are not easily offended by religious blasphemy:) Lamb is a hilarious look at the life of Jesus through the eyes of his best friend Biff. It’s an easy read and one of Moore’s best books.

Synopsis: The birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his thirtieth birthday. But no one knows about the early life of the Son of God, the missing years ? except Biff, the Messiah's best bud, who has been resurrected to tell the story in this divinely hilarious, yet heartfelt work reminiscent of Vonnegut and Douglas Adams' (Philadelphia Inquirer). Verily, the story Biff has to tell is a miraculous one, filled with remarkable journeys, magic, healings, kung fu, corpse reanimations, demons, and hot babes, Even the considerable wiles and devotion of the Saviour's pal may not be enough to divert Joshua from his tragic destiny.

Happy 100!

2007-04-20T13:52:00.000Z

Well I have just posted my 100th post. Thanks to my regular readers and welcome to the new ones. I hope I am doing something right, I was recently awarded the Thinking Blogger Award by Oreneta, a Canadian sailor aground in Catalonia, Spain, thank you Oreneta! Now I will nominate five bloggers who make me think. I decided not to include science-related blogs which I have to admit are the majority of what I read, but rather consider five blogs which I make me think outside of my box.

The Domestic Minx has a deliciously dysfunctional diary about domestic living.

Ok, I said I wasn’t going to post a science blog, but this one is really good and completely out my realm of expertise. The (recently launched) All About Forensic Science blog explores anything and everything to do with forensic science.

Cucina Povera, which has a million great recipes for sustainable, organic living.

Wild in London is an excellent blog about the wildlife that can be found in one of the world’s largest cities.

and Clubbing Baby Seals... an interesting blog about the weird world around us and someone of the weirder products we can buy.

Tyrannosaurus Forelimbs Revisited

2007-04-20T10:36:00.000Z

Earlier in the week, I posted some theories regarding the function of T. rex’s diminutive arms. I just thought I would add some recent research before I closed the topic:

Matt Smith (Museum of the Rockies) and Ken Carpenter (Denver Museum of Natural History) began examining the wrist, hand and finger bones of the T. rex forelimb and used wax to hold the bone joints together. This led them to figure out that the forelimb's two claws have an unusual feature: unlike the opposable human thumb and forefinger combo, which can grasp objects, the two dinosaur claws face away from each other like the barbs of a fishing hook.

What does this mean? Perhaps these claws embedded themselves into the prey’s flesh and immobilized it while T. rex used his jaws to finish the job. .

Matt Smith says, "People had been looking at [forelimb] function based on proportionate size. I don't think that's appropriate."

Sneezing in the Sun

2007-04-19T15:37:00.000Z

After eight years and I am still learning new things my husband: we were walking down the street when the clouds parted, revealing a bright sun and he consequently sneezed! And now I realize that this phenomenon affects a significant number of other people I know. So in case you were ever wondering why looking at the sun on a bright day makes you sneeze here is the answer:

When a nerve cell is stimulated it passes on a chemical / electrical message to the next nerve cell in the chain. However, if it is a very strong message, this might also leak out and stimulate nearby nerve cells. So, when you look at the sun or a bright light, your eyes (and their nerves) suddenly have a lot of very strong information to pass to the brain. In addition to passing on their message, they also 'leak' a bit. Part of the path for the optic nerves (from your eyes) happens to be close to your sneeze reflex and so it can be triggered by accident.
-This text was originally contributed by David Hone on Ask a Biologist

Anecdotal evidence also seems to indicate that this unusual reflex has a genetic link, so may be common among members of the same family. This is confirmed by R. Eccles of the Common Cold and Nasal Research Group who says that this phenomenon (which he terms the ‘photic sneeze’) affects between 18-35% of the population. And that the photic sneeze is a well known hazard to fighter pilots when they turn towards the sun or are exposed to flares from anti-aircraft fire.

Shark Cartoons

2007-04-19T13:19:00.000Z

Check out One Whale, home to 137 hilarious shark, whale and marine cartoons by Australian cartoonist Phil Watson.

Why do Great White Sharks always have a big bloody gape?

2007-04-18T21:34:00.000Z

Something has been bothering me the last while. I can’t figure out why Great White Sharks are always depicted as having a big bloody gape? I have researched it a bit but have not come up with any good information. As it I see it though, there are three distinct possibilities:

1. The big bloody gape is a fallacy propagated by Hollywood
2. Blood is leftover from a kill
3. The blood is their own

There are few points to be noted about each possibility:

1. Purusing some stock photography (seen below) it seems that there a a mix of shark pictures, with and without bloody mouths. And of course, this may be subject to a photographer’s bias.

2. If the blood is indeed from a kill, why would it stain so long and not simply wash away? Also, it should be noted that Great Whites don't eat that often.

3. If the blood is their own, why doesn’t it attract other sharks?

If you have comments on this topic, please let me know, I would like to solve this mystery!

Scooped (or rather Bitten) again!

2007-04-18T12:36:00.000Z

Once again, Brian Switek of Laelaps and Mike Ryan of Palaeoblog have beaten me to the punch on reporting on a recent publication that suggests the first tetrapods were able to bite their prey (rather then suck their food up).

Reference: Markey, M.J. and Marshall, C. R. 2007. Terrestrial-style feeding in a very early aquatic tetrapod is supported by evidence from experimental analysis of suture morphology Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Early Edition on April 16 2007.

