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Category Archives: paleontology
The state of global biodiversity — it’s worse than you probably think — ConservationBytes.com
Sobering synopsis here by CJA Bradshaw. For those of us who study natural history, such information confronts us every day. It can be easy to forget that we are a tiny minority of the billions of humans on this planet … Continue reading
Posted in bat conservation, birds/nature, deforestation, editorial, Endangered Species Act, environment, evolution, history, IUCN, nature deficit disorder, No Child Left Inside, overpopulation, paleontology, population estimates, population monitoring, skepticism and science, wildlife
Tagged Anthropocene, biodiversity, Conservation Bytes, Diaz et al. 2019, environment, extinction, nature, population, science, Sixth Mass Extinction
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Anchiornis in living color
Laser flourescence of the feathered dinosaur Anchiornis provides a picture of its life appearance in stunning detail http://ift.tt/2lTPfzX via Laser flourescence of the feathered dinosaur Anchiornis provides a picture of its life appearance in stunning detail — Like For Real Dough
Posted in bird evolution, birds/nature, evolution, history, Links, paleontology, skepticism and science
Tagged Anchiornis, avian pigmentation
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HBW Alive Newsletter #21 – March 2016
The latest newsletter of the Handbook of the Birds of the World has been released and it, as usual, is chock full of fascinating discoveries*, insightful synthesis, and stunning multi-media features. *For example, I just learned that a flightless owl … Continue reading
Posted in animal behavior, bird evolution, birding, birds/nature, editorial, Endangered Species Act, environment, Epidexipteryx, evolution, Great Auk, HBW Alive, history, hummingbirds, IUCN, life, migrants, paleontology, skepticism and science, vultures, wildlife
Tagged biodiversity, birding, conservation, ornithology
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Tuataras even chew weirdly
In 2008, I shared the story of the great longevity of the lizard-like tuatara of New Zealand. Today, Victoria Gill of the BBC’s Nature blog has reported on a study from researchers investigating what appears to be a unique chewing … Continue reading
Posted in animal behavior, birds/nature, evolution, history, IUCN, paleontology, skepticism and science, wildlife
Tagged tuatara
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What lies beneath – Lake Vostok
As reported by the BBC’s Johnathan Amos, Russian researchers are claiming success at drilling through the continental ice sheet in Antarctica to be the first humans to make contact with Lake Vostok. Vostok is one of about 300 lakes of … Continue reading
Posted in environment, evolution, history, Links, paleontology, skepticism and science
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The Beauty of Carl Sagan. (Really? Yeah, really!)
I was there. I walked that campus and slept through my classes and met my wife and pulled all-nighters to cram for my exams . . . while Carl Sagan was somewhere on that campus, thinking mind-expanding thoughts, inspiring a … Continue reading
A new idea for what Velociraptors did with those claws
By now, we’re all familiar with this image: Velociraptors running at high speed toward a big lumbering dinosaur that the little demons subdue with an onslaught of murderous slashes from an outsized claw on their second toe. Mark Stevenson’s reproduction … Continue reading
Jimmy Stewart, the Abominable Snowman, and Christmas
I’ve long been a fan of the actor James “Jimmy” Stewart. He was a handsome everyman, homespun yet sophisticated, scrawny yet tough. He did it all from comic pratfalls to Hitchcockian suspense to dusty Westerns. He also famously ate himself … Continue reading
Posted in history, life, Links, paleontology, skepticism and science, yeti/sasquatch
Tagged abominable snowman, bumble, Jimmy Stewart, Nepal, Peter Byrne, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, yeti, yeti relic
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Stunning new theropod fossil from Bavaria
Spiegel Online reported Wednesday on a new theropod fossil from Bavaria that is remarkable for its state of preservation.
Posted in evolution, life, Links, paleontology, skepticism and science
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Is Archaeopteryx no longer the first bird?
In a story today by BBC Science Reporter Matt McGrath, paleontologists are debating the long-held view of Archaeopteryx lithographica as the “first bird.” At issue is the discovery of new birdlike fossils, notably Xiaotingia from China, that were very similar … Continue reading
Did the big pterosaurs really fly?
Reporting on the Science NOW website, Kristen Minogue has written of a recent controversy regarding the ability of the largest pterosaurs to fly. Mark Witton Two recent papers have challenged that the really big “flying” reptiles of the Mesozoic (think … Continue reading
Say it with nanodiamonds – no Pleistocene killer asteroid
This much we know: About 20,000 years ago the great continental ice sheet of the Wisconsin glaciation in North America was receding and biomes were shifting as the climate warmed. This was the end of the most recent “ice age” … Continue reading
Posted in animal behavior, environment, evolution, life, Links, migrants, paleontology, skepticism and science, weather, wildlife
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All beak, but not much bite
Phil Beradelli reported in ScienceShot today on new research into the hunting style of certain phorusrhacid “terror birds” that were important predators on the Argentinian plains about 6 million years ago. These flightless running birds were fast, ostrich-like hunters that … Continue reading
Wilson Journal of Ornithology, Volume 122, No. 3
Check out the latest table of contents for the September issue, 2010: The Wilson Journal of Ornithology (formerly The Wilson Bulletin) Volume 122, Number 3 CONTENTS September 2010 Major Articles 417 Reproductive success and nestling growth of the Baywing parasitized … Continue reading
Posted in animal behavior, bird banding, bird evolution, birding, birds/nature, deforestation, editorial, Endangered Species Act, environment, Epidexipteryx, evolution, IUCN, life, Links, migrants, Northern Saw-Whet Owl, ornithological newsletter, paleontology, skepticism and science, vultures, weather, wildlife
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Jurassic Ark: mammal hairs preserved in amber
Mesozoic tree amber has now produced something other than exquisitely preserved insects and the tantalizing science fiction of cloning dinosaurs from blood in ancient mosquitoes: two mammal hairs have been identified in an amber sample from the Jurassic Period, about … Continue reading
25 million organisms just went extinct
ScienceNow writer Helen Fields has reported on new research that uses a different technique to estimate the number of species on Earth. This new methods adjusts our estimate of total, multicellular biodiversity from somewhere around 30 million to maybe something … Continue reading
Polar Bears older than many thought
In a cool new story from the ScienceNews webpage, Charlotte Lindqvist (University at Buffalo) and 13 colleagues have just published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that places the age of the oldest polar bear … Continue reading
New enormous Pliosaur discovered in Great Britain
BBS Science Reporter Rebecca Morelle wrote last week about the discovery of a massive skull unearthed in Dorset, UK. The skull belonged to a pliosaur – a giant, carnivorous, marine reptile from the Mesozoic Era. Check out the cool story … Continue reading
Posted in birds/nature, environment, evolution, life, Links, paleontology, skepticism and science, wildlife
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New fossil pterosaur: Darwinopterus
Thanks to BBC Science Reporter Matt McGrath for this article on a new species of pterosaur recently described from fossils collected in northeast China. Lead researcher Dr. David Unwin (University of Leicester) and colleagues have dubbed the creature Darwinopterus modularis. … Continue reading
weekly haiku – Ardipithecus ramidus
New discovery! Our new, oldest ancestor. Ardi is the man!
Posted in editorial, environment, evolution, haiku, history, kids, life, paleontology, skepticism and science, wildlife, yeti/sasquatch
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