Leave Only Footprints

I take all credit, of course. It was because I got a tattoo of a series of sauropod footprints on 10 May. Six days later, Will told us all about the baby sauropod tracks in Korea. And today the BBC News has a story about the footprints of a herd of 11 sauropods found in Yemen.


Work is teh suxxor at the moment, so no time to review the paper good and proper, but the tracks look beautifully preserved, and it's certainly a significant discovery. More sauropod footprints please!

Schulp A.S., M. Al-Wosabi, N.J. Stevens. 2008. First Dinosaur Tracks from the Arabian Peninsula. PLoS ONE 3(5) e2243. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002243.

Tech Tags: dinosaur tracks Arabian peninsula sauropod footprints did I mention I got a tattoo?

Please, Sponsor A Paul Today

For several months now, my husband has been hurling himself round the park, up and down the Great West Road and around multiple grounds of stately homes, training for the Bupa London 10,000 race in just under two weeks' time. It's his first race, and he's aiming to complete it in under one hour. And judging by his training he's going to do it!

He's running for the British Red Cross, a charity very close to his heart and who, with the absolute tragedy unfolding in Burma, desperately need donations to fund their aid missions to the area. Donations and sponsorship are transferred instantly into the Red Cross' account, so while there is no guarantee, it's highly likely that whatever you give now will go towards the Burma appeal.

Paul's set up a donation page where you can heckle as you donate (comments about the knees he nearly permanently knackered a year ago are particularly welcome). If you're a UK taxpayer you can tick the GiftAid box and Alistair Darling will cough up some extra cash. I know the US dollar is about equal in value to the Zimbabwean dollar at the moment, but everything helps, and the amount you give is not made public.

He's also got a training diary which hasn't been updated for a month, so I think you should e-mail him and abuse him until he tells you what he's been doing. I can tell you for a fact that he is out in Green Park running as I type!

I shall be there cheering him on, doing the inevitable obstacle course of aimless spectators and bewildered tourists from the start point to the finish point, whilst looking after his backpack. If you don't want to sponsor him to do the race, sponsor me not to kill anyone in the crowd "for being stupid" and put it into Paul's Justgiving account.

And if more than 10 of my loyal readers donate, I promise to put up a photo of him looking absolutely bloody knackered at the end of it, so you can mock him from your comfortable chairs.

Tech Tags: Bupa London 10,000 British Red Cross Justgiving Paul Anthony Anderson my husband is insane but it's for a good cause

Took The Plunge

For about five-six years or so I've been interested in getting a tattoo. But Paul was dead set against it, thought they looked ugly, and I respected his decision (as we were about to get married I figured he got to have a say in what I did, and I chose to listen to him). Then, early this year, he had a wonderful change of heart. And since he had decided that not only was that a cool design, but that that would be a cool design on him, he couldn't really say he didn't want me to get one.

So on Saturday, Paul's 29th birthday, we both got tattoos. He has an awesome celtic knot with a thistle on top. He is fiercely proud of his Scottish heritage, and fiercely proud of his tattoo. It's scabbing over nicely. What did I go for?

You'll probably recognise it as being the same footprints in my little avatar over to the top left. But more than that (and this is really, really nerdy - I honestly don't expect anyone except me to think this is in any way cool), it's the narrow-gauge sauropod tracks from the Ardley Quarry site in Oxfordshire.

It's probably not the last (in fact, I'm sure it's not the last). At 28-29, Paul and I are too old to pass this off as an indiscretion of our teens to be bitterly regretted as sensible grown-ups, and we're too young for a mid-life crisis...

Tech Tags: tattoo science tattoo sauropod tracks Ardley

Washington University: Rotten All The Way To The Top

Through the few connections I still have with Wash U via Facebook, I discovered that Phyllis Schlafly is to be awarded an honorary degree at this year's Commencement. And it hasn't gone down too well, and I'm delighted to see that Feministing has picked up on it too. You'll be able to read the full objections - I don't plan to list them all (and my honest opinion, even though I'm a palaeontologist, is that her rampant IDiocy is really no reason to deny her an honorary degree, unless it is in a scientific subject - the rest, however, is fair game!).

But I can't say I'm surprised that a university that allows an alleged violent sexual predator (against whom there really were a lot of witnesses that the university didn't bother to interview) to remain in post in a position of responsibility and power over young female students, completely unchecked, and effectively endorse his attacks on (at least) two other women before finally deciding to fire his ass, would honour a woman who quite publicly stated:

Sexual harassment on the job is not a problem for virtuous women, except in the rarest of cases. Men hardly ever ask sexual favors of women from whom the certain answer is no. Virtuous women are seldom accosted.

Just goes to show that the whole university is rotten right the way up to the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees. How sad for this year's graduates to have to share the stage with such a vile human being.

