Dave writes, “Following my degree in Zoology, I worked in public aquariums for several years before becoming a lecturer in Animal Science, so I’ve always has a bit of a “fishy” background! I’m also studying stress in marine fish for a research degree. I’ve always been fascinated by evolution, and to reflect this, I decided to get inked with a Haeckel — this is a medusa from Art Forms in Nature . Haeckel was clearly a proponent of evolution, and although his ideas weren’t 100% correct, the man could draw!

“The tattoo is courtesy of the always-brilliant Jon Nott of Guildford, Surrey (U.K.).”

Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.

Originally published March 14, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

Here’s a message from Radiolab to my tattoo’d readers (you know who you are):

Hi, all, I’m with the National Public Radio-syndicated science show “Radiolab” that has a large national and international following (http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/). Mr. Zimmer appeared on our show last season, in the “Parasites” episode.

I’m in search of people who have tattoos of extinct species of plant or animal, ideally people in the greater New York City area. We’re trying to gauge the feasibility of doing a video piece on this subject for Radiolab. Please let us know via [email protected] if you are itching to share your extinct species tattoo story with our funky radio show!

Perhaps we’ll be calling it VideoLab soon?

Update: Be sure to send a copy to me, too, for the Tattoo Emporium.

Originally published March 12, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

I’ve just been checking out one of the oldest pieces of sculpture made by humans. The Smithsonian Institution has set up a major web site on human evolution. There’s lots of stuff worth exploring on the site, although there are still some bugs and some of the stuff is unnecessarily obscure for a site intended for us non-paleoanthropologists. I’m particularly fond at the moment of the 3-D scans of ancient artifacts that you can rotate around on your computer. Check out the lion-man, for starters.

[Image: Wikipedia]

Originally published March 12, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.