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Laelaps
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- August 27, 2010
- 11:41 AM
- 190 views
It’s just a little pre-digested; it’s still good, it’s still good.
If you want to know about the life and habitat of a woolly mammoth, there is scarcely a better place to look than in its dung. Found frozen in the permafrost or extracted from the intestines of well-preserved specimens, mammoth coprolites are fecal records of the plants which existed in the animal's local environment and [...]... Read more »
VANGEEL, B., APTROOT, A., BAITTINGER, C., BIRKS, H., BULL, I., CROSS, H., EVERSHED, R., GRAVENDEEL, B., KOMPANJE, E., & KUPERUS, P. (2008) The ecological implications of a Yakutian mammoth's last meal. Quaternary Research, 69(3), 361-376. DOI: 10.1016/j.yqres.2008.02.004
van Geel, B., Guthrie, R., Altmann, J., Broekens, P., Bull, I., Gill, F., Jansen, B., Nieman, A., & Gravendeel, B. (2010) Mycological evidence of coprophagy from the feces of an Alaskan Late Glacial mammoth. Quaternary Science Reviews. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.03.008
- August 26, 2010
- 07:46 AM
- 39 views
The Usefulness of Dolphin Snot
For years marine biologists have relied on dart biopsies – small portions of tissue obtained by shooting a dart into an animal – to study the genetics of dolphins in the wild. The trouble is that this method can’t be used on very young animals for fear of harming them, and concerns about injury to [...]... Read more »
Frère, C., Krzyszczyk, E., Patterson, E., Hunter, S., Ginsburg, A., & Mann, J. (2010) Thar She Blows! A Novel Method for DNA Collection from Cetacean Blow. PLoS ONE, 5(8). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012299
- August 16, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 73 views
Repost – Unique Fossils Record the Dining Habits of Ancient Sharks
Shark attacks are events of speed and violence. When they have locked-on to a prey item, sharks seem to come out of nowhere, and though they can be quite gentle with their jaws (as on occasions when they are unsure about whether something is food or not) their ranks of serrated teeth can inflict a [...]... Read more »
CHRISTY C. VISAGGI and STEPHEN J. GODFREY. (2010) VARIATION IN COMPOSITION AND ABUNDANCE OF MIOCENE SHARK TEETH FROM CALVERT CLIFFS, MARYLAND. Journal of Verterbrate Paleontology, 30(1), 26-35. info:/
Godfrey, S., & Smith, J. (2010) Shark-bitten vertebrate coprolites from the Miocene of Maryland. Naturwissenschaften. DOI: 10.1007/s00114-010-0659-x
BIANUCCI, G., SORCE, B., STORAI, T., & LANDINI, W. (2010) Killing in the Pliocene: shark attack on a dolphin from Italy. Palaeontology, 53(2), 457-470. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2010.00945.x
- August 10, 2010
- 10:56 AM
- 70 views
Mother Tigers Pass Down Territory to Their Daughters
For female Amur tigers, defending your territory is not just about acquiring enough food to survive; it's also about passing down real estate to your daughter. As described by a team of scientists led by the Wildlife Conservation Society's John Goodrich in the latest issue of the Journal of Mammalogy, a 14-year study of Amur [...]... Read more »
Goodrich, J., Miquelle, D., Smirnov, E., Kerley, L., Quigley, H., & Hornocker, M. (2010) Spatial structure of Amur (Siberian) tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) on Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Zapovednik, Russia. Journal of Mammalogy, 91(3), 737-748. DOI: 10.1644/09-MAMM-A-293.1
- August 9, 2010
- 12:08 PM
- 58 views
The Bite of the Bear-Dog
Between 23 and 16 million years ago, just outside of where the city of Lisbon, Portugal sits today, there lived a unique mix of mammals which would have seemed both strange and familiar. From bones and footprints left in fossilized feces, paleontologists have found that rhinoceros, deer, horses, antelope, and elephants browsed and grazed in [...]... Read more »
ANTUNES, M., BALBINO, A., & GINSBURG, L. (2006) Ichnological evidence of a Miocene rhinoceros bitten by a bear-dog (Amphicyon giganteus). Annales de Paléontologie, 92(1), 31-39. DOI: 10.1016/j.annpal.2005.10.002
ANTUNES, M., BALBINO, A., & GINSBURG, L. (2006) Miocene Mammalian footprints in coprolites from Lisbon, Portugal. Annales de Paléontologie, 92(1), 13-30. DOI: 10.1016/j.annpal.2005.09.002
