PALAEOBLOG

Reed Richards - Palaeontologist!

2012-01-30T12:22:00.001-05:00

FF#10 © Marvel Comics

Published This Day: Darwin's Other Book

2012-01-30T08:11:00.000-05:00

From Today In Science History:

In 1868, Charles Darwin's book - Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication - was published. He was 58. It is probably the second in importance of all his works. This was a follow-up work, written in response to criticisms that his theory of evolution was unsubstantiated. Darwin here supports his views via analysis of various aspects of plant and animal life, including an inventory of varieties and their physical and behavioral characteristics, and an investigation of the impact of a species' surrounding environment and the effect of both natural and forced changes in this environment.

Born This Day: Eugene Dubois

2012-01-28T09:06:00.000-05:00

Eugene Dubois (Jan. 28, 1858-Dec. 16, 1940) joined the Dutch Army as a medical officer, and used spare time from his medical duties to search for fossils, first in Sumatra and then in Java. He searched on the banks of the Solo River, with two assigned engineers and a crew of convict labourers to help him. In September 1890, his workers found a human, or human-like, fossil at Koedoeng Broeboes. This consisted of the right side of the chin of a lower jaw and three attached teeth. In August 1891 he found a primate molar tooth.

Two months later and one meter away was found an intact skullcap, the fossil which would be known as Java Man. In August 1892, a third primate fossil, an almost complete left thigh bone, was found between 10 and 15 meters away from the skullcap.

In 1894 Dubois published a description of his fossils, naming them Pithecanthropus erectus (now Home erectus), describing it as neither ape nor human, but something intermediate. In 1895 he returned to Europe to promote the fossil and his interpretation. A few scientists enthusiastically endorsed Dubois' work, but most disagreed with his interpretation. Many scientists pointed out similarities between the Java Man skullcap and Neandertal fossils.

Around 1900 Dubois ceased to discuss Java Man, and hid the fossils in his home while he moved on to other research topics. geology and paleontology. It was not until 1923 that Dubois, under pressure from scientists, once again allowed access to the Java Man fossils. That and the discovery of similar fossils caused it to once again become a topic of debate.

Skull cap (Trinil 2, holotype of Home erectus) from HERE.

Died This Day: Adam Sedgwick

2012-01-27T13:03:00.000-05:00

From Today In Science History:

Sedgwick (March 22, 1785 - January 27, 1873) was an English geologist who first applied the name Cambrian to the geologic period of time, now dated at 570 to 505 million years ago. In 1818 he became Woodwardian Professor of Geology at Cambridge, holding a chair that had been endowed ninety years before by the natural historian John Woodward.

He lacked formal training in geology, but he quickly became an active researcher in geology and paleontology. Many years after Sedgwick's death, the geological museum at Cambridge was renamed the Sedgwick Museum of Geology in his honor. The museum is now part of the Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge University

New Theory Explains Life, Universe, Everything! Really!

2012-01-27T09:12:00.001-05:00

Theory of the Origin, Evolution, and Nature of Life. 2012.E. D. Andrulis. Life 2012: 1-105.

The Earth is alive, asserts a revolutionary scientific theory of life emerging from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. The trans-disciplinary theory demonstrates that purportedly inanimate, non-living objects—for example, planets, water, proteins, and DNA—are animate, that is, alive.

The theory explains not only the evolutionary emergence of life on earth and in the universe but also the structure and function of existing cells and biospheres.

In addition to resolving long-standing paradoxes and puzzles in chemistry and biology, Dr. Andrulis’ theory unifies quantum and celestial mechanics. His unorthodox solution to this quintessential problem in physics differs from mainstream approaches, like string theory, as it is simple, non-mathematical, and experimentally and experientially verifiable. As such, the new portrait of quantum gravity is radical.

The basic idea of Dr. Andrulis’ framework is that all physical reality can be modeled by a single geometric entity with life-like characteristics: the gyre. The so-called “gyromodel” depicts objects—particles, atoms, chemicals, molecules, and cells—as quantized packets of energy and matter that cycle between excited and ground states around a singularity, the gyromodel’s center. A singularity is itself modeled as a gyre, wholly compatible with the thermodynamic and fractal nature of life.

By fitting the gyromodel to facts accumulated over scientific history, Dr. Andrulis confirms the proposed existence of eight laws of nature. One of these, the natural law of unity, decrees that the living cell and any part of the visible universe are irreducible. This law formally establishes that there is one physical reality.
Another natural law dictates that the atomic and cosmic realms abide by identical organizational constraints. Simply put, atoms in the human body and solar systems in the universe move and behave in the exact same manner.

Dr. Andrulis has used his theory to successfully predict and identify a hidden signature of RNA biogenesis in his laboratory at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He is now applying the gyromodel to unify and explain the evolution and development of human beings. Link

American Mastodon Stop-Motion Trailer

2012-01-26T11:50:00.002-05:00

Brad Ricca, a SAGES Fellow at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland who teaches classes on comic books and biography, is earning accolades for a more traditional form of literature: poetry.

Among those accolades is the honor of having Garrison Keillor personally select his poem “The Beautiful Sandwich” to read Thursday, Jan. 26, on his national NPR show The Writer’s Almanac.

His first book of verse, American Mastodon, won the St. Lawrence Book Award. The prize is awarded yearly to an unpublished collection of poems or short stories, which is then published by Black Lawrence Press
.
Ricca is well acquainted with superheroes both past and present, but it was another larger-than-life figure that inspired his book’s title. American Mastodon refers to a grand, shaggy mastodon with 15-foot curving tusks at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The prehistoric creature loomed large for Ricca, who visited the museum both as a child and as an adult.

His reaction, he said, was: “Here’s this massive animal that once freely roamed Earth and now doesn’t move an inch in the museum.” Link to The Daily

Dig this great retro-60's stop-motion trailer for the book:

Trailer Credits: Animagination by Stu Howe (UK); Poem by Brad Ricca (USA)

Twittering Palaeontologists

2012-01-26T08:09:00.002-05:00

Follow Dr. David Evans from the Royal Ontario Museum/Univ. of Toronto on Twitter Here.

Born This Day: Roy Chapman Andrews

2012-01-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

Photo from Parade of Life Through The Ages, by Charles Knight, Nat. Geo., Feb. 1942.

From the American Museum of Natural History web site:

Adventurer, administrator, and Museum promoter — Andrews (Jan. 26, 1884 – March 11, 1960) spent his entire career at the American Museum of Natural History, where he rose through the ranks from departmental assistant, to expedition organizer, to Museum director.

He became world famous as leader of the Central Asiatic Expeditions, a series of expeditions to Mongolia that collected, among other things, dinosaur eggs. Although on these expeditions, Andrews himself found few fossils, and during his career he was not known as an influential scientist, he instead filled the role of promoter, creating immense excitement and successfully advancing the research and exhibition goals of the museum.

Learn about the Roy Chapman Andrews Society HERE.

Palaeo Noir: Archaeopteryx

2012-01-25T15:43:00.004-05:00

New evidence on the colour and nature of the isolated Archaeopteryx feather. 2012. R.M. Carney, et al. Nature Communications 3.

Lead author's tattoo of his findings image

Abstract: Archaeopteryx has been regarded as an icon of evolution ever since its discovery from the Late Jurassic limestone deposits of Solnhofen, Germany in 1861. Here we report the first evidence of colour from Archaeopteryx based on fossilized colour-imparting melanosomes discovered in this isolated feather specimen.

Using a phylogenetically diverse database of extant bird feathers, statistical analysis of melanosome morphology predicts that the original colour of this Archaeopteryx feather was black, with 95% probability. Furthermore, reexamination of the feather's morphology leads us to interpret it as an upper major primary covert, contrary to previous interpretations.

Additional findings reveal that the specimen is preserved as an organosulphur residue, and that barbule microstructure identical to that of modern bird feathers had evolved as early as the Jurassic. As in extant birds, the extensive melanization would have provided structural advantages to the Archaeopteryx wing feather during this early evolutionary stage of dinosaur flight.

Massospondylus Nests

2012-01-25T15:29:00.005-05:00

Oldest known dinosaurian nesting site and reproductive biology of the Early Jurassic sauropodomorph Massospondylus. 2012. R. Reisz et al. PNAS.

Thanks to the PR folks for providing the smallest possible version of a great illo by Julius Csotonyi

Abstract [edit]: The extensive Early Jurassic continental strata of southern Africa have yielded an exceptional record of dinosaurs that includes scores of partial to complete skeletons of the sauropodomorph Massospondylus, ranging from embryos to large adults.

In 1976 an incomplete egg clutch including in ovo embryos of this dinosaur, the oldest known example in the fossil record, was collected from a road-cut talus. Recent work started in 2006 has yielded multiple in situ egg clutches, documenting the oldest known dinosaurian nesting site, predating other similar sites by more than 100 million years.

The presence of numerous clutches of eggs, some of which contain embryonic remains, in at least four distinct horizons within a small area, provides the earliest known evidence of complex reproductive behavior including site fidelity and colonial nesting in a terrestrial vertebrate.

A temporally calibrated optimization of dinosaurian reproductive biology not only demonstrates the primary significance of the Massospondylus nesting site, but also provides additional insights into the initial stages of the evolutionary history of dinosaurs, including evidence that deposition of eggs in a tightly organized single layer in a nest evolved independently from brooding.

