A colleague has a fossil scallop in his office that he collected while teaching a field course on Chesapeake Bay biology. He pulled this scallop from the cliff wall at Calvert Cliffs near Calvert, Maryland. It is particularly impressive not only for its size (more than 5 inches in diameter) but also for its condition.... Continue Reading →
Anyone who has spent time in a desert has probably noticed many dark streaks or patches on the rocks. I expect that most people simply look at these dark streaks and think they are simply stains like a stain on a cement driveway or that line of rust color running down a wall from a... Continue Reading →
Down a 43 foot vertical shaft, another 40 foot slope, and buried under thousands of cave bear, lion and lynx bones, lies the partially fossilized bones of at least 30 individual humans. Welcome to a chamber of horrors otherwise known as Sima de los Huesos (the pit of bones). This pit is but a small... Continue Reading →
A mummified fossil of common species of hadrosaur was found recently in South Dakota that showed that this particular hadrosaur had a rooster-like fleshy comb on its head. Many hadrosaurs have exotic extensions of their cranial bones but this evidence that even the “boring” hadrosaurs had fleshy projections suggests that the hadrosaurs were an even... Continue Reading →
Just how fast are some rocks on Mars eroding? A few months ago I asked a Martian rock that question (see: My Interview with a Martian: A Story of Origins) and I was not given a very satisfying answer. Well, that rock can be excused for being a bit confused about time given how boring... Continue Reading →
One headline reads “Giant Prehistoric Toilet Found” another refers to the discovery of an ancient latrine. Don’t know how I missed those a few weeks ago. Surely had I seen that headline I would have had to clicked on it to find out what that was all about. The actual title, The oldest known communal latrines... Continue Reading →
This fish prefers to be out of water! The Pacific leaping blenny is back in the news again with the publication of further research on how they avoid being eaten by birds and lizards. Whoa, back up a bit you say. A fish living out of water! Yep, and this isn't just a fish that... Continue Reading →
There are about 10,000 species of birds alive today. Almost 200 additional species have gone extinct since the year 1500 and there are innumerable fossil species of birds in the geological column. One of the persistent challenges for modern young earth creationists is how to fit the diversity of life on the Noah’s ark. Answers... Continue Reading →
A new hominid skull find is making news today. The headlines are predictable over-dramatic but the skull nonetheless is quite impressive in its state of preservation. I don’t have time for a detailed report of this find but I have read the paper (Lordkipanize et al. 2013 see references) and several other papers about this... Continue Reading →
Everything has an origin.* Some stories of origins are relatively simple (eg. Niagara Falls) while others are much more complex (eg. the Grand Canyon). The study of origins is the study and reconstruction of past events. We have eyewitness accounts of some events from the past but mostly we use circumstantial evidence left behind as... Continue Reading →
We all learned from an early age that earthworms are God's good gift to gardeners. They rework the soil and help to degrade leaf litter thus helping to make nutrients and water available to plant roots. Our appreciation of earthworms can be traced back to Charles Darwin who spent more than 40 years... Continue Reading →
What museum can you go to where you can see real dinosaur bones, you don't pay any fees, you can touch all the exhibits and there are no security cameras watching your every move (at least I don't think there are:-)? The answer is The Mill Canyon Dinosaur Trail near Moab, Utah. This outdoor "museum"... Continue Reading →
Image you are living in 200 BC in the Middle East region and you come by the skull to the right as you plow your field or when you explore the local cave complex. What if you are wandering the desert in Egypt and happen upon the bones in the second figure. Or what about... Continue Reading →
In 2013 a remarkable DNA sequence was revealed by geneticists studying ancient DNA. It was the nearly complete genome extracted and decoded from the remains of a tooth from a horse preserved in permafrost sediments buried in the Yukon region in Alaska. This partially fossilized bone was estimated to be more than 500,000 years old. ... Continue Reading →
Family vacation with the Duffs always includes some geological sights. In 2007 we visited Prince Edward Island and had a wonderful time but the there just wasn't enough geology there to satisfy my curiosity so I took us on a 2 hour detour in Nova Scotia. After a lot of "are we there yets" and... Continue Reading →
Naturalis Historia 