The tepuis of northern South America–tabletop mountains ringed by sheer cliffs rising up thousands of feet–inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novelThe Lost World. Doyle envisioned dinosaurs and other primordial creatures surviving on these remote islands in the sky.

It turns out that the tepuis are indeed ancient vestiges. The surrounding land eroded away 70 million years ago. Biologists have long been fascinated by the plants and animals that live on top of them today. In many cases, the species on a tepui are found nowhere else on Earth. Many have argued for the wonderfully-named “Lost World Hypothesis”–the unique species of the tepuis been stranded up there for 70 million years.

In tomorrow’s New York Times, I report on a team of scientists who tested that hypothesis by looking at the DNA of frogs that live on tepuis. And for them, at least, the hypothesis fails. Somehow, those tiny frogs managed to scale walls that strike fear in even the toughest rock climbers. For the full details, check out the story.

Image by Xyrenita on Flickr/via Creative Commons

Originally published May 7, 2012. Copyright 2012 Carl Zimmer.

I recently sat down for two stimulating conversations which are now in print. One was with Ben Lillie for Story Collider, the new magazine that Lillie has launched to complement his wonderful storytelling series. The other was with Ben Goldfarb of Sage, a student-run environmental arts and journalism publication of the Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Ben L. and Ben G. asked lots of thoughtful questions about the art of science writing, and the place of the science writer in society. It’s a little painful to read my ramblings taken down verbatim–I want to reach out and edit away the extra verbiage–but you may still find them interesting.

Originally published May 7, 2012. Copyright 2012 Carl Zimmer.

Victoria McGowan writes,

Please find attached a photo of my Australopithecus tattoo. I’m a medical anthropologist researching the historical relationship between school meals and obesity in children as part of my PhD at Durham University. Obviously this has very little to do with Australopithecus but my interest in “Lucy” began when I started my UG degree in Anthropology here at Durham. One of my first lectures was on our Biological and Social Origins and we learnt about our evolutionary heritage. Lucy caught my eye because she was one of the most complete finds of this species at that time. Also as it was thought that she was more closely related to Homo genus than any other Australopithecus at that time.

Continue reading “In Memory of Lucy #scienceink” →