Tag Archives: paleontology

Neanderthals: Sensible, Decent Homebodies; and My Ancestors 0 (0)

A long time ago, some folks were — apparently — living happily in the Rhône River Valley. Whether or not they were happy there, we’ve found evidence that they stayed near what we call the Grotte Mandrin for 50,000 years. … Continue reading

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A Big Diamond, a Little History, and Some Geology 0 (0)

I take commercial puffery with a grain of salt, but that 2,492 carat diamond from the Karowe mine does seem “epic”. It’s also what I’ll be talking about this week: along with the Karowe mine, Botswana, what diamonds are and … Continue reading

Posted in Diamonds and Gems, Discursive Detours, Science News, Series | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Evolution and a Gene Expression Code Library 0 (0)

Scientists have found gene groups we have in common with nearly all animals: thousands of them, from a code library that’s more than half a billion years old. I’ll be talking about that this week, plus why I see no … Continue reading

Posted in Discursive Detours, Science News | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Cabrières Biota: an Ordovician Snapshot 0 (0)

When I saw “epic importance” and “fossils” in the same headline, I figured whatever’d been found would be at least somewhat out of the ordinary. I’ve learned to take journalistic puffery with at least a few grains of salt. But … Continue reading

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T. Rex, or Not T. Rex, That is the Question 0 (0)

Headlines about Tyrannosaurus rex, scientists, and “what we thought we knew” being wrong started showing up in my news feed last week. It’s been a while since I talked about dinosaurs, and I found Nicholas R. Longrich and Evan T. … Continue reading

Posted in Being Catholic, Discursive Detours, Science News | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments