More Kestrels Car Hawking @iowa_gamehawker’s American Kestrel is named Mango, and Mango is making short work of invasive starlings in these drive-by hits – what a badass bird 🦅 ••• From: @iowa_gamehawker ••• “Mango’s 4th starling catch! It was a long road to get him to understand the game, but since he caught his first …
Month: April 2025
When hair trigger reflexes matter.
When hair trigger reflexes matter. How many times has this played out over millions of years. Crocs go way, way back to the time of the dinosaurs. Our ancestors knew this scene all too well. I remember Don Thomas writing about hunting a 10 foot wide African waterhole and being warned about the giant croc …
Denisovan mandible found
A fossil mandible (Penghu 1: 19,000 to 10,000 years ago) was discovered on the seabed of the Penghu Channel in Taiwan and reported as the first and oldest hominin fossil from Taiwan in 2015. Penghu 1 has distinct morphological characters and retains archaic features, but its taxonomic identity was unknown. Attempts were made to extract …
Chief Mountain – The Lewis Thrust
Rising more than 4,000 feet above the plains, Chief Mountain demands attention and has long played a prominent role in the cultures of indigenous people. The peak is called Ninaistaki by the Blackfeet and is the sacred home to the creator of thunder. It typically appeared on early maps of the area, and in 1901 …
Crinoid Colony
This is one of the most spectacular fossils you’ll ever see. Ever! This Jurassic giant measures over 100 square meters and took 18 years to clean and prepare! Can we applaud the patience and effort. It is appropriately 180 million years old and comes from Holzmaden, Germany. On display at the excellent Hauff Museum. I …
Martian Lichens
Red Mars by Robinson, Kim Stanley One of the few things I remember from this series is how lichens were a key start in terraforming Mars. Life imitates art below? Published in the journal IMA Fungus, a new study highlights the potential for lichens to survive and function on the Martian surface, challenging previous assumptions about the uninhabitable nature …
The Anthropocene wins.
So how much of the planet is already covered by novel ecosystems like these? Some analyses have arrived at startling figures – in a 2013 book on novel ecosystems, researchers argued that 30-40% of the world’s terrestrial ecosystems have already transformed into novel states. A study by Svenning projected that half of the land on the planet would …
Speaking of Sable
These mini hoodoos form on Sable Island when wet sand freezes, then strong winds erode away the drier sand. The beautiful sand sculptures don’t last long. In a few hours or days, they’re eroded by airborne sand, or they collapse. Sable Island National Park Reserve Learn more about Sable Island: https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/ns/sable S. Medill Speaking of Sable, …
Mysterious Kestrel decline
North America’s smallest falcon, the American Kestrel (Falco sparverius), has declined across the continent since the 1970s, yet the causes continue to stump raptor biologists. A new study published in the Journal of Raptor Research adds a piece to the puzzle with the discovery that in the Northeast, where declines are most alarming, fledglings demonstrate a relatively high survival …
Dire Wolves?
OMG it happened! The Direwolf is back. Two beautiful and healthy white Direwolves called Reamus and Romulus were born in October 2024 after being De-Extincted by Colossal Biosciences who are the most exciting company on the forefront of conservation and the restoration of animals that us humans have destroyed. The two boys are currently living …