Teeth and a marsupial lion 16 May 2009 Chris Nedin has another post of great interest (even if it is for a late period, the Pleistocene) which goes into my file of “the older naturalists were great observers”, as he shows how modern chemistry supports Richard Owens’ diagnosis of Thylacoleo as a carnivore, even though it is in a clade of herbivores. Evolution Species and systematics
Evolution India and evolution 1 Dec 2009 I am constantly impressed by the quality and intellectual nature of articles in English language Indian sites and newspapers. This one, by Vikram Doctor, discusses the influence and ideas of Edward Blyth on Charles Darwin. He points out that Blyth is, unfortunately, only remembered because the anti-Darwinians have tried to… Read More
Evolution The trashcan categorial 20 Nov 2008 I’m introducing a new category – the Trashcan. This is a term used in systematics to identify a group that comprises “everything else” once you have done the identification of the real groups of some taxonomic grouping. I will be using the Trashcan to group together all and only those… Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity How not to Feyerabend 5 Oct 2007 On Monday night last, Jason Grossman, a philosopher form the Australian National University rang me with an idea. He was coming to my university to give a talk entitled “How to Feyerabend”, arguing that Feyerabend was a dadaist rather than an anarchist. I’d tell you more about his talk, but… Read More
‘Prerogative of harlots’ has a nice additional story: http://paleocoll.blogspot.com/2009/05/cool.html