Christine Argot. (2010) Morphofunctional analysis of the postcranium of Amphicyon major (Mammalia, Carnivora, Amphicyonidae) from the Miocene of Sansan(Gers, France) compared to three extant carnivores: Ursus arctos, Panthera leo, and Canis lupus. Geodivertistas, 32(1), 65-106. info:/
- August 6, 2010
- 01:50 PM
- 1,722 views
Fossil Bonanza in Australian Cave Documents the Growth of a Prehistoric Marsupial
By now you have no doubt heard about the dinosaurian tempest-in-a-teacup I recently called #TriceraFAIL. To sum things up briefly - on the basis of skeletal anatomy and histology, paleontologists John Scannella and Jack Horner proposed that the horned dinosaur traditionally known as Torosaurus was actually the fully-mature growth stage of Triceratops. If further evidence [...]... Read more »
Black, K., Archer, M., Hand, S., & Godthelp, H. (2010) First comprehensive analysis of cranial ontogeny in a fossil marsupial—from a 15-million-year-old cave deposit in northern Australia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 30(4), 993-1011. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2010.483567
- July 30, 2010
- 02:41 PM
- 143 views
It’s all in the toes – Why Old World monkeys change their limb posture to run
Just by looking at its limbs, you can tell that a cheetah is born to run. Not only does this felid have non-retractable claws which act like cleats on a runner's shoe - a unique feature among big cats - but it also has the familiar tip-toe limb posture which allows the carnivore to reach [...]... Read more »
Patel, B. (2009) Not so fast: Speed effects on forelimb kinematics in cercopithecine monkeys and implications for digitigrade postures in primates. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 140(1), 92-112. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.21039
- July 21, 2010
- 05:52 PM
- 123 views
Taking a second look at the “Fire Beast”, Pyrotherium
Until just a few years ago, I never paid that much attention to fossil mammals. Sure, I was impressed by the saber-toothed cat Smilodon and the American mastodon Mammut americanum - badass, extinct versions of living big cats and elephants - but beyond that they never really grabbed my interest. Although clearly different from living [...]... Read more »
Billet, G. (2009) New Observations on the Skull of Pyrotherium (Pyrotheria, Mammalia) and New Phylogenetic Hypotheses on South American Ungulates. Journal of Mammalian Evolution, 17(1), 21-59. DOI: 10.1007/s10914-009-9123-0
- July 19, 2010
- 04:03 PM
- 98 views
Prehistoric “bear-dog” Amphicyon was built like a “bear-lion”
In surveying the diversity of living organisms, the 20th century evolutionary theorist Theodosius Dobzhansky did not see "a formless mass of randomly combining genes and traits." Instead he perceived pockets of discontinuity organized around available ecological niches - clusters of occupied "adaptive peaks" separated by rifts and valleys representing vacant spots in the natural world. [...]... Read more »
Christine Argot. (2010) Morphofunctional analysis of the postcranium of Amphicyon major (Mammalia, Carnivora, Amphicyonidae) from the Miocene of Sansan(Gers, France) compared to three extant carnivores: Ursus arctos, Panthera leo, and Canis lupus. Geodivertistas, 32(1), 65-106. info:/
- July 16, 2010
- 11:53 AM
- 231 views
Prehistoric mammal Prolibytherium had a “butterfly face”
Exactly what Prolibytherium magnieri was, no one is quite sure. Since the time it was described in 1961, the 17-16.5 million year old mammal from Egypt and Libya has been closely allied with prehistoric relatives of deer (Palaeomerycidae), ancient giraffes (such as Sivatherium), and a motley group of giraffe cousins (Climacoceratidae). Many experts now agree [...]... Read more »
Sanchez, I., Quiralte, V., Morales, J., Azanza, B., & Pickford, M. (2010) Sexual dimorphism of the frontal appendages of the early Miocene African pecoran Prolibytherium Arambourg, 1961 (Mammalia, Ruminantia). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 30(4), 1306-1310. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2010.483555
- July 15, 2010
- 03:10 PM
- 103 views
Fossil primate Saadanius provides context for the ancient ape/Old World monkey split
Imagine that there was no primate fossil record. No hominins, no Proconsul, Dryopithecus, no Eosimias, no Darwinius -- nothing. Now, given this dearth of fossil material, you could be excused for systematically organizing primates according to the stark divisions apparent between living species. Our species, while clearly a primate, would seem to stand by itself, [...]... Read more »