End-Cretaceous Marine Mass Extinction Not Caused by Productivity Collapse

2012-01-22T10:49:00.003-05:00

End-Cretaceous marine mass extinction not caused by productivity collapse. 2012. L. Alegret, et al. PNAS

Abstract: An asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous caused mass extinction, but extinction mechanisms are not well-understood. The collapse of sea surface to sea floor carbon isotope gradients has been interpreted as reflecting a global collapse of primary productivity (Strangelove Ocean) or export productivity (Living Ocean), which caused mass extinction higher in the marine food chain. Phytoplankton-dependent benthic foraminifera on the deep-sea floor, however, did not suffer significant extinction, suggesting that export productivity persisted at a level sufficient to support their populations.

We compare benthic foraminiferal records with benthic and bulk stable carbon isotope records from the Pacific, Southeast Atlantic, and Southern Oceans. We conclude that end-Cretaceous decrease in export productivity was moderate, regional, and insufficient to explain marine mass extinction.

A transient episode of surface ocean acidification may have been the main cause of extinction of calcifying plankton and ammonites, and recovery of productivity may have been as fast in the oceans as on land. image link

The Caudal Basket of Pachycephalosauria

2012-01-19T10:22:00.002-05:00

Homology and Architecture of the Caudal Basket of Pachycephalosauria (Dinosauria: Ornithischia): The First Occurrence of Myorhabdoi in Tetrapoda. 2012. C.M. Brown and A.P. Russell. PLoS ONE 7(1): e30212.

Abstract [edit]: Associated postcranial skeletons of pachycephalosaurids, most notably those of Stegoceras and Homalocephale, reveal enigmatic osseous structures not present in other tetrapod clades. The homology and functional significance of these structures have remained elusive as they were originally interpreted to be abdominal ribs or gastralia, and more recently have been interpreted as de novo structures in the tail.

Analysis of these structures in nearly all pachycephalosaurid skeletons has facilitated a complete description of their architecture, and the establishment of patterns consistent with those of myorhabdoid ossifications — ossifications of the myoseptal tendons associated with myomeres. The presence and structure of myorhabdoid ossifications are well established for teleost fish, but this marks their first recognition within Tetrapoda. These elements are both structurally and histologically distinct from the deep, paraxial ossified tendon bundles of other ornithischian clades, although they may have performed a similar function in the stiffening of the tail.

These myorhabdoi are not de novo structures, but are instead ossifications (and therefore more amenable to fossilization) of the normally unossified plesiomorphic caudal myosepta of vertebrates. The ubiquitous ossification of these structures in pachycephalosaurids (all specimens preserving the tail also exhibit myorhabdoid ossifications) suggests it is a likely synapomorphic condition for Pachycephalosauria.

Click to enlarge

Articulated caudal tendons of Homalocephale in lateral view.

Paleobiology Database Intensive Workshop in Analytical Methods

2012-01-19T10:03:00.003-05:00

The Paleobiology Database has sponsored a five-week intensive training workshop in analytical methods since 2005. The Australian Research Council and the National Science Foundation's Division of Earth Sciences will provide funding for the 2012 edition. As in 2010 and 2011, the 2012 workshop will held at Macquarie University in Sydney. Sessions will be held between 25 June and 29 July.

Topics will include community paleoecology, diversity curves, speciation and extinction, phylogenetics, phenotypic evolution, and morphometrics. Both simulation modelling and data analysis methods will be employed. Training will combine lectures and labs. Participants will be given hands-on instruction in programming using R and taught to use other analytical software. In addition to the workshop coordinator, each week a new instructor will be present. The instructors are expected to be John Alroy, Gene Hunt, Tom Olszewski, David Polly, and Pete Wagner.

There is no fee for registration and participants will be housed for free in accommodations near the campus. Daily expenses such as meal costs are not subsidized but are only on the order of $10 to $15. Participants are encouraged to solicit travel funds from their home institutions or other organizations. A majority of airfare costs will be reimbursed if such funds are not available. There are no other charges of any kind and no other major expenses are likely.

For all the details go here: Paleobiology Database Intensive Workshop in Analytical Methods.

NOTE: Applications received by the end of Monday, 15 February 2012 get priority. Only a few spaces are available so apply early and often.

Died This Day: Frank Reicher

2012-01-19T07:46:00.000-05:00

Frank Reicher (Dec. 2, 1875 - Jan. 19, 1965) was a German actor, director and producer born in Munich, Germany. During the early part of the twentieth century he was often on Broadway, occasionally in leading roles, but he is most familiar to modern audiences as a supporting character actor in films.

He is probably best known for playing Captain Englehorn in the movies King Kong and Son of Kong in 1933. link

Siphusauctum gregarium from The Burgess Shale

2012-01-19T07:38:00.004-05:00

A New Stalked Filter-Feeder from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, British Columbia, Canada. 2012. L. J. O'Brien and J.-B. Caron. PLoS ONE 7(1): e29233

A bizarre creature that lived in the ocean more than 500 million years ago has emerged from the famous Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies.

Siphusauctum gregarium (~20 cm long) has a long stem, with a calyx – a bulbous cup-like structure – near the top which encloses an unusual filter feeding system and a gut. The animal is thought to have fed by filtering particles from water actively pumped into its calyx through small holes. The stem ends with a small disc which anchored the animal to the seafloor. Siphusauctum lived in large clusters, as indicated by slabs containing over 65 individual specimens.

"Most interesting is that this feeding system appears to be unique among animals. Recent advances have linked many bizarre Burgess Shale animals as primitive members of many animal groups that are found today but Siphusauctum defies this trend. We do not know where it fits in relation to other organisms," said Lorna O'Brien. link

Born This Day: Caroline Munro

2012-01-16T09:35:00.000-05:00

Art © Mark Schultz

Munro is probably best known for her role in in the Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). She had a long career in a variety of genre films including a stint with Hammer Films, and notably with Ray Harryhausen as the slave girl, Margiana, in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974).

She takes a bow on the Palaeoblog both for being the Godmother of Harryhausen’s daughter and for her role as Princess Dia in At the Earth’s Core (1976)

Opened To The Public (1759): The British Museum

2012-01-15T09:30:00.001-05:00

image.

On this day in 1759, the British Museum, in Bloomsbury, London, the world's oldest public national museum, opened to the public who were admitted in small groups, by ticket obtained in advance, for a conducted tour.

It was established on June 7, 1753 when King George II gave his royal assent to an Act of Parliament to acquire the collection of Sir Hans Sloane. In his will, he had offered the nation his lifetime collection of 71,000 objects, mostly plant and animal specimens. In return, he requested £20,000 for his heirs (which today would be over £2,000,000). The present museum buildings date from the mid-19th century. Its natural history collection moved to its own museum in 1881. link

Died This Day: Jean-Baptiste-Julien d' Omalius d' Halloy

2012-01-15T09:27:00.000-05:00

d'Halloy (Feb. 16, 1783 - Jan. 15, 1875) was a Belgian geologist who was an early proponent of evolution and was acknowledged by Charles Darwin in his preface to ‘On The Origin of the Species’ for his opinions on the origin of new species through descent with modification.

He determined the stratigraphy of the Carboniferous and other rocks in Belgium and the Rhine provinces, and also made detailed studies of the Tertiary deposits of the Paris Basin. link

Died This Day: Carolus Linnaeus

2012-01-10T10:55:00.000-05:00

Born May 23, 1707 – Jan. 10, 1778.

From the Linnean Society:

Linnaeus was born in 1707 in Sweden. He headed an expedition to Lapland in 1732, travelling 4,600 miles and crossing the Scandinavian Peninsula by foot to the Arctic Ocean. On the journey he discovered a hundred botanical species. He undertook his medical degree in 1735 in the Netherlands. In 1735, he published Systema Naturae, his classification of plants based on their sexual parts.

His method of binomial nomenclature using genus and species names was further expounded when he published Fundamenta Botanica (1736) and Classes Plantarum (1738). This system used the flower and the number and arrangements of its sexual organs of stamens and pistils to group plants into twenty-four classes which in turn are divided into orders, genera and species.

In his publications, Linnaeus provided a concise, usable survey of all the world's plants and animals as then known, about 7,700 species of plants and 4,400 species of animals. These works helped to establish and standardize the consistent binomial nomenclature for species which he introduced on a world scale for plants in 1753, and for animals in 1758, and which is used today.

image

His Systema Naturae 10th edition, volume 1(1758), has accordingly been accepted by international agreement as the official starting point for zoological nomenclature. Scientific names published before then have no validity unless adopted by Linnaeus or by later authors. This confers a high scientific importance on the specimens used by Linnaeus for their preparation, many of which are in his personal collections now treasured by the Linnean Society.

He was granted nobility in 1761, becoming Carl von Linné. He continued his work of classification and as a physician, and remained Rector of the University until 1772.

Born This Day: Nicolaus Steno

2012-01-10T10:54:00.000-05:00

Steno (Jan. 10 – Nov. 26, 1686) was a Danish geologist and anatomist who first made unprecedented discoveries in anatomy, then established some of the most important principles of modern geology. He was Danish royal anatomist for 2 years.

Interested by the characteristics and origins of minerals, rocks, and fossils, he published in Prodromus (1669) the law of superposition (if a series of sedimentary rocks has not been overturned, upper layers are younger and lower layers are older) and the law of original horizontality (although strata may be found dipping steeply, they were initially deposited nearly horizontal.) link

Born This Day: Alfred Russel Wallace

2012-01-08T12:56:00.000-05:00

From Today In Science History:

Wallace (Jan. 8, 1823 – Nov. 7, 1913) was a British naturalist and biogeographer. He was the first westerner to describe some of the most interesting natural habitats in the tropics. He is best known for devising a theory of the origin of species through natural selection made independently of Darwin.

