Braddy's Big Bug

I assume everyone has heard this story by now, but the Braddster has made international headlines this past week by co-authoring a description of a giant eurypterid. I heard a story about it on the radio this morning; they never mentioned Simon by name, but they did talk about his favorite hypothesis, and believe me, it's quite a shock to wake up to a description of mass-molt-mate behavior in sea scorpions...

isotope standards.

hi, this is a purely theroretical query (possibly answered with a simple reference i'm just curious about the histroy and whether there was any thought behind it or if it was simply a case of eeny meeny miney mo.
the isotopic composition of a sample is often expressed as a delta notation relative to the isotopic composition of a standard (e.g. d13C in 0/00)
the standard typically used for carbon is the Pee-Dee Belemnite (PDB). Now this limestone has a relatively high 13C/12C ratio, therefore values of inorganic or organic carbon are mostly negative, i.e. isotopically lighter than the PDB standard.
can anyone tell me why we use the PDB? and also if other standards used (i.e. for other isotopes) also have relatively high or conversely relatively low ratios?

thanks

Lys

Just a comment and another

Hi everybody!

Just to point out that it's not always clear who wrote the comment, I suggest you sign your comment with your name/favourite nickname or some other word that you can be distinguished with. I assume the last comment came from John? Sorry, I really don't know...

Nevertheless, interesting subject, as I'm interested in size increase and decrease as well, but in Sauropodomorpha. The study I'm dealing with now concerns the (formerly) putative Romanian dwarf Magyarosaurus. Now histology has proven they are (were) indeed dwarfs, we can start thinking about the insular dwarfism in these creatures and the palaeobiogeography of Europe in those days. interestingly, it seems there is another somewhat larger taxon amidst the bones. My supervisor and I had a discussion with David Weishampel (still can't believe that the man who wrote the dinosaur bible just let me call him Dave) and Kristi Curry Rogers, and it is possible that this larger taxon infers a peninsular palaeogeography or at least an island with temporary landbidges to the larger continent of Eurasia, resulting in invasions of non-endemic species. It's cool that there is a similar pattern in the ornithopods of Eastern Europe.
More anon. I'm off making some thin sections.
By the way, did you all know that Lara is now doing a PhD in Canadia (with Phil Currie I believe)? Or am I the last one to find out again?

best wishes,

Koenosaurus

Horses and Squirrels and Dogs, Oh My!

First and foremost, (belated) congratulations Lys! Depending on how you figure these things, having been through the Bristol MSc program together makes us all either academic siblings or cousins. Either way, you always like to see your family do well, and the number of people that have gone on to PhD programs from our year is really phenomenal (and, I think, uncharacteristic). I'm sure you'll all agree that this is yet more evidence that ours was the greatest MSc class ever...
Secondly, since the original purpose of this blog was to keep one another updated on what we were working on, I thought I'd announce that I've finally - after several false starts - settled on what exactly I'll be doing for my dissertation project. Most of you are, I imagine, at least vaguely familiar with the mid-Miocene climatic optimum. For those of you that aren't, it was a period of global warming that peaked around 16 million years ago at temperatures that are right around those predicted by several models of modern climate change. Of course, one of the great questions of our age is how climate change can affect ecology, and I like to think that paleontology has some answers. I'll be looking at a transect along the west coast of North America (Oregon-Mexico) for the duration of the Miocene to see if any trends in body size are apparent. I have two hypotheses to test. First, body size within taxa should increase the further north you go, as has long been observed in extant animals. Second, the mid-Miocene climatic optimum should lead to a decrease of body size, a trend which should reverse once steady cooling sets in later in the Miocene. Of course, I can't look at every Miocene mammal out there, or I would be at this forever. So, I spent a good deal of last week leafing through the literature and playing around on MIOMAP to pick three taxa that represent different ecological categories and body sizes and I wound up opting to look at canids, sciurids, and equids. Yes, after my childhood dreams of working on dinosaurs, I'm now looking to get my PhD by studying dogs, squirrels, and horses. That might have bothered me once, but I've now come around to the point of view that the question is much more important than the taxa you use to answer it, and these three families are ideal for looking at ecological changes in the mid-Miocene, in that they all have very good fossil records and very well resolved phylogenies (plus, by studying horses, I get to add my name as a tiny footnote to a list that includes Huxley, Marsh, and Osborn, among many others). I won't bore you all with the methods; suffice it to say I'll be making a lot of trips to California, which is no great hardship.
That's my plan for the next few years; what have all the rest of you been up to?

my fellow palaeopadwans

greetings!

i have been terribly lax of late in
1. keeping in contact with you guys and
2. even checking our palaeoblog. terrible i know but i have justifiable cause...um...i will think of one at some point.

to be honest the green eyed monster was still an intermittent companion and my job was extremely hectic, think department so understaffed we were all doing the work of at least two people (rather reminded me of being back in Bristol!) but enough of the past...i have finally FINALLY returned to the field of academia. in a complete departure from all previous research i am now investigating δ13C of particulate organic material in the Southern Ocean.

it is a situation of complete irony i find myself in as one of the main reasons for taking a job at the Guernsey Education Department was to attempt to get the legislation altered so i could apply for a PhD in Britain.....and having successfully accomplished this (in July NERC published their revised guide accepting students from the Channel Islands) i then applied for and accpeted a PhD in Germany!

i finally arrived in Bremerhaven yesterday evening and have spent today, my first day, in a state of permanent bemusement and a creeping fear that somehow i am a terrible fraud and it is only a matter of time before someone figures this out. however on thursday i go to enrole in my German classes and hopefully things will seem less terrifying from that point on.

i will post a short description of my project as soon as i get a chance to catch my breath, stop panicing and start to reaquaint myself with current research.


Tschüß Lys xxx

Miss you guys

Dear fellow padwans,

It's really been too long, and I'm sorry for not staying in touch. I was caught in the tight grip of the dark side...

It's Friday afternoon, and I'm procrastinating as always (who wouldn't), and I discovered the email (dated somewhere in February) about the palaeoblog. I've been reading all the posts, and thought it is about time I let hear from myself.

You probably all heard I live in 'gemütliches' Bonn now, studying dinosaur bone tissue, and now I can add that my koenosaur (you know, the gliding lizards) paper has been accepted in Palaeontology. Yipeekayay! I have been working my ass off on that one.

Now I can concentrate on cutting up dinosaur bone and grinding it into thin sections. As a matter of fact, I'll be going to SVP in Texas in October to do some more sampling. It would be fab if I could meet any of you guys there. Ben gave away my intention to visit MCZ at Harvard. That wil unfortunately not go trough as they are currently reorganising (new staff) and could not tell me anything better than 'The stuff you are looking for is in South America.' Guess I'll have to go to South America then...
Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be going to Palass this year, as it is turning out a bit expensive (nothing to present, i.e. pay it myself).

Great, the afternoon has turned into an evening, I can go home now... I promise I'll be checking the forum more often from now on (and posting stuff too).

I wish you all the best,

Koenstein

Congratulations Lys :)