United States’ security measures extend to the moon

2007-04-18T09:12:00.000Z

Since 9/11 a lot of people have been grumbling about the United States’ increased security measures, which have resulted in closer scrutiny of visitors to the US, more paperwork and long queues at the airport. Well this document, dated July 24, 1969, from the Apollo 11 mission goes to show that the United State’s strict customs policy is not new:

(Click on the image to enlarge)

The three signatures on the document belong to Neil Armstrong, Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin and Michael Collins. And their cargo (not surprisingly) was “moon rock & moon dust samples”. And their point of departure? “MOON”.

What were T. rex’s tiny little arms for anyway?

2007-04-17T20:43:00.000Z

American palaeontologist Henry Osborn first described T. rex but initially expressed doubts that the diminutive arms he found belonged to this enormous animal. After investigating further and finding it to be true, he considered their purpose and advanced the first theory in 1906: that they were used as ‘graspers’ or stabilizers during copulation.

But this was only the start of a debate that still rages. In 1970 British palaeontologist Barney Newman suggested that the small arms braced the beast's body as it stood up.
Another, contrasting theory suggested that the small limbs are vestigials (degenerated organs that have lost their use).

To add to the confusion it seems that the muscular of the T. rex was very well defined and though the arms were disproportional to the animal's body, they were still very strong. So some people consider that the most useful function of the limbs was to be used as meat hooks while the animal fed. This theory is supported by the beautifully sharp claws on T. rex’s two fingers.

In contrast, Greg Erickson has recently commented on a biomechanical analyses of a new specimen. The aim of this study was to try and understand the physical capacities of T. rex's diminutive structures. Erickson has concluded that the elbow could not be extended beyond 90° and though the arms were very strong (they could lift about 180 kg or 400lbs) they had a very limited side-to-side and up-and-down motion.

It is also known that T. rex's arms were often broken (and mended) during its life, suggesting that the arms were poorly suited for their function that these animals could go without using their arms for extended periods of time.

I read an interesting theory a while back that suggested the arms were most useful in juveniles, as a counterbalance to the young dinsaurs fast quickly. The suggestion was made that the arms were proportionally longer in childhood compared to adulthood. However, as far as I know this theory did not gain popularity.

The truth is that no one knows the answer. Scientific inquiry into this issue has been going on for a century and it doesn’t seem likely that the mystery will be solved soon. If you have any other ideas, please let me know!

Oekologie #4

2007-04-17T16:41:00.000Z

I have recently discovered blog carnivals (truth be told, my initiation to the blogosphere is recent as well). Blog carnivals and circuses are a great way to get to know your neighbours in the blogosphere and so I have requested to host Oekologie, one of the best travelling blog carnivals around. Oekologie reviews the best ecology and environmental science posts of the month from all across the blogosphere. My turn comes in September so is a way off, but I am looking forward to it! In the mean time check out the happening at the fourth edition of Oekologie, which inlcudes my article on Bears Who Hunt Belugas.

Evolution is only a theory...

2007-04-17T11:29:00.000Z

As you may have heard, in 2006, the Kansas school board was campaigned to add required labels to textbooks that mention evolution. There have been many parodies on the “Warning, Evolution is only a theory” labels, these are my favourite:) campaigned to add required labels to textbooks that mention evolution. There have been many parodies on the “Warning, Evolution is only a theory” labels, these are my favourite:)

Launch of Dinobase

2007-04-16T20:23:00.000Z

Well it is has FINALLY happened. After a lot of hard work on the part of many people in Bristol, DinoBase was officially launched today. DinoBase is a new interactive resource for dinosaur fans of all ages.

As Mike Benton notes, ‘We all know that people have a natural curiosity for dinosaurs, so we hope that the information on DinoBase will satisfy people's enthusiasm.'

You can search the database for your favourite dinosaur, find out its species, when and where it lived, what it ate, how big it was and how to pronounce its tongue-twisting Latin name. Also try browsing the colourful picture galleries to see what dinosaurs looked like in their prehistoric world.

Did you know, for example, that the Albertaceratops nesmoi, which means ‘Alberta horn-faced’, was only discovered this year in Canada? It is a centrosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur with a pair of long horns on the brow and a blade-like nasal horn. It lived about 75 million years ago, was 6 metres long and weighed 2 tons.

DinoBase also has an online forum, where you can ask questions about dinosaurs, which experts at Bristol University will answer. The database will continue to grow in the future as new discoveries are made and more features are added. There will be a news section that will report the most recent happenings in dinosaur research, and a ‘New Dinosaur’ alert system that will let visitors know about new discoveries.

I would like to thank a lot of people for their hard work, but most especially for the people on our team who have made the final push in last week, including Paul Ferry, Manabu Sakamoto and Tom Fletcher.

Check out DinoBase at http://dinobase.gly.bris.ac.uk/

Monkeys in your pants and other hilarious antics of wildlife smugglers

2007-04-16T15:48:00.000Z

Last week I wrote about smugglers who were caught trying to sneak butterflies and chameleons into Croatia. Following that article, a reader sent me an article on some hilarious antics of other criminals who got caught in the act of smuggling strange cargo:

In the United States, wildlife smuggling is the nation’s second-largest black market, (behind narcotics), worth $9 billion a year.
Some of the more interesting highlights seen at Los Angeles International Airport include:

In 2006 A Japanese man was arrested for smuggling Queen Alexandra’s birdwings, one of the largest butterflies in the world, worth $8,500 USD. And in the same year four people were accused of trafficking in the endangered dragon fish.

In 2002 A Palm Springs man attempted to hide two Asian leopard cats in a backpack. He was busted when his travelling companion was also caught. Authorities noticed a large birds of paradise flying out of his luggage. Further inspection revealed 50 rare orchid bulbs, birds stuffed into women’s stockings and two lesser slow lorises (pygmy monkeys) stuffed in his underwear! The poor animals were saved form an 18 hour journey from Asia in this man’s pants!

