259 posts · 222,957 views
Laelaps primarily deals with paleontology, ecology, natural history, and other zoological sciences.
Laelaps
259 posts
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- March 7, 2012
- 12:50 PM
- 154 views
Snails Hitch a Ride in Duck Guts
I hate flying. From the moment I arrive at the airport to when I finally step off the plane, the experience ultimately makes me feel like a zombie – shuffling, incoherent, and grimy. If there were a King Kong travel package – in which I could be sedated, placed in a crate, and revived at [...]... Read more »
van Leeuwen, C., van der Velde, G., van Lith, B., & Klaassen, M. (2012) Experimental Quantification of Long Distance Dispersal Potential of Aquatic Snails in the Gut of Migratory Birds. PLoS ONE, 7(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0032292
- March 5, 2012
- 11:19 AM
- 147 views
Repost: Polycotylus – The Good Mother Plesiosaur?
[This essay was originally posted on August 13, 2011] The opening sentence of F. Robin O’Keefe and Luis Chiappe’s new paper in Science this week is a simple statement of fact that threw me for a loop. “Viviparity, or birthing live young,” the paleontologists write, “is common among reptiles, having evolved over 80 times among [...]... Read more »
Blackburn, D., & Evans, H. (1986) Why are there no Viviparous Birds?. The American Naturalist, 128(2), 165. DOI: 10.1086/284552
Caldwell, M., & Lee, M. (2001) Live birth in Cretaceous marine lizards (mosasauroids). Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 268(1484), 2397-2401. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2001.1796
Ji, Q., Wu, X., & Cheng, Y. (2010) Cretaceous choristoderan reptiles gave birth to live young. Naturwissenschaften, 97(4), 423-428. DOI: 10.1007/s00114-010-0654-2
Maxwell, E., & Caldwell, M. (2003) First record of live birth in Cretaceous ichthyosaurs: closing an 80 million year gap. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 270(Suppl_1). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2003.0029
O'Keefe, F., & Chiappe, L. (2011) Viviparity and K-Selected Life History in a Mesozoic Marine Plesiosaur (Reptilia, Sauropterygia). Science, 333(6044), 870-873. DOI: 10.1126/science.1205689
Organ, C.; Janes, D.; Meade, A.; Pagel, M. (2009) Genotypic sex determination enabled adaptive radiations of extinct marine reptiles. Nature, 461(7262), 389-392. DOI: 10.1038/nature08350
Wang, Y., & Evans, S. (2011) A gravid lizard from the Cretaceous of China and the early history of squamate viviparity. Naturwissenschaften. DOI: 10.1007/s00114-011-0820-1
- March 2, 2012
- 01:26 PM
- 201 views
The Nutcracker Croc of Cretaceous Texas
The Arlington Archosaur Site doesn’t fit the traditional vision of a remote fossil deposit situated in rocky, windswept badlands. Rich in turtle, crocodile, fish, and dinosaur remains, the assemblage is within walking distance of a Starbucks in the Arlington, Texas metro area. But those fossils tell of a very different time – a snapshot of [...]... Read more »
NOTO, C.R., MAIN, D.J., DRUMHELLER, S.K. (2012) FEEDING TRACES AND PALEOBIOLOGY OF A CRETACEOUS (CENOMANIAN) CROCODYLIFORM: EXAMPLE FROM THE WOODBINE FORMATION OF TEXAS. PALAIOS. info:/10.2110/palo.2011.p11-052r
- February 27, 2012
- 06:20 PM
- 145 views
Honey, I Shrunk the Coyote
When I think of the La Brea asphalt seeps, coyotes don’t immediately jump to mind. Sabercats and dire wolves are the sorts of carnivore I have come to associate the oozing predator trap with. Yet coyotes were there in abundance. According to a monograph on the site I picked up from the Page Musuem gift [...]... Read more »
Meachen, J., Samuels, J. (2012) Evolution in coyotes (Canis latrans) in response to the megafaunal extinctions. PNAS. info:/10.1073/pnas.1113788109
- February 20, 2012
- 02:21 PM
- 199 views
Mouse Howls Like a Wolf, Bites Like a Tiger