Between 1854 and 1862, Wallace assembled evidence of natural selection in the Malay Archipelago, sending his conclusions to Darwin in England. Their findings were jointly presented to the Linnaean Society in 1858. Wallace found that Australian species were more primitive, in evolutionary terms, than those of Asia, and that this reflected the stage at which the two continents had become separated. He proposed an imaginary line (now known as Wallace's line) dividing the fauna of the two regions.

The Alfred Russel Wallace page HERE. More HERE.

Died This Day: Jean-Étienne Guettard

2012-01-06T10:42:00.002-05:00

Guettard (Sept. 22, 1715 - Jan. 6, 1786) was a French geologist and mineralogist who made the first survey to make a geologically map of France and to study the exposed rock strata of the Paris Basin.

He was first to identify several fossil species from the Paris area. Noting that certain plants occurred only in association with certain minerals and rocks, he travelled and mapped plant distributions and the occurrence of various minerals and rocks. The publication of his map in 1751 marks the beginning of the science of geology.

He also recognized erosion by running water, how subterranean water made caves and the battering of cliffs by the seas. He discovered the volcanoes of the Auvergne and the surrounding landscape shaped by past eruptions, cinder layers, old soils and solidified lava. From Today In Science History. image

Died This Day: Gregor Mendel

2012-01-06T10:35:00.001-05:00

From Today In Science History:

Mendel (July 22, 1822 – Jan. 6, 1884) was an Austrian pioneer in the study of heredity. He spent his adult life with the Augustinian monastery in Brunn, where as a geneticist,
botanist and plant experimenter, he was the first to lay the mathematical foundation of the science of genetics, in what came to be called Mendelism.

Over the period 1856-63, Mendel grew and analyzed over 28,000 pea plants. He carefully studied for each their plant height, pod shape, pod color, flower position, seed color, seed shape and flower color. He made two very important generalizations from his pea experiments, known today as the Laws of Heredity. Mendel coined the present day terms in genetics: recessiveness and dominance.

Born This Day: George Ledyard Stebbins

2012-01-06T10:33:00.000-05:00

From the U Calif., Berkeley:

Along with Dobzhansky (1900 - 1975), animal systematist Ernst Mayr, and paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson (1902 - 1984), Stebbins (Jan. 6, 1906 - Jan. 19 2000) is considered one of the "architects" of the modern evolutionary synthesis of the 1930s and 1940s, an intellectual watershed and historic turning point that brought together research in cytology, genetics, systematics, paleontology into a common evolutionary framework. This synthesis, which had the effect of reconciling the often opposing views of laboratory-oriented geneticists and natural history oriented systematists, made Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection the centerpiece of the new discipline of evolutionary biology.

In this role, Stebbins is credited with bringing a modern framework to the study of plant evolution, and he is perhaps best known for his book Variation and Evolution in Plants, published by Columbia University Press (NY) in 1950. In the 1940s, Stebbins also played an important role in organizing the nascent Society for the Study of Evolution, of which he became the third president in 1948, and used his position to speak out for the botanical side of evolutionary studies, a field that had been dominated by zoologists. Photo .

Died This Day: Ernest B. Schoedsack

2011-12-23T10:38:00.000-05:00

Cooper and Schoedsack (right)

Ernest Beaumont Schoedsack (June 8, 1893 – Dec. 23, 1979) was an American film, director and producer. With his partner, Merian C. Cooper, their first significant collaboration was the spectacular documentary, Grass (1925), which enjoyed a popular theatrical release in the wake of the success of Nanook of the North (1922).

They are best known for King Kong (1933), which was co-written by Schoedsack's wife, Ruth Rose. He also directed Son of Kong (1933), Dr. Cyclops (1940) and Mighty Joe Young (1949). From TCM.

Died This Day: Kenneth Tobey

2011-12-22T10:39:00.000-05:00

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Tobey (Mar. 23, 1917 - Dec. 22, 2002) made a career of playing “take charge, men of authority”, such as Capt. Hendry in Howard Hawkes, “The Thing From Another World” (1951), and just about every TV series throughout the 60’s and 70’s. More than a few of his appearances were in SF stories, and he played Col. Jack Evans in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953).

Premiered This Day: Son of Kong

2011-12-22T10:36:00.000-05:00

With the fantastic success of “King Kong”, RKO tried to cash in by rushing this sequel into production and release within the same year (1933). It did not do nearly as well, but animator Willis O’Brien did manage to bring some of the same charm to the big white ape that he did to Kong.

Premiered This Day: Betty Boop's Museum

2011-12-16T10:33:00.000-05:00

In 1932 Betty Boop had her own “Night in the Museum”.

Walking Lungfish & The Evolution of Terrestrial Locomotion

2011-12-14T11:00:00.003-05:00

Behavioral evidence for the evolution of walking and bounding before terrestriality in sarcopterygian fishes 2011. H.M. King, et al. PNAS published ahead of print December 12.

Extensive video analysis reveals that the African lungfish can use its thin pelvic limbs to not only lift its body off the bottom surface but also propel itself forward. Both abilities were previously thought to originate in early tetrapods, the limbed original land-dwellers that appeared later than the lungfish's ancestors.

The observation reshuffles the order of evolutionary events leading up to terrestriality, the adaptation to living on land. It also suggests that fossil tracks long believed to be the work of early tetrapods could have been produced instead by lobe-finned ancestors of the lungfish.

"The lungfish is in a really great and unique position in terms of how it is related to fishes and to tetrapods," said King. "Lungfish are very closely related to the animals that were able to evolve and come out of the water and onto land, but that was so long ago that almost everything except the lungfish has gone extinct."

The lungfish's ability to use its thin limbs to support its body may be helped by the reduced demands of gravity underwater, the authors proposed. By filling its lungs with air, the lungfish may increase the buoyancy of its front end, enabling the scrawny hindlimbs to lift the entire body off the ground. link

Died This Day: Louis Agassiz

2011-12-14T10:31:00.001-05:00

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May 28, 1807 - Dec. 14, 1873

(Jean) Louis (Rodolphe) Agassiz was a Swiss-born U.S. naturalist, geologist, and teacher who made revolutionary contributions to the study of natural science with landmark work on glacier activity and extinct fishes. Agassiz began his work in Europe, having studied at the University of Munich and then as chair in natural history in Neuchatel in Switzerland. While there he published his landmark multi-volume description and classification of fossil fish.

In 1846 Agassiz came to the U.S. to lecture before Boston's Lowell Institute. Offered a professorship of Zoology and Geology at Harvard in 1848, he decided to stay, becoming a citizen in 1861. His innovative teaching methods altered the character of natural science education in the U.S. Link

More info HERE

Thescelosaurus assiniboiensis

2011-11-30T15:31:00.000-05:00

A new basal ornithopod dinosaur (Frenchman Formation, Saskatchewan, Canada), and implications for late Maastrichtian ornithischian diversity in North America. 2011. Brown, C.M., et al. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 163: 1157-1198

Abstract [edit]: A small, articulated basal ornithopod skeleton from the Frenchman Formation (late Maastrichtian) of Saskatchewan, previously referred to the taxon Thescelosaurus, differs from both recognized species of this taxon (Thescelosaurus neglectus and Thescelosaurus garbanii). We recognize this specimen as the holotype of a new species, Thescelosaurus assiniboiensis sp. nov.

Identification of a third species of Thescelosaurus from the late Maastrichtian of North America suggests that this taxon was more diverse than previously recognized, and shows an increase in diversity from the Campanian through the late Maastrichtian, contrasting the trends seen in most other ornithischian clades.

Sauropod Osteoderms

2011-11-30T13:52:00.002-05:00

Sauropod dinosaur osteoderms from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. 2011. K. Curry Rogers, et al. Nature Communications 2, article number:564.

Abstract: Osteoderms are bones embedded within the dermis, and are common to select members of most major tetrapod lineages. The largest known animals that bear osteoderms are members of Titanosauria, a diverse clade of sauropod dinosaurs.

Here we report on two titanosaur osteoderms recovered from the Upper Cretaceous Maevarano Formation of Madagascar. Each osteoderm was discovered in association with a partial skeleton representing a distinct ontogenetic stage of the titanosaur Rapetosaurus krausei. Combined, these specimens provide novel insights into the arrangement and function of titanosaur osteoderms.

Taphonomic data confirm that Rapetosaurus developed only limited numbers of osteoderms in its integument. The adult-sized osteoderm is the most massive integumentary skeletal element yet discovered, with an estimated volume of 9.63 litres. Uniquely, this specimen possesses an internal cavity equivalent to more than half its total volume. Large, hollow osteoderms may have functioned as mineral stores in fecund, rapidly growing titanosaurs inhabiting stressed environments.

A Stopmotion History of The World

2011-11-28T15:57:00.001-05:00

Created By Kalle Mattson, Kevin Parry, and Friends. Link from Neatorama.

Published This Day: The Origin of The Species

2011-11-24T09:11:00.003-05:00

My Greatest Adventure #68

From Today In Science History:

In 1859, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was published in England to great acclaim. In this groundbreaking book by British naturalist Charles Darwin, he argued that species are the result of a gradual biological evolution in which nature encourages, through natural selection, the propagation of those species best suited to their environments. This book is unquestionably one of the most influential in the history of science.