Zalmout, I., Sanders, W., MacLatchy, L., Gunnell, G., Al-Mufarreh, Y., Ali, M., Nasser, A., Al-Masari, A., Al-Sobhi, S., Nadhra, A.... (2010) New Oligocene primate from Saudi Arabia and the divergence of apes and Old World monkeys. Nature, 466(7304), 360-364. DOI: 10.1038/nature09094
- July 14, 2010
- 10:03 AM
- 106 views
Taung, 2.3 Million Years Ago – Scratched bones and fossil primate teeth as keys to a lost world
On December 23, 1924, the Australian anatomist Raymond Dart chipped away the last bit of rock encasing the skull of a small fossil primate. The specimen had been part of a collection of fossil scraps sent to him from a limestone quarry in Taung, South Africa - not too far from where he was teaching [...]... Read more »
DART, R. (1925) Australopithecus africanus: The Man-Ape of South Africa. Nature, 115(2884), 195-199. DOI: 10.1038/115195a0
WILLIAMS, F., & PATTERSON, J. (2010) RECONSTRUCTING THE PALEOECOLOGY OF TAUNG, SOUTH AFRICA FROM LOW MAGNIFICATION OF DENTAL MICROWEAR FEATURES IN FOSSIL PRIMATES. PALAIOS, 25(7), 439-448. DOI: 10.2110/palo.2009.p09-116r
Berger, L. (1995) Eagle involvement in accumulation of the Taung child fauna. Journal of Human Evolution, 29(3), 275-299. DOI: 10.1006/jhev.1995.1060
- July 6, 2010
- 01:23 PM
- 133 views
Funky Worms Cause Ants to Mimic Fruit
A normal giant gliding ant (left) and an infested ant (right). The red color of the gaster is not caused by a pigment, but thinning of the exoskeleton combined with the color of the nematode eggs. From Yanoviak et al, 2008.
In one of my favorite episodes of the animated TV show Futurama, the chief protagonist - delivery boy Philip J. Fry - becomes infested with worms after eating a dodgy egg-salad sandwich purchased from the restroom of an interstellar truck stop. Lucky for Fry, the parasite........ Read more »
Yanoviak, S., Kaspari, M., Dudley, R., & Poinar, G. (2008) Parasite‐Induced Fruit Mimicry in a Tropical Canopy Ant. The American Naturalist, 171(4), 536-544. DOI: 10.1086/528968
HUGHES, D., KRONAUER, D., & BOOMSMA, J. (2008) Extended Phenotype: Nematodes Turn Ants into Bird-Dispersed Fruits. Current Biology, 18(7). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2008.02.001
- July 1, 2010
- 12:08 PM
- 126 views
What's eating you? - Bugs, bacteria, and zombies
The trailer for Shaun of the Dead.
Not all zombies are created equal. The most popular zombie archetype is a shambling, brain-eating member of the recently deceased, but, in recent films from 28 Days Later to Zombieland, the definition of what a zombie is or isn't has become more complicated. Does a zombie have to be a cannibal corpse, or can a zombie be someone infected with a virus which turns them into a blood-crazed, fast-running monster?
For my own part, I have always preferred the cla........ Read more »
Campobasso, C. (2001) Factors affecting decomposition and Diptera colonization. Forensic Science International, 120(1-2), 18-27. DOI: 10.1016/S0379-0738(01)00411-X
Carter, D., Yellowlees, D., & Tibbett, M. (2006) Cadaver decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems. Naturwissenschaften, 94(1), 12-24. DOI: 10.1007/s00114-006-0159-1
DeVault, T., Brisbin, Jr., I., & Rhodes, Jr., O. (2004) Factors influencing the acquisition of rodent carrion by vertebrate scavengers and decomposers. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 82(3), 502-509. DOI: 10.1139/Z04-022
- June 30, 2010
- 11:31 AM
- 98 views
Deceitful Male Topi Raise False Alarms to Keep Females Nearby
Out on the grassy plains of Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve, a group of six female topi antelope (Damaliscus lunatus) walk across the savanna. It is the time of the annual rut - a one and a half month period in which most males control small patches of land and try to attract adult females which, for one day, are in estrus. The small group walks by one of the lone males, but just as they reach the edge of his territory he snorts an alarm. It means that somewhere, out ahead of them, a preda........ Read more »
Bro‐Jørgensen, J., & Pangle, W. (2010) Male Topi Antelopes Alarm Snort Deceptively to Retain Females for Mating. The American Naturalist, 176(1). DOI: 10.1086/653078
- June 28, 2010
- 07:27 PM
- 130 views
The Extinction of the Hundsheim Rhino - Being a Generalist Isn't All It's Cracked Up to Be
The skeleton of the Hundsheim rhinoceros, Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis. From Kahlke and Kaiser, 2010.
