Posts

May 09, 2013

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9:09 PM | Vintage Dinosaur Art: Dinosaur Dream

In my last-but-one Vintage Dinosaur Art post - about three years ago now - I reviewed a book entitled Dreaming of Dinosaurs. While some commented that it wasn't very vintage, others (on Facebook, mostly) noted how its title reminded them of a different book that they treasured as a child - Dinosaur Dream. Well wouldn't you know, I've only gone and procured that one too! And no, as it's from 1990, it isn't very 'vintage' either. However, hopefully this will be forgiven on the grounds that it's […]

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6:39 PM | Dreaming of San Onofre Beach

SAN ONOFRE STATE BEACH, CA – The warm spring weather in Wooster, OH has us dreaming of the beach rather than finals week. Some lucky Wooster Geologists had a recent beach fix when they visited San Onofre State Beach in southern California during the Keck Symposium. Symposium attendees had two options for the traditional Friday Field Trip: [...]

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5:18 PM | Genetic Clues from Sabercat Bones

Smilodon is the most famous of North America’s long-lost sabercats. But the burly carnivore wasn’t the only long-fanged …

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3:35 PM | Mutant Blastoid Fossil

This unique Pentremites sp. blastoid fossil was found in the Indian Springs Formation of Crawford County, Indiana, USA. It is unique because instead of having five ambulacra (food gathering sections populated with hair like brachioles), this specimen only had three. It is about 1 cm long so it was able to function with fewer sections and grow to this respectable size. Why it mutated would be a good question to get an answer to.I did not look to see how many holes were at the top of it. If there […]

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1:24 PM | Berlin spirits

So a last look at some of what is on show in the new Berlin halls. These are a couple of shots of their new spirit room, a climate-controlled room to protect all of the various pickled specimens in jar upon glass jar that line the shelves. The Natural History Museum in London have also […]

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11:00 AM | Bilbo Baggins

National Blog Posting Month – May 2013 – Comfort Prompt – What song do you play to bring yourself comfort? —— When I need comforting… do I even listen to music? For me music is a great distraction. And distraction … Continue reading →

May 08, 2013

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9:01 PM | Of course the serials crisis is not over, what the heck are you talking about?

Jeffrey Beall’s fatuous pronouncement that The Serials Crisis is Over has been nagging away at me since it was posted yesterday. I admit my first reaction was that it was some kind of parody or satire, but Beall’s subsequent comments seem to rule out that charitable interpretation. I’m pleased to see that the comments on that [...]

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11:00 AM | Gasoline

National Blog Posting Month – May 2013 – Comfort Prompt – Do certain smells make you feel instantly comfortable? —— I consider myself sensitive to smell. Like most people, I have favorite smells and smells that I’m none too fond … Continue reading →

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7:29 AM | Of divorce lawyers and scholarly publishers

I was reading an article recently about crowd-funded startups. One of the featured startups aims to make divorce more painless. That started me thinking about divorce lawyers. Their web-sites say they will “guide you as painlessly as possible through the jungle of legal rules and practices” and “have not only your best interests in mind, but also [...]

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1:22 AM | No rain = successful fossil fieldwork

The lack of posts on this blog lately has been due to personal commitments (attending an interstate wedding and funeral), as well as PhD commitments - heading back out to Isisford for a second attempt at fieldwork. When we headed out in 2012, we weren't able to get any work done due to the [...]

May 07, 2013

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10:51 PM | The Last of the Rhinoceros Titans

In paleontology, size matters. The lifestyles of the large and charismatic often gain far more attention those of …

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10:34 PM | Cleaned Eucalyptocrinus Crinoid Calyx

This crinoid calyx was recently cleaned using a sand abrasive technique. The cleaning revealed a small holdfast at the base of the crinoid cup. I would interpret this as the crinoid cup had broken away from the stem and turned upside down on the sea floor. It had beent there awhile as small holdfasts including one shown below began attaching themselves to the cup. It appears to have been at least 7 crinoid or byrozoan holdfasts. Two near the cup base of the stem might be small Eucalyptocrinus […]

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8:01 PM | Oblivious sauropods being eaten, part 2: Bakker’s snoozing brontosaur

From The Dinosaur Heresies. Part 1.

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5:55 PM | The Prize

Regular readers may dimly recall that we held some sort of daft art contest here a few months ago, based on the concept of some well-known palaeoar...palaeontography book or other. Hopefully, you were all paying attention when we announced the winners - with first place going to one Andrew Dutt of New York. Naturally, it wasn't enough to simply send a copy of Dinosaur Art - it had to be enhanced with some glorious Himmapaanification first. (Oh, and slightly ruined by me.)Now, I should […]

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11:00 AM | Step Away from My Cheese and Crackers!