And most recently, a man has been charged with smuggling reptiles from South Asia in his prosthetic leg.

Some people bring in rare and exotic species as pets but others realize it is big business. Unfortunately, once an animal is taken from the wild, it cannot usually be returned to its place of origin, for fear of disease, and so is often placed in a local zoo, where its chances of long-term survival are reduced.

Ancient proteins link T. rex to chickens

2007-04-16T12:21:00.000Z

Well I’m sure everybody has seen this sensationalist headline in the last week, instead of tackling the controversy myself, I’ve decided to list a few posts by bloggers who have already posted on the topic:

PZ Meyers of Pharyngula posts Stone soup; or, extracting protein fragments from T. rex bones

Brian Switek of Laelaps in his post, And the T. rex goes… cock-a-doodle-do?

Mike Ryan of Palaeoblog posts T. rex Protein Sequenced

And the original article:
Analyses of soft tissue from Tyrannosaurus rex suggest the presence of protein. 2007. Science 316: 277 - 280

Winner: Fossil Caption Contest

2007-04-16T08:12:00.000Z

Thanks to everyone who sent in their entry. The submitted captions include:

Sometimes, fishing is about patience. Sometimes, fishing is about lots of patience.
Or…
Given sufficient time, an improperly hooked baitfish will eventually win its freedom, though it may tear its flesh from its bones in the process.
-TheBrummell

Sepia-tone ink on micrite matrix of a Diplomystus dentatus fossil. Snap.
-Neil

Almost got it, just a little bit longer...
-tradwolley

"It was (stretches arms sideways) this old!"
Or ...
"New proof that Neolithic humans possessed sandwiches, vacuum flasks and funny little collapsible chairs."
-John Hopkin

Guess we found Nemo after all....
-KAi

Great captions! I had a hard time deciding so enlisted the help of one of my colleagues. And the winner is:

TheBrummell for “Sometimes, fishing is about patience. Sometimes, fishing is about lots of patience.”

Congratulations! And now your prize: You can post on Fish Feet for a day.

Book Review: How To Keep Dinosaurs by Robert Mash

2007-04-15T12:07:00.000Z

This book is not new, but I only discovered recently. If you haven’t read it and enjoy palaeo-humor I suggest you pick it up! It is picturesque, surreal and an equally amusing read for geeks and children:)

Synopsis: Hollywood and the popular press would have us believe that all dinosaurs are gigantic, hostile and untameable. In fact, there are many species that make charming and even useful companions. From Compsognathus (mild-mannered and affectionate - once it has learnt to recognise its owner) to Deinonychus (will not eat dog food - dogs are another matter) this book advises you which dinosaur is right for you and your home, from the city apartment dweller looking for a lap pet, to the country estate owner looking to tighten up on security. How To Keep Dinosaurs is packed with the sort of information keen dinosaur keepers crave - from feeding and housing to curing common ailments, breeding and showing your animal. It will even tell you where you can purchase your new pet. The author, a zoologist with extensive experience of dinosaurs, has provided a timely and much-needed source book for all those who keep dinosaurs and for the huge numbers who are contemplating getting one. It is as essential to every dinosaur keeper as a stout shovel and a tranquilizer rifle.

Fossil Hunting in Britain

2007-04-15T08:50:00.000Z

Last week was quite busy at uni, we hosted a conference for palaeontology students on Friday and on Saturday we went fossil hunting at Aust Cliff and Manor Farm in Southwest England. There were great finds (I will post pictures soon), ranging from microscopic teeth and scales to dorsal fish spines and bones of Pachystropheus, a crocodile like animal that wandered the cliffs about 200 million years ago.

We also made an episode of Fossil Field Guides, created by Paul Williams. Fossil Field Guides are podcast guides to the best field locations in Britain. I will post a link to the Aust Cliff podcast when production is complete, in the meantime, check out Paul’s other Fossil Field Guides.

Weekend Break

2007-04-13T06:57:00.001Z

Sorry I'm not posting today or tomorrow as I'm at a conference and field trip. I will be back on Sunday and tell you all about it! Sarda

Worldmapper: Seeing the world in new light

2007-04-12T20:48:00.000Z

Everybody is familiar with the world map, but this great website, http://www.worldmapper.org gives us a new and different perspective.
At this website the world map has been distorted to reflect different metrics. For example, if we consider population, the world map changes like this:

Military spending in 2002

HIV Prevalence

Toys Imports

Find out more about everything from nuclear capabilities to water quality, alcohol consumption, and the number of cable subscribers.

Reminder: Fossil Caption Contest

2007-04-12T16:30:00.000Z

A reminder that Monday I started a humerous Fossil Caption Contest. There will be a prize for whoever comes up with the best caption!

Contest closes Sunday.

Shark Myths and Facts

2007-04-12T13:12:00.000Z

Da-dum ... Da-dum ... Da-dum.. Da-dum.. Da-dum, Da-dum!

It has been 30 years now since the release of the blockbuster Jaws and these two notes still instill fear. Some would argue that great whites are not vengeful, man-eating killing machines but are in fact, intelligent, misunderstood ancient sea creatures. I would agree with this statement in that they do not target people and are intelligent animals, but their fundamental morphology has remained unchained for millions of years because they are perfectly adapted killing machines: keen senses, speed, agility and a mouth full of huge, serrated teeth backed by the most powerful jaws of the animal kingdom. Make no mistake, they are efficient and ferocious animals perfectly suited to their niche.

*The great white is about 6m (20ft) long and the largest predatory fish.

*It is actually grey on top with a white underbelly, camouflage for hunting. The colouration makes them difficult to see from above as they blend in with the rocks and the white belly makes them hard to see from below because they blend in with the sky.