Cuspicephalus scarfi - The 'Torydactyl'

2011-11-22T15:17:00.002-05:00

A monofenestratan pterosaur from the Kimmeridge Clay Formation (Upper Jurassic, Kimmeridgian) of Dorset, England. 2011. D.M. Martill and S. Etches. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, in press.

The pterosaur Cuspicephalus scarfi is named after Gerald Scarfe, the political cartoonist whose pen demonised Mrs Thatcher as a pointy nosed ‘torydactyl’. The new discovery was so-called because of its extremely long pointy head, which is most unusual for a pterosaur. The skull is 326 mm long – similar in size to a stork or heron.

The species was found by fossil collector Steve Etches in Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset. The specimen is 155 million years old from the Late Jurassic period and is the most substantial pterosaur skull to be found in the UK for nearly 200 years. It is now on display in Dorset’s Museum of Jurassic Marine Life.

Mr Scarfe said: “I'm thrilled and flattered - I never thought Mrs Thatcher would do anything for me - even if it is to be immortalized as a 155 million year old fossil". link

Eric Idle on Intelligent Design. Or Michael Palin on Shakespeare. Maybe Both.

2011-11-22T13:32:00.001-05:00

Go read it at The New Yorker

Died This Day: John William Dawson

2011-11-20T11:27:00.000-05:00

Dawson (Oct. 30, 1820 - Nov. 20, 1899>) was a Canadian geologist who made numerous contributions to paleobotany and extended the knowledge of Canadian geology. Dawson was born and raised in Pictou, Nova Scotia, where the many sandstone and coal formations provided fertile ground for his first scientific explorations, which culminated in the publication of Acadian Geology. He made many important discoveries of fossil life, great and small. These included fossil plants, trackways of lowly invertebrates, footprints, skeletons of reptiles and amphibians, millipedes and the earliest land snails. When the famous geologist Charles Lyell visited coal deposits in Pictou, Dawson acted as his guide.

In 1851, Dawson and Lyell teamed up again to examine the interiors of fossil tree trunks at Joggins, Nova Scotia. They discovered the remains of some of the earliest known reptiles, Hylonomus lyelli, along with other rare fossils, propelling this part of the world into the international spotlight.

Dawson became principal of McGill College in Montreal in 1854, which he made into a reputable institution. He remained there, teaching geology and palaeontology and acting as librarian, until his retirement. One of his lifelong dreams was realized in 1882 when Peter Redpath gave money to McGill for the construction and establishment of a museum, naming Dawson as director. Today the Peter Redpath Museum of Natural History houses many specimens from Dawson's personal collection.

Info from HERE and HERE. Images from HERE and HERE.

The Ghost of Slumber Mountain

2011-11-17T11:01:00.001-05:00

The The Ghost of Slumber Mountain premiered this day in 1918. It was written and directed by special effects pioneer Willis O'Brien and produced by Herbert M. Dawley. When O’Brien went on to greater fame with The Lost World Dawley sued the film makers for patent infrigment, claiming that he, not O’Brien, had invented stop-motion animation. Although this was not the case, filming saw head up while the case was sorted out.

Both O’Brien and Hawley star as the ghost of Mad Dick and Uncle Jack Holmes, respectively.

Prehistoric Moth Colors

2011-11-17T10:11:00.000-05:00

Fossilized Biophotonic Nanostructures Reveal the Original Colors of 47-Million-Year-Old Moths. 2011. M.E. McNamara, et al. PLoS Biol 9(11): e1001200.

Scientists have now reconstructed the colors in fossil moths that are 47 million years old.

This is the first evidence of structurally colored scales in fossil lepidopterans. The fossil moths came from the Messel oil shale in Germany, a site famous for exquisite fossil preservation.

Although the original colors of the fossil moths were not preserved, the researchers were able to reconstruct them because the tiny color-producing patterns in the moth scales were intact. The fossil moths owe their color to a stack of layers inside the scales. These layers form a fossil multilayer reflector, which usually produces iridescent colour that changes depending on viewing angle. But other details of the fossil scales suppressed this effect, producing instead muted colors.

The researchers reconstructed the original colors via mathematical analysis of the scale ultrastructure, revealing that the wings had actually been yellow-green when the moths were alive. Modern butterflies and moths use bright, contrasting colors to communicate with each other, and muted greens to camouflage themselves in leafy habitats. This makes it likely that the fossil moths used their yellow-green wings to blend in with leaves, suggesting that this strategy for hiding in plain sight had evolved as early as 47 million years ago amongst lepidopterans. link

Died This Day: Carl Akeley

2011-11-17T08:10:00.001-05:00

Read his story over at Atomic Surgery

The Hall of African Mammals at the American Museum of Natural History exists thanks to the efforts of Carl Akeley (May 19, 1864 - Nov 17, 1926) who was the kind of adventurer that Indy Jones could only dream of being.

He died on an African expedition in 1926, ten years before this hall was completed and was buried in a place depicted in the Hall's famous Gorilla Diorama. Of course we approach collecting and conservation differently today, but Akeley is to be commended for his love of nature and his desire to present its hidden corners to the world.

From Today In Science History:

Carl Ethan Akeley was an American naturalist and explorer who developed the taxidermic method for mounting museum displays to show animals in their natural surroundings. His method of applying skin on a finely molded replica of the body of the animal gave results of unprecedented realism and elevated taxidermy from a craft to an art. He mounted the skeleton of the famous African elephant Jumbo. He invented the Akeley cement gun to use while mounting animals, and the Akeley camera which was used to capture the first movies of gorillas.

Born This Day: Sir Charles Lyell

2011-11-14T10:57:00.001-05:00

From Minnesota State University at Mankato comes this excellent bio on Lyell:

Sir Charles Lyell (Nov. 14, 1797 - Feb. 22, 1875) attended Oxford University at age 19. Lyell's father was an active naturalist. Lyell had access to an elaborate library including subjects such as Geology.

When Lyell was at Oxford, his interests were mathematics, classics, law and geology. He attended a lecture by William Buckland that triggered his enthusiasm for geology. Lyell originally started his career as a lawyer, but later turned to geology. He became an author of The Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man in 1863 and Principles of Geology. Lyell argued in this book that, at the time, presently observable geological processes were adequate to explain geological history. He thought the action of the rain, sea, volcanoes and earthquakes explained the geological history of more ancient times.

Lyell rebelled against the prevailing theories of geology of the time. He thought the theories were biased, based on the interpretation of Genesis. He thought it would be more practical to exclude sudden geological catastrophes to vouch for fossil remains of extinct species and believed it was necessary to create a vast time scale for Earth's history. This concept was called Uniformitarianism. The second edition of Principles of Geology introduced new ideas regarding metamorphic rocks. It described rock changes due to high temperature in sedimentary rocks adjacent to igneous rocks. His third volume dealt with paleontology and stratigraphy. Lyell stressed that the antiquity of human species was far beyond the accepted theories of that time.

Charles Darwin became his dear friend and correspondent. Darwin is quoted saying, "The greatest merit of the Principles was that it altered the whole tone of one's mind, and therefore that, when seeing a thing never seen by Lyell, one yet saw it through his eyes."

Image from King’s College London.

Fantasia Premieres (1940)

2011-11-13T11:59:00.001-05:00

Walt Disney’s epic film, Fantasia, opened this day on Broadway in New York City in 1940. The film featured Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra performing a number of pieces of classical music to the film’s animated visuals. Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” provided the score for the evolution of the Earth including a wonderful sequence on the extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous. Many school teachers actually showed this sequence in science class -- that’s where I first saw it!

Born This Day: Helen Mack

2011-11-13T11:05:00.000-05:00

Nov 13, 1913 – August 13, 1986

Helen starred as Helene Peterson in “Son of Kong”, the quickie follow up to “King Kong”. Once again Carl Denham leads a beautiful girl into danger on Skull Island.

Univ. of Alaska Museum - Collections Manager Job Opening

2011-11-11T16:54:00.002-05:00

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Burgess Shale Arthropod Locomotion

2011-11-09T15:31:00.004-05:00

Skimming the surface with Burgess Shale arthropod locomotion. 2011. N. J. Minter, et al. Proc. R. Soc. B. Published online before print November 9.

Researchers have followed fossilized footprints to a multi-legged predator that ruled the seas of the Cambrian period about half a billion years ago.

The research team worked with samples gathered from the Burgess Shale, famed for its exquisitely detailed fossils from the Cambrian Explosion, a time when life underwent a dramatic change with the appearance of all the modern groups of organisms and some bizarre creatures.

Fossil trackways and other fossilized evidence of animal activities such as burrows, bite marks and feces are known as trace fossils. These provide evidence of where animals were living and what they were doing, but the full identity of the producers is rarely known.

In this case, size of the tracks and the number of legs needed to make them left only one suspect: Tegopelte gigas. This caterpillar-like animal sported a smooth, soft shell on its back and 33 pairs of legs beneath. One of the largest arthropods of its time, it could reach up to 30 cm in length.

