ROUS’s? I don’t believe they exist. 15 Jan 2008 Anyone who knows the film The Princess Bride knows what happens next. Westley gets hit hard by a rodent about the size of a pitbull. However, it seems that ROUS’s (Rodents of Unusual Size) actually may have existed, in Uruguay. Nature reports that the skull of one has been discovered, and the animal itself may have weighed a tonne (2200lbs) or so. Next, we’ll discover that there are miracle men… Evolution General Science
Ecology and Biodiversity How is a species like a soup can? 22 Oct 200818 Sep 2017 That is not a riddle, or rather it’s not meant to be, but it’s a question worth asking about the barcoding project. Wired has a nicely written piece about the rationale and program of giving species DNA barcodes and using the gene chosen as the barcode to identify the number… Read More
Book Book review: Freaks of Nature 3 Feb 2009 “Freaks of Nature: What Anomalies Tell Us About Development and Evolution” (Mark S. Blumberg) This book came to me well recommended, and as far as the content goes, I am very impressed. The writing style, however, and the intended audience, are at odds with each other. Read More
Epistemology Homology and analogy 27 Aug 201018 Sep 2017 Last time I noted that phylogenetic classification was based on homologies, which I have elsewhere discussed. Now I want to consider how we might generalise it across all the sciences. And in particular I want to consider the other form of classificatory activity, by analogy, might also generalise. This will… Read More
Yabbut the “standard” example of Diprotodon is a wombat, which is about the size of an small esky, so a Volkswagen sized esky isn’t such a leap. But a Volkswagen sized rat is a whole nother thing.
The new critter is called Josephoartigasia monesi (which isn’t as bad as Parapropalaehoplophorus septentrionalis for a name) and the paper describing it is up over at Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
John, you can’t be Inigo Montoya. My father is still alive. As for the rat, on the BBC World Service this morning (err, morning our time), they said it was a vegetarian. I got this image of a huge rat idly chewing its way along a swathe of tropical forest. Bob
John, you can’t be Inigo Montoya. My father is still alive. As for the rat, on the BBC World Service this morning (err, morning our time), they said it was a vegetarian. I got this image of a huge rat idly chewing its way along a swathe of tropical forest. Bob
John, you can’t be Inigo Montoya. My father is still alive. As for the rat, on the BBC World Service this morning (err, morning our time), they said it was a vegetarian. I got this image of a huge rat idly chewing its way along a swathe of tropical forest. Bob
John, you can’t be Inigo Montoya. My father is still alive. As for the rat, on the BBC World Service this morning (err, morning our time), they said it was a vegetarian. I got this image of a huge rat idly chewing its way along a swathe of tropical forest. Bob
Wait, I know something you don’t know… or rather, the article says something you didn’t read. They’re comparing it to a capybara, rather than a rat. Which is rather like the wombat/diprodoton comparison. Although everything is obviously bigger and better in SE Queensland, if John has an Esky the size of a wombat.
Wait, I know something you don’t know… or rather, the article says something you didn’t read. They’re comparing it to a capybara, rather than a rat. Which is rather like the wombat/diprodoton comparison. Although everything is obviously bigger and better in SE Queensland, if John has an Esky the size of a wombat.
Shhh… you’re ruining the moment 🙂 Do you mean to say, Dr. Wilkins, that you played fast and loose with the truth to make your argument seem stronger? I’m shocked! I thought philosophers (excepting christian philosophers) were honor bound to tell the truth without fudging. 😉