A new science-fiction anthology from OR Books is now available for purchase and since we sometimes neglect the less than scientific in our show and blog I wanted to take a moment to highlight it.

It’s called Welcome to the Greenhouse and as the title implies it is a series of stories about the end-game effects of global climate change. I’ve already got my copy on my e-reader and plan on reviewing it as soon as I can but if you need no further prodding from me I suggest getting it right away.

To me the concept sounds like a zombie book if undead hoards were the very climate we rely on. What say you, Paleoposse? Sound like your kinda book? Already feeling scared of the air? Let us know in the comments.

The Rite hits theaters today and if you listened to episode 68 – Math of God you’ll remember our discussion was mostly about the possible endings the movie my take. We generally decided it would opt for the less than skeptical approach (to be a diplomatic as possible).

Turns out Sir Anthony Hopkins also had his doubts (yuk yuk). He’s a self-described agnostic, which was news to me. So he wrote a line into the movie that explains his own feelings towards skeptics and doubters. The clip and explanation is available at i09 but they don’t provide an embed code so you’ll have to click through to watch the video there and read his thoughts a little more in depth.

I will say that towards the end of this thoughts he gets a bit close to the “how can we know anything at all?” camp, but he was also speaking off the cuff so I’m all for giving him the benefit of the doubt.

So it’s not evolutionarily speaking a bird… yet. BUT I COULDN’T RESIST! If you listen to the show you know I have a dream of being given the finger by a bird (see hoatzin) and not we’re one step closer with this little dinosaur named Linhenykus monodactylus, which is a theropod just like the pesky Eodromaeus from Episode 70 this week. I think it’s safe to safe after discovering practically two dinosaurs in one week we’ve found all that there is to find. That’s it folks, lets pack it in and go home!

Oh yeah, ecology, my job. Why only one finger? That certainly is curious. The one finger had a claw which may have been useful for digging up food or into insect nests like a warthog’s tusks.

I personally love convergent evolution like digit lose in tetrapods. Early tetrapods had 8-10 fingers per hand! There’s been a steady decrease in most groups since, and not really any great examples of increasing digits. It has something to do with hox genes and selective pressure. I keep asking Patrick to explain it but I’m not sure he gets it either. GENETICS!

Originally spotted on the Palaeoblog.

When something biological happens somewhere I usually get a few friends asking me about it. I’m happy to get the questions from the curious but it’s kind of like asking a doctor about a rash your friend has. Especially if that doctor was a neurosurgeon. The dude has the training to theoretically figure out what the rash is, but he hasn’t seen your friend and it’s really not his specialty. So I had to look into this a bit deeper before getting back to everyone.

Continue reading Birds are Dying! (Pretty much all the time) →

On Episode 67 we answered a question about the proper way to make tea. Funnily enough, a fellow fighter of creationists and affirmed British-person Christopher Hitchens recently wrote about the same beverage confusion for Slate. The article is a quick and engaging read, presenting it’s own opinion about the milk issue, and references Lenon/Yoko as well as the 11 Rules of Good Tea by George Orwell (also worth the read).

Hope this keeps you engaged in the ongoing quest for that perfect cup!