By analyzing both the fossilized remains of Tegopelte and the trackways, the researchers were able to reconstruct how this animal would have moved. The creature was capable of skimming rapidly across the seafloor, with legs touching the sediment only briefly, supporting the view that Tegopelte was a large and active top carnivore. Such lifestyles would have been important in shaping early marine communities and evolution during the Cambrian explosion. link

Died This Day: Willis O'Brien

2011-11-08T15:41:00.002-05:00

(March 2, 1886 - November 8, 1962)

From his biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:

O'Brien was a special effects wizard best known to the world as the man who created King Kong. O'Brien was a sculptor and cartoonist for the San Francisco "Daily News" before he first dabbled in the medium of film during the 'teens. His work caught the attention of the Edison company, for whom he produced several short subjects with a prehistoric them. Titles include The Dinosaur and the Missing Link, RFD 10,000 B.C and Prehistoric Poultry. His method of animating small rubber figures, carefully molded over metal skeletons with movable joints, by moving them a fraction of an inch for each frame of film exposed, became the standard process of live-action animation.

In 1918 he made his most ambitious film yet, The Ghost of Slumber Mountain paving the way for The Lost World (1925), a major Hollywood feature which told of a search for prehistoric creatures. O'Brien's dinosaurs were his most realistic yet, and still impress today, even in the wake of Jurassic Park Still, Obie (as he was known) kept experimenting.

When producer Merian C. Cooper saw his work, he hired O'Brien to animate King Kong (which, up to that point, was to have been shot with an actor in a gorilla suit). The extraordinary success of King Kong (1933) spawned an immediate sequel, The Son of Kong (also 1933), and made O'Brien a hero to several generations of fantasy filmmakers to come. O'Brien won his only Oscar for his effects in Mighty Joe Young (1949), another giant-monkey movie, on which his protégé (and successor) Ray Harryhausen worked.

O'Brien worked on other giant-monster movies (including 1957's The Black Scorpion his last) before dying in 1962. Today, O'Brien would be kingpin of his own studio, but even in the wake of King Kong he had trouble launching other film projects, and many promising ideas languished on studio drawing boards for decades to follow. One of the RKO staff with whom he'd worked in the 1930s, Linwood Dunn, gave O'Brien his final employment, doing stop-motion figures for It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963).

In 1950 O'Brien received (finally!) a special Oscar for his work on Mighty Joe Young which was the first such award ever given for special effects. This film also launched the career of the next great stop-motion animator, Ray Harryhausen.

Born This Day: Alfred Wegener

2011-11-01T13:42:00.001-04:00

Visit The Paleomap Project

Alfred Lothar Wegener (Nov. 1, 1880 – Nov, 1930) was a German meteorologist and geophysicist who first gave a well-developed hypothesis of continental drift. He suggested (1912) that about 250 million yrs ago all the present-day continents came from a single primitive land mass, the supercontinent Pangaea, which eventually broke up and gradually drifted apart. (A similar idea was proposed earlier by F.B. Taylor in 1910.) Others saw the fit of coastlines of South America and Africa, but Wegener added more geologic and paleontologic evidence that these two continents were once joined. From Today In Science History

Born This Day: Gavin de Beer

2011-11-01T13:41:00.000-04:00

de Beer (Nov. 1, 1899 – June 21, 1972) was an English zoologist and morphologist who contributed to experimental embryology, anatomy, and evolution. He refuted the germ-layer theory and developed the concept of paedomorphism - the retention of juvenile characteristics of ancestors in mature adults).

From examination of the fossil
Archaeopteryx, De Beer proposed mosaic evolution with piecemeal evolutionary changes to explain the combination of bird and reptile features.

Born This Day: John William Dawson

2011-10-30T07:48:00.000-04:00

Trog!

2011-10-24T09:46:00.000-04:00

"A sympathetic anthropologist (Joan Crawford!) uses drugs and surgery to try to communicate with a primitive troglodyte found living in a local cave."

Directed in 1970 by Hammer Films veteran, Freddie Francis, this was Crawford's last film. Notable for lifting the dinosaur scenes done by Willis H. O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen for the Irwin Allen-produced film The Animal World.

"After seeing this film, Joan Crawford supposedly joked that if it hadn't been for her end-of-life conversion to Christian Science, she might have committed suicide due to her embarrassment at having been in it." link

A Smaller Ka-Boom! Chicxulub Impact Did Not Cause Deccan Traps

2011-10-21T13:40:00.003-04:00

Antipodal focusing of seismic waves due to large meteorite impacts on Earth. 2011. M. A. Meschede, et al. Geophysical Journal International 187: 529–537.

image

Researchers have simulated the meteorite strike that caused the Chicxulub crater in Mexico, an impact 2 million times more powerful than a hydrogen bomb that many scientists believe triggered the mass extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The team's rendering of the planet showed that the impact's seismic waves would be scattered and unfocused, resulting in less severe ground displacement, tsunamis, and seismic and volcanic activity than previously theorized.

"We began by asking whether the meteorite that hit the Earth near Chicxulub could be connected to other late-Cretaceous mass-extinction theories. For example, there's a prominent theory that the meteorite triggered huge volcanic eruptions that changed the climate. These eruptions are thought to have originated in the Deccan Traps in India, approximately on the opposite side of the Earth from the Chicxulub crater at the time. Our measurements indicate that a Chicxulub-sized impact alone would be too small to cause such a large volcanic eruption as what occurred at the Deccan Traps.

"But our results go beyond Chicxulub. We can, in principle, now estimate how large a meteorite would have to have been to cause catastrophic events. For instance, we found that if you increase the radius of the Chicxulub meteorite by a factor of five while leaving its velocity and density the same, it would have been large enough to at least fracture rocks on the opposite side of the planet. Our model can be used to estimate the magnitude and effect of other major impacts in Earth's past. link

The Oldest Oxygen-Breathing Life On Land

2011-10-21T10:40:00.002-04:00

Sea Devils © DC Comics

New research shows the first evidence that oxygen-breathing bacteria occupied and thrived on land 100 million years earlier than previously thought.

The researchers show the most primitive form of aerobic respiring life on land came into existence 2.48 billion years ago.

The research team made their find by investigating a link between atmospheric oxygen levels and rising concentrations of chromium in the rock of ancient sea beds. The researchers suggest that the jump in chromium levels was triggered by the land-based oxidization of the mineral pyrite.

Pyrite oxidation is driven by bacteria and oxygen. Aerobic bacteria broke down the pyrite, which released acid at an unprecedented scale. The acid then dissolved rocks and soils into a cocktail of metals, including chromium, which was transferred to the ocean by the runoff of rain water.

"This gives us a new date for the Great Oxidation Event, the time when the atmosphere first had oxygen," said Konhauser. "The rising levels of atmospheric oxygen fostered the evolution of new bacteria species that survived by aerobic respiration on land. link

Born This Day: Julie Adams

2011-10-17T09:27:00.000-04:00

Julie starred as Kay Lawrence in The Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954). Adams has had a long career in films and TV, recently appearing on 'Lost'.

Born This Day: Giovanni Arduino

2011-10-16T07:39:00.002-04:00

Arduino (Oct. 16, 1714 - March 21, 1795) was an Italian geologist, known as the father of Italian geology, who introduced the terms Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, and Quaternary in 1760 to classify four broad divisions of the Earth's rock surface, each earlier in deposition. Within each he recognized numerous minor strata, and had a clear paleontological interpretation of the age sequence of the fossil record.

The Primary order contained Paleozoic formations from the oldest, lowest basaltic rock from ancient volcanoes overlaid with metamorphic and sedimentary rocks which he saw in the Atesine Alps. He classified Mesozoic prealpine foothills as of the Secondary order, Tertiary in the subalpine hills and the Quaternary alluvial deposits in the plains. From Today In Science History

The Golden Age of Lasers

2011-10-15T22:50:00.002-04:00

CLICK TO ENLARGE

The Calgary-based band, The Forbidden Dimension, has a newly minted CD full of hot 'n spooky rock 'n roll tunes. Dino aficionados will recognize the Waterhouse Hawkins-inspired cover drawn by double threat musician/artist, Jackson Phibes, in this promo photo he sent me.

You can pick up a copy at all the better independent record shops (or you will be able to very soon), or you can order a copy from Saved By Vinyl.

Watch a live version of hit single, "Tor Johnston Mask" here.

Premiered This Day: Unknown Island

2011-10-15T09:31:00.000-04:00

image

This 1948 film written by Robert T. Shannon and directed by Jack Bernhard features some of the worst ‘man dressed up as a T. rex’ effects ever. Not a bad little story though.

On This Day: Darwin Accepted Into Cambridge

2011-10-15T07:32:00.000-04:00

image

In 1827, Charles Darwin was accepted into Christ's College at Cambridge, but did not start until winter term because he needed to catch up on some of his studies. A grandson of Erasmus Darwin of Lichfield, and of Josiah Wedgwood, he had entered the University of Edinburgh in 1825 to study medicine, intending to follow his father Robert's career as a doctor. However, Darwin found himself unenthusiastic about his studies, including that of geology.

Disappointing his family that he gave up on a medical career, he left Edinburgh without graduating in April 1827. His scholastic achievements at Cambridge were unremarkable, but after graduation. Today Cambridge has Darwin College, founded in 1964, for advanced study that only admits postgraduate students. From Today In Science History

Born This Day: Jack Arnold

2011-10-14T09:26:00.000-04:00

Jack Arnold (Oct. 14, 1916 - March 17, 1992) directed a number of classic SF films including The Creature From the Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and It Came From Outer Space, as well as few not-so-classics (but still much loved) such as Monster on Campus. Throughout the ‘60’s and into the early 80’s he had a successful career as a TV producer and director.

