Andrew Thaler

Summary of tweets from Benthic Ecology 2010

March 14, 2010 Andrew Thaler

If you were follwing along on Twitter this weekend, you know that all three of us were at the Benthic Ecology 2010 meeting in Wilmington, NC. Below are some of the more interesting conversations that occurred while livetweeting the event.

Sharks are sub-par, at best

March 12, 2010 Andrew Thaler 15 Comments

Science

In honor of the world premier of David Shiffman’s first major motion picture, “Four things everyone needs to know about sharks,” we are proud to repost our original response to the article, “Sharks are sub-par, at best.” Enjoy!

For too long have I sat idly by as my co-blogger has waxed poetic on the glories of sharks. How great they are as predators, how perfectly they’ve evolved. They’re ancient, pre-historic, haven’t changed in millions of years. They’re the ultimate predator, and champion in the ocean. Unchallenged, unmatched, awesome. A wonder of evolution.

It’s time to clear up some of those -other- myths about sharks.

1. Sharks are ancient creatures that have lived unchanged for millions of years.

While technically true that sub-class Elasmobranchii has been around for hundreds of millions of years, modern sharks are, well, modern. They’ve been evolving for exactly as much time as just about everything else currently alive. And they are far from unchanged. Modern sharks, though they may resemble some older models (just like modern lemurs resemble Ida), are much different beasts then their Silurian cousins. Ancient sharks occured in a diversity of forms, back when they actually dominated the ocean. These modern sharks are just the scruffy leftovers.

365 days of Darwin: March 8, 2010

March 8, 2010March 7, 2010 Andrew Thaler

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Charlie rides Henry, the monster Pug!

Life in FAILboat Bay

March 7, 2010April 21, 2010 Andrew Thaler 1 Comment

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If you haven’t been following my Twitter feed (why aren’t you following my Twitter feed?), you may have missed the picture from FAILboat Bay over the last two weeks. For some reason, the small bay right next to my house has accumulated derelict boats over the winter. Vacationers tend to leave their boats moored over the winter and assume nothing will happen to them during the 9 months they’re abandoned. Of course, anything can happen to a boat over 9 months, and most tend to not be well anchored to begin with. Here is a selection of some of my favorite FAILboats from the last 2 week.