Penny Higgins - Storyteller • Artist • Scientist
Combining Science and Joyful Creativity
#365papers for February 2, 2017
What’s it about?
By measuring isotopes of carbon and oxygen from fossil snails, the authors were able to determine what the past climate in Sudan was like.Continue reading “Snails Tell Tales of Past Climate – #365papers – 2017 – 33”
#365papers for February 1, 2017
What’s it about?
That title. What does it even mean?
As animals grow from a single fertilized egg to a newborn, they pass through a stage where they are a hollow ball of cells with one opening. Deuterostomes are animals for which this opening later becomes the anus. In everything else (called proterostomes), this opening becomes the mouth.
All animals with bones (including us) are deuterostomes, as are all members of the Phylum Echinodermata – Sea stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, sea lilies, sea cucumbers, and a bunch of fossil groups. So our closest non-bony relatives are starfish. Think about that…Continue reading “Early Early Early Relatives of Both Humans and Sea Stars – #365papers – 2017 – 32”
I’ve now been teaching science at the college level for over ten years, and actually practicing science for… longer.
One of the challenges that budding young scientists face, as well as those students that take science classes to meet graduation requirements for non-science majors, is that it’s a huge leap from science textbooks, blog posts, and Wikipedia to reading the original scientific literature. Continue reading “#365papers – How to Read Technical Papers… Quickly”
#365papers for January 30, 2017
What’s it about?
Rare earth elements (REEs) are heavy elements that are uncommon in bones and teeth (composed of bioapatite mineral) in the living animal, but that are often concentrated in the mineral matrix during fossilization. In the past, REEs in conodont bioapatite were thought to be a good record of the REE content of the ocean waters in which they swam.Continue reading “Rare Earth Elements in Conodont Apatite – #365papers – 2017 – 30”
#365papers for January 29, 2017
Song and Gong, 2017, Late Devonian global ostracod paleobiogeography: Lethaia, v. 50, p. 7-25.
What’s it about?
This paper summarizes what is known about the distribution of ostracods (small shelled crustaceans) during two stages of the Late Devonian, the Frasnian and the Famennian. The ostracods were used to define biogeographic units (regions) between which there was little communication.Continue reading “The Paleobiogeography of Tiny Devonian Crustaceans – #365papers – 2017 – 29”
#365papers for January 26, 2017
What’s it about?
This paper discusses the relationship of the Cretaceous taeniodont (a fossil mammal), Schowalteria clemensi, to other taeniodonts. In particular, this paper goes into detail about how one study got the relationship of this species to the others all wrong.Continue reading “Code your Characters Carefully and Correctly – #365papers – 2017 – 26”
#365papers for January 24, 2017
What’s it about?
This paper is about correlating rock units known from cores with surface outcrops full of important dinosaur fossils (the Jehol biota). Continue reading “Correlating Cores to Jehol Dinosaur Localities – #365papers – 2017 – 24”
#365papers for January 23, 2017
What’s it about?
This paper discusses the linkage between Large Igneous Provences (LIPs) and mass extinction events. It also summarizes all of the known mass extinctions, including but not limited to the so-called “Big 5” extinctions.Continue reading “What Causes Mass Extinctions? – #365papers – 2017 – 23”
#365papers for January 21, 2017
What’s it about?
The Waco Mammoth National Monument (WMNM) is a site where multiple mammoths have been fossilized together. The demographics of the animals suggests that it was a single herd of mammoths that died catastrophically. This paper provides evidence that what really happened is that these animals died as a result of dehydration at a diminishing watering-hole.
The primary evidence for this new interpretation is the study of trace fossils – indirect evidence of the activity of animals. In this case, there is preserved evidence of scavenging, which would not be expected so much in a catastrophic kill.
Additionally, death due to a drying water hole explains the absence of juvenile mammoths, which would have been expected if this represented a complete herd. Continue reading “It’s a Dry Watering Hole not a Catastrophic Kill – #365papers – 2017 – 21”
#365papers for January 20, 2016
What’s it about?
This paper discusses how carbon from food becomes incorporated into the tooth enamel of mammals. More specifically, it examines the fractionation in isotopic ratios from food to enamel based upon groups of mammals having different sizes and physiologies.
Continue reading “You Are What You Eat, Plus a Few Permil – #365papers – 2017 – 20”
Penny Higgins - Storyteller • Artist • Scientist