My advice to the graduating class? Whatever you do with your life, do something that undermines what Phyllis Schlafly stands for, even if it's a very small thing. Show by your actions that the students can rise above the decay within the administration. And rather than pay your respects at the next alumni fundraising drive, donate what you would have given to the university to a charity that will uphold the human rights Ms Schlafly clearly doesn't believe in. The legacy you leave will be priceless.

Tech Tags: Washington University Commencement Phyllis Schlafly sexual harassment

Landslide Destroys Jurassic Coast

Paul sent me a link to this BBC News article:

Landslip is "Worst In 100 Years"

How tragic. I know these things happen - the cliffs around there aren't overly stable, and we were certainly told not to climb the ones around Charmouth. I remember visiting ten years ago and being able to gouge the rock with my fingers. Fortunately no one seems to have been hurt, and as long as no one tries to get into the area befor it's been stabilised this will continue.

But what of the fossils? Undoubtedly there'll be some totally destroyed by the landslip, and nothing can be done about them. They'll no doubt be picked up by keen amateurs when the beach is reopened. However, I do hope museum teams are allowed to survey the area once it's made safe, just in case anything of significance is exposed...

Of course, the area is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Just in case anyone was thinking of doing anything dangerous or silly or indeed illegal after reading that.

***

As an aside, I want to say thank you to everyone who responded to my earlier post about my PhD woes. I had a lot of long encouraging private e-mails, all of which deserve a similar reply, and it's going to take me a while to get back to everyone. But even if it takes me a while to get back online (you'll notice I've been having very little trouble banging out excited gardening posts but have been almost silent on here, Facebook and e-mail) I want you all to know how grateful I am.

I wish I was going to the Dinosaurs: A Historical Perspective conference. But that's one of the many ways that having a full-time job and a part-time PhD fucking sucks.

Tech Tags: landslip Jurassic Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest Charmouth Lyme Regis dinosaurs

Linnaeus' Legacy #7

(I was hoping to be able to showcase my design for the Linnaeus' Legacy banner, but it still needs a little work and I should run it by Christopher first.)

There are few creatures so elusive in the forest that is the Interwebs as the blog carnival submission. So it's on with hiking boots, midge repellent and a good pair of binoculars for the wildlife walk.

Near the edge of the woods, it's easy to spot a few familiar species. Neil of Microecos is actually offering an easy mnemonic for taxonomic hierarchy when he says "Kindly please come over for gay sex", and not prospecting for mates. Christopher at Catalogue Of Organisms ponders the irritability of birds and its historical use in avian classification. Ever generous, he also offers his thoughts on the importance of type specimens in light of the imminent closure of the Utrecht Herbarium. Dave Hone donates from his archive to tell us about chimeras in palaeontology. And John at A DC Birding Blog reports on a legless lizard, a dwarf woodpecker and climate change.

Zach at When Pigs Fly Returns finishes off what has been an epic series on dragon taxonomy with a monster of a post on draconian systematics.

Pressing forward, into the tried and tested spots for finding wildlife, Jim at From Archaea to Zeaxanthol has some beautiful images of things that are not insects. Mike of A Three-Pound Monkey Brain reminds us that the third meeting of the ISPN is happening in July. I'm sure there are some readers who won't want to miss that. Hairy Museum of Natural History's curator Matt has news on the new pterosaur Raeticodactylus filisurensis.

A hidden gem, and a very welcome sighting for this edition is Michael's announcement on Palaeoblog that on 1 May 1753 Linnaeus' own book Species Plantarum was published. And Anne-Marie has a fascinating post on plantain taxonomy at Pondering Pikaia. The Darwin's Garden exhibit has opened today in New York, and Dispersal of Darwin has the low-down on this. Linnaeus would most definitely have approved.

Well off my well-trod path, I stumble upon Jura's discussion of rapid evolution in lizards over at The Reptipage. And the Te Papa blog has the full story on their colossal squid necropsy, and it's happening right now! As of the time of writing, they're getting ready to cut...

To end the foray into the dark forest of the nature blogosphere on a sad note, Darren talks about the decline of the British cat population. And that's as much cat blogging as you're getting here. But I'm delighted to see that we're celebrating British insects on a new set of postage stamps - a joint venture between Royal Mail and the Natural History Museum. And I couldn't finish without a little plug for my new blog, where I ponder gardeners' use of binomials.

Next month's Linnaeus' Legacy will be up on or around 5 June at When Pigs Fly Return. I shall hand over the binoculars to you Zach!

Tech Tags: Linnaeus' Legacy blog carnival taxonomy systematics

Send Me Your Taxonomical Posts!!

The next edition of Linnaeus' Legacy is going up here in 48 hours' time. If you haven't sent me your posts now would be a really good time to do so!

Tech Tags: Linnaeus' Legacy blog carnival taxonomy blogmin