Bob Bakker on dinosaur internals, comparative anatomy and the evolutionary changes of hip bone orientation.  As always, Bob is a good read. http://blog.hmns.org/2014/06/the-guts-stop-here-delve-deeper-into-dinosaurian-intestines-with-dr-bakker/  

Via Science news: Some of Earth’s earliest life-forms were thought to have left their mark roughly 3.45 billion years ago in minerals found in what is now the Barberton greenstone belt of South Africa. However, the minerals formed closer to 2.9 billion years ago, and the microstructures within them were not created by early microorganisms, scientists argue May 26 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The results suggest that scientists will have to search for a different set of signatures of early life on Earth and also on other planets.

Fascinating blog post about the Great Canyon from Geotripper: It’s Not What’s There in Grand Canyon That’s Incredible, It’s What’s Missing …. we paid a visit to an exposure of the “Great Unconformity” which is also seen in the bottom of the Grand Canyon. A participant noted that he had seen Copperfield make an elephant disappear once, but that this week he had seen a geologist make a billion years disappear. That’s what is incredible about the Grand Canyon. There are lots of interesting rocks to see, but the story they tell is that a whole lot more rocks are…

A thoughtful, essay on the role of amateur paleontologists have played in both the past, as well as potentially in the future. Written for Palaeo-Electronica, by a member and leader in ESCNOI, John Catalini.

Via the Verge: … These illustrations aren’t static — given the fast pace of scientific discovery, Csotonyi often has to update pieces to coincide with new revelations. The relatively new concept of feathered dinosaurs, in particular, has changed the way he renders these prehistoric giants. “I’ve had to return to several of my previous illustrations to update them as new information has become available based on increasingly informative fossil finds, and also because as young as my career is, I have learned to correct mistakes that I made earlier on,” he explains….