Before crunching into its prey, the grasshopper mouse howls. The sound is a high, sustained whistle which pierces the desert night. It is as if the rodent is imitating a wolf at miniature scale – the grasshopper mouse even stands on its hind legs and throws its head back during the shrill call. And while [...]... Read more »
CHRISTIANSEN, P. (2011) A dynamic model for the evolution of sabrecat predatory bite mechanics. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 162(1), 220-242. DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2010.00675.x
McHenry, C., Wroe, S., Clausen, P., Moreno, K., & Cunningham, E. (2007) Supermodeled sabercat, predatory behavior in Smilodon fatalis revealed by high-resolution 3D computer simulation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(41), 16010-16015. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0706086104
Satoh, K., & Iwaku, F. (2006) Jaw muscle functional anatomy in northern grasshopper mouse,Onychomys leucogaster, a carnivorous murid. Journal of Morphology, 267(8), 987-999. DOI: 10.1002/jmor.10443
Williams, S., Peiffer, E., & Ford, S. (2009) Gape and bite force in the rodents and : Does jaw-muscle anatomy predict performance? . Journal of Morphology, 270(11), 1338-1347. DOI: 10.1002/jmor.10761
- February 18, 2012
- 11:22 AM
- 215 views
Repost: The Frustrating Legacy of Plasterosaurus
For one of the most impressive oceanic predators of all time, Kronosaurus queenslandicus did not receive an auspicious introduction in the scientific literature. Today the creature’s name immediately conjures up the image of a massive marine reptile with terrifying jaws arrayed with big, conical teeth, but in 1924, when Kronosaurus received its formal name, the [...]... Read more »
Kear, B. (2003) Cretaceous marine reptiles of Australia: a review of taxonomy and distribution. Cretaceous Research, 24(3), 277-303. DOI: 10.1016/S0195-6671(03)00046-6
- February 15, 2012
- 12:27 PM
- 200 views
Repost: Doing the Haplomastodon Breakdown
African elephants are sturdy beasts. They don’t break down easily. After death, elephant bodies become temporary islands of intense activity – providing nourishment to scavengers from hyenas to beetles. The same was true of prehistoric elephants. At Águas de Araxá, Brazil, a resort hotel sits on top of an ancient elephant graveyard. Construction workers found [...]... Read more »
ARROYOCABRALES, J., POLACO, O., LAURITO, C., JOHNSON, E., TERESAALBERDI, M., & VALERIOZAMORA, A. (2007) The proboscideans (Mammalia) from Mesoamerica. Quaternary International, 17-23. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2006.12.017
Cozzuol, M., Mothé, D., & Avilla, L. (2011) A critical appraisal of the phylogenetic proposals for the South American Gomphotheriidae (Proboscidea: Mammalia). Quaternary International. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2011.01.038
Dominato, V., Mothé, D., da Silva, R., & Avilla, L. (2011) Evidence of scavenging on remains of the gomphothere Haplomastodon waringi (Proboscidea: Mammalia) from the Pleistocene of Brazil: Taphonomic and paleoecological remarks. Journal of South American Earth Sciences. DOI: 10.1016/j.jsames.2011.01.002
FERRETTI, M.P. (2010) Anatomy of Haplomastodon chimborazi (Mammalia, Proboscidea) from the late Pleistocene of Ecuador and its bearing on the phylogeny and systematics of South American gomphotheres. Geodiversitas, 32(4), 663-721. info:/
FICCARELLI, G., BORSELLI, V., HERRERA, G., MORENOESPINOSA, M., & TORRE, D. (1995) Taxonomic remarks on the South American Mastodons referred to Haplomastodon and Cuvieronius. Geobios, 28(6), 745-756. DOI: 10.1016/S0016-6995(95)80071-9
Mothé, D., Avilla, L., & Winck, G. (2010) Population structure of the gomphothere Stegomastodon waringi (Mammalia: Proboscidea: Gomphotheriidae) from the Pleistocene of Brazil. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, 82(4), 983-996. DOI: 10.1590/S0001-37652010005000001
- February 13, 2012
- 02:26 PM
- 172 views
BOOM Goes the Ichthyosaur?
