The Mumpsimus Blog

Axial tilt and evolution

04 agosto 2011

Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science

What role does Earth's axial tilt play in the ongoing evolution of life on this planet? That question has intrigued me ever since the Japanese earthquake, this spring. I read that the quake had shifted our planet on its axis by 25cm - a minute amount on the planetary scale - but one that could have, as one story noted, "profound, if...

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Tags: evolution, biology, paleontology, science 4 Comments

Giant spider fossil found in Mongolia

20 abril 2011

Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science

I developed an appreciation of spiders around age 10. I came down with one of those childhood diseases - chicken pox, mumps, or measles, I forget which now - and spent a week in bed. I was a voracious reader even then, but I had only one unread book on hand, a library title taken out for some school project. It was Jean Henri Fabre's 1912...

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Tags: spiders, fossils, science, paleontology 0 Comments

T. Rex had a cousin. Imagine the family BBQs...

03 abril 2011

Posted by Ian Chadwick in Science

He's called Zhuchengtyrannus magnus, but I bet that gets condensed to something more like Z. Mag when people start taking about him. He's the latest fossil find to come from China - an 11-metre-long, 4-metre-tall theropod weighing in at 6 tonnes. That's pretty close to the size of T. Rex, his huge carnivorous cousin. Imagine the fun...

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Tags: science, dinosaurs, China, paleontology 0 Comments

Goodbye Triceratops, hello Torosaurus

07 agosto 2010

Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Science

Another cherished childhood myth demolished. This week paleontologists Jack Horner (one of those I respect the most) and John Scannella revealed that the beloved Triceratops was not a separate species, but rather the immature form of Torosaurus. First Brontosaurus, now Triceratops...

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Tags: scientists, paleontology, dinosaurs, triceratops, science 0 Comments

Darwin's sesquicentennial

12 octubre 2009

Posted by Ian Chadwick

[indent][wrap="left"][url="http://www.findingdulcinea.com/ news/science/2009/oct/-Darwin-s-Darkest-Hour--Offers-Insight-Into-Scientist- s-Inner-Struggle.html"][img]http://www.findingdu...ews/0/image.jpg [...

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