Passenger pigeons at the Denver Museum by Reid. They will be back, here at least. But why do those who would resurrect them plan on using Columba (Bandtail, now) genes for a template for such obvious Zenaida relatives?
Tag: Extinction
Passenger Pigeons # 2
P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } I ended last with: So, where were the pigeons? They were always inhabitants of the deciduous forest, eating nuts and berries. It seems impossible for the pigeon to have existed in anything like the numbers it eventually attained. And a passenger pigeon without its niche and numbers is nothing more …
Passenger Pigeons # 1
Trying something new here. I have either three or four new possible books on deck, though how I will find energy to do them all is a… challenge. One is natural history and ornithology, one a novel, long set -aside, and I am not sure I want to say more about either it or the …
Almost a review
Libby recently read Jeff Lockwood’s Locust. Her letter to him is as good as a short review, and the last line could be a blurb: “I thoroughly enjoyed Locust. My favorite period of US history is the opening of the west during the 1800’s. When I was a kid we took many family trips to …
Eevil Eagles
When I announced Darren’s new book (Tetrapod Zoology 1) I mentioned a Darren drawing that contained, among other things, an Australopithecine and a Socorro County calf in mortal danger. Here is the proof, in the form of his 2004 Christmas card (click on it to enlarge):The hominid is the (documented– look up recent material on …
Worst NYT piece EVER?
Unfortunately the Times is not up to Jeff Lockwood’s standard today, at least outside of their science pages. Last night Daniela sent me this essay by a philosophy professor at Rutgers who is also a visiting one at Princeton (which at least balances him and Peter Singer with Freeman Dyson, who outweighs them both together …
Jeff Lockwood checks in: of Passenger pigeons and Cicadas
Jeff Lockwood, entomologist and first- rate writer from Wyoming, checked in re passenger pigeons with a link to an amazing essay and some thoughtful commentary: “Great to hear from you! I loved your piece on the Passenger Pigeon (and thanks for the plug/quote!), having recently discussed 1491 with a colleague. Your essay elegantly captures the …
One Link…
Long day, more visitors coming. But my speculations on the nature of the passenger pigeon at Living Bird are now online. Check them out and let me know what you think?
The “Mammoth Killer”
Walter Hingley sent this good collection of links, pro and con, on the possible asteroid hit that may have contributed too the late- time extinctions. Maybe we didn’t eat them all.
Dino News
Did dinosaurs go extinct 300,000 years AFTER the Chicxulub impact?? “We found that not a single species went extinct as a result of the Chicxulub impact,” said Gerta Keller, a professor of geosciences at Princeton University, in a release distributed by the Geological Society of London. “These are astonishing results.” From the April 27 date …