With Halloween only two days away, I thought we should turn our attentions to an animal which has become synonymous with the holiday. The word ‘Halloween’ conjures up a series of distinctive shapes in our minds; a pumpkin, a ghost, the far too early Christmas tree in the shops, and the silhouette of a flying bat. But how long could it have been this way? Would a bat have been a symbol of Halloween in the Mesozoic (if dinosaurs had been capable of celebrating this autumnal festival or been dextrous enough to craft decorations to mark it)?
The Grass Divide
How often do we as regular humans, living on this planet, think about grass? We don’t ever really. Grass is just there and, as far as most are concerned it always has been and always will be. But grass is a living organism, subject to all the same rules of life as everything else. Grass had to evolve which means, by definition, there was a time, a very long time, when it didn’t exist.
Luckless Lobsters
Everyone knows about the great extinction at the end of the dinosaur age, but it was far from smooth sailing up until then. The Mesozoic era stretches out 180 million years, during which time many different groups of animals exploded into abundance and then died away. Even without anything so dramatic as an asteroid impact much of these were still significant catastrophes. One such time is the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (T-OAE). (more…)
The Bocas Core Spicule Project
Guest Author – Mike Hynes
Palaeobiology MSc Graduate
Although I have spent large parts of my science career working on Mesozoic fossils, including my current MSc project on feathered dinosaurs, I want to take a moment here do discuss some lesser known applications of palaeontology. (more…)
Behind The Heavy Claw
When going from school to school talking about dinosaurs, it’s only natural that one of the most commonly asked questions I get is; “What is your favourite dinosaur?” Perhaps, being as I am part of the Bristol Dinosaur Project, I should say Thecodonotosaurus, but that wouldn’t be true. If I absolutely had to pick just one, my favourite dinosaur would be Baryonyx walkeri. (more…)
WiS – Chloe Jones
Guest Author – Chloe Jones
Palaeobiology MSc Graduate
When I was younger (and trying to figure out what to do with my life), I never thought I’d end up with a career in science, and yet here I am as a research technician at the University of Bristol working on microfossils. (more…)
Exploring Excalibosaurus
Guest Author – Jack Lovegrove
Palaeontology & Evolution MSci Graduate
Ichthyosaurs are one of those groups of prehistoric animals that always seem to play second fiddle to dinosaurs in popular science (with the notable exception of the BBC series ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’). They are usually only mentioned as a way of demonstrating convergent evolution with fish rather than as fascinating and varied animals on their own right. (more…)
WiS – Rhiannon Jones
Guest Author – Rhiannon Jones
Environmental Geosciences MSci Graduate
Happy Women in Science day readers! And thanks to the BDP for making the first blog release a WiS special. I’m feeling very positive about Women in Science. With the odd exception at undergraduate, the only fossils I have come across so far in the industry (more…)