Caulkicephalus, which, like all of its pterosaurian brethren, has been extinct for millions and millions and millions of years. By Mark Witton, via Flickr.
I've been working on a post dealing with cryptozoology for the last couple months (thankfully, it's almost done). Poking around for bits of good information on-line, I found a 2009 episode of the podcast MonsterTalk I had not heard. It features Dr. David Martill of the University of Portsmouth, who discusses what science has to say about pterosaurs and the ropen, a supposed bioluminescent pterosaur from New Guinea. Besides poking holes in the feeble hypothesis that there is a population of living pterosaurs there, or anywhere else for that matter, Martill provides a nice summary of what paleontologists know about the pterosaurs. Check it out here.
"I've been working on a post dealing with cryptozoology for the last couple months"
ReplyDeleteThat was an odd coincidence...:P
http://scienceasweknowit.blogspot.com/2011/05/menagerie-of-mysterious-case-1-el.html
I'm guessing cryptozoology is just in the blogosphere air. You've got a post on it coming up, Darren did his recent look at the Mersey "Monster", I had my recent look at phylotarded African cryptids, and then there's the above Taylor Reints piece...which is disappointingly devoid of rhesus monkeys, but still very good.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's the summer heat (or not, if you're in a decidedly heat-devoid location)?
Yeah, that is pretty funny. Well, Naish returns to it pretty often. I had intended to finish mine in March, as it was inspired by research I was doing for a Vintage Dino Art post from then. But I keep tweaking it, as it's a response to a paper. I want to be sure I answer all of the claims properly. Sadly, the evidence is so sloppy, I'm having a tough time taking it seriously. I'm not intending to just sarcastically rip it apart, but what choice do I have?
ReplyDelete