Black rhinoceros. Image by Vassil, public domain. Rhinos are an amazing group of animals, and have a rich fossil history, too. During the past 40 million years, they have transformed from fairly small ancestral formsCategory Archives: Zoology
Author Interview: Kelsey Stilson on Gnarly Rhino Bones
Black rhinoceros. Image by Vassil, public domain. Rhinos are an amazing group of animals, and have a rich fossil history, too. During the past 40 million years, they have transformed from fairly small ancestral formsPosted by in featured, Interview, Laura Wilson, mammals, osteohistology, PaleoArt, paleontology, paleopathology, rhino, rhinoceros, rhinos, Zoology
Ancient “Horse” Pregnancy Frozen in Time
Some fossils are just too cool. And slightly tragic. A 48 million year old fossil from the Messel beds of Germany fits this category well, preserving a mare with her unborn offspring. Beyond macabre fascination, however, what do these fossils tell us? … Continue reading
The post Ancient “Horse” Pregnancy Frozen in Time appeared first on PLOS Blogs Network.
Posted by in equoid, Equoidea, Eurohippus, horse, Messel, paleontology, PLOS One, pregnancy, Zoology
Fossil Lizard Showcases Wyoming’s Tropical Wonderland
Wyoming is a beautiful place, but usually it is associated more with open range, cowboys, mountains, and skiing than it is with palm trees and alligators. What a difference 48 million years makes! Fossils in the rocks of the Bridger Formation, spanning … Continue reading
The post Fossil Lizard Showcases Wyoming’s Tropical Wonderland appeared first on PLOS Blogs Network.
Posted by in Babibasiliscus, casquehead lizard, climate change, lizard, paleontology, PLOS One, Zoology
The Curse of the Horned Dinosaur Egg
Horned dinosaurs (ceratopsians) just can’t catch a break when it comes to their fossilized eggs. The first purported examples turned up in Mongolia during the 1920s, attributed to Protoceratops. A few unlucky “Protoceratops” eggs were fossilized next to the jaws of another dinosaur (Oviraptor, which … Continue reading
The post The Curse of the Horned Dinosaur Egg appeared first on PLOS Blogs Network.
Posted by in Aves, Bird, birds, Ceratopsia, ceratopsian, CT scanning, CT scans, Digitization, dinosaurs, eggs, horned dinosaur, paleontology, PLOS One, Technology, vertebrate paleontology, Zoology
Guest Post: Can We Easily Distinguish Male and Female Protoceratops?
This guest post is from Leonardo Maiorino, a vertebrate paleontologist with a particular interest in understanding the evolution of the skull in horned dinosaurs. Leo was at the helm of a recent paper in PLOS ONE (I was a co-author), … Continue reading
The post Guest Post: Can We Easily Distinguish Male and Female Protoceratops? appeared first on PLOS Blogs Network.
Posted by in Ceratopsia, dinosaur, dinosaurs, horned dinosaurs, paleontology, PLOS One, Protoceratops, sexual dimorphism, Zoology
Deep Pterosaur Breaths
I cannot begin tell you how excited my children will be to learn that scientists think* giant pterosaurs may have breathed in a similar way to crocodilians when they get home from school today. Read Brian Switek’s explanation of the newest research at National Geographic Phenomena.
Filed under: Curiosities of Nature Tagged: Brian Switek, Linkonomicon, Paleontology, pterosaurs, Zoology
Posted by in Brian Switek, Curiosities of Nature, Linkonomicon, paleontology, pterosaurs, Zoology
Lungfish brains ain’t boring
I tend to think of fish brains as fairly unremarkable. Too simple relative to mammal brains, too un-dinosaur-y relative to dinosaur brains. Shark and perch brains get a brief nod in many comparative anatomy classes, but mostly to lament how … Continue reading
The post Lungfish brains ain’t boring appeared first on PLOS Blogs Network.
Posted by in brain, CT scanning, endocast, lungfish, paleontology, PLOS One, Zoology
Can penguins tell us how far the Cretaceous diving bird Hesperornis wandered?
Don’t mess with Hesperornis. It was a flightless, aquatic Cretaceous bird that measured up to six feet long, had a beak lined with sharp teeth, and was partially responsible for the downfall of at least one scientific career*. It superficially resembled … Continue reading
The post Can penguins tell us how far the Cretaceous diving bird Hesperornis wandered? appeared first on PLOS Blogs Network.
Posted by in birds, bone, dinosaurs, Hesperornis, migration, osteohistology, paleontology, penguin, Zoology
Baby moa bones: more than meets the eye
The name “moa” inevitably conjures up pictures of giant, lumbering bird-beasts, destined for extinction at the hands of humans. For fans of paleontological history, we usually recollect the grumpy looking Victorian era paleontologist Richard Owen, dwarfed by …
The post Baby moa bones: more than meets the eye appeared first on PLOS Blogs Network.
Posted by in ancient DNA, birds, moa, moas, New Zealand, ontogeny, paleontology, PLOS One, Zoology
Cambridge University Museum of Zoology
Finback Whale Skeleton outside the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology – 2.5yo child for scale (Photo by Josh Witten – All Rights Reserved)
For being a relatively small town, Cambridge, England, has a lot of museums. I already showed you the Sedgwick and the Cambridge Science Centre. Today we’re visiting the Museum of Zoology.
The museum is hidden in a densely built courtyard, behind lecture halls and other buildings. You know you’ve found it when you spot the whale skeleton.
Inside, the museum has more skeletons, but these are a bit smaller than the whale outside.
This one is still big!
The hippo is much smaller, though. Aww.
Besides skeletons, the museum also has a large collection of shells. (I asked Twitter whether I could call those exoskeletons, but the people there said no. Anyway, skeletons and shells.)
The shell on the right looks like math.
The museum also has a collection of specimens that were collected by Darwin, like these barnacles:
The zoological museum is part of the department of Zoology, just like the Sedgwick museum belongs to the department of Earth Sciences. There are several other Cambridge museums that are part of the university. I visited the museum of anthropology just before I left, and sadly never made it to the museum of history of science, but will keep that in mind as future destination.
