Penny Higgins - Storyteller • Artist • Scientist
Combining Science and Joyful Creativity
#365papers for March 3, 2017
What’s it about?
This paper discusses the use of carbon isotopes in the shells of land snails to interpret what the snails were eating. To do this, they studied wild snails for which they could also measure the carbon isotopes of potential food sources.Continue reading “Knowing a Snail’s Diet from the Chemistry of its Shell – #3650papers – 2017 – 62”
#365papers for February 2, 2017
What’s it about?
This paper describes structures in a rock that lies somewhere in age between 4.28 billion years old and ~3.76 billion years old. (That’s a big range, but it’s an old rock!). The rock was almost certainly deposited in the ocean near hydrothermal activity. The structures appear to be very, very similar to those found in areas where life blossoms around deep-ocean hydrothermal vents. Continue reading “The World’s Oldest Fossils? – #365papers – 2017 – 61”
#365papers for March 1, 2017
What’s it about?
When researchers try to understand species diversity in marine systems, they often are not able to actually count all the different species present. They pick an easy-to-count group (like molluscs), and use that as a representative of the whole community. But is this legit?
Furthermore, oftentimes fossil assemblages are used for estimating diversity. But this requires only looking at species that fossilize well. Does that matter?Continue reading “Can One Type of Animal Represent Diversity for All Members of a Community? – #365papers – 2017 – 60”
#365papers for February 28, 2017
What’s it about?
There was a time in early human history when northern Africa grew arid, making life rather challenging for people. This paper is about an area where the aridity did not have such an impact, making a safe refugium for people to wait it out. The evidence that there was, in fact, a ‘safe space’ comes from isotopic analysis of fossil snails.Continue reading “Recognizing What Was Once a Safe Space Using Fossil Snails – #365papers – 2017 – 59”
#365papers for February 27, 2017
What’s it about?
The middle Eocene represents the warmest times in the Earth’s last 65 or so million years. Temperatures peaked, then began to drop. There is some debate over when the drop in temperatures actually began and how it affected mid-continental environments. This study looks at mammal fossils in the Rocky Mountains of North America to find out.Continue reading “Interpreting Eocene Habitat Change from Adaptive Profiles – #365papers – 2017 – 58”
#365papers for February 26, 2017
What’s it about?
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of plants and animals over the Earth’s surface. Certain animals are present only in specific places, and the science of biogeography wants to know why. Fossils sometimes show that animals were once in a place where they now no longer live. Biogeography seeks to understand what happened.
In the fossil record, the study of biogeography is limited by the incomplete fossil record. This new model incorporates this problem and is able to provide insight into the past distributions of organisms and how that has changed over time.Continue reading “Modeling Ancient Biogeograpy from an Incomplete Fossil Record – #365papers – 2017 – 57”
#365papers for February 25, 2017
Voje, 2016, Tempo does not correlate with mode in the fossil record: Evolution, v. 70, p. 2678-2689.
What’s it about?
Tempo describes the rate of evolution. Is change happening quickly, or is it very very slow? This is distict from mode, which describes the pattern of evolution. Is there a direction to the change, all individuals growing bigger than their predecessors, for example? Is there no apparent change over time? Is there change, but it seems to be going back and forth, where sometimes descendants are bigger and sometimes they’re smaller?
This paper shows that there is no relationship between tempo and mode.Continue reading “Tempo (Rate) and Mode (Style) of Evolution Are Not Related – #365papers – 2017 – 56”
#365papers for February, 24, 2017
What’s it about?
Some animals live by growing directly on other hard surfaces, forming a living surface ‘crust.’ This paper describes how such encrusting organisms interact and compete with each other over the surfaces upon which they’re growing.Continue reading “Encrusting Competition: How to Win the Battle of the Substrate – #365papers – 2017 – 55”
#365papers for February 23, 2017
What’s it about?
This paper discusses the results and implications of DNA analysis of a ~700 thousand-year-old horse fossil found in the Yukon Territory of Canada. This is the oldest horse fossil ever found with DNA. The results were compared with DNA from several modern horse breeds, donkeys, and Przewalski’s horse, the only non-domesticated horse breed.Continue reading “Old Horse Gives Up Its DNA – #365papers – 2017 – 54”
#365papers for February 22, 2017
What’s it about?
Tully Monsters have always been a bit of a mystery as they lack the important hard parts that are most often diagnostic for fossil species. Recently, there has been lots of discussion about vertebrate affinities for the Tully Monster. This paper provides evidence that the interpretation of vertebrate features might be in error.Continue reading “The Tully Monster. Is it our cousin or not? – #365papers – 2017 – 53”
Penny Higgins - Storyteller • Artist • Scientist