Brian Switek
Bio
Brian is the author of My Beloved Brontosaurus, Written in Stone, and other books. He also writes the Laelaps blog for Scientific American and publishes on fossil discoveries in outlets from Smithsonian to the Wall Street Journal.
Stories (8)
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The Dead Zoo: Dilophosaurus
The way some hipsters talk about bands, hardcore paleo fans talk about fossils. “Oh, you only heard of mosasaurs because of Jurassic World? I was into those aquatic lizards back when they were eating sailors in The Land That Time Forgot.” It’s not necessarily charming behavior, but it happens. And I admit that when the cinematic version of Jurassic Park debuted in 1993, I felt a little swell of pride at already being a big fan of the movie's noxious double-crested dinosaur.
By Brian Switek9 years ago in Futurism
The Dead Zoo: Triceratops
Triceratops always seemed like a friendly dinosaur to me. I’m not exactly sure why. It couldn’t have been because of Uncle Beazley. That dinosaur was before my time, and I didn’t encounter him at the National Zoo until after I was already grown up. Jurassic Park couldn’t have been it, either. I wish I could have given the sick Triceratops a hug just like Alan Grant did, but I was already ten before I dragged my family to see the epic cinematic dinosaurs. There must have been something else.
By Brian Switek9 years ago in Futurism
The Dead Zoo: Smilodon
Smilodon looks like a cat evolved for violence. The feline’s fangs – long enough to inspire fear, just short of being ridiculous – seem to leave little question as to what this Ice Age carnivore was all about, and they have driven scientific inquiry about the cat's habits ever since its discovery. To envision Smilodon is to see a panting cat in a trampled and bloodied clearing, crimson and gore coating the beast's muzzle.
By Brian Switek9 years ago in Futurism
The Dead Zoo: Edmontosaurus
Dinosaurs are always changing. Even if bones have been pieced together and reconstructed in more or less in their present configurations for decades now, studies of those bones and additional fossils are continuing to alter what we think the “terrible lizards” looked like. And while I’m all in favor of new investigations bringing us dinosaurs in greater detail than ever before, I have to admit that sometimes science makes old favorites look a little… silly.
By Brian Switek9 years ago in Futurism
The Dead Zoo: Uintatherium
No one knows what Uintatherium is. Not entirely. There are plenty of terms that can help us feel around the outline of this long-deceased beast. Mammal. Eocene. Fossil. Extinct. Massive. But despite being known to paleontologists for nearly a century and a half, this most charismatic of dawn beasts remains about as puzzling now as when it was first uncovered among the badlands of the American west.
By Brian Switek9 years ago in Futurism
The Dead Zoo: Stegosaurus
Stegosaurus means “roofed lizard.” I never really understood why. The trundling herbivore bore an offset row of bony, triangular plates along the midline of its back, but this arrangement didn’t really look like a roof so much as a series of sails. Whether trying to keep off the rain or provide a barrier to serrated teeth, the plates didn't look like a very effective awning.
By Brian Switek9 years ago in Futurism
The Dead Zoo: Tyrannosaurus Rex
I wonder how many paleontologists AMNH 5027 has inspired. In case the museum catalog number doesn't ring a bell, that’s the formal name for the second Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton recognized by science, dug out of the Montana badlands in 1908 and on display on the fourth floor of New York’s American Museum of Natural History for over a century now.
By Brian Switek9 years ago in Futurism
Who Will Survive the Next Biotic Crisis?
While the next biotic event is probably not in the near future, fossil records clearly testify that extinction is an unavoidable fate for all species. The real question remains: what is left in the wake of mankind? Our lineage is more likely to be altered through evolution than entirely snuffed out.
By Brian Switek9 years ago in Futurism
