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Darren Naish is a science writer, technical editor and palaeozoologist (affiliated with the University of Portsmouth, UK) who mostly works on Cretaceous dinosaurs and pterosaurs. He also studies such things as the swimming abilities of giraffes and fossil marine reptiles. An avid interest in modern wildlife and conservation has resulted in many adventures in lizard-chasing, bird-watching and litter-collecting. I've been blogging since 2006 and a compilation of early Tet Zoo articles is now available in book form as Tetrapod Zoology Book One. Additional recent books include The Great Dinosaur Discoveries and Dinosaurs Life Size. For more biographical info go here. I can be contacted intermittently at eotyrannus (at) gmail dot com. PLEASE NOTE: I am now completely unable to keep up with email correspondence. I do my best to respond to all queries and requests, but please don't be offended if I fail to reply. I blog from and about conferences - please contact me for more info. Follow me on twitter: @TetZoo.
You've read the blog, now buy the books....
The Great Dinosaur Discoveries (US edition)
Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life
"Walking with Dinosaurs": The Evidence - How Did They Know That?
Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight (Guide 10; Field Guides to Fossils Series.) (Palaentology FG Fossils)
Tetrapod Zoology
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June 10, 2011
Category: cryptozoology
On July 12th 2011 a very interesting thing is happening - interesting, that is, if you're interested in the academic evaluation of cryptozoological data. ZSL (the Zoological Society of London) is hosting the meeting 'Cryptozoology: science or pseudoscience?'. Speakers are Charles Paxton, Michael Woodley and myself. Henry Gee is acting as chair.
Posted by Darren Naish at 9:34 AM • 42 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 9, 2011
Category: herpetology
In the previous article I provided brief reviews of all currently recognised pygopodid 'genera'*. Except one. I've left this one until last, largely because it's the most spectacular (up to 75 cm in total length) and (arguably) most fascinating pygopodid. We've seen throughout this series of articles that pygopodids are convergent with certain snake groups, and may in fact have been so successful at filling up ecological niches occupied elsewhere by colubroid snakes that they effectively prevented such snakes from evolving: you can imagine this as the 'pygopodids got there first' hypothesis.
As we'll see here, the Lialis species - the two snake-lizards - are strongly convergent with lizard-eating snakes in many respects [two individuals of the highly variable Burton's snake-lizard L. burtonis shown here; photos by Stewart Macdonald, used with permission. Notice what the animals are able to do with their pupils]. I don't know about you, but I find it absolutely remarkable that, of all squamates, gekkotans would be the ones that have come to mimic predatory snakes so closely in anatomy and behaviour.
Posted by Darren Naish at 11:28 AM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 8, 2011
Category: herpetology
I really want to get these pygopodid articles finished. Actually, I really want to get the whole gekkotan series finished: the end is in sight and I know I'll get there eventually. In the previous articles on pygopodids (part of the long-running series on gekkotan lizards: see links below), we looked at pygopodid diversity and biology in general, and also at the phylogeny and evolutionary history of these fascinating, snake-like gekkotans. This time round, we look in more detail at the various different pygopodid taxa - not on a species-by-species basis (alas), but according to the units we typically term genera. The most famous pygopodids - the Lialis species or snake-lizards - are covered in the next article. [Diagram below shows a simplified version of the Jennings et al. (2003) phylogeny, with diagrammatic pygopodid heads from Kluge (1974).]
As before, remember that the group being discussed here is 'Pygopodidae of tradition', not Pygopodidae as currently formulated by some authors. More on this matter later.
Posted by Darren Naish at 9:52 AM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 6, 2011
Category: herpetology
The previous article - part of my now lengthy series on gekkotan squamates (see links below) - provided an introduction to the neat and fascinating near-limbless Australasian gekkotans known as the pygopodids. Disclaimer: the group being discussed here is 'Pygopodidae of tradition', not Pygopodidae as currently formulated. More on this matter later.
One topic that I didn't explore fully in the previous article is pygopodid diversity. These reptiles aren't all samey little generalists; species within the group practise several different lifestyles and foraging behaviours, and the amount of morphological variation present within Pygopodidae is impressive [composite above shows Burton's snake-lizard (l) and Ophidiocephalus (r) at top: both by Stewart Macdonald, used with permission. Common scaly-foot Pygopus lepidopodus below by Peter Woodardlong, from wikipedia]. As we'll see below, it may in fact be that pygopodids evolved and diversified early enough to 'beat' a far larger, far more widespread group of squamates - snakes - into the occupation of several ecological roles.
Posted by Darren Naish at 8:21 AM • 21 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 3, 2011
Category: herpetology
One of my shortish-term goals at Tet Zoo has been to complete the series on gekkotan lizards I started in April 2010 (see below for links to previous parts). We continue with that series here, and this time round we're going to look at what should definitely be regarded as the weirdest of gekkotans: the near-limbless pygopodids, pygopods or flap-footed lizards, all of which inhabit Australia and New Guinea (and at least some of the surrounding islands). Because there's a lot to say about them, the article you're reading is the first of three. [Excellent paintings below by Alan Male, from Philip Whitfield's 1983 Reptiles & Amphibians. These were the first images of pygopodids I ever saw.]
Posted by Darren Naish at 7:12 AM • 45 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 2, 2011
Category: community • pterosaurs
Once again I'm in that frustrating position so beloved of bloggers: where life and work just doesn't let you fritter away all those 'spare' hours preparing lengthy blog articles. In the mean time, here's one of those 'mystery pictures' to identify. What is it? Genus will do (I know the species, but that's because I have special data not available from this image). [UPDATE: no more guessing please. Answer below, comment # 31.]
While I'm here I may as well mention a few things I won't get to blog about.
Posted by Darren Naish at 8:26 AM • 41 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 30, 2011
Category: cryptozoology
On May 24th 2011, photographer Mark Harrison took a few photos of the large marine creature he saw off the Wirral Peninsula, near Liverpool (UK). Harrison initially thought that the animal might be a seal, but then decided to put the photos online as a sort of joke. Several newspapers then ran the photos as depicting a "sea monster" - dubbed the "Mersey monster" - that "baffles marine experts". Most of the coverage has appeared in the Liverpool Echo. So - OMG! - a new sea monster photographed!! Can we ever solve this most mysterious monster mystery??!? Well, duh.
Posted by Darren Naish at 7:41 AM • 21 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 29, 2011
Category: herpetology
Dibamids are a weird and very neat group of fossorial, near-limbless squamates that I've long planned to cover at Tet Zoo. Little is known about them and how they might relate to other squamates has long been the subject of debate (they might be close to amphisbaenians, but links with gekkotans, skinks and snakes have all been suggested in the past). I'm going to avoid saying much about them here: I just want to point to the fact that a newly named species - Dibamus dalaiensis Neang et al., 2011 [shown here; image Thy Neang/Flora & Fauna International] - extends their distribution to Cambodia. The previously recognised species of Dibamus are known from south-east Asia, India, southern China, New Guinea and the Philippines, but another dibamid - Anelytropsis papillosus (first described by Cope in 1885) - is endemic to Mexico.
Posted by Darren Naish at 8:30 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 27, 2011
Category: picture of the day • speculative zoology
When unable to find time to do anything else, resort to posting Squamozoic sneak-peeks (previous example here)...
This scene - 'Riverbank ambush' - features a giant macro-predatory amphisbaenian and some surprised gekkotans. Colouring by Tim Morris. Feel free to discuss among yourself. Kinda busy right now...
Posted by Darren Naish at 9:13 AM • 40 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
