Geobulletin alpha

Current events and the work we need to do in our community 

The following is an email that I sent today to graduate students in my department. I am sharing it here in the spirit of broadening the conversation beyond just our department. I follow in the footsteps of Dr. Julie Libarkin and Dr. Jacquelyn Gill who have shared personal letters and

Some thoughts on International Women in Science Day 

Today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This day is designated by the UN because “Over the past 15 years, the global community has made a lot of effort in inspiring and engaging women and girls in science. Yet women and girls continue to be excluded

Live in fragments no longer. 

It’s been one week since the election, and I’ve started this post a dozen times. I write something, erase it, rewrite. I brainstorm in the shower. I think about it when I walk the dog, on my way to work, standing in line at the grocery store, and when I

Research Summary: Shifts In Diversity And Function Of Lake Bacterial Communities Upon Glacier Retreat 

Abstract Global climate change is causing a wastage of glaciers and threatening biodiversity in glacier-fed ecosystems. The high turbidity typically found in those ecosystems, which is caused by inorganic particles[...] The post Research Summary: Shifts In Diversity And Function Of Lake Bacterial Communities Upon Glacier Retreat appeared first on Lake

Get ready... Get set... 

It’s almost time to start our next field season! Our field season begins when we fly south on February 18. That’s just a couple of weeks away!This year, we will complete our “latitudinal gradient” along the Antarctic Peninsula. For this project, we are exploring the diversity of soil biological communities along the entire Antarctic Peninsula. We will discover what species live in all of the places we visit. We will also compare who lives at each site with the plants and soil chemistry [...]

Research Summary: Food Web Topology In High Mountain Lakes 

Abstract Although diversity and limnology of alpine lake systems are well studied, their food web structure and properties have rarely been addressed. Here, the topological food webs of three high[...] The post Research Summary: Food Web Topology In High Mountain Lakes appeared first on Lake

Pholadella radiata pelecypod from the Ludlowville formation of New York 

The diversity of pelecypods that are found within the Devonian aged (Givetian stage) Moscow formation is pretty amazing. At a time when brachiopods were still somewhat dominant, pelecypods had become a strong part of the ecosystem in their own way. That is why I love it when I find another species that I've never seen before. Pholadella radiata is the muse of this post and is a nicely decorated shell that reminds me of the extant Arcidae family of shells. The specimens I found are all small, [...]

Desert mayhem – Mad Max “Fury Road” 

Our planet’s deserts are sweeping landscapes of variety and diversity, human and otherwise. But if you are looking for imagery of the desert as desolate and threatening, then the new Mad Max movie will do the trick – in

Hash plate from the Mahantango formation of Pennsylvania 

On a recent stop at one of my favorite Mahantango formation collecting spots, I came across this hash plate. It's presumably a record of a storm event which is why there is a diversity of fossil species and why they are jumbled together. The stippled bar shape in this photo is likely a segment from the exoskeleton of the trilobite Dipleura. It is surrounded by impressions of a Spirifirid and some Chonetid brachiopods.Here is the impression of a crinoid column segment. The five fold symmetry [...]

Llallawavis scagliai, a New Mesembriornithinae 'Terror Bird' 

A new Mesembriornithinae (Aves, Phorusrhacidae) provides new insights into the phylogeny and sensory capabilities of terror birds. 2015. Degrange, F.J., et al., JVP A new species of South American fossil terror bird called Llallawavis scagliai ("Scaglia's Magnificent Bird") is shedding light on the diversity of the group and how these giant extinct predators interacted with their

Adventures in Open Access publishing 

 There is not a lot of diversity in the journals geochemists, geochronologists and hard-rock petrologists traditionally publish in.  Precambrian Research, Geochimica, Chemical Geology, Gondwana Research, and EPSL are all run by Elsevier, while the Journal of Petrology and Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology are also published by large, for-profit corporations.  American Mineralogist is

AMPHIPODS! Tiny Crustaceans that show AMAZING colors! 

Image by Arthur Anker AMPHIPODS! What are they? Small, very diverse crustaceans that occur all over the world in marine, freshwater and even terrestrial habitats. They are distinctive in that their bodies are laterally compressed, in other words, their bodies are "taller" than they are wide. There's a bewildering diversity of them with over 9500 species known. Most of them are pretty tiny

Marine biology 

There are a lot of neat creatures living in the ocean around Antarctica: not just whales, seals, and penguins! There’s quite a diversity of invertebrates (animals without backbones) living on the ocean floor. We call these benthic invertebrates. (“Benthic” means they live on the bottom.)There are several scientists at Rothera who study these benthic invertebrates, and they shared some of their animals with me. There are some animals you are probably familiar with: sea stars (or starfish), [...]

Ten Years of RealClimate: Where now? 

The landscape for science blogging, the public discourse on climate and our own roles in the scientific community have all changed radically over the last 10 years. Blogging is no longer something that stands apart from professional communications, the mainstream media or new online start-ups. The diversity of voices online has also increased widely: scientists

WHAT is going ON HERE? A galloping herd of urchin! CRAZY Maretia planulata heart urchin aggregation! 

Every once in awhile, I think that I might finally have run out of stuff to share with people and THEN something magic happens. Some fantastic new video or pic pops up and WOO! The diversity of echinoderms and the infinite resourcefulness of the Internet pop out of nowhere with some magic NEW biology to share!! Case in point is this video, which was shot by "Dive Yos" showing various

A Diversity of Perspectives on Oil Prices 

Saudi Oil Price Cut Stimulates World EconomyDallas News Falling Oil Prices Weigh Heavy on Wall StreetCNBC It’s Too Early for Tanking Oil Prices to Curb DrillingNPR As Oil Prices Plunge, It Might Be ‘Game Over’ for FrackingForbes Oil Price Drop Hurts Oil Companies, Helps AirlinesAmerica’s Markets Oil Prices Dropping Hits All Houston BusinessesHouston Chronicle Drop

Geological Society signs Declaration on Diversity, Equality and Inclusion 

The Geological Society has today made a commitment to improving diversity within the geosciences by signing the Science Council’s Declaration on Diversity, Equality and Inclusion. The Declaration on Diversity, Equality and Inclusion brings together the Geological Society with other learned … Continue reading

IPC Day 2 – The evolution of giants 

This is a slightly delayed summary of the sauropod symposium on day 2 of IPC4, following sessions the previous day on vertebrate taphonomy and diversity and extinction in the fossil record. This is also the final of these little summaries, and for that I apologise – my laptop is a bit kaput atm, and needs

Beauty, the Sublime and Darwin: Exploring the “sheer poetry” of field biology with Dr. Harry Greene 

The diversity of life on Earth is under serious threats from multiple human-related causes. Science plays well-known roles in addressing management aspects of this problem.  Dr. Harry W. Greene, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University, wants us … Continue reading

Five Surprising Points about Discovering New Species & Taxonomy 

Austin H. Clark, first curator of echinoderms at the Smithsonian's NMNH. Also, butterfly enthusiast. This week, a post about my broader field.. TAXONOMY, evolution and the discovery of new species! Many of you may or may not realize that, although I am widely studied in echinoderms, my *actual* research focuses on starfish, specifically the diversity of starfish, including the description