What happened to prehistoric, dolphin-like marine reptiles when they died? Did they sink or they float until the gases from decomposition blew up their bodies and scattered their bones? Laelaps blogger Brian Switek tries to pop the bubble of an ancient mystery.... Read more »
Beardmore, S., Orr, P., Manzocchi, T., & Furrer, H. (2012) Float or sink: modelling the taphonomic pathway of marine crocodiles (Mesoeucrocodylia, Thalattosuchia) during the death–burial interval. Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. DOI: 10.1007/s12549-011-0066-0
Reisdorf, A., Bux, R., Wyler, D., Benecke, M., Klug, C., Maisch, M., Fornaro, P., & Wetzel, A. (2012) Float, explode or sink: postmortem fate of lung-breathing marine vertebrates. Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. DOI: 10.1007/s12549-011-0067-z
- February 10, 2012
- 05:33 PM
- 222 views
The Terrible, Prehistoric Frog That Wasn’t
Over 300 million years ago, long before the time of the dinosaurs, giant amphibians hopped along the sandy shores of Pennsylvania. At least, that was what Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter James Ross explained to readers of the newspaper’s November 28th, 1948 issue. The inspiration for the report was a set of strange tracks found in the [...]... Read more »
Niedźwiedzki, G., Szrek, P., Narkiewicz, K., Narkiewicz, M., & Ahlberg, P. (2010) Tetrapod trackways from the early Middle Devonian period of Poland. Nature, 463(7277), 43-48. DOI: 10.1038/nature08623
- February 6, 2012
- 12:45 PM
- 204 views
Mosasaurs: Masters of the Bronx Cheer
[Author's Note: After months of fieldwork, museum visits, and other research, A Date With a Dinosaur is finally coming together. And not a moment too soon - my deadline is rapidly approaching. New essays will continue to surface here, but I'm also going to dredge up some favorite posts from years past to help keep [...]... Read more »
Schulp, A.; Mulder, E.; Schwenk, K. (2002) Did mosasaurs have forked tongues?. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences, 84(3), 359-371. info:/
- February 3, 2012
- 06:47 PM
- 166 views
Why Margarita Can Purr, but Can’t Roar
I rolled out of bed later than I intended to this morning. I blame the cats. Our youngest cat, a diminutive calico named Margarita, sprung onto the bed as soon as she heard me start to stir. She immediately started purring — the sound started as a low rumble and rose to a constant vibrato [...]... Read more »
Peters, G. (2002) Purring and similar vocalizations in mammals. Mammal Review, 32(4), 245-271. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2907.2002.00113.x
Sissom, D., Rice, D., & Peters, G. (1991) How cats purr. Journal of Zoology, 223(1), 67-78. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.1991.tb04749.x
Weissengruber, G., Forstenpointner, G., Peters, G., Kubber-Heiss, A., & Fitch, W. (2002) Hyoid apparatus and pharynx in the lion (Panthera leo), jaguar (Panthera onca), tiger (Panthera tigris), cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and domestic cat (Felis silvestris f. catus). Journal of Anatomy, 201(3), 195-209. DOI: 10.1046/j.1469-7580.2002.00088.x
- February 1, 2012
- 04:42 PM
- 188 views
How an African Elephant Comes Together
Before my love of dinosaurs kicked in, I adored elephants. My four-year-old self spent hours on the couch watching elephant documentaries, pith helmet firmly affixed to my head and my faithful companion Koba at my side. (A black, plush elephant bigger than I was, Koba was filled with a cheap stuffing I was allergic to. [...]... Read more »
Hautier, L., Stansfield, F., Allen, W., & Asher, R. (2012) Skeletal development in the African elephant and ossification timing in placental mammals. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2011.2481
- January 30, 2012
- 01:31 PM
- 202 views
Preening the History of Primates
When viewed within the broader context of our evolutionary history, we are anthropoid primates. That’s the group which contains monkeys and apes (with our species being a specialized variety of ape, and apes being a particular subset of monkeys, and monkeys representing the major group of anthropoids). But how anthropoid primates originated has been a [...]... Read more »
Maiolino, S., Boyer, D., & Rosenberger, A. (2011) Morphological Correlates of the Grooming Claw in Distal Phalanges of Platyrrhines and Other Primates: A Preliminary Study. The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology, 294(12), 1975-1990. DOI: 10.1002/ar.21498
Maiolino, S., Boyer, D., Bloch, J., Gilbert, C., & Groenke, J. (2012) Evidence for a Grooming Claw in a North American Adapiform Primate: Implications for Anthropoid Origins. PLoS ONE, 7(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0029135
Williams, B., Kay, R., & Kirk, E. (2010) New perspectives on anthropoid origins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(11), 4797-4804. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0908320107
- January 26, 2012
- 01:26 PM
- 257 views
New Jersey’s Turnpike Croc
Two years ago, when I was still stuck in the middle of the garden state, New Jersey State Museum assistant curator of natural history Jason Schein took me on a brief tour of his institution’s collections. There were crocodyliforms everywhere. Shelf after shelf contained the teeth, armor, and bones of a variety of prehistoric crocs [...]... Read more »
Brochu, C., Parris, D., Grandstaff, B., Denton, R., & Gallagher, W. (2012) A new species of (Crocodyliformes, Eusuchia) from the Late Cretaceous–early Paleogene of New Jersey . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 32(1), 105-116. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2012.633585
- January 25, 2012
- 02:10 PM
- 220 views
Real-Life DinoCrocs Crushed the Competition
Giant "DinoCrocs" of the Cretaceous didn't just hang out in the background while predatory dinosaurs stole the spotlight. Laelaps blogger Brian Switek explains how new fossils show they competed as a top predator.... Read more »
RIFF, D., & KELLNER, A. (2011) Baurusuchid crocodyliforms as theropod mimics: clues from the skull and appendicular morphology of Stratiotosuchus maxhechti (Upper Cretaceous of Brazil). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2011.00713.x
- January 23, 2012
- 03:32 PM
- 201 views
Glow, Little Spewing Shrimp, Glow
I have spent the better part of two days trying to learn about glowing shrimp puke. ScienceOnline made me do it.
