Imagine What Will Come Next...

As scientists it’s our job to imagine. Paleontologists imagine what long-dead critters looked like while staring at piles of bones, feathers, skin, scales, spikes, claws and teeth. Biologists imagine while staring at a spotted salamander and a striped salamander and thinking of the ways the two ended up that way. Geologists imagine while looking at mountain ranges, thinking of a time when those mountains did not exist and the uproar they likely caused when they rose oh those many millions of years ago.

We have a lock-down on imagination, but seemingly only when it comes to the past. You may argue prediction or extrapolation (or physicists), which does play a large role in science, but it’s not the science that is stuck in the now and the past - it’s the scientists.

Biologists - paleontologists - geologists banding together to preserve one thing or another (no, I’m not saying this is bad, merely illustrating a point). Global temperatures are rising and the polar bears are going extinct. Yes - mankind has altered the evolution of this planet, but that doesn’t mean that the planet will STOP EVOLVING. We have pushed the CO2 levels to heights that haven’t been seen since the Eocene (55 million years ago). However, the planet has been well around 400 ppm (parts per million) of CO2 in the past and life didn’t end. Not all living things survived mind you, but LIFE ITSELF did not stop. Mammals didn't go extinct.

The mammalia has been around for almost 200 million years. Our class has survived countless warming and cooling cycles and while we have helped accelerate this particular warming cycle, our class will still be around to see what happens.

Just imagine what it will be like when the Arctic region is dotted with forests and blanketed with ferns. Ferns which even float in colonies across the surface of the Bering sea due to the warmth of the water. Imaging the life that will evolve in these new landscapes.

Imagine not having to delve into the PAST to see these creatures. Imagine that you are the continuation of our Homo genus - perhaps even a new subspecies. Much like your ancestors studied the life that lived in their time you can study the life that lives in your time. The caveat is that you will be using THEIR discoveries as a foundation for your own. Much like we’ve used hundreds of scientists’ findings over the years you will instead be studying Dawkins instead of Darwin, and Bakker instead of Marsh.

You will dig up fossils of an extinct species of bear known as Ursus meritimus; the polar bear. you will do this while geologically and paleontologically exploring a world that was once a frozen tundra. You can directly compare your research and findings to actual work from back in 2013 where it was pioneered. Looking back into the past for you won’t be something that needs to be newly defined or unknown. You may not run into a situation where you don’t have 100% of the evidence and therefore have to speculate about this ancient Arctic environment. You can go to universities or museums and pick up ancient writings of Encyclopedia Britannica or search old internet databases for early writings such as the journal of the Ecological Society of America or PlosOne’s online databases.

Yes things will change. And right now things are changing. We’re seeing species become pressured by the change. While we are a part of that change - it’s still a change that we should respect. There’s no going back now - this planet will get warmer before it gets cooler, we can’t stop it. Especially if we keep helping it. Yes we can be more energy efficient in the future; yes we can learn from our mistakes. Yes, we should do ALL of these things!

Can we save Ursus maritimus? Likely not. They aren’t meant for a warm world and that’s where we’re headed, like it or not. They didn’t evolve into a landscape of green ferns and forests so thick that it’s hard for large animals to walk through. And you know what? That’s okay. Something else will fill the niche that the polar bear leaves behind. Something else will become the top predator of the Arctic forests.

Think of the life that will evolve and the exploration that our descendants will get to do. We see the change now - we see the life ending, but that’s never been the case for any other species on this planet. We are unique in our view of this world. No other species has contemplated the extinction of other species, let alone document those extinctions. In some cases, such as with the newly declared extinction of the Western Black Rhino, we should be ashamed of ourselves. And yes, we can have a little bit of shame knowing that we’ve accelerated the warming of this planet. But the warming trend was already present and these animals would have had to deal with this sooner or later.

I’m not saying this as an excuse to quit animal and environmental conservation. I’m not saying this and advocating less efficient uses of power and energy. We can definitely do better and I believe we ARE doing better. However we still have a long way to go and while we expect life to go with us as we learn we need to understand that not ALL life will go with us and that we’re a part of the life on this planet.

