Read all about it at Evolving Thoughts, blog of eccentric Australian philosophy mogul John Wilkins!
Previous Carnivals of Evolution:
If you missed any of these you’ll definitely want to go check them out!
Leave a Comment » | 
Biology, Blogging, Defending evolution, Education, Evolution, Natural selection | Tagged: blog carnival, Blogging, Carnival of Evolution, evolution, Evolving Thoughts, John Wilkins | 
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Posted by Troy Britain
Ken Ham, president/CEO of Answers in Genesis (USA), which is headquartered in Kentucky has attacked an exhibit at the Kentucky Horse Park on horse evolution in a recent post to his blog “Around the World with Ken Ham” and it is yet another glittering example of creationist scholarship.
Reading it immediately brought to mind the words supposedly* whispered by Thomas Huxley as he rose to respond to Samuel Wilberforce in their exchange at the 1860 Oxford evolution debate:
“The Lord hath delivered him into mine hands”.
The reason this came to mind was that it is clear from his comments that he has not bothered to educate himself on the subject and is just mindlessly repeating tired, long refuted creationist clichés on the subject of horse evolution. In other words, he’s lobbing softballs at defenders of science like me.
Alright, without further ado let’s saddle up and ride forth into the mind of Ham:
8 Comments | Antievolution, Comparative anatomy, Creationism, Defending evolution, Evolution, Geology, History of Science, Paleontology, Science, Systematics | Tagged: Answers in Genesis, Around the World with Ken Ham, equids, Equus, fossils, horses, Hyracotherium, Ken Ham, Kentucky Horse Park, Paleontology | Permalink
Posted by Troy Britain
The weather was nice today (Sunday 4-22-12); sunny but not too hot, so I spent a couple hours over at my parents’ house today wandering around the yard looking for critters like I used to do when I was kid. Only this time I was armed with a camera instead of a jar or coffee can, intending to capture images rather than bodies. My target was the host of lizards that have taken up residence in my parents’ yard; specifically Western fence lizards (Sceloporus occidentalis).
When I was a kid used to find all sorts of invertebrates, miscellaneous insects (of course), solifugids (“sun” or “wind scorpions”) and one time I even found a tarantula (probably a Aphonopelma; I damn near stepped on it while running through the back yard).
As for vertebrates I often found Slender salamanders (Batrachoseps) and the feisty Southern alligator lizard (Elgaria) but never any fence lizards. To find them I had to hike three quarters of a mile or so to an undeveloped area dominated by a rocky hill (a modest pluton locally known to us a “Lionshead”) where they were fairly abundant amongst boulders of decomposing granite.
This is not the case anymore.
I had noticed on previous visits that the fence lizards were around my parents’ yard but today I realized that the place was absolutely crawling with them. I have no idea what has changed in the environment that has led to an expansion of their range, from the hills and undeveloped areas to the middle of the suburbs, but personally I’m glad of it.
At first they played a little hard to get. It was already afternoon and while it wasn’t really hot it was warm so their metabolizes were no doubt running at nearly at mammalian levels. So they would dash for cover before I got too close.
This little one was hiding behind some old window screens at the back of the garage. It had a larger companion who was missing part of its tail, however I couldn’t get a picture of it. Read on»
1 Comment | Misc., Natural History, Personal, Zoology | Tagged: photography, Sceloporus occidentalis, Western fence lizard | Permalink
Posted by Troy Britain
I was looking through some “old” pictures I had taken and ran across this excellent example of crypsis:
Can you see me?
Photo taken in Joshua Tree National Park (California), six years ago tomorrow (3-12-2006).
Leave a Comment » | Biology, Natural selection, Personal, Zoology | Tagged: camouflage, crypsis, Joshua Tree National Park | Permalink
Posted by Troy Britain
And it’s just lousy with bugs! This month the Carnival of Evolution hive is infesting Splendour Awaits, weblog of photographer and amateur insect enthusiast Adrian Thysse.
Creep or crawl your way over there and check out all the invertebrate wonderfulnessness!
