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 “Systematics is sick” 21 Aug 2008 So says a committee of the UK House of Lords: Systematic biology and taxonomy – the science of describing and identifying plants and animals – is in critical decline and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) must act before it is too late. Of course, this is not… Read More
Evolution Blumenbach on the unity of the human species, and on species 19 Mar 200918 Sep 2017 Johann Friedrich Blumenbach is often criticised for his racial classification and supposed racism, but in this work, published in 1775, he not only argues for the unity of the human species, but in other passages for their general equality of intelligence, contrary to the use his ideas were later put… Read More
Biology David Hull’s philosophy 12 Aug 2010 David Hull was one of the first graduates from the University of Indiana’s HPS program. During that program he attended a seminar with Karl Popper in the course of which he wrote a paper on essentialism in biology. Popper took it upon himself to send this, without telling Hull, to… 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. 😉