OK, so the usual joke is Geology rocks, but Catherine Bennett, who describes herself as a “Dinosaur-loving, bike-riding, dog-owning, tuna pasta eating pop star!!” created this cool video with the remixed title. It stars many palaeontologists I know from the UK, and is a really nice way of showcasing the diversity of palaeontologists and palaeontology we have here. Enjoy! Link including ...[Read More]
Green tea and Velociraptors turns into beer and dwarf crocodiles
I’m in Berlin. I’ve just managed to find a chicken donner kebab, and am pausing research briefly to write this. I’m currently on leave from London, with a ridiculously hectic couple of months ahead: I’ve just been to Munich to see a dwarf crocodile specimen, Alligatorellus beaumonti (from Bavaria), which conveniently happened to coincide with Oktoberfest, and am now here to ...[Read More]
That’s one small step for dinosaur-kind..
This is a guest post by Collin VanBuren. He’s currently starting his PhD at the University of Cambridge researching the effects of climate change on living and fossil frogs, as well as the relationship between the shape of anatomical structures and their function. He loves the outdoors, biomechanics, and conservation, and regularly tweets about these subjects on his Twitter account (@CollinV ...[Read More]
Geology beyond science
This was originally posted at: http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/earthbound/geology_beyond_science So people who read this blog (*one person cheers off in the distance*) may have noticed that my partner-in-crime, Jane Robb, recently abandoned me to the fusty claws of Nature. *sniff* Fear not though! Jane is pursuing awesome things now with the European Geosciences Union, the other organisation I ...[Read More]
So you want to be a palaeontologist..?
Well, according to Sesame Street, all you need to do is sing the palaeontologist theme song! So forget studying, research, and years of training. Actually, it is pretty cool – it does show this; all you need to do to become a palaeontologist is have a fascination for the natural world, and get your hunting hat on! Found at: http://koprolitos.blogspot.it/2013/09/sesame-street-pa ...[Read More]
Plotting for the Earth. Sciences.
This was originally posted at: http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/earthbound/plotting_for_the_earth_sciences So a cool paper came out a while back about using plots when attempting to construct stories as a mode of communicating in Earth Science. I cannot, as always, emphasise my frustration when someone writes an article that’s supposed to be broadly educational, and sticks it behind a paywall. ...[Read More]
No Daily Mail, a 230 million year old amphibian is not a dinosaur..
The Daily Fail have struck again, this time the poor victim being the rather cool fossil, Metoposaurus diagnosticus. Metoposaurus is an amphibious, er, amphibian from Germany, Italy, Poland and Portugal, and a member of a group called temnospondyls. However, three times in an article published yesterday, the innocent amphibian is labeled as a ‘dinosaur’ – what did it ever to to d ...[Read More]
Geologists as a social stigma?
So I was browsing for content for future blog posts the other day, and came across this video from Friends (the show people of my era grew up with). Ross is a palaeontologist, so naturally one of the coolest, smartest and sexiest of all the science breeds, but takes a little dig at geologists here in a social context. Now compare that to this video from American Dad, in which geologists are portra ...[Read More]
‘Meat was so sixty million years agAAAGHH…’
Some dinosaurs were utterly bizarre. You may have heard of them before, but one particular group called therizinosaurs belonged to the meat-eating theropod dinosaurs (those that led to birds), were really awesome. However, they actually at some point made a conscious evolutionary decision to stop being badasses, and become Cretaceous-cauliflower* munching pansies.
The greatest story ever told, by fossils
A lot of recent(ish) posts featured on this blog have been about the evolution of flight and feathered dinosaurs. I promised to kick this habit, and write about something different, but this video by Carl Zimmer adds a really nice narrative to the story and is quite a nice little overview for anyone interested. If you have any questions about bird-like fossils, feathers, their function, or dino-bi ...[Read More]