*Sharks never run out of teeth. If they lose one another spins forward from rows and rows of backup teeth. A great white has hundreds of teeth in its jaws at any one time.

*Sharks prefer a high fat food source since fat stores more energy then muscle. Their favourite snack is a baby seal.

*Once a seal is caught, other sharks smell the blood in the water and show up for the meal. Great whites can smell one drop of blood in 100L of water. Since their prey has a lot of blood, nearby sharks are easily attracted to the kill and show up for a feeding frenzy.

*The meal is divided up based on interactions. The animal that splashes the most water gets the next bite. Despite eating together sharks do not hunt together.

*The great white can move through the water at 40 km/hour

*But though they are fierce predators, great whites don’t like the taste of humans; less then 6 people are killed by sharks every year.

Fish Finds Land-Legs

2007-04-12T07:19:00.000Z

Evolution doesn’t happen all it once, it takes a few tries :)

Arrogant scientist to represent all of humanity

2007-04-11T17:02:00.000Z

American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope, died on 12 Apr 1897. Cope is best remembered for his rivalry with O.C. Marsh, often referred to as the Great Bone Wars. These two antagonists shared a lot in common: a fierce sense of competition, unbounded arrogance and a deep driving force that led them to unbelievable lengths to outdo each other. Cope led many great expeditions into the American West and was prolific in the naming of dinosaur species. Cope was also an ichthyologist, an evolutionist, and a founder of the Neo-Lamarckian school of thought.

But enough of the boring stuff, here's a story that really reveals the character of good old EDC:

What at is a Tyrannosaurus rex? A Dalmatian? An amoeba? When a new species is discovered, scientists must explain to other scientists what it is and what it looks like. So the first thing they do is choose a holotype specimen, this is an example of the new species that will forever define it. Usually it is the first example of the species found. For example, the holotype for T. rex was collected by Barnum Brown in 1902 and is housed at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is important to remember that a holotype is usually the first example of a new species and it is not necessarily the best or typical example (although ideally it should be). Sometimes when a new species is found and the holotype named, there are only very poor or fragmentary examples available. But it is the practice that even if a better specimen is subsequently found, the holotype is not superseded.

But back to our story now, which began back in 1735 with Swedish botanist named Carolus Linnaeus. Linnaeus was fascinated by the diversity of life around him and became obsessed with categorizing it. This is very difficult to do since there are millions of species in the world but Linnaeus went about it in a very systematic way. He devised a hierarchical system for categorizing plants, animals and minerals. Interestingly, he named, described and classified human beings as a part of this system. He named humans Homo sapiens, Latin for man and wise. The concept of a holotype had not been invented yet but the humble Linneaus did consider himself to be the best example of Homo sapiens.

Then in 1897, an equally humble scientist, Edward Drinker Cope died. In his will, Cope had a final request: that his remains be used as the holotype specimen for Homo sapiens. However, Cope’s dream did not materialize. His brain was saved and preserved in a jar for future study at the Anthropometric Society. But unfortunately, when his skeleton was stripped and cleaned, taxonomists found evidence of incipient syphilis in Cope's bones, a discovery that led his suceedors to deem his remains “unsuitable” to be the type specimen for humanity. His bones were discreetly filed away and perhaps even conveniently ‘lost’ for almost 100 years.

Then in 1991, while working on a story, National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos discovered Cope's bones stored at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. Psihoyos borrowed the bones to use in his story and while out in the Western United States, he showed the bones to palaeontologist Robert Bakker who was a great admirer of Cope. Bakker began a mission to fulfill Cope’s last request: that his remains be used designated the type specimen of Homo sapiens. Bakker published his description in the Journal of the Wyoming Geological Society.

Unfortunately, Bakker and Psihoyo's efforts were not successful and Cope's remains are unlikely to receive official status for a variety of reasons: the standards for type specimens are very strict and complex and not only do Cope’s bones bear marks of syphilis, they have also suffered damage from their travels: his skull has been dropped, broken and even repaired.

To make the situation more complicated, in 1959, another palaeontologist wrote a paper declaring Carolus Linneaus the holotype of Homo sapiens, especially as his body is well-preserved in the Cathedral in Uppsala, Sweden. Well since nobody can agree, the job still remains open and there is no official holotype for humanity.

The Science of Superheros

2007-04-11T14:57:00.000Z

Thanks to Eva of Easternblot for posting about some great websites on the science of superheros. If you’re a comic book nut but haven’t checked them out:
BBC’s has a great website on superhero science, profiling Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Daredevil, Superman, The Incredible Hulk, and the X-men.

Ubergeeks will like Jim Kakalios’ book, The Physics of Superheroes and the Comic Book Periodic Table of the Elements (start with Oxygen on this one:)

The Great Turtle Race

2007-04-11T08:06:00.000Z

Leatherback Sea Turtles are 100 million years old but their rapid decline indicates that their population may be extinct in as little as 10 yearts. In an effort to learn more about these rare animals and bring attention to the cause, scientists have outfitted 14 animals with satellite tags. The tags have provided researchers with valuable information and are now being used for a novel fundraising initiative.

On April 16th, the Great Turtle Race will begin as the leatherbacks head back to their Galapagos feeding grounds. Sponsor your favorite turtle and track its progress online. This great idea draws attention to the turtle’s plight, raises money and is lots of fun!

The event is being organized by Conservation International, the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment, the Leatherback Trust and the Tagging of Pacific Predators program. Proceeds will go to protect Cost Rica's Playa Grande who bring awareness to the challenges facing the survival of leatherback turtles.