National Blog Posting Month – May 2013 – Comfort Prompt – What makes you reach for a comfort food? —— Like anyone, stress and anxiety can make me reach for my cheese and crackers. But my life is generally pretty … Continue reading →

May 06, 2013

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10:37 PM | Dinosaurs in the Dark

Truly, as Weird Al Yankovic once sang, “Jurassic Park is frightening in the dark.” Stumbling around after nightfall …

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8:20 PM | There are some big whales in the Eastover Formation

As part of a (woefully overdue) book chapter, I’ve been photographing lots of baleen whales from the Chesapeake Group, the unit which includes the Oligocene, Miocene, and Pliocene formations on the coastal plains of Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. The vast … Continue reading →

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4:35 PM | Berlin exhibitions

I started looking through the huge collection of photos from the Tyrrell and realised that I’d never finished covering all of the Berlin Museum that I started back at the end of Jan. I really don’t want to leave that hanging on till after we’ve trawled through huge amounts of the Tyrrell, so it’s time [...]

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1:27 PM | Reading List: Importance of the Orsten Fossils

I gave an e-lecture on the Orsten fossil locality this morning, as a favour for a crustacean colleague who wanted to give his class a perspective on crustacean palaeontology. I mentioned the Orsten in my Rise of Animals post. It’s a locality originally known from Sweden, now known worldwide, where tiny meiofaunal organisms are preserved [...]

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12:00 PM | Cleaned Silurian Trimerus Trilobite

This Trimerus delphinocephalus trilobite has been prepped using a dental tool and toolbrush. This particular picture has been touched up with Adobe Photoshop to fill in the missing areas of the fossil. Most of the work was done to the front scoop on the cephalon and the sides of the pygidium (tail). Also cracks in the thorax plates and areas where the eyes were placed are covered in brown.Fossil was found in the Waldron Shale of Clark County, Indiana, USA. It dates to about 419 million […]

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11:00 AM | Bring on the Squeezy Cheeze and Crackers!

National Blog Posting Month – May 2013 – Comfort Prompt – What is your biggest comfort food? Share the recipe if you have one. —— I know myself to be a comfort eater. If I’m feeling stress or anxiety, I … Continue reading →

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1:24 AM | Sunday Night Reflections

The past few weeks have been eventful. A lot is going on. Sometimes it feels a bit like I’m running in circles. First, it’s the end of the semester. Last Wednesday was the last day of classes, during which I … Continue reading →

May 05, 2013

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8:22 PM | An expected journey

Well I’m back from my trip to the Tyrrell to do the research part of Project Daspletosaurus. I’ve had a great time and been extremely busy, but in addition, barely had any internet access or there would have been more blog posts. Now I have to claw my way through mountains of built up e-mails, [...]

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8:01 PM | Strophodonta Brachiopod from Wisconsin

This is an updated posting of a fossil I have already listed. It is a Strophodonta brachiopod fossil found in the Milwaukee Formation of Wisconsin. It is from the Middle Devonian Period.The fossil has now been cleaned to reveal more of its detail including a coral colony (possibly some sort of Aulopora). The matrix was a little stubborn and it took some time to remove it. I think the canister was refilled three times before I finished working on it. Some the fossil may have […]

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4:32 PM | Papers of the Week: 30.04 – 05.05.2013

Papers from this week. [OA] indicates open access, and all are discussable on request. General Interest, Important: Charles Darwin’s Mitochondria. [OA] After he came back from the Beagle voyage, Darwin never set foot on a boat again, and he became a sort of recluse, using a mysterious illness as an excuse to avoid excessive socialising. [...]

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5:28 AM | Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An asaphid trilobite from the Middle Ordovician of the Leningrad Region, Russia

This weathered trilobite is nothing like the gorgeous specimens of this genus you can buy at various rock shops around the world and on the web, but it has sentimental value to me. I collected it on an epic field trip in Russia in 2009. We hacked our way through the woods to an exposure [...]

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3:52 AM | Osteoderm Microstructure of “Rauisuchian” Archosaurs from South America

Cerda, I. A., J. B. Desojo, T. M. Scheyer and C. L. Schultz. In Press. Osteoderm microstructure of “rauisuchian” archosaurs from South America. Geobios (accepted manuscript) doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geobios.2013.01.004Abstract - In this contribution we analyze and discuss the microanatomy and histology of postcranial osteoderms of a number of “rauisuchians” from different localities of South America (Argentina and Brazil). The studied sample includes osteoderms of […]

May 04, 2013

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9:44 PM | The opportunity cost of paywalled research

My eye was caught by this tweet: I'd like to read papers from #chi2013. But I won't $15 each to do so. So there's a bunch of conversations that will never happen…— Greg Wilson (@gvwilson) May 04, 2013 And I found myself wondering how often this scenario plays out around the world every day. How [...]

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12:00 PM | Stink Bug – Chapter 7

I walked a few paces behind K’eel. He – she – kept looking back at me, fluttering her wings with each hop. The sounds of squawking and clucking floated toward me, growing louder with each step. The light of day … Continue reading →

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3:48 AM | Provincialization of Terrestrial Faunas Following the End-Permian Mass Extinction.

Sidor, C. A., D. A. Vilhena, K. D. Angielczyk, A. K. Huttenlocker, S. J. Nesbitt, B. R. Peecook, J. S. Steyer, R. M. H. Smith, and L. A. Tsuji. 2013. Provincialization of terrestrial faunas following the end-Permian mass extinction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (advance online publication) doi: 10.1073/pnas.1302323110 Abstract - In addition to their devastating effects on global biodiversity, mass extinctions have had a long-term influence on the history of […]