There’s no fooling you! What we have here is Cyclomedusa radiata, a particularly common yet a particularly enigmatic character of the Ediacaran biota. Originally, as the genus name suggests, it was thought to be a jellyfish. (“Medusa” refers to the non-polyp umbrelliform life-stage of…
Marley Dias asked a question: "Can I find 1,000 books with black girls like me as central characters?" So far she's collected 4,000! And Marley's only 11 years old. Pretty inspiring. Hope you'll be inspired by this hand-picked collection of articles about climate change and evolution. Seas Are…
I wouldn’t say that Evolution—A Menace (1922) struck me, in general, as a tremendously innovative book. Written by John William Porter (1863–1937), the Baptist minister who spearheaded the effort to ban the teaching of evolution in Kentucky in the early 1920s, the titles of its eight…
Friday’s fossil featured fabulous fancy flanges—weird processes at the rib-ends that look like overlapping rubber spatulas. What the heck are they for, and to whom do they belong? The latter is easier to answer: Eryops megacephalus. Eryops is a vertebrate palentology rock star…
Maybe you won’t be reading in the idyllic surroundings pictured by Edmund Leighton—even in the temperate San Francisco Bay Area, despite the data reflected in the last link below, it’s not nearly so balmy here right now—but the variety and depth of this week’s suggested reading will engross you…
"Three-quarters of Alaskans are sold on the existence and seriousness of global warming, but far fewer are convinced that it's caused by human activity, according to a poll commissioned by Alaska Dispatch News," reports Alaska Dispatch News (February 13, 2016). Asked, "Which statement comes…
Explore the Grand Canyon with NCSE! Reservations are still available for NCSE's next excursion to the Grand Canyon — as featured in the documentary No Dinosaurs in Heaven. From June 30 to July 8, 2016, NCSE will again explore the wonders of creation and evolution on a Grand Canyon river run…
After last week’s Darwin Day diversion, we’re back to an actual fossil. You’ll notice right away that it features yet another super cool, super funky axial skeleton. What’s up with those ribs, and more importantly, whose ribs are they? Winner takes all…