No, seriously man, I’m ok to fly

2007-04-10T23:21:00.000Z

Check out the very funny article on Laelap’s website on intoxicated animals: lemurs who seek out noxious millipedes, bees drunk off of sap and how fruit bats sober up from over-ripe fruit.

Smugglers arrested for illegal trade of butterflies, chameleons and tortoises

2007-04-10T16:04:00.000Z

My last post was about an unusual discovery, worth more then gold. We often get caught up in classic representations of monetary value and forget what people will pay for rarities of the natural world. Recently, two recent smugglers were busted for their unique consignments:

At the Zagreb airport, recently, Croatian customs officials stopped a man who was trying to smuggle 175 chameleons and 10 tortoises from Thailand. The man arrived in the Croatian capital by plane from Budapest, Hungary, carrying the reptiles in his suitcases. Animal protection officials said the reptiles are protected species.

The suspect claims to have purchased the animals at a Bangkok market for about $150 USD, but officials estimated the animals were worth about $200,000 USD. Customs officers have charged the man with violating import laws, the Croatian news agency HINA said.

In another incident, Serbian authorities intercepted a package containing 98 rare butterflies originating from the Solomon Islands and being shipped to Belgrade.

The butterflies are an endangered species protected under international convention and are estimated to be worth more than $10,000 USD on the black market. The person who was to receive the package will be charged with smuggling.

Australian couple find floating gold

2007-04-10T10:29:00.000Z

Continuing on the whale theme today, an Australian couple has had an extraordinary windfall: walking along a remote beach they found 32-pounds of sperm whale puke, for which the proper scientific word is ambergris. At first this may seem like a disgusting curiosity worth no more than a moment of notice for its scientific value, but in fact the monetary value of the discovery is estimated to be over $1 million USD!

Ambergris, often referred to as ‘floating gold’ is prized by perfume makers and sold for up to $90 USD/gram (gold is worth about $25 USD/gram). But trading ambergris is controversial and technically illegal. CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) forbids trade of certain animals’ products for commercial purposes. However, it has difficulty committing to a ban on waste products by animals. Ambergris is formed when gastrointestinal materials harden around indigestible squid beaks that a sperm whale swallowed. When the mass gets large, the whale coughs it up (not unlike cats’ hairballs:)

It is not clear what will happen to the find. Though it is illegal to trade, precedent has thus far allowed its exchange.

See a Life-Sized Blue Whale

2007-04-09T23:51:00.001Z

The WDCS (Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society) has given you the opportunity to see a full-sized blue whale. Visit the site and let the 30m long whale swim past your screen…it'll take a while!

BC creator dies while drawing last cartoon

2007-04-09T14:32:00.000Z

Cartoonist Johnny Hart, who won awards for his comic strips, BC and The Wizard of Id, has died of a stroke at the age of 76.

BC, which depicted a world populated by cavemen and dinosaurs, first appeared in newspapers in 1958. The Wizard of Id was a political satire based in a run-down kingdom ruled by a diminutive and tyrannical monarch.

Johnny Hart’s comics reached over 100 million people. He died at his storyboard, doing what he loved best.

Palaeobarbius malibui

2007-04-09T13:54:00.000Z

I have no idea if this letter, that was supposedly sent to the Smithsonian Institute, is real but regardless it is hilarious.

Paleoanthropology Division
Smithsonian Institute
207 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20078

Dear Sir:

Thank you for your latest submission, labeled "93211-D, layer seven, next to the clothesline post...Hominid skull." We have given this specimen a careful and detailed examination, and regret to inform you that we disagree with your theory that it represents conclusive proof of the presence of Early Man in Charleston County two million years ago. Rather, it appears that what you have found is the head of a Barbie doll, of the variety that one of our staff, who has small children, believes to be "Malibu Barbie." It is evident that you have given a great deal of thought to the analysis of this specimen, and you may be quite certain that those of us who are familiar with your prior work in the field were loathe to come to contradiction with your findings. However, we do feel that there are a number of physical attributes of the specimen which might have tipped you off to its modern origin:

1. The material is molded plastic. Ancient hominid remains are typically fossilized bone.

2. The cranial capacity of the specimen is approximately 9 cubic centimeters, well below the threshold of even the earliest identified proto-homonids.

3. The dentition pattern evident on the skull is more consistent with the common domesticated dog than it is with the ravenous man-eating Pliocene Clams you speculate roamed the wetlands during that time.

This latter finding is certainly one of the most intriguing hypotheses you have submitted in your history with this institution, but the evidence seems to weigh rather heavily against it. Without going into too much detail, let us say that: A. The specimen looks like the head of a Barbie doll that a dog has chewed on. B. Clams don't have teeth. It is with feelings tinged with melancholy that we must deny your request to have the specimen carbon-dated. This is partially due to the heavy load our lab must bear in its normal operation, and partly due to carbon-dating's notorious inaccuracy in fossils of recent geologic record. To the best of our knowledge, no Barbie dolls were produced prior to 1956 AD, and carbon-dating is likely to produce wildly inaccurate results. Sadly, we must also deny your request that we approach the National Science Foundation Phylogeny Department with the concept of assigning your specimen the scientific name Australopithecus spiff-arino. Speaking personally, I, for one, fought tenaciously for the acceptance of your proposed taxonomy, but was ultimately voted down because the species name you selected was hyphenated, and didn't really sound like it might be Latin. However, we gladly accept your generous donation of this fascinating specimen to the museum. While it is undoubtedly not a Hominid fossil, it is, nonetheless, yet another riveting example of the great body of work you seem to accumulate here so effortlessly. You should know that our Director has reserved a special shelf in his own office for the display of the specimens you have previously submitted to the Institution, and the entire staff speculates daily on what you will happen upon next in your digs at the site you have discovered in your Newport back yard. We eagerly anticipate your trip to our nation's capital that you proposed in your last letter, and several of us are pressing the Director to pay for it. We are particularly interested in hearing you expand on your theories surrounding the trans-positating fillifitation of ferrous ions in a structural matrix that makes the excellent juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex femur you recently discovered take on the deceptive appearance of a rusty 9 mm Sears Craftsman automotive crescent wrench.

