One of my favorite fossils. Too cute.
Mei
When: Early Cretaceous (~125 million years)
Where: Liaoning, China
What: Mei is a paravian dinosaur. Paraves is the clade comprised of birds and two families of non-avian dinsaurs; Troodontidae and Dromaeosauridae. As Mei is a fairly basal member of the troodontids, it is not very far removed from the common ancestor of all paravians. Its bird-like heritage can be easily seