I hang out online sometimes with a bunch of like-minded fossil-enthusiasts (The Fossil Forum).
Tonight somebody posted this:
Just watched the new this evening and they were talking about a dig going on right now outside of Glen Rose, on the McFall ranch. The news showed the footprints of the therapod and the human prints together. It [...]

I’m back!!!
Oh…you never realized I was gone?
Ah well, that’s ok, because I AM back - back from a stressful few months of wondering where I would end up, how I would feed my babies (i.e. cats) and their baby-momma (my wife - yeah that does sound rather gross), and several dozen unknowns also thrown into [...]

If any of you have not read Hoxful Monsters, you should leave me and go there immediately.
I swear - everytime I read a post by Nagraj Sambrani, I find myself at least a tenth of an IQ point smarter (that’s a joke - no IQ debates here…). That adds up!
Nagraj’s latest post (New tree of [...]

As I have recently shown you all, Spring is here in full force in North Carolina.
I love it more than almost anything, but there are two weeks of Spring that are quite hellish for me.  You see, I am incredibly allergic to Oak pollen (most species but not all).
This fact has lead to a tragic [...]

Oh yes, woolly we be. Check out the latest update on our celebratory Darwin beard contest over at Southern Fried Science.
Great Darwin Beard Challenge History:

The Origin: Deep Sea News, Southern Fried Science, Biochemical Soul
Week 1: Biochemical Soul, Deep Sea News
Week 2: Southern Fried Science - Hats

Week 3: Biochemical Soul - Hardcore

Week 4: Biochemical Soul - The [...]

I couldn’t imagine how Miriam Goldstein of The Oyster’s Garter could top her previous hosting of the Carnival of the Blue #21 in which she waxed lyrical and poetic.
However, as I have come to expect from Miriam, she completely knocked the socks off of my expectations with her shiny new edition of the Carnival of [...]

I owe the following example of evolutionary adaptation to the always amazing evolutionary and developmental biologist Dr. Sean B. Carroll, from his lecture “Making of the Fittest” for the Darwin College - Darwin Lecture Series, available at iTunes U (I highly recommend everyone give it a listen).

Imagine that you are a fish - exothermic and [...]

Alright, so Kevin at Deep-Sea News got a little busy this past week “laying down the hardwood.” He claims this involved flooring installation…
Thus I have taken on the reigns of presenting this week’s Great Darwin Beard Challenge images.
For those of you new here (and I know there are several due to my Science Blogging: The [...]

Just a couple of quick notes to my fellow developmental biologists out there:
First, due to my recent post, Science Blogging: The Future of Science Communication & Why You Should be a Part of it, I was reminded through my comments at Larry Moran’s reaction post at Sandwalk that I haven’t met very many developmental biologist [...]

What’s better than children singing? Children singing about science. And to take it once step better, give all the little kiddies British accents.
Apparently these videos have been around for quite some time, but I somehow missed them. Thus I’m guessing that some of you may have missed them as well.
The following are a couple of [...]

There’s one particular event of every summer in the South that I always await with great anticipation: the emergence of the millions of annual Dog Day cicadas (Tibicen canicularis).
It’s not just the event itself that I love. The cicadas are certainly wonders in themselves; but for me, they are more than just insects of the [...]

If you haven’t read my piece on Flatfish Eyes & Recapitulation Theory, you should check it out. For those of you who have read it, I updated it with the following AMAZING morph animations of flatfish development that I somehow missed before (much thanks to Adrian Thysse, FCD of Evolving Complexity for pointing these out [...]

Stripped of all biologically advantageous or meaningful body hair, there comes a time in every man’s life when he ponders just why the eons of molding, shaping, and changing forces of natural selection have left what little remains.
The answer comes, quite naturally, to all who discover that certain magical stage of hirsute facial existence. There [...]

Earlier this week, thanks to the wonderful science & nature Twitter community, I followed a link from someone now forgotten to an article entitled “7 Symbiotic Wonders of the Aerial World.”
Therein, in symbiotic relationship number one, sat a photograph that I found utterly astonishing:
According to the WebEcoist website which published this list of “symbiotic wonders.”
“It [...]

The next edition of the Carnival of Evolution is now live over at Moneduloides!
It’s clear that moneduloides put alot of work into this edition, which contains a great amount of commentary on each submission.
So waste no more time here - go check it out now!

This week’s installment of the Great Darwin Beard Challenge is live over at Southern Fried Science. We are in week two now, our sandpaper faces replaced by millimeter stubble.
It seems a long way from here to our bushy-bearded Darwinian goals. The “contest” will end on October 1st, the 150th anniversary of the inside cover date [...]

Most biologists at one time or another in their training have learned of the 19th century theory expounded upon by Ernst Haeckel called “Recapitulation Theory“.
The theory’s thesis: “Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.” Don’t worry - it’s not as complicated as the biological jargon might imply.
The idea boils down to a simple one - one that seemed to [...]

Okay, so technically this is Day 5 (I’m two days behind the other guys). But for consistency’s sake, I’ll just fudge the data a little bit and call it day 7, at the risk of looking relatively less manly.
This week’s Great Darwin Beard Challenge update is hosted by Kevin Zelnio of Deep-Sea News.
Just to remind [...]

For awhile anyway.
As some of you may know, Andrew, the Southern Fried Scientist, and Kevin Zelnio of The Other 95% and Deep Sea News have begun a Darwinian celebratory challenge of manly proportions. Between February 12th (Darwin’s 200th birthday) and October 1st (The 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species, according to [...]

Though we are nearing the end of the “official” Darwin Day celebration, considering Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species, 2009 is sure to be the Year of Darwin. In fact, a slew of events will be filling the entire month of February and there are [...]

Happy 200th birthday, Charles Darwin!
Happy 200th birthday, Abraham Lincoln!
Happy 150th anniversary, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life!
And here’s to a happy Darwin Day and upcoming Valentine’s Day to everyone else.
As a part of my own contribution to the Blog for [...]

I’m jealous!
Christie over at Observations of a Nerd (one of my favorite science blogs), somehow got noticed by the National Geographic Channel and received her own early DVD copy of their upcoming Darwin Specials for review. I highly recommend everyone read her sneak-peek at the upcoming “Morphed” series, which explores the evolution from ancestor beasts [...]

Welcome back to the Carnival of Evolution - the place where the sideshow freaks of nature, the genetic mutants of the Tree of Life, run the show. Yes - we are all mutants, each of us with our own mutant powers, whether that be gripping plastic electronic mice with opposable thumbs or using specialized spiny [...]

UPDATE* if you do not see your post mentioned, see note at the bottom of the post.
IT…HAS…ARRIVED!
The long awaited, much delayed eighth edition of the Carnival of Evolution is here.
I won’t go into the excuses, other than to say that one of them was the death of my grandfather - a man whose love of [...]

I’ve decided to start a weekly series highlighting interesting, strange, or just plain cool evolutionary adaptations. If any of you have suggestions for adaptations that you find particularly interesting, I would be happy to include them.
I’m gonna start off with a species that is dear to my heart, the Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus). Back in [...]