Yours in Science,

Harvey Rowe
Curator, Antiquities

Fossil Caption Contest

2007-04-09T06:27:00.000Z

This is a great picture, I have no idea how it was done, but it is very funny.

A prize for whoever comes up with the best caption!

Contest closes on Friday.

Dangerous combination for tech geeks: Lego + Computers

2007-04-08T23:26:00.000Z

I hesitated to put this online because my own husband is a computer geek and lego fan, and I don’t want to imagine my living room being invaded with these crazy constructions. So ssshhhhhhhh, nobody tell him!

The Sumatran Striped Easter Bunny

2007-04-08T10:13:00.000Z

Good news: one of the rarest species of rabbit in the world was seen again, but for only the third time in the last 35 years. Wildlife Conservation Society's Asia Program has released pictures of a Sumatran Striped Rabbit (Nesolagus netscheri), photographed by a camera trap in Bukit Barisan National Park.

The rabbit was last photographed in 2000, and before that the last sighting was by a scientist in 1972. It is threatened by habitat loss due to farming and is listed as critically endangered by the World Conservation Union. But the sightin has given new hope to conservationists

Happy Easter!

Meme: My Life’s Goals

2007-04-07T15:34:00.000Z

Tagged again! This time by domestika.

I’m not very good at this 'life goal' stuff. Some people make long lists of life goals, hell there are even whole books on the topic. Really I am a simple girl with only one goal: Happiness.

What makes my happy changes from day to day, so every day is different but I am happy most days. Today I am happy because I am wearing the red sparkly shoes my husband bought me:)

If you would like to participate in this meme, consider yourself tagged and leave me a comment to tell me where I can find yours!

Darwin Fish Contest

2007-04-07T09:38:00.000Z

Here is your chance to come up with your own parody of the fish emblem! Ring of Fire is holding a contest to come up with a new fish, they will manufacture and sell the winner's design. Click here to read more and check out my submission (below), which to be honest is a big large and probably won’t be practical for manufacturing:) The contest closes on 16 April.

High Stakes Custody Battle for Fossil Dinosaur Continues

2007-04-07T00:16:00.000Z

Custody battles for fossils can bring big money these days so it comes as no surprise that it was announced today that a 2 ½ year custody battle for the ownership of Tinker, a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex will continue. A federal court of appeal ruled that a the lease formed between fossil hunters, who dug up the 65 million-year-old fossil and the County of Harding County, South Dakota was valid. This reverses a ruling made last year that deemed the lease void because it didn't follow a state law that requires leases exceeding 120 days and $500 USD to go before a public hearing.

Tinker is currently interned in Pennsylvania. An offer of $8.5 million USD has been made for the extraordinary fossil skeleton. In 1992, South Dakota saw another a custody battle for a dinosaur skeleton: Sue, a beautifully preserved, 13m (42ft) long T. rex specimen was at the center. Claims to Sue were made by a local rancher, a team of fossil hunters, a Sioux Indian tribe and the United States Government. It ended seven years later by awarding the dinosaur to the rancher on whose land the find was made. He then auctioned her off at Sotheby's, the winning bid went to Chicago's Field Museum with corporate sponsorship from McDonald’s and Walt Disney to the tune of $8.4 million. To date, it has been the most expensive fossil ever sold, I wonder if Tinker will break the record?

Creationist Museum Signs

2007-04-06T17:47:00.001Z

Earlier today I wrote post about how Tyrannosaurus rex ate coconuts and how all dinosaurs used to be herbivores, at least according to a new Creationist museum in Kentucky, USA. In response, a reader sent me some hilarious signs that would be well suited to the museum:

Environmental message
“Another flood will make fossil fuels a renewable energy source”

Cafeteria menu
“Fish Sticks are organic and are not your relatives”

“Today’s special: Buy a spaghetti monster and get a free drink”

Museum Shop
“The Danny Dinosaur Adventure Ride is closed today. Please visit the Adam and Eve organic fruit and pet store”

T. rex ate coconuts

2007-04-06T14:05:00.000Z

A new museum in Petersburg, Kentucky greets visitors with a 20ft tall tumbling waterfall and at its base, mannequins of frolicking children play amongst dinosaurs. The Creation Museum, which cost $25 million to build, is home to many unusual sites: a diorama of ancient people overshadowed by a towering T. rex, Adam and Eve swimming in a river with giant reptiles, and even a scale model of Noah's Ark. It seems Noah solved the problem of fitting dinosaurs into his vessel by only taking baby dinosaurs. Indeed, the ark has a detailed display of many animals happily boarding the boat: dinosaurs cavort with giraffes, penguins, hippos, and bears.

Museum guides tell visitors that before Adam and Eve were expelled from paradise all of the dinosaurs were peaceful plant-eaters. In Genesis 1:30 God gives ‘green herb’ to every creature to eat and so there were no predators. When a curious museum visitor asks, why exactly T. rex had six-inch long serrated teeth, the guides go on to explain that T. rex used his big teeth to open coconuts. Apparently it was only after Adam and Eve sinned and were cast out of paradise that the dinosaurs started to eat flesh.

My opinion: I think the people who built this museum are smoking a bit too much ‘green herb’.

