Most of us remember our first life-like encounter with dinosaurs sitting in a theater watching Jurassic Park (1993). Although dinosaurs had been very popular in picture books for many years the vivid recreation of them on the screen rekindled a sense of awe of these amazing creatures of a past age. Today, movies with depictions... Continue Reading →
Ken Ham would have us believe that the modern creationist movement, which apparently began only 53 years ago, is the real deal this time. Unlike all the other attempts to create a history of the Earth with a recent global flood as a centerpiece, this time it apparently is going to usher in a real reformation in both science and an appreciation for biblical authority.
There is a very recent form of fossil hunting that I have gotten to partake in to some small extent, and I can do it while sitting in front of a computer screen! With some computer skills and some knowledge of animal genomes it isn't difficult to join this hunt for fossils inside the genome of living organisms.
A small chamber in a deep, dark cave. Tens of thousands of bones. Animal bones and human bones. Buried under dust and dirt and bat dung. Welcome to an ancient chamber of horrors. This is the Pit of Bones (aka Sima de los Huesos). In 1997, scientists discovered this small chamber within a much larger... Continue Reading →
I recently took a hike at Currituck Banks Reserve on the outer bank of North Carolina. My daughter was fascinated by the hundreds of dragonflies buzzing around. We spent more than an hour watching them interact with their environment and each other in the dry woods and near the bay waters. There are a million... Continue Reading →
Following up on a new Ichythosaur discovery last week (When Marine Reptiles Ruled the Sea) the fossilized footsteps of a Nothosaur have been unveiled. This time we go to China where a geological surveyor stumbled onto a few fossil tracks on a small ledge. Cutting back into the side of the mountain, paleontologists exposed 350 prints as part of... Continue Reading →
Can you imagine the world’s oceans filled with carnivorous reptiles? Dinosaurs are the most famous members of the age of the reptiles. However, many of the original reptilian fossil discoveries that initiated the idea of the age of reptiles were not dinosaurs. They were instead reptiles that lived in the sea.
I have one plant in my office that I have managed to keep alive for 5 years but mostly I keep organisms in my office that can't be killed because they are already dead. I'm a bit more extreme in my lab where I keep thousands of samples of DNA in freezers. In my office I... Continue Reading →
What do you think of when someone mentions the Jurassic or Cretaceous ages? Most likely you will immediately think of dinosaurs and other large reptiles such as pterosaurs. Maybe you think of the movie Jurassic Park, filled with dinosaurs and lush vegetation. This time has become known as the Age of the Reptiles and aptly so since... Continue Reading →
What is the largest animal to have ever lived on the Earth? Most people will answer “dinosaurs” or “sauropods” in particular. While some titanosaurs may have been the heaviest land animals they were not the largest animals to have lived on Earth. That distinction goes to an animal that is very much alive today: the... Continue Reading →
During the last ice age some 12 to 13 thousands years ago a young girl found herself wandering in caves of the Yucatan Peninsula likely looking for water. Hundreds of feet into a cave something happened and she fell in a deep pit breaking her pelvis. With no escape 100 feet down she died a lonely death. She... Continue Reading →
You might think of the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars as a assortment of space junk floating randomly in space. There are millions of asteroids of which more than 100,000 have been measured and mapped by astronomers. But analysis of those asteroids has shown that there are groups of asteroids that are related to one another and are referred to family members
Imagine you live in northern England and you are out exploring and come upon a hidden cave entrance. Upon climbing down into the cave you discover hundreds of bones belonging to large mammals. At first you think the bones represent local animals since there are some deer, rabbits, weasels and wolves but soon it becomes clear... Continue Reading →
"Approach, approach, ingenuous youth, and learn the fundamental truth: The Noble science of Geology Is founded firmly in Coprology. For ever be the Saurians blest, Who left us this diluvian test. I claim a grand coronam lauri, For these, Thesauri of the Sauri."
The Reverend William Buckland (1784-1856) was one of the last in a line of influential natural theologians following in the footsteps of John Ray (late 1600s) and William Paley (late 1700s). I recently gave a seminar in which I explored a number of significant turning points (figure below) in the history of discovery of deep time and the awareness... Continue Reading →
Naturalis Historia 