Posts

May 02, 2013

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11:00 AM | Senor Frog

National Blog Posting Month – May 2013 – Comfort Prompt – Do you still sleep with a stuffed animal now? —— One stuffed animal that frequently finds himself in bed with me is Biff, my stuffed bass. My mother made … Continue reading →

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7:18 AM | What specimen is this — the reveal!

Yesterday I asked whether anyone could identify this specimen: There was an interesting range of suggestions, but I suppose no-one will be surprised to hear that Darren Naish was the first to make real progress, saying “Hey, that’s a loooong pelvis… I smell macropod.” From there it was a short leap to William Miller asking [...]

May 01, 2013

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9:18 PM | How did sperm and egg evolve?

Sex comes at a large cost: a sexual female is only half as fertile as an asexual individual, because the sexual female has to divide her offspring into males and females. So when an asexual organism can produce 50 offspring capable of reproducing, the sexual one can only produce 25, since the males and females [...]

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3:16 PM | Walking With Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie

Ceratopsia triumphant! The international trailer for Walking with Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie is here, giving us our first good look of what to expect. Pachyrhinosaurus takes center stage here, and among the supporting cast are mighty Edmontosaurs, feathered Troodons, and a few big nasty theropods. No Wittonesque shaggy coats or bristly bits on the Pachyrhinosaurs, but it's going to look mighty pretty. Guess I'll have to get over my aversion to 3D. I'm feeling pretty stoked. This is exactly the […]

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2:34 PM | Reflections on the A to Z Blogging Challenge

In April, that just ended yesterday, I participated in the A to Z blogging challenge in which for 26 of the 30 days of April I prepared a blog post on a topic beginning with a different letter of the … Continue reading →

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11:00 AM | Deppo-Deppo-Doo and Other Clever Songs

National Blog Posting Month – May 2013 – Comfort Prompt – Did you have a favourite stuffed animal or lovey as a child? Tell us about it. —— Did I have a favorite stuffed animal? Clearly a rhetorica question. He-he. … Continue reading →

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9:00 AM | Episode 16: Multicellularity in cyanobacteria

One of the most significant events in Earth’s history has been the oxygenation of its atmosphere 2.45–2.32 billion years ago. This accumulation of molecular oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere was so significant that it is now commonly known as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE). The long-reaching effects of the GOE were literally world-changing; the compositions of the atmosphere and hydrosphere were altered,

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8:08 AM | What specimen is this?

A quiz. What is this? Here it is in close-up: (Click through the pictures for full resolution.) Anyone know?

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3:28 AM | Whenever I visit the Co-Op Bookshop...

Image courtesy of [...]

April 30, 2013

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3:17 PM | Fluctuating selection, canalisation, and evolvability: Why macroevolution is not “microevolution writ large”

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say that macroevolution is just “microevolution writ large”; this is a common saying especially among the creationist-debunkers to counter the claim that microevolution happens but macroevolution doesn’t. It infuriates me to no end, particularly because one of my biggest research goals is to identify the factors [...]

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1:59 PM | A Beautiful Day at Fern Valley

A large crowd of community members congregated on Saturday to show their appreciation for the donation of Fern Valley to The College of Wooster as its new field station. Betty and David (retired French Professor) Wilkin donated the tract of land located in northern Holmes County that includes a gorge and a stream (Wilkin Run [...]

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11:00 AM | “Z” is for Zanycteris

“Z” is for Zanycteris This is it! The last Paleocene mammal of the month. One that starts with the letter “Z.” Zanycteris is a member of the Family Picrodontidae, which is in turn a member of the group of mammals … Continue reading →

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10:30 AM | Kingena wacoensis Brachiopod

Here are some pictures of some Kingena (Waconella) wacoensis brachiopod fossils. These fossils were found in the Main Street Limestone of Denton County, Texas. They are dated to the Cretaceous Period.

April 29, 2013

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9:31 PM | Predatory publishers: a real problem

Predatory publishers are an increasingly prevalent problem. Jeffrey Beall’s list is getting a lot of coverage recently, including stories in Nature and in the New York Times. But the most recent and troubling predatory-publisher story I’ve read is about a lawsuit. No, not the Edwin Mellen Press libel suit. Three publishers are suing Delhi University for [...]

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9:13 PM | Rise of the Evolutionary Theory

This guest post is written by Jessica Reynolds, who loves all aspects of science, especially anthropology and archaeology. After obtaining a degree in anthropology she decided to give up her trowel in favor of pursing writing. She currently writes about various scientific topics, including resources for students who need a scientific poster or other resources for [...]