A few days ago, during a quick tour organized by the annual science communication conference, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences exhibit director Roy Campbell pointed out a tiny invertebrate in the gloomy recesses of [...]... Read more »
Inouye, S., Watanabe, K., Nakamura, H., Shimomura, O. (2000) Secretional luciferase of the luminous shrimp Oplophorus gracilirostris: cDNA cloning of a novel imidazopyrazinone luciferase. FEBS Letters, 481(1), 19-25. DOI: 10.1016/S0014-5793(00)01963-3
Widder, E. (2010) Bioluminescence in the Ocean: Origins of Biological, Chemical, and Ecological Diversity. Science, 328(5979), 704-708. DOI: 10.1126/science.1174269
- January 17, 2012
- 12:07 PM
- 283 views
How the “Terrible Heads” Became World Travelers
Earlier this week, paleontologists described another of our distant, ancient cousins. This was no hominin, early primate, or even archaic mammal, but a much, much older variety of creature that would superficially seem to have more in common with terrible primeval reptiles than with us. Named Pampaphoneus biccai, this knobby-headed, 260 million year old predator [...]... Read more »
Modesto, S., Smith, R., Campione, N., & Reisz, R. (2011) The last “pelycosaur”: a varanopid synapsid from the Pristerognathus Assemblage Zone, Middle Permian of South Africa. Naturwissenschaften, 98(12), 1027-1034. DOI: 10.1007/s00114-011-0856-2
- January 15, 2012
- 01:06 PM
- 216 views
The Jurassic’s Housecat Croc
At long last, Fruitachampsa lives. Sort of. This strange crocodyliform has been extinct for around 150 million years. But, after three decades of waiting, this short-snouted croc has finally been officially named.
The new paper that describes Fruitachampsa callisoni calls the animal “A new shartegosuchid crocodyliform from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of western Colorado.” That’s [...]... Read more »
CLARK, J. (2011) A new shartegosuchid crocodyliform from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of western Colorado. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2011.00719.x
- January 3, 2012
- 07:41 PM
- 277 views
The Sloth’s Evolutionary Secret
On the surface of things, a two-toed sloth doesn’t look much like its closest fossil kin. The tubby, pug-nosed mammal is not quite as imposing or majestic as Megalonyx – the “great claw” Thomas Jefferson discovered and mistakenly identified as an enormous lion over two centuries ago. But the two are relatively close relatives. In [...]... Read more »
Nyakatura, J. (2011) The Convergent Evolution of Suspensory Posture and Locomotion in Tree Sloths. Journal of Mammalian Evolution. DOI: 10.1007/s10914-011-9174-x
- December 21, 2011
- 04:40 PM
- 315 views
Did Hunger Drive the Evolution of Homo sapiens?
This time last year, science news headlines blared a spectacular claim – the first members of our species evolved 200,000 years earlier than previously thought. The evidence consisted of a small collection of teeth. Discovered in roughly 200,000 to 400,000 year old deposits in Israel’s Qesem Cave, these fossils were said to herald the archaic [...]... Read more »
Belmaker, M. (2009) Hominin Adaptability and Patterns of Faunal Turnover in the Early to Middle Pleistocene Transition in the Levant . Sourcebook of Paleolithic Transitions, 211-227. DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-76487-0_12
Ben-Dor, M., Gopher, A., Hershkovitz, I., & Barkai, R. (2011) Man the Fat Hunter: The Demise of Homo erectus and the Emergence of a New Hominin Lineage in the Middle Pleistocene (ca. 400 kyr) Levant. PLoS ONE, 6(12). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0028689
Hershkovitz, I., Smith, P., Sarig, R., Quam, R., Rodríguez, L., García, R., Arsuaga, J., Barkai, R., & Gopher, A. (2011) Middle pleistocene dental remains from Qesem Cave (Israel). American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 144(4), 575-592. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.21446
STUART, A. (2005) The extinction of woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) and straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) in Europe. Quaternary International, 171-177. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2004.04.021
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