In the span of geologic time we are but a blip on the radar. Life has existed before us and continue to exist after us. The planet has cooled and warmed time and time again and will continue to do so until the sun explodes. The difference here is that some genus of Homo out there will be able to document it while using notes and references to things that happened TODAY. Our research will be the foundation of their study be it in 500 or 1,000 or even a million years from now. Take heart in knowing that what we’ve studied today cannot ever be forgotten. That includes our mistakes and our triumphs.

Artwork Copyright: Denver Museum of Nature and Science

WARNING - Agenda WORSE than Atheist's!

Every action these days is agenda based, everyone knows that. When an atheist is talking about freedom from religion - you know they're peddling their agenda and attempting to rule the world. Let's not even get into the Gay Agenda or the Left Agenda.

Why has no one mentioned or questioned the Dino Agenda? Everyone knows that avian dinosaurs (birds) were imparted with the Dino Agenda at the end of the Cretaceous Period. Right? You haven't? Well, allow me to educate you.

In layman terms it's a branch off of the Evolutionist Agenda located somewhere on the left side of the Agendosphere, as placed by the right wing Agenda Signer Squad, also known as the A.S.S..

Shrouded in secrecy since the Maastrichtian, where the first organized mammals split into left wing/right wing societies which caused the dinosaurs some concern, little has leaked out about the Agenda they subsequently created. Whispers through Area 51 and secret military bases have made their way onto conspiracy theory websites and forums, the informants usually found some days later with what appears to be an abnormal amount of pecking and talon-tearing around the eyes, ears and mouth - clearly a symbolic killing from the avian descendants of the original Dino Agenda creators that signifies "you were too close to the truth".

Here's what I know of this "Dino Agenda". Know that I am risking my very LIFE to inform you of this new threat to our security and our future.

It's interpreted to suggest that some time in the future, likely around the close of the year 2012, dinosaurs will have been so entrenched in the education system through the study of fossilization in the lower grades and the subsequent paleontologists and geologists that will arise from a passion implanted at such a young age that the process of finding and studying fossils will have, for more than 200 years, kept the higher functioning mammals busy and distracted. Distracted enough for them not to notice that the 2012 presidential candidate will be 1/1,999th theropoda.

Once placed into office, the new president will reinstate the descendants of the dinosaurs (birds) as the leaders of the country and eventually the world, causing a rise of non-avian dinosaur uprisings across the globe. Ruling the planet like their ancestors, they will finally strip the mammals of their status that they had become far too prideful of in the last 65 million years.

So you see that there is some concern over this "Dino Agenda". It may indeed surpass the Gay Agenda and Atheist Agenda combined. Let us unite against the some odd 9,000-10,000 species of Dino Agenda descendants and supporters and put a STOP to the education of prehistoric life in the lower grades around the world. YOU TOO can help this cause!

Donate now.

-Erin

Best....video...ever. This is totally the answer to world hunger.

-Erin

New N. America Raptor

Found at E! Science News and over at the Vancouver Sun (a bit longer of an article) is a new North American raptor, named Hesperonychus. Smaller than a chicken, this species becomes the smallest North American dinosaur know yet.

This little guy is most likely related to Velociraptor, Microraptor, and Sinornithosaurus, found in China and Mongolia.

Snippets:

Massive predators like Albertosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex may have been at the top of the food chain, but they were not the only meat-eating dinosaurs to roam North America, according to Canadian researchers who have discovered the smallest dinosaur species on the continent to date. Their work is also helping re-draw the picture of North America's ecosystem at the height of the dinosaur age 75 million years ago. "Hesperonychus is currently the smallest dinosaur known from North America. But its discovery just emphasizes how little we actually know, and it raises the possibility that there are even smaller ones out there waiting to be found," said Nick Longrich, a paleontology research associate in the University of Calgary's Department of Biological Sciences.