Note: The Carnival is trying something a bit new this go around by presenting the article summaries and links in Google Docs – Presentation (a slide show format). If you have any difficulties seeing the slide window, please try another browser (Google Chrome worked best for me).
Previous Carnivals of Evolution:
If you missed any of these you’ll definitely want to go check them out!
Leave a Comment » | Biology, Blogging, Defending evolution, Education, Evolution, Natural selection | Tagged: arthropods, blog carnival, Blogging, Carnival of Evolution, evolution, insects | Permalink
Posted by Troy Britain
A few months back Frank Sherwin, “Senior Science Lecturer” at the Institute for Creation Research, launched an amusing attack on evolution that is nigh on word-salad; this time focusing on insects, and how they are supposedly problematic for evolutionary theory.
As usual it is stated with the confidence and the faux authority that is typical of “creation science” practitioners but when you actually look at it and try to make sense of what is being said it quickly becomes apparent that much of it is really unintelligible nonsense.
5 Comments | Antievolution, Biology, Creationism, Defending evolution, Evolution, Paleontology, Science, Systematics, Zoology | Tagged: arthropods, bugs, crickets, evolution, fossils, Frank Sherwin, ICR, insects, Institute for Creation Research, Paleontology | Permalink
Posted by Troy Britain
I am going to give another wag of the finger, this time to Scientific American. They posted a number of paintings of reconstructions of various extinct “horses” in a picture gallery titled “Ancient Miniature Horses”, which includes an entry for the famous “dawn horse”, Hyracotherium.
However, the problems lies not in the painting, which is probably a reasonable guesstimate of what Hyracotherium might have looked like in life but rather with the blurb of information included with the painting:
Hyracotherium This genus of small early horse roamed the early woodlands of Asia, Europe and North America some 55 million to 45 million years ago. It was already larger than Sifrhippus, weighing about 22.7 kilograms. But when Richard Owen first discovered Hyracotherium in 1876, it was so diminutive that he thought it was some unknown hyrax species, a group of extant mammals that live in Africa and the Middle East.
Painting by Heinrich Harder used by S.A.
No, no, no, a thousand times no! It is bad enough when creationists claim that Hyracotherium is merely a hyrax (rather than a ancestral horse) and claim that Richard Owen thought so as well but to have a venerable science publication like Scientific American falling into the same pit of misinformation is extremely vexing.
4 Comments | Comparative anatomy, History of Science, Paleontology, Science, Science in the media, Systematics | Tagged: Eohippus, Hyracotherium, hyrax, Richard Owen, Scientific American | Permalink
Posted by Troy Britain
Ladies and Gentlemen… Mesdames et Messieurs… Damen und Herren… The Carnival of Evolution XLIV! This month the carnival is inhabiting The Atavism (great name) and is cleverly set up as a scientific symposium. See for yourself.
Previous Carnivals of Evolution:
If you missed any of these you’ll definitely want to go check them out!
Leave a Comment » | Biology, Blogging, Defending evolution, Education, Evolution, Natural selection | Tagged: evolution, Blogging, Carnival of Evolution, blog carnival, The Atavism | Permalink
Posted by Troy Britain
I shared this on Facebook a while back, thought I’d post it here as well―easy content… Seriously though, if you’re not amazed by this then there is something wrong with you.
I love the part were Daddy silverback pulls the young gorilla away from the funny looking hairless ape. I can almost hear him saying; “stay away from that, you don’t know where its been!” Click here for more on the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei).
Leave a Comment » | Animal behavior, Zoology | Tagged: animal behavior, Gorilla beringei, mountain gorilla, primates | Permalink
Posted by Troy Britain
Not my cup of tea* musically but fun just the same:
Hat tip to Michael Barton at The Dispersal of Darwin.
*technically no cup of tea is my cup of tea, as I loathe tea.
3 Comments | Biology, Evolution, Natural selection, Science, The Arts, Zoology | Tagged: Darwin, evolution, music, Symphony of Science | Permalink
Posted by Troy Britain
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"Debating creationists on the topic of evolution is rather like trying to play chess with a pigeon; it knocks the pieces over, craps on the board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory."
- Scott D. Weitzenhoffer