Humans Descended From Ancestor With Sixth Sense*

2011-10-12T19:51:00.010-04:00

Electrosensory ampullary organs are derived from lateral line placodes in bony fishes. 2011. M. S. Modrell, et al. Nature Communications 2: article #496.

The Shark © DC Comics^**

A new study finds that the vast majority of vertebrates are descended from a common ancestor that had a well-developed electroreceptive system.

People experience the world through five senses but sharks and certain other aquatic vertebrates have a sixth sense: They can detect weak electrical fields in the water and use this information to detect prey, communicate and orient themselves.

This ancestor was probably a predatory marine fish with good eyesight, jaws and teeth and a lateral line system for detecting water movements, visible as a stripe along the flank of most fishes. It lived around 500 million years ago. The vast majority of the approximately 65,000 living vertebrate species are its descendants.

Using the Mexican axolotl as a model to represent the evolutionary lineage leading to land animals, and paddlefish as a model for the branch leading to ray-finned fishes, the researchers found that electrosensors develop in precisely the same pattern from the same embryonic tissue in the developing skin, confirming that this is an ancient sensory system. link

* Title from the actual press release.
^**(Well, Pluto was a planet back in 1963.)

Died This Day: Richard Denning

2011-10-11T09:29:00.000-04:00

Denning (March 27, 1914 – Oct. 11, 1998) had a long career in Hollywood before moving into TV (notably Hawaii Five-O) in the 1960’s.

He had starring roles in a number of Sci-Fi flicks including Unknown Island (1948), Day the World Ended (1955), Creature with the Atom Brain (1955) and Black Scorpion (1957), but he takes a bow here for playing the greedy Dr. Mark Williams in 1954’s, Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Ichythosaur Vs. Kraken?

2011-10-10T14:12:00.004-04:00

Triassic kraken: the Berlin ichthyosaur death assemblage interpreted as a giant cephalopod midden. 2011.M.A.S. McMenamin and S. McMenamin, 2011 GSA Annual Meeting in Minneapolis (9–12 October 2011).

In Triassic-aged rocks of Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada the remains of nine14m long ichthyosaurs, Shonisaurus popularis, can be found. These were the Triassic’s counterpart to today’s predatory giant squid-eating sperm whales. But the fossils at the Nevada site have a long history of perplexing researchers.

McMenamin noted different degrees of etching on the bones that suggests that the shonisaurs were not all killed and buried at the same time. It also looked like the bones had been purposefully rearranged (below). That it got him thinking about a particular modern predator that is known for just this sort of intelligent manipulation of bones.

In the fossil bed, some of the shonisaur vertebral disks are arranged in curious linear patterns with almost geometric regularity resembling a coleoid sucker. In other words, the vertebral disc “pavement” seen at the state park may represent the earliest known self portrait. link

But could an octopus really have taken out such huge swimming predatory reptiles? Watch this video :

Reconstructing The Evolutionary History of Mollusks

2011-10-09T14:47:00.008-04:00

Phylogenomics reveals deep molluscan relationships. 2011. K.M. Kocot, et al. Nature 477: 452-456.

N-Man © Steve Bissette

Deep genomic analysis of Molluscsa shows there is more than 1 way to make a brain.

Using genomics and computational approaches, scientists have reconstructed the evolutionary history of the entire phylum Molluscsa, ranging from giant squid to microscopic marine worm-like creatures.

One of the surprising outcomes of the study suggests that the formation of a complex brain in mollusks has independently occurred at least four times during the course of evolution. link

Nothing says Danger like a Giant Clam!

Watch the horror HERE

Siamodon nimngami, Iguanodontian from Thialand

2011-10-07T14:17:00.003-04:00

A new iguanodontian dinosaur from the Khok Kruat Fm (Early Cretaceous, Aptian) of northeastern Thailand. 2011. E. Buffetaut and V. Suteethorn. Annales de Paléontologie 97: 51–62.

Abstract: A new taxon of ornithopod dinosaur is described as Siamodon nimngami nov. gen, nov. sep., on the basis of a well-preserved maxilla from the Khok Kruat Formation (Aptian) of northeastern Thailand. An isolated tooth and a braincase are referred to this taxon, and the status of other ornithopod specimens from Thailand and Laos is discussed.

S. nimngami is considered as an advanced iguanodontian, apparently close to Probactrosaurus, from which it differs by various characters of the maxilla. Siamodon is an addition to the already long list of advanced iguanodontian taxa from the late Early Cretaceous of Asia. The diversity and abundance of these forms may suggest that advanced iguanodontians first appeared in Asia, before spreading to other parts of the world.

The Last Universal Common Ancestor of All Life

2011-10-06T12:36:00.005-04:00

Evolution of vacuolar proton pyrophosphatase domains and volutin granules: clues into the early evolutionary origin of the acidocalcisome. 2011. M. J, Seufferheld, et al. Biology Direct: 6:50.

My Greatest Adventure, DC Comics

New evidence suggests that the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) was a sophisticated organism after all, with a complex structure recognizable as a cell.

The study builds on several years of research into a once-overlooked feature of microbial cells, a region with a high concentration of polyphosphate, a type of energy currency in cells.

This site actually represents the first known universal organelle (acidocalcisome), once thought to be absent from bacteria and their distantly related microbial cousins.

By comparing the sequences of the V-H+PPase genes from hundreds of organisms representing the three domains of life, the team constructed a "family tree" that showed that the V-H+PPase enzyme and the acidocalcisome it serves are very ancient, dating back to the LUCA, before the three main branches of the tree of life appeared.

"There are many possible scenarios that could explain this, but the best, the most parsimonious, the most likely would be that you had already the enzyme even before diversification started on Earth," said study co-author Gustavo Caetano-Anollés.

"The protein was there to begin with and was then inherited into all emerging lineages." link

Died This Day: George Gaylord Simpson

2011-10-06T08:01:00.001-04:00

Simpson (June 16, 1902 - October 6, 1984) is known for his contributions to evolutionary theory and to the understanding of intercontinental migrations of animal species in past geological times. Simpson specialized in early fossil mammals, leading expeditions on four continents and discovering in 1953 the 50-million-year old fossil skulls of dawn horses in Colorado.

Simpson helped develop the modern biological theory of evolution, drawing on paleontology, genetics, ecology, and natural selection to show that evolution occurs as a result of natural selection operating in response to shifting environmental conditions. He spent most of his career as a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History. image. From Today In Science History.

Mr. Future!

2011-10-04T12:13:00.003-04:00

Mr. Future, Master of Time!

Died This Day: Charles Lapworth

2011-09-30T13:58:00.000-04:00

From Today In Science History:

Lapworth (Sept. 30, 1842 - March 13, 1920) was an English geologist who proposed what came to be called the Ordovician period (505 to 438 million years old) of geologic strata. Lapworth is famous for his work with marine fossils called graptolites.

By fastidiously collecting the tiny, colonial sea creatures, he figured out the original order of layered rocks that had been faulted and folded in England's Southern Uplands. This method of correlating rocks with graptolites became a model for similar research throughout the world.

In 1879, Lapworth proposed a new classification of Lower Paleozoic rocks with the Ordovician, between the redefined Cambrian and Silurian periods. The name comes from an ancient Welsh tribe, the Ordovices.

Anatotitan, No More!

2011-09-29T18:02:00.004-04:00

Cranial Growth and Variation in Edmontosaurs (Dinosauria: Hadrosauridae): Implications for Latest Cretaceous Megaherbivore Diversity in North America. 2011. N.E. Campione & D. C. Evans. PLoS ONE 6(9): e25186.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Abstract: The well-sampled Late Cretaceous fossil record of North America remains the only high-resolution dataset for evaluating patterns of dinosaur diversity leading up to the terminal Cretaceous extinction event. Hadrosaurine hadrosaurids (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) closely related to Edmontosaurus are among the most common megaherbivores in latest Campanian and Maastrichtian deposits of western North America. However, interpretations of edmontosaur species richness and biostratigraphy have been in constant flux for almost three decades, although the clade is generally thought to have undergone a radiation in the late Maastrichtian.

We address the issue of edmontosaur diversity for the first time using rigorous morphometric analyses of virtually all known complete edmontosaur skulls. Results suggest only two valid species, Edmontosaurus regalis from the late Campanian, and E. annectens from the late Maastrichtian, with previously named taxa,including the controversial Anatotitan copei, erected on hypothesized transitional morphologies associated with ontogenetic size increase and allometric growth.

A revision of North American hadrosaurid taxa suggests a decrease in both hadrosaurid diversity and disparity from the early to late Maastrichtian, a pattern likely also present in ceratopsid dinosaurs. A decline in the disparity of dominant megaherbivores in the latest Maastrichtian interval supports the hypothesis that dinosaur diversity decreased immediately preceding the end Cretaceous extinction event.

'Nuff Said!

Cowboys Vs Dinosaurs!

2011-09-29T17:42:00.002-04:00

Jack Kirby + pterosaurs + cowboys = Good Fun over at Atomic Surgery

Premiered This Day (1914): Gertie The Dinosaur

2011-09-15T13:21:00.000-04:00

Winsor McCay (Sept. 26, 1987 – July 26, 1934) was one of the great American artists of the last century. He is best known for his newspaper comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland that ran from 1905 to 1914, and the animated cartoon creation Gertie the Dinosaur (1914).

For this cartoon McCay hand drew each frame of film. He took it on a tour of the vaudeville circuit and delighted audiences by being able to ‘interact’ with Gertie. Gertie is considered by many as the first true animated character to be featured in a film.

