a bunch of stuff

[rowe@lepomis.psych.upenn.edu (Mickey Rowe)]

Sorry to lump a bunch of things together, but I'm pressed for time... 

Most important thing first: Neil Clark is trying to convince us that
he does more than just fantasize about dinosaurs at play :-) He's just
sent me a jpeg file containing two sketches of a caudal vertebra from
what he thinks is a sauropod.  He'd like help with obtaining a
positive identification of the animal to which the vertebra used to
belong.  I've placed the jpeg image here on lepomis.psych.upenn.edu in
the pub directory.  If you think you can help and can use anonymous
ftp to retrieve the file, please do.  If you think you can help but
can't ftp or if you need the file to be in a format other than jpeg,
let me know and I'll try to accommodate like before.

Second, the May 12 issue of Science had a few tidbits of interest.
The cover story is about a Triassic turtle recovered in Argentina.
The letters to the editor has a response to Alan Feduccia's review of
the K/T extinction and Paleogene radiation of birds (we talked about
that here in February).  The letter was written by Penn's own
ecologist Dan Janzen who suggests that the animals most likely to
survive a catastrophe such as that postulated by the asteroiders are
animals that don't depend directly upon "immediate photosynthesis".
That is, those most likely to get by are those that eat seeds,
decaying matter, and the animals that eat those things.  Transitional
shorebirds are among the luckies in that category.  Finally, under the
heading of "Random Samples", there is a brief discussion of a legal
battle that the Dinosaur Society is having over the revenue being
generated by the currently travelling exhibit "The Dinosaurs of
Jurassic Park".  The article leads me to believe that The Dinosaur
Society will ultimately triumph, but there are high stakes involved --
two marketing contractors are trying to get 1.3 million dollars out of
the Society -- so it seems like an unfortunate circumstance for any
and all concerned.

I think that's it for now...

-- 
Mickey Rowe     (rowe@lepomis.psych.upenn.edu)