In any given environment, it might be expected that a generalized or unspecialized species might be less prone to extinction than one which depends upon a narrow temperature range, a peculiar kind of food, or other aspect of natural history which is key to its survival. An herbivorous mammal which can subsist on a variety of grasses, leaves, and other plant foods, for example, may be more l........ Read more »
Kahlke, R., & Kaiser, T. (2010) Generalism as a subsistence strategy: advantages and limitations of the highly flexible feeding traits of Pleistocene Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis (Rhinocerotidae, Mammalia)☆. Quaternary Science Reviews. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2009.12.012
- June 24, 2010
- 02:09 PM
- 112 views
Sea Otters, Hunters, and Steller's Sea Cows - Replaying a Recent Extinction
The nearly complete skeleton of a Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) - it is missing bones from the wrist and hand. From Woodward, 1885.
It did not take long for the last remaining population of Steller's sea cow to be driven into extinction. Discovered by the German naturalist Georg Steller around the Bering Sea's Commander Islands in 1741, this enormous and peculiar sirenian became an easy target for Russian hunters. By 1768, it was gone. (The marine mammal would not be scientifically ........ Read more »
Turvey, S., & Risley, C. (2006) Modelling the extinction of Steller's sea cow. Biology Letters, 2(1), 94-97. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2005.0415
- June 23, 2010
- 05:37 PM
- 155 views
Ancient "Big Man" Confirms That Humans Stood Tall Early
The skeletons of Lucy (left) and Kadanuumuu (right). Both belong to the early human species Australopithecus afarensis. (Images not to scale.)
I never fully appreciated how small Lucy was until I saw her bones for myself. Photographs and restorations of her and her kin within the species Australopithecus afarensis had never really given me a proper sense of scale, and when I looked over her incomplete skeleton - formally known as specimen A.L. 288-1 - I was struck by her diminutive proportio........ Read more »
Haile-Selassie, Y., Latimer, B., Alene, M., Deino, A., Gibert, L., Melillo, S., Saylor, B., Scott, G., & Lovejoy, C. (2010) An early Australopithecus afarensis postcranium from Woranso-Mille, Ethiopia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1004527107
- June 22, 2010
- 11:50 AM
- 154 views
Homo sapiens can bite hard, after all
Three-dimensional models of hominoid skulls used in the study - (a) Hylobates lar; (b) Pongo pygmaeus; (c) Pan troglodytes; (d) Gorilla gorilla; (e) Australopithecus africanus; (f ) Paranthropus boisei; (g) Homo sapiens. They have been scaled to the same surface area, and the colors denote areas of stress (blue = minimal stress, pink = high stress). From Wroe et al, 2010.
It is all too easy to think of human evolution in linear terms. From our 21st century vantage point we can look back thro........ Read more »
Wroe, S., Ferrara, T., McHenry, C., Curnoe, D., & Chamoli, U. (2010) The craniomandibular mechanics of being human. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.0509
- June 21, 2010
- 07:48 PM
- 127 views
Tiny Trilobites Drifted in Cambrian Currents
A restoration of the tiny trilobite Ctenopyge ceciliae. From Schoenemann et al, 2010.
The first time I can remember seeing a trilobite, it wasn't in a museum case or a book about prehistoric animals. It was on card 39 of the gratuitously gory Dinosaurs Attack! card series, a horrific vignette depicting four of the invertebrates crawling over the bloodied face of their hapless victim. (No indication was given as to how the "flesh-eating worms", as the card identified them, had subdued the man........ Read more »
SCHOENEMANN, B., CLARKSON, E., AHLBERG, P., & ÁLVAREZ, M. (2010) A tiny eye indicating a planktonic trilobite. Palaeontology. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2010.00966.x
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