A Theory on How Flightless Birds Spread Across the World: They Flew There

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The New York Times, May 22, 2014

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Just a few centuries ago, Madagascar was home to a monstrous creature called the elephant bird. It towered as high as nine feet. Weighing as much as 600 pounds, it was the heaviest bird known to science. You’d need 160 chicken eggs to equal the volume of a single elephant bird egg.

The only feature of the elephant bird that wasn’t gigantic was its wings, which were useless, shriveled arms. Instead of flying, the elephant bird kept its head down much of the time, grazing on plants.

Scientists aren’t precisely sure when this strange creature became extinct, but it probably endured well into our human-dominated age.

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Another Kind of Brain

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COMB JELLY. GEORGE GRALL/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE

 

 

 

 

 

 

In December, Ibloggedabout an animal most people have never heard of–the comb jelly. It’s a gorgeous, mysterious creature that just might belong to the oldest lineage of animals alive today. Today, over at National Geographic News, I’m reporting on a new study of the comb jelly that suggests it’s even more interesting than that. Unlike all other animals with a nervous system, it seems to have evolved nerves and a brain all its own. It even has its own special neurochemical language. If true, it’s about as close to an alien intelligence that we can encounter here on Earth.Check it out.

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Strange Findings on Comb Jellies Uproot Animal Family Tree

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National Geographic, May 21, 2014

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“It’s a paradox,” said Leonid Moroz, a neurobiologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville and lead author of a paper in today’s Nature about the biology of the comb jelly nervous system. “These are animals with a complex nervous system, but they basically use a completely different chemical language” from every other animal. “You have to explain it one way or another.”

The way Moroz explains it is with an evolutionary scenario—one that’s at odds with traditional accounts of animal evolution.

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Introducing Carl’s Banned-Word Scanner

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KIT VIA CREATIVE COMMONS

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve taught writing semi-regularly over the past few years. Over that time, I’ve come to realize that one of the biggest challenges in learning how to write about the natural world is to learn how to skillfully wield beautiful, plain language . Scientists and scientists-in-training often lard their writing with jargon, rather than looking for a conversational equivalent. This addiction to jargon can leave a piece of writing sterile. It can mystify everyone except the experts–which is a bad strategy if you aspire to write for the public. An addiction to jargon can even create catastrophic misunderstandings. Readers may apply a non-technical definition for a word that a scientist uses with a very technical meaning in mind. (Think of “theory” as a hunch.)

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