Dinosaur Blog

2007-04-06T11:22:00.000Z

Found this great cartoon online. Sorry I don’t know who the author/illustrator is so I can’t give them the proper credit.

Evolution Videos

2007-04-05T20:55:00.000Z

Laelaps has a compilation of hilarious evolution videos worth checking out on his blog. Highlights include The Flanders visiting the Hall of Man at the Springfield museum, The Family Guy’s version of the big bang / evolution and a great montage of Bush or Chimp set to an anti-evolution song sang by a lovely school choir. Click here and Enjoy!

Antarctic Amphibian: a fossil from 245 million year in the past

2007-04-05T12:13:00.000Z

The beautiful thing about the Antarctic is that it is one of Earth’s last unexplored frontiers. New information about climate, geology, and paleontology is discovered regularly and today, the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology announced the discovery of a fossilised amphibian which lived more than 245 million years ago in the Triassic of Antarctica. Its presence suggests that the climate at the time was mild enough to allow cold-blooded creatures to live near Pangea’s southern margin, at least seasonally.

This news is of particular relevance to my work so I was very excited when I heard about it. For those of you that want to get technical, the amphibian, Parotosuchus was a large predatory temnospondyl that inhabiting lakes and rivers. For the layman: basically it was a 2m (6.5ft) long animal that superficially resembles a modern day crocodile, but was actually an amphibian.

Parotosuchus is differs from modern-day amphibians because of its form, large size and the fact that it was covered in a scaly skin. It was amphibious and so liked to live in the water and on land (but never far from the water) and swam in an eel-like fashion (see my posting from last month on the Robotic Salamander).

Previously, Parotosuchus remains have been discovered in Germany, Kazakhstan, Russia and South Africa, which up until now was its most southerly range. But in the Triassic, Africa and Antarctica were joined together in a supercontinent called Pangea so the find is not altogether a surprise. Parotosuchus was discovered in the Fremouw Formation of the Transantarctic Mountains, just six degrees short of the South Pole.

P.S. I stole the pic from the Tree of Life at http://tolweb.org/Temnospondyli.

In the News: Ancient Humans, Great Pyramids and an Antarctic Amphibian

2007-04-05T08:52:00.000Z

Mystery of the great pyramids solved
Original Publication: Dassault Systems
Popular News site: CBC

Ancient human fossil from China collides with ‘Out of Africa' theory
Original Publication: PNAS
Popular News site: BBC

Antarctic amphibian
Original Publication: JVP
A synopsis of the original article will be published on this blog later today.

Meme: Why do you blog?

2007-04-05T01:15:00.000Z

I’ve been memed by Greg Laden, who asked, “Why do you blog?”

Well, this blog is a recent endeavor (I started about a month ago) and my original intention was for it to be a place where I could ramble on about natural history, biodiversity and neat things I learned at school. But in the mean time I have become acquainted with the blogosphere, picked up a few regular readers and enjoyed interacting with fellow bloggers. I really like writing posts and I hope you will continue to enjoy reading them!

If you’re a blogger reading this, pass on the meme and leave me a comment to tell me where I can find yours:)

My postponed safari

2007-04-04T12:32:00.000Z

As many of you know, the week before last I was set for my Indian safari with my sister, Reena and my friend, Cheryl. To make a REALLY long story short, my trip had to be cancelled at the last minute due to the embassy losing my papers. Quite frankly the whole experience was pretty frustrating and very stressful. So I decided to take a few days off anyway, visit my family here in England and potter around the house. It was pretty good and I hope to reschedule my trip in the future. So sorry for not getting safari pictures for you! I promise to add some of Reena and Cheryl’s pictures when they return.

Tomorrow I am back to regular posting, starting with the latest palaeontology and archeology news.

Thank you!

2007-04-04T08:00:00.000Z

First, a big thank you everyone who gave Janine a warm reception in my absence including:

Luca Fenu of The Owl's Hide who contributed his own picture of Mount Etna to Janine’s Most Beautiful Volcano contest.

Michael J. Ryan of Palaeoblog who devoted a whole post (and humorous cartoon) to Fish Feet. Ryan’s tendonitis seems to be improving so lets hope he can continue with his regular posts!

John Hopkin, a new visitor who had an innovative approach to finding out what Janine’s secret volcano was:)

And finally, a big thank you to Janine herself who agreed to keep up my blog while I was away. She has done a stellar job! If you enjoyed her posts and would like to hear from her again, feel free to leave a comment.

Bye for now!

2007-04-03T16:02:00.000Z

So I've come to the end of my time covering for Sarda. Its been good, and I think we had some fun which is the most important thing. Bye for now... Janine

April Preview

2007-04-03T12:55:00.000Z

Upcoming posts:

*Jaws!
*Floating gold
*T. rex: coconut eater
*My postponed safari

Result: Beauty contest

2007-04-02T10:51:00.000Z

Well the votes have been counted and verified (by an independent adjudicator) and it seems there was an outright winner of the "most beautiful volcano" contest...

and the winner is... Kilauea, Hawaii

Just a little bit of extra info about Kilauea for those who are interested:
Kilauea is the youngest and southeastern volcano of Hawaii's Big Island. Kilauea is the home of Pele the Hawaiian volcano goddess. It is said that when she is angry the volcano erupts. Well this volcano has been erupting continously since 1983, so it seems Pele is rather cross about something. For more information check out the USGS website for some more great images and history of the volcano.

Thanks to all who voted!

Glastonbury festival record sellout!