Glass Lantern Field Slides Now Posted at the NMNH

2011-09-13T14:41:00.002-04:00

This lantern slide is from a collection showing field excavations in Arizona, at the Grand Canyon and other unnamed locations in the Painted Desert.

A collection of newly digitized glass lantern slides, showing early 20th century paleontological digs and the preparation of fossils for display, is now available to the public from the Smithsonian Institution Archives and the National Museum of Natural History. Link from Wired.

Thanks to Matt Vavrek!

Laccognathus embryi

2011-09-13T14:14:00.002-04:00

Ted Daeschler/ANSP (image), K. Monoyios (illo)

The 375-million-year-old Laccognathus embryi was d found at the same site as Tiktaalik, on Ellesmere Island in the remote Nunavut Territory of Arctic Canada. Laccognathus is a lobe-finned fish whose closest living relative is the lungfish. The creature probably grew to about 5 or 6 feet long and had a wide head with small eyes and robust jaws lined with large piercing teeth.

"Clearly these Late Devonian ecosystems were vicious places, and Laccognathus filled the niche of a large, bottom-dwelling, sit-and-wait predator with a powerful bite."

The researchers named the new species in honor of Dr. Ashton Embry, a Canadian geologist whose work in the Arctic islands paved the way for the authors' paleontological explorations.

The kind of fish known as Laccognathus (translates as pitted jaw) was previously only known from Eastern Europe. The discovery of Laccognathus embryi, the new species, extends the geographic range of Laccognathus to North America and confirms direct connection of the North American and European landmasses during the Devonian Period.

Published in JVP.

Born This Day: Stephen Jay Gould

2011-09-10T12:21:00.000-04:00

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Sept. 10, 1941 - May 20. 2002

Here’s a nice piece on Gould by Henry Lowood from the Stanford Presidential Lectures in the Humanities and Arts.

Premiered This Day: Mighty Mightor!

2011-09-09T14:48:00.004-04:00

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"While on a hunting trip, Tor and his faithful companion Tog rescue an ancient hermit from a Tyrannosarus rex. Grateful, the old man gives Tor a club which possesses great powers. Tor raises the club and he becomes Mightor, and Tog is transferred into a fire-breathing dragon. Together they become champions of good and the nemesis of evil!" From the opening narration. link.

Mighty Mightor debuted this day in 1967 as part of the Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor Hanna-Barbera cartoon show.

Australopithecus sediba

2011-09-09T10:01:00.003-04:00

Australopithecus sediba at 1.977 Ma and Implications for the Origins of the Genus Homo. R. Pickering, et al. Science 333: 1421-1423.

Five papers based on Australopithecus sediba have been published in Science on Sept. 9, 2011. They include an analysis of the most complete hand ever described in an early hominin, the most complete undistorted pelvis ever discovered, the highest resolution and most accurate scan of an early human ancestors brain ever made, new pieces of the foot and ankle skeleton, and one of the most accurate dates ever achieved for an early hominin site in Africa.

Au. sediba (MH-1) skull reconstruction (opaque) with endocast (green, opaque) partially visible as a result of virtual craniotomy. Dr K. Carlson, U. Witwatersrand.

Abstract: Newly exposed cave sediments at the Malapa site include a flowstone layer capping the sedimentary unit containing the Australopithecus sediba fossils. Uranium-lead dating of the flowstone, combined with paleomagnetic and stratigraphic analysis of the flowstone and underlying sediments, provides a tightly constrained date of 1.977 ± 0.002 million years ago (Ma) for these fossils. This refined dating suggests that Au. sediba from Malapa predates the earliest uncontested evidence for Homo in Africa.

The cranium of the juvenile skeleton of Au.sediba. Pic courtesy of Lee Berger & U. Witwatersrand.

Born This Day: William Lonsdale

2011-09-09T10:00:00.000-04:00

Painting by Dan Erickson of the Phaeton Group

William Lonsdale (Sept. 9, 1794 – Nov. 11, 1891 ) was an English geologist and paleontologist whose study of coral fossils found in Devon, suggested (1837) certain of them were intermediate between those typical of the older Silurian System (408 to 438 Ma) and those of the later Carboniferous System (286 to 360 Ma. Geologists Roderick Murchison and Adam Sedgwick agreed and named this new geologic system after its locale - the Devonian Period (1839).

Lonsdale's early career was as an army officer (1812-15) and later he became curator and librarian of the Geological Society of London (1829-42). He recognised that fossils showed how species changed over time, and more primitive organisms are found in lower strata.
From Today In Science History

Born This Day: Joseph Leidy

2011-09-09T09:58:00.001-04:00

From The Academy of Natural Sciences:

Leidy (Sept. 9, 1823 - April 30, 1891) is known as the "Father of American Vertebrate Paleontology". He described the first relatively complete dinosaur skeleton, Hadrosaurus, and introduced many American and European scientists to the fossil riches of the American West. Leidy's consummate skill in comparative anatomy would allow him to identify and characterize even the most fragmentary fossil material.

Leidy was also the "Founder of American Parasitology," a Professor of Anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania, a pioneering protozoologists, an influential teacher of Natural History, an accomplished microscopist and scientific illustrator, and an expert on a variety of subjects encompasing the earth and natural sciences. He published scientific papers on more than a thousand extinct and living protozoa, fungi and invertebrates and vertebrates as well as an assortment of publications on human biology and medicine. He was also one of the earliest supporters of Charles Darwin.

Revenge of The Big Birds In The War That Time Forgot!

2011-09-08T13:07:00.002-04:00

Read it now over at Atomic Surgery!

Born This Day: Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden

2011-09-07T15:30:00.001-04:00

From Today In Science History

Hayden (Sept. 7, 1829 - Dec. 22, 1887) was an American geologist and explorer of the U.S. West. After finishing a medical school training (1853), his early career began in paleontology for James Hall, collecting fossils in the Badlands and the Upper Missouri Valley. It is believed he made the first North American discovery of dinosaur remains (1854) during this expedition.

His work in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains helped lay the foundation of the U.S. Geological Survey. Hayden is credited with having the Yellowstone geyser area declared the first national park (1872).

Image and more info on Hayden HERE.

Born This Day: Comte Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon

2011-09-07T15:29:00.000-04:00

Buffon (Sept. 7, 1707 – April 16, 1788) was a French naturalist, who formulated a crude theory of evolution and was the first to suggest that the earth might be older than suggested by the Bible.

In 1739 he was appointed keeper of the Jardin du Roi, a post he occupied until his death. There he worked on a comprehensive work on natural history, for which he is remembered, Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière. He began this work in 1749, and it dominated the rest of his life. It would eventually run to 44 volumes, including quadrupeds, birds, reptiles and minerals.

He proposed (1778) that the Earth was hot at its creation and, from the rate of cooling, calculated its age to be 75,000 years, with life emerging some 40,000 years ago.

From Today In Science History. Stamp from HERE.

More info on Buffon from UC-Berkeley.

Born This Day: Raquel Welch

2011-09-05T13:25:00.000-04:00

The cinema's definitive cave woman!

Premiered This Day (1969): The Valley of Gwangi

2011-09-03T15:39:00.000-04:00

Died This Day: Luis Alvarez

2011-09-01T20:50:00.001-04:00

Alvarez (June 13, 1911 - Sept. 1, 1988) was an American experimental physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1968 for work that included the discovery of many resonance particles --subatomic particles having extremely short lifetimes and occurring only in high-energy nuclear collisions.

In about 1980 Alvarez (left) helped his son, the geologist Walter Alvarez (right), publicize Walter's discovery of a worldwide layer of clay that has a high iridium content and which occupies rock strata at the geochronological boundary between the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras; i.e., about 66.4 million years ago.

They postulated that the iridium had been deposited following the impact on Earth of an asteroid or comet and that the catastrophic climatic effects of this massive impact caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Though initially controversial, this widely publicized theory gradually gained support as the most plausible explanation of the abrupt demise of the dinosaurs.

Read more HERE. Image from HERE.

On This Day: Charles Darwin Finds His Advocate For Sailing On The Beagle

2011-08-31T01:20:00.001-04:00

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In 1831, Charles Darwin was visiting Maer Hall, home of his uncle Josiah Wedgwood II, whom he told of his father, Robert Darwin's, opposition to him joining a two-year voyage on H.M.S. Beagle. Charles was enthusiastic about the opportunity, but his father objected to it as a waste of time, delaying his expected career in the clergy, and would not give his permission. His father said, however, he could be swayed to change his opinion if Charles found a man with common sense who would regard the proposed trip as being worthwhile.

Charles found that man in his uncle Josiah, who wrote a letter answering all of the objections in his favour. Josiah was Robert's brother-in-law, and as a family member was successful in influencing him to change his mind. From Today In Science History

Died This Day: Julie Ege

2011-08-29T13:24:00.000-04:00

Nov. 12, 1943 – April 29, 2008

Julie had the lead role as Nala in the 1971 Hammer film, “Creatures The World Forgot”.

Premiered This Day (1979): Planet of Dinsosaurs!

2011-08-27T13:45:00.000-04:00

Well, it premiered in Sweden on this date. It took until Nov. 14, 1981 to make it to the USA.

Happy Birthday to Barbara Bach

2011-08-27T13:22:00.000-04:00

Bach played Lana in the 1981 film Caveman.

