Imagine trawling for fish and when you pull up your nets you find a massive bone or a huge tooth along with your catch. For over 100 years fishermen in the North Sea between Britain and Denmark have found such items in their nets but it wasn’t until the 1980s that their value, monetarily and... Continue Reading →
When I last updated you on the excursion that the Curiosity rover has been making across the floor of Gale Crater on Mars I noted that the images it has been beaming back had been getting rather routine. But the rover has slowly been moving downhill toward what seems more and more likely to have... Continue Reading →
We live in a new golden age of fossil discoveries. It seems that every week a new and dramatic fossil find is revealed. This fossil renaissance can be attributed to the opening up of new fossil sources, particularly China and Mongolia but also South America and to improved technology for retrieving and analyzing fossil remains.... Continue Reading →
In case you hadn't noticed it's been a bit cold this winter. Here in Ohio we have already had more days below zero (Fahrenheit) than the last couple of years combined. Today I walked into my daughter's room and noticed that some beautiful ice crystals had formed on her window. This is a... Continue Reading →
A visit to Badlands National Park in South Dakota feels a bit like going to see a miniature replica of the Taj Mahal instead of seeing the real thing after you have hung out for a week in Moab UT and traveled around southeastern Utah. But that isn't to say that it isn't worth seeing. On... Continue Reading →
One of the great privileges of my job is that I get to participate on committees of graduate students. This allows me to get up close and personal with data from sub-disciplines of biology that often extend far from those of my particular expertise. You know by now that I carry a particular fondness for... Continue Reading →
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 →
Do our past experience influence our lives in the present? Of course they do. Usually it is our past interpersonal experiences that we think of as shaping us today but our natural environment also can play a big role as well. This second collection of photos from family trip to the western US last summer... Continue Reading →
It is cold and snowing outside and it is supposed to get much colder. I feel so far away from when I was standing at the overlook of the Goosnecks of the San Juan River in 99 degree heat taking in the desert southwest. Six month later I'm still sorting through my pictures... 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 →
Naturalis Historia is a bit more than two years old. In that time I have written more than 160 articles and notes. The majority of these are reflections upon some aspect of the intersection of science and faith. My typical modus operandi has been to take discoveries from science and ask how these discoveries impact... Continue Reading →
I woke this morning (Christmas Eve) to find that a light coating of lake-effect snow was deposited over northeast Ohio last night. We have a patio made with large bricks sitting on what I assume is a bed of sand. Rain, snow and frost all produce interesting patterns on these stones because of the properties of... Continue Reading →
In the pursuit of understanding Christian belief and intellectual exploration, I found the book "God and the Cosmos: Divine Activity in Space, Time and History" by Harry Lee Poe and Jimmy H. Davis to be a helpful read. The authors set the tone for their exploration by invoking a quote from the 16th century theologian... Continue Reading →
Travel to most any desert region and you will observe black, brown or orange streaks or crusts on the surface of many rocks. These stains on the rock have been called desert or rock varnish. The origins have been scrutinized for many years and still are not fully understood. I will explore some of what... 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 →
Naturalis Historia 