2007-04-01T19:32:00.000Z

Yet again the Glastonbury festival has sold all its tickets in record time (137000 tickets in 90 minutes)! Pretty impressive. If you're unfamiliar with this festival its the biggest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world. It's held on a piece of farm land in SW England, and for the rest of the year it is filled with cows! Most people who haven't been to this particular festival would probably be under the impression that it's predominantly a celebration of music. Having been to the festival myself I would agree with this to some extent, there's a huge variety of musical genres on offer on seven stages.

However, this festival has so much more to offer: craft stalls, juggling school, theatrical displays, comedy, charity events, kids world and a huge variety of food and stalls from around the world. For a three day festival you could quite easily not go to see any bands play, and then you would probably just about have time to look at all the other things on offer. This of course would a missed opportunity. I've been to Glastonbury Festival twice and have seen such class acts as Paul McCartney, David Bowie and James Brown. For those of us who are unfortunate enough not to be going along (or are getting old and the idea of camping in the mud with absolutely revolting toilets is not appealing anymore...) its usually broadcast on the BBC in the third week on June. Bring it on...

Beauty contest

2007-03-30T13:25:00.000Z

So my last two blogs have been a bit technical, but perhaps some of you have learnt something from outside your normal areas of interest. So I thought for a little break, and to let your brains recover we could have a beauty contest. My collegues have referred to this as gratuitous volcano-porn, but what the hell its friday afternoon! So which of these four beauties gets your vote as the most beautiful volcano?

First up: Mount Fuji, Japan. One of the most famous volcanoes in the world, and looking at this picture it's clear to see why.

Secondly: Mount Stromboli, Italy. Stromboli is famous for its "fire-fountains" and shown in tihs picture is a perfect example.

Thirdly: Kilauea, Hawaii. This low viscosity basaltic magma pouring from the volcano produces these spectacular lava flows...

...and last but not least: Parinacota, Chile. Its difficult to pick the "most beautiful" volcano from the Andes as there are so many equally fine candidates. However, for me Parinacota has just a little something extra.

So, the contestants are lined up and waiting for you to decide which of them is most worthy of the title "most beautiful volcano". Cast your votes!

New discovery in Greenland changes our view of early plate tectonics

2007-03-29T11:13:00.000Z

An exciting discovery was reported in Science this week as evidence of plate tectonics occurring 3.8 billion years ago turned up in Greenland. Plate tectonics is the large-scale movement of the Earth's crust. New ocean floor is made by the spreading apart of these plates at ocean ridges. It was previosly thought that during Earth's early years it was too hot for this process to have occurred in the same way as it does today, and some other methods of heat loss have been suggested instead. However, the recent discovery of ophiolite sequences (ocean crust that is exposed on land) in Greenland has confirmed that the same ocean spreading senario thought to happen today also occured 2 billion years earlier than previously thought.

For further info check out: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/315/5819/1650b

Fish Feet

Sarda Sahney on Twitter

Fish Feet Word Cloud

Rainforest collapse: Good for reptiles, bad for amphibians

Arghhhh!!! Us vs. Darwin

Earth’s biodiversity is driven by more than just Survival of the Fittest

Ecosystems took 30 million years to recovery from the Permo-Triassic Mass Extinction

So long and thanks for the fish!

I was supposed to go see James Watson talk today ...

Boneyard #6

Where did all of the chicks go?

If you like this blog...

Polar Bears Hunt Belugas

Blogroll Additions

Announcement: Blogroll Enrollment

Oekologie #9

Twins: Identical, Mirror Images, Fraternal and Chimeras

A spin around the blogosphere this week…

Why does my baby have a tail?

Tangled Bank #86

Long Absence

Monster Pig Debuked!

The cat with 26 toes

Cretaion Museum reveals Adam's sordid past

T. rex didn't turn on a dime

The Starbucker Meme!

(Re)burying Dinosaur Tracks in Pinon Canyon, Colorado

Around The World Today

Spiders on Drugs: Part 2

Snake explodes after swallowing alligator

Fossil tracks suggest dinosaurs could swim

Lion vs. Buffalo vs. Croc

A story about a polydactyl cat

Sarda sarda

Complete Book of Life from Aardvarks to Zorilla

Life on Land: The evolution of five fingers and toes

Sorry I have been absent....

My Research into Palaeozoic Communities

A little bit about my job…

Prehistoric Location, Location, Location

Blogroll Additions

Lonesome George isn’t alone anymore

Why does a platypus lay eggs anyway?

Announcement: Blogroll Enrollment

Winner of Great Turtle Race Announced!

Earth-like planet discovered

Shark vs. Dinosaur

Happy Earth Day!

Feathered Dinosaurs

Book Review: Lamb by Christopher Moore

Happy 100!

Tyrannosaurus Forelimbs Revisited

Sneezing in the Sun

Shark Cartoons

Why do Great White Sharks always have a big bloody gape?

Scooped (or rather Bitten) again!

United States’ security measures extend to the moon

What were T. rex’s tiny little arms for anyway?

Oekologie #4

Evolution is only a theory...

Launch of Dinobase

Monkeys in your pants and other hilarious antics of wildlife smugglers

Ancient proteins link T. rex to chickens

Winner: Fossil Caption Contest

Book Review: How To Keep Dinosaurs by Robert Mash

Fossil Hunting in Britain

Weekend Break

Worldmapper: Seeing the world in new light

Reminder: Fossil Caption Contest

Shark Myths and Facts

Fish Finds Land-Legs

Arrogant scientist to represent all of humanity

The Science of Superheros

The Great Turtle Race

No, seriously man, I’m ok to fly

Smugglers arrested for illegal trade of butterflies, chameleons and tortoises

Australian couple find floating gold

See a Life-Sized Blue Whale

BC creator dies while drawing last cartoon

Palaeobarbius malibui