Rambles from my Chair (Free subscription) | yesterday
I like it when new species are found - especially new ones that are still around. But occasionally new fossils can be almost equally exciting and this seems the case with Darwinopterus . Scientists have discovered a new type of dinosaur which could unlock the mystery of how humans evolved so quickly after the Ice Age. The remains of 20 skeletons found in North-east China earlier this year have been...
Ecobirder (Free subscription) | 23/11/2009
Up in north east Minnesota the Gooseberry River flows through a gorge forming a series of three scenic waterfalls on its way to Lake Superior. These waterfalls and the area around them have been set aside as Gooseberry Falls State Park. This area of the North Shore has long attracted visitors. Several different tribes of Native American people settled for a time on the North Shore, including Cree,...
monochrom (Free subscription) | 22/11/2009
[...] the first big question is why so many mammalian species evolved hanging scrotal testicles to begin with. The male gonads in some phylogenetic lineages went in completely different directions, evolutionary speaking. For example, modern elephants' testicles remain undescended and are deeply embedded in the body cavity (a trait referred to as "testicond"), whereas other mammals, such as...
Gene Expression (Free subscription) | 21/11/2009
Pleistocene Megafaunal Collapse, Novel Plant Communities, and Enhanced Fire Regimes in North America : Although the North American megafaunal extinctions and the formation of novel plant communities are well-known features of the last deglaciation, the causal relationships between these phenomena are unclear. Using the dung fungus Sporormiella and other paleoecological proxies from Appleman Lake,...
MurciaDailyPhoto (Free subscription) | 20/11/2009
This year marks the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species. Therefore, at the Museum of Science and Water in Murcia ( Museo de la Ciencia y el Agua ) is an exhibition about the evolution of species, showing the work of Darwin and de la Espada. De la Espada was a naturalist born in Cartagena (Murcia). He was born the same year that Darwin...
PALAEOBLOG (Free subscription) | 16/11/2009
The sweet spot of a biological hammer: the centre of percussion of glyptodont (Mammalia: Xenarthra) tail clubs . 2009. R. Ernesto Blanco, et al. Proc. R. Soc. B 167: 3971-3978. image Abstract: The importance of the centre of percussion (CP) of some hand-held sporting equipment (such as tennis rackets and baseball bats) for athletic performance is well known. In order to avoid injuries it is important...
Karen's Blog (Free subscription) | 16/11/2009
It looks like its good news for water voles if this article is correct. The creature which was declared an endangered species in 2008 now appears to be becoming more common and there were twice as many spotted this year as there were last year. According to the article water voles have been the UK’s fastest declining mammal with numbers declining due to unsympathetic farming and watercourse...
An American Lion (Free subscription) | 15/11/2009
An illustration of the Falklands wolf from The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, which was published in the late 1830s. Did someone bring the now-extinct Falklands wolf to those islands or did it evolve there? The Falklands wolf has puzzled evolutionary biologists since Charles Darwin first encountered it during the voyage of the Beagle in the 1830s. It was the only native land mammal on the...
Female of the Species (Free subscription) | 14/11/2009
Last month on my blog I introduced you to little Zamba the white rhino born at Colchester Zoo and this entry is to say congratulations to Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay, Florida who, on Wednesday 11th November, welcomed the birth of this sweet little female white rhino. Her mother, Mlaleni, and father, Tambo, have already reared three other calves at the zoo over the years (Malaika, 2004; Dakari, 2006;...
nufc1892 blog on Absolute Radio (Free subscription) | 09/11/2009
A huge increase in sightings of the elusive water vole, immortalised as Ratty in Wind in the Willows, has been recorded in a waterways wildlife survey. British Waterways said 89 voles had been spotted making their home on inland waterways this year, twice as many as last year. Most of the sightings of Britain's fastest declining mammal were on the Kennet and Avon Canal which runs between Reading and...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 09/11/2009
Ratty was always a brave fighter when cornered, as the stoats, the weasels, and readers of the Wind in the Willows will remember. And now he is fighting back. Kenneth Grahame's heroic messer-about in boats was – as the illustrations clearly show – not a rat at all but a water vole, a creature which has become one of Britain's rarest mammals. The population is estimated to have crashed...
Big Cat News (Free subscription) | 07/11/2009
The Tampa Tribune Published: November 7, 2009 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission workers are holding an amnesty event today where unwanted nonnative pets can be handed over with no questions asked. The program is offered only a few times a year in cities across the state. Today's event at Busch Gardens is co-sponsored by the city of Plant City. Exotic pets may be brought to the parking...
Ryan's garden (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009
When we think of Autumn in the garden we think foliage, we think evergreen and we think berries. This plant has all of this and much, much more. Often overlooked the Cotoneaster is somewhat of a garden stalwar t. It provides everything you want in an evergreen shrub. It has form, provides structure, year round interest and it is also very versatile. The species pictured here in my garden, which I believe...
University of Guelph News (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009
In the most comprehensive study of vertebrate evolution ever attempted an international consortium of scientists - including some from the University of Guelph - is planning to assemble a genomic zoo, a collection of DNA sequences for 10,000 species. Known as the Genome 10K Project, it involves gathering tissue and DNA specimens from thousands of vertebrates throughout the world, then sequencing the...
Avian Flu Diary (Free subscription) | 05/11/2009
# 3959 The World Health Organization has released their 15th Pandemic Briefing note, this time dealing with the hot subject of the H1N1 virus beginning to show up in farm animals, such as turkeys and pigs. This has been a frequent topic of conversation in this, an many other flu blogs, with my latest blog about this coming earlier today. Infection of farmed animals with the pandemic virus Pandemic...
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