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6:30 PM | Out With the Old Stegosaurus

Dinosaurs have changed quite a bit since I was a kid. Tails have been lifted, spines adjusted, skulls …

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11:00 AM | “Y” is for Yuesthonyx

“Y” is for Yuesthonyx Coming up with a Paleocene mammal that started with “Y” was another challenge. A big thanks to Dan Spivak (@danman222 on Twitter) for pointing this one out to me. When Yuesthonyx was named, a new family … Continue reading →

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10:30 AM | Spirifer Brachiopod Fossil

Brachiopod fossil this might be a Spirifer sp. found in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, USA. This brachiopod looks a lot like those found in southern Indiana in the Jeffersonville Limestone called Orthospirifer sp. The Indiana fossil tends to be more gray though.The Spirifer sp. exist in the Milwaukee Formation with is dated to the Middle Devonian Period.Thanks to Nathan for the fossil.

April 28, 2013

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11:04 PM | Papers of the Week: 22.04 – 29.04.2013

Papers from the past week. [OA] are open access. Feel free to request a detailed discussion on any of these. General Interest, Important: Special Issue: Vivisection Vivisection, the practice of dissecting living organisms for scientific study, is nowadays mostly frowned upon for bioethical reasons. We can study anatomy when the animal is dead, and there [...]

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9:30 AM | Spanish Nummulite Fossils

These fossils are Nummulites sp. which are a type of foraminifera. They were found in Spain and existed in the Eocene epoch of the Paleogene Period. Some of these fossils are the size of an American silver dollar.

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5:59 AM | Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Tubular drillholes (Upper Ordovician of the Cincinnati Region)

This is one of the simplest fossils ever: a cylindrical hole drilled into a hard substrate like a skeleton or rock. The above image is of a hardground (cemented carbonate seafloor) from the Upper Ordovician of northern Kentucky with these borings cut perpendicularly to the bedding and descending downwards. Each boring is filled with light-colored [...]

April 27, 2013

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10:46 PM | Sed/Strat goes local with its field trip: the Meadville Shale and the Logan Formation (Lower Carboniferous)

WOOSTER, OHIO–The traditional spring field trip in the Sedimentology & Stratigraphy course at Wooster is taken several hours south, usually in Jackson County or, as last year, in a soggy quarry outside of Dayton. This time, though, we stayed nearby, measuring and describing the local bedrock: the Meadville Shale Member and the Logan Formation, both [...]

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5:49 PM | Spider Vision

This is a requested post on the basics of spider eyes; for more on spiders, check out my spider lecture. Spiders only have ocelli, simple eyes consisting of a lens covering a vitreous fluid-filled pit with a retina (pigment cells + visual cells) at the bottom. The ocelli come in two types: the main eyes [...]

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11:00 AM | “X” is for Xanclomys

“X” is for Xanclomys Xanclomys is a multituberculate with a uniquely shaped lower fourth premolar. Alas, Xanclomys is a rare little mammal, so there’s little information about it. The unique shape of its premolar did make me want to compare … Continue reading →

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10:30 AM | Pentamerus Brachiopod Mold

There are some molds of a Pentamerus sp. brachiopod fossil found in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, USA. For some reason we I see these types of fossils, I think of a pig's hoof. These fossils date to the Silurian Period. A very nice write up on these types of fossils can be found on the Wooster Geologists Blog. Thanks to Nathan for the fossil.

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10:21 AM | DIY Dinosaurs, Part 2: sculpting dino claws

A few weeks ago I threw this picture into the “Night at the Museum” post and promised to say more later. Later is now. I started sculpting dinosaur claws because of the coincidental arrival of two things in my life. One was a cast of OMNH 780, the horrifically awesome thumb claw of Jurassic megapredator [...]

April 26, 2013

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6:56 PM | Wooster Geology poster session at the 2013 Senior Research Symposium at The College of Wooster

WOOSTER, OHIO–It was a bit of a crowded room in Andrews Library for our geology seniors (and all their friends, family and faculty), but it was a very happy place. Joe Wilch (above) escaped the crowd, though, because he is a double math and geology major and thus presented his poster in Taylor Hall. His [...]

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4:28 PM | Overview of the Triassic Pterosaur Record

Another paper from the upcoming volume on Triassic archosaurs. Dalla Vecchia, F. 2013. Triassic Pterosaurs. From Nesbitt, S. J., Desojo, J. B. & Irmis, R. B. (eds) 2013. Anatomy, Phylogeny and Palaeobiology of Early Archosaurs and their Kin. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 379, http://dx.doi.org/10.1144/SP379.14 Abstract - Pterosaurs are a clade of highly specialized, volant archosauromorphs recorded from the Upper Triassic to the uppermost Cretaceous. […]

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3:18 PM | DIY Dinosaurs, Part 1: papier mache

Earlier this spring London and I got on a building dinosaurs kick, inspired by this post at Tumblehome Learning. I used a few of these photos as filler in this post, but I haven’t talked much about what we did and what we learned. Above is my first attempt at a wire skeleton for a [...]

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2:39 PM | Lauren Vargo (’13) starts off the Wooster Geologists in the 2013 Senior Research Symposium at The College of Wooster

WOOSTER, OHIO–The College of Wooster has an annual celebration of Independent Study after all the theses are done and (most) of the oral examinations. It is much fun as our students present their research to the community, which often includes people from the town and quite a few family members. The amount and quality of [...]