paleontology
laelaps | May 22, 2009The exceptionally preserved skeleton of Darwinius, known popularly as "Ida." From PLoS One.
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It has been three days now since an international team of paleontologists promised to deliver the change we need change everything, but when I woke up this morning I was pleased to find that things had still not gone "Bizarro World" around here. There is still a lot going on with Darwinius (better known as "Ida"), though, and while I am sure we will still be talking about her for some time to come I wanted to take a moment to step back and answer a few questions that keep cropping up about this…
grrlscientist | May 22, 2009tags: paleontologists, fossils, scientists, dinosaur hunters, pervatasaurus, humor, funny, satire, streaming video
Paleontologists recently discovered a new dinosaur fossil in Argentina: they believe the intact skeleton could shed light on the bizarre fetishes of this pervert dinosaur [2:10]
laelaps | May 22, 2009The skull of Smilodon, photographed at the AMNH's "Extreme Mammals" exhibit.
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grrlscientist | May 21, 2009tags: book review, Why Evolution is True, evolution, creationism, religion, scientific method, Jerry Coyne
Considering the plethora of books about evolution out there, is it really necessary to publish yet another one? What can another book about evolution have to offer that previous books have not provided? This new book not only presents the latest information about evolution to come to light, but it also responds to the most recent attacks made upon this branch of scientific knowledge. The book, Why Evolution is True (NYC: Viking; 2009) by Jerry Coyne, is the most up-to-date and one of the…
gregladen | May 20, 2009You probably know that there is a new primate fossil, nicknamed "Ida," and that there is quite a buzz about it.
Darwinius masillae, aka Ida
Ida comes from fossil deposits in Germany, and was originally excavated in two different parts by private collectors, and only recently rejoined and recognized for the amazing fossil it is. This is considered to be a new genus, and is named Darwinius masillae
...holotype skeleton in right lateral view...
Ida is a 47 million year old adapid primate of outstanding, unprecedented state of preservation that seems to have some very interesting and…
laelaps | May 20, 2009The skull of the giraffid Bramatherium, photographed at the AMNH's "Extreme Mammals" exhibit.
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laelaps | May 19, 2009A restoration of the extinct adapid Darwinius, known popularly as "Ida." From PLoS One.
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So the big day is finally here. "Ida", a 47-million-year-old primate skeleton from Messel, Germany has finally been unveiled on PLoS One and in a flurry of press releases, book announcements, and general media hubub. Under different circumstances I would be happy to see an exceptional fossil receiving such treatment, but I fear that Ida has become a victim of a sensationalistic media that values audience size over scientific substance.
Before I jump into my criticisms of the paper describing Darwinius…
clock | May 19, 2009Another super-cool day at PLoS (one of those days when I wish I was not telecommuting, but sharing in the excitement with the colleagues at the Mothership) - the publication of a very exciting article describing a rarely well-preserved fossil of a prehistoric primate in a lineage to which we all belong as well:
Complete Primate Skeleton from the Middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: Morphology and Paleobiology by Jens L. Franzen, Philip D. Gingerich, Jörg Habersetzer, Jørn H. Hurum, Wighart von Koenigswald and B. Holly Smith
The fossil, named Ida (the scientific name is Darwinius masillae, a…
laelaps | May 18, 2009Late last week I received a rather curious e-mail. It read;
WORLD RENOWNED SCIENTISTS REVEAL A REVOLUTIONARY SCIENTIFIC FIND THAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING
Ground-Breaking Global Announcement
What: An international press conference to unveil a major historic scientific find. After two years of research a team of world-renowned scientists will announce their findings, which address a long-standing scientific puzzle.
The find is lauded as the most significant scientific discovery of recent times. History brings this momentous find to America and will follow with the premiere of a major television…
laelaps | May 18, 2009The skull of Arsinoitherium, from A preliminary note on Arsinoitherium zitteli.