Premiered This Day: The People That Time Forgot

2011-08-17T14:32:00.001-04:00

Directed by Kevin O’Connor, this 1977 film starring Doug McClure was a sequel to “The Land That Time Forgot” (1975).

Rapid Recycling of The Earth's Crust

2011-08-15T10:46:00.004-04:00

A young source for the Hawaiian plume. 2011. A. V. Sobolev, et al. Nature, Published online Aug. 10.

The recycling of the Earth's crust in volcanoes happens much faster than scientists have previously assumed.

Rock of the oceanic crust, which sinks deep into the earth due to the movement of tectonic plates, reemerges through volcanic eruptions after around 500 million years. Previously, geologists thought this process would take about two billion years.

Some ocean islands, such as Hawaii, originate from the lowest part of the mantle as hot rock rises in cylindrical columns (mantle plumes), from a depth of nearly 3000 kilometres. Near the surface, it melts, because the pressure is reduced, and forms volcanoes. The plume originates from former ocean crust which early in the Earth's history sank to the bottom of the mantle. Previously, scientists had assumed that this recycling took about two billion years.

The chemical analysis of tiny glassy inclusions in olivine crystals from basaltic lava on Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii has now surprised geologists: the entire recycling process requires at most half a billion years, four times faster than previously thought. link

Read all of the Cave Carson adventure here!

Died This Day: William Buckland

2011-08-15T10:17:00.001-04:00

From The Victorian Web:

Buckland (March 12, 1784 – August 15, 1856) was the first man to identify and name a dinosaur (Megalosaurus), although the name dinosaur had not yet been coined by Richard Owen. Partly in response to the controversial works of Cuvier, Buckland wrote Reliquiae Diluvianae (1823) in which he argued that the evidence of geology alone demonstrated that a great flood had covered the entire globe. This move helped to make geology look more respectable in a religiously conservative England and perhaps to advance Buckland's own career at Oxford by making geology appear to be a respectable companion to the classics.

Buckland was a bit of an eccentric, given to outlandish dress and behavior. Although Buckland was immensely influential as a scientist, his rakish reputation gave many of his staid early Victorian contemporaries considerable difficulty in accepting his work.

More info from HERE. Image from HERE

Tour The Age of Dinosaurs for 10 Cents!

2011-08-14T18:54:00.002-04:00

However, I'm sure the cost has gone up since this ad first appeared in 1960.

Born This Day: Gregor Mendel

2011-07-22T13:25:00.000-04:00

Born This Day: Sir Richard Owen

2011-07-20T11:10:00.001-04:00

From Today In Science History:

Owen (July 20, 1804 – Dec. 18, 1892) was an English anatomist and paleontologist who is remembered for his contributions to the study of fossil animals and for his strong opposition to the views of Charles Darwin.

He coined the word "Dinosaur" meaning "terrible reptile" (1842). Owen synthesized French anatomical work, especially from Cuvier and Geoffroy, with German transcendental anatomy. He gave us many of the terms still used today in anatomy and evolutionary biology, including "homology". In 1856, he was appointed Superintendent of the British Museum (Natural History).

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Reconstructing The Past For TV

2011-07-19T16:11:00.001-04:00

All this and more at The Optimistic Painter.

The Paleo-Loner

2011-07-18T14:08:00.004-04:00

The blog is mostly quiet this summer due to field work and research commitments, but I will pop back in from time to time with a few updates as access to the internet allows.

For starters here's a link to an on-going dino-comic by Jim Lawson at his blog, Paleo-Loner

Died This Day: Carol Landis

2011-07-05T12:58:00.001-04:00

Jan. 1, 1919 - July 5, 1948

Born Frances Lillian Mary Ridste, Carole quit school at 15 go into show business. She had bit parts until 1940 when Hal Roach cast her as the cave girl, Lorna, along side leading man Victor Mature in One Million B.C., the film that made her a star.

Landis became a popular pin-up with servicemen during World War II. She was an accomplished writer; her 1944 book Four Jills in a Jeep was later made into a movie. After a turbulent love life she commited suicide at age 29.

Born This Day: Ernst Mayr

2011-07-05T12:08:00.001-04:00

Any student of biology, or anyone with an interest in the natural world, will be familiar with Ernst Mayr who passed away on February 3rd in Bedford, Mass. Born in Kempton, Germany he joined the American Museum of Natural History as a curator in 1931. In 1953 he left the museum to work at Harvard University where he stayed until his retirement in 1975.

While working on the problem of speciation in the birds of New Guinea, Mayr realized that the multitude of species and and subspecies that he saw could best be explained as being a snapshot of evolution in action. He suggested that new species could arise when the range of one species was fractured long enough for members in different parts of the range to evolve characters that would not allow individuals to reproduce when they were brought back together again. This lead to him developing the “biological species concept” in which species are defined as populations of interbreeding organisms rather than just a collection of characters. This idea, along with his theory of “allopatric speciation” was published in his book “Systematics and the Origin of the Species” (1942) and later contributed to the “Punctuated Equilibrium” theory of Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould.

Ernst Mayr was himself inspired by the work of geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky on the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and his book “Genetics and the Origin of the Species” (1937). These two men, together with the paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson, combined the sciences of genetics, zoology and paleontology into what is now known as “the new synthesis” that provides the modern experimental underpinning to the concepts that Charles Darwin presented in his book, “On the Origin of the Species” .

For anyone interested in learning more about modern evolutionary theory I’d recommend Mayr’s recent book “What Evolution Is” (2002). It’s written in an engaging and readable format from the perspective of someone who’s thought about evolution all his life.

[ a palaeoblog autopost]

Happy Birthday to Ray Harryhausen

2011-06-29T08:48:00.000-04:00

Visit Ray's official site.

[a palaeoblog autopost]

Born This Day: George Gaylord Simpson

2011-06-16T06:33:00.000-04:00

"Life is the most important thing about the world, the most important thing about life is evolution. Thus, by consciously seeking what is most meaningful, I moved from poetry to mineralogy to paleontology to evolution." G.G. Simpson

From the web site supporting the excellent PBS show “Evolution”:

As one of the founders of the "modern synthesis" of evolution, paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson (June 16, 1902 - Oct 6, 1984) argued that the fossil record supports Darwin's theory that natural selection acting on random variation in a population is the driving force behind evolution. Simpson was among the first to use mathematical methods in paleontology, and he also took into account newly discovered genetic evidence for evolution in his study of paleontology.

In his 1944 book, Tempo and Mode in Evolution, Simpson divided evolutionary change into "tempo," the rate of change, and "mode," the manner or pattern of change, with tempo being a basic factor of mode. Simpson saw paleontology, revealing the long history of life on earth, as a unique field through which to study the history of evolution.

The early part of the twentieth century saw evolutionary theory embattled by disagreements over Darwin's emphasis on natural selection. The then-newly rediscovered work of Gregor Mendel in the nineteenth century was an uncomfortable fit with evolution, as many scientists saw it. They weren't at all certain that natural populations contained enough genetic variation for natural selection to create new species. So they entertained other explanations, including inheritance of acquired characteristics, "directed" variation toward a goal, or sudden large mutations that resulted in new species.

In the field of paleontology, the scientist who did most to resolve these questions was George Gaylord Simpson, who was on the staff of the American Museum of Natural History for 30 years.At a time when other paleontologists were convinced that the fossil record could best be explained by directed variation, Simpson disagreed. He said that fossil patterns needed no mystical or goal-oriented processes to explain them. For example, where others saw the modern horse as having arisen in a single advance toward the specialized form, Simpson saw the path as that of an irregular tree that had many side-branches leading off to extinction.

Simpson argued that the evolution of mammals, as seen in their fossilized remains, fit perfectly well with the new mechanisms of population genetics being studied at the time. He used the then-new mathematical methods to clarify how evolution occurred in "gene pools" in populations, not in individual members of the population.

Importantly, he showed that gaps in the fossil record reflected periods of substantial change through rapid "quantum evolution" in small populations, leaving little fossil evidence behind. At other times, he observed, rates of change could be so slow as to seem almost nonexistent.

Read more about Simpson HERE.

The Mismeasure of The Mismeasure of Man

2011-06-15T07:36:00.003-04:00

The Mismeasure of Science: Stephen Jay Gould versus Samuel George Morton on Skulls and Bias. 2011. J.E. Lewis, et al. PLoS Biol 9(6): e1001071.

Apparently it was Gould, not Morton, who got it wrong.

Stephen Jay Gould, the prominent evolutionary biologist and science historian, argued that “unconscious manipulation of data may be a scientific norm” because “scientists are human beings rooted in cultural contexts, not automatons directed toward external truth”, a view now popular in social studies of science.

In support of his argument Gould presented the case of Samuel George Morton, a 19th-century physician and physical anthropologist famous for his measurements of human skulls. Morton was considered the objectivist of his era, but Gould reanalyzed Morton's data and in his prize-winning book The Mismeasure of Man argued that Morton skewed his data to fit his preconceptions about human variation. Morton is now viewed as a canonical example of scientific misconduct.

But did Morton really fudge his data? Are studies of human variation inevitably biased, as per Gould, or are objective accounts attainable, as Morton attempted? We investigated these questions by remeasuring Morton's skulls and reexamining both Morton's and Gould's analyses.

Our results resolve this historical controversy, demonstrating that Morton did not manipulate data to support his preconceptions, contra Gould. In fact, the Morton case provides an example of how the scientific method can shield results from cultural biases.

Thanks to Sukie for the link!