"Small carnivorous dinosaurs seemed to be completely absent from the environment, which seemed bizarre because today the small carnivores outnumber the big ones," he said. "It turns out that they were here and they played a more important role in the ecosystem than we realized. So for the past 100 years, we've completely overlooked a major part of North America's dinosaur community."

In a paper published today in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Longrich and University of Alberta paleontologist Philip Currie describe a new genus of carnivorous dinosaur that was smaller than a modern housecat and likely hunted insects, small mammals and other prey through the swamps and forests of the late Cretaceous period in southeastern Alberta, Canada. Weighing approximately two kilograms and standing about 50 centimetres tall, Hesperonychus elizabethae resembled a miniature version of the famous bipedal predator Velociraptor, to which it was closely related. Hesperonychus ran about on two legs and had razor-like claws and an enlarged sickle-shaped claw on its second toe. It had a slender build and slender head with dagger-like teeth.

"It was half the size of a domestic cat and probably hunted and ate whatever it could for its size – insects, mammals, amphibians and maybe even baby dinosaurs," Longrich said. "It probably spent most of its time close to the ground searching through the marshes and forests that characterized the area at the end of the Cretaceous."

Fossilized remains of Hesperonychus, which means “western claw,” were collected in 1982 from several locations including Dinosaur Provincial Park. The most important specimen, a well-preserved pelvis, was recovered by legendary Alberta paleontologist Elizabeth (Betsy) Nicholls, after which the species is named. Nicholls was the curator of marine reptiles at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller and earned her MSc and PhD degrees at U of C. She passed away in 2004. The fossils remained unstudied for 25 years until Longrich came across them in the University of Alberta’s collection in 2007. Longrich and Currie focused on fossilized claws and a well-preserved pelvis for their description.

-Erin

My New Favorite Xmas Carols

There really aren't any words. Go here, and listen to the music samples. Hopefully...you'll laugh like I did because I cracked up. TONS.

-Erin

Pregnant Fossilized Turtle

Paleontologists from Alberta Canada have discovered a 75 million year old fossil turtle that's pregnant. Apparently the female was found in association with another female's nest, but the eggs were found inside the skeleton and are unusually hard-shelled.

Check out the full article here: Pregnant Fossil Turtle

I've got another office pet: a lovely little female black widow I've nicknamed Angel. Her photo, along with a nifty little orb-weaving spider I discovered in the window of my office are above. :)

Photo of the pregnant turtle fossil is courtesy of scientificblogging.com.

-Erin

Goldilocks and the 18

CONGRATS to the U.S. WOMEN'S SOCCER TEAM!!! They've successfully taken the gold medal! Brazil wasn't an easy team to play against, and it was just about the most defensive game I've seen all year.

Here's my story:
Now...I'd told my boyfriend, everyone at work, our roomate...as many people as I could FIND not to tell me how the game went because I had it TiVO'd at home.

I sit and watch the WHOLE GAME. Not too exciting...though there were some great saves, especially by our goalie Hope Solo.

Pass the first half: 0-0

Into the second half: 0-0

Elbows, knees, bodies flying EVERYWHERE! Best thing: hardly any fouls unless they were absolutely necessarily called. I LOVE ROUGH SOCCER!

87th minute: phone call from my mother.

"Hello mother, what's up?"

Before I get a chance to say anything, especially don't tell me about the game, "Congrats! Your girls did it! Took home the GOLD!"

"DAMN IT!"

So...we sit and watch the rest of the game, which by this time, crunch time, was WAY entertaining.

Carli Lloyd...MAGNIFICANT GOAL...boosh. End of game. And, despite knowing they won, I still jumped up and down, woke up the boyfriend, and probably pissed off the neighbors below us. And, it was the United States official 1,000th gold medal. How cool is that?

My ladies did it! The odds were slightly stacked against them but it was FANTASTIC to watch them drive through everyone and beat them all to the finish line.

Can't wait to see them in more games this September! GO U.S.A.!!!!!