As spectacular as the extinct Eocene mammal Arsinoitherium was, many scientists were not all that interested in it. Its size and weapons were certainly impressive, but it appeared to sit on a difficult-to-define side branch of mammalian evolution. This made it a less attractive subject of study than some of its close relatives among the paenungulata, the elephants, whose evolutionary history could be traced in greater detail. As H.R. Knipe wrote in his Evolution in the Past, Arsinoitherium just seemed to be…
laelaps | May 17, 2009The skull of Arsinoitherium, photographed at the AMNH's "Extreme Mammals" exhibit.
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laelaps | May 15, 2009Paraceratherium greets you as you enter the new Extreme Mammals Exhibit.My laptop is running a little slow, but here I am at the American Museum of Natural History's new "Extreme Mammals" exhibit. The selected casts, sculptures, and interactive displays live up to the exhibition's name. To my right is a life-sized cast of Puijila darwini, the transitional pinniped just announced a few weeks ago, and to my left is a reconstruction of the Arctic during the Eocene, complete with a Coryphodon munching on swamp plants.
The exhibit strikes a good balance between living mammals and bizarre extinct…
grrlscientist | May 15, 2009tags: evolutionary biology, AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, New York City, mammals, biodiversity
Because I write for ScienceBlogs, I have been invited to a special sneak preview of the "Extreme Mammals" exhibit hosted by the American Museum of Natural History, where I was a postdoctoral fellow for two years. This exhibit features the biggest, smallest, most amazing and generally the weirdest mammals to ever swim, fly or walk the face of this earth. "Extreme Mammals" opens to the public on Saturday, 16 May, but my goal is to take a lot of photographs to share with you here this…
laelaps | May 15, 2009The giraffe-like restoration of Paraceratherium, from Natural History.If I believed everything Hollywood told me I would accept that a paleontologist is someone who has a knack for finding numerous exceptionally-preserved, fully-articulated skeletons. The truth of the matter, however, is that most fossil creatures (at least as far as vertebrates are concerned) become known to science in bits and pieces. This was the case with the largest land mammal that ever lived, Paraceratherium.*
*[There is some controversy surrounding the name of this beast. At present paleontologists are still debating…
laelaps | May 15, 2009Yesterday the New York Times posted a review of the AMNH's new "Extreme Mammals" exhibition. The review pays more attention is paid to the evolutionary themes of the exhibit than to what is in it, but I will be bringing you a more detailed look at the displays during a special blogger preview early this evening (between 4 and 5:30 PM). I can hardly wait!
laelaps | May 13, 2009This coming Saturday the American Museum of Natural History is going to lift the veil on their new temporary exhibition Extreme Mammals, and I was fortunate enough to get an invitation to the blogger preview being held the day before. This coming Friday from about 4 to 5:30 PM I'll be wandering around the new exhibit, taking photos and (hopefully) blogging about it right from the scene. Expect lots of pictures of Ambulocetus, Uintatherium, and other fossil beasts that evening.
If you can't make it to NYC during the run of the exhibit, though, you can check out a lot of the materials being…
laelaps | May 12, 2009
At this moment there are more anti-creationism books available than I care to count. While they can be exciting for neophytes to dig into many repackage the same information and arguments over and over again, and they can quickly grow boring for those who have been following the creationism controversy closely. That is why I was excited to see that the new book For the Rock Record: Geologists on Intelligent Design was going to allow geologists and paleontologists to respond to creationist claims.
The primary difficulty with the volume, however, is that intelligent design does not have much…
laelaps | May 8, 2009The skeleton of Inostrancevia, a Permian synapsid from modern-day Russia. From the American Museum Journal.The science of paleontology has long been concerned with searching out the origins of modern groups of animals, but at the turn of the 20th century there were frustratingly few transitional fossils. That evolution had occurred was generally agreed upon, but where the transitional forms might be found, what they would look like, and what mechanisms drove their evolution remained disputed. Among the murkiest of these subjects was the origin of mammals.
In an 1898 letter published in the…
laelaps | May 7, 2009Do you like Permian synapsids? If you do then you definitely should check out this month's edition of the ART Evolved carnival. I particularly like Nima Sassani's Greg-Paul-like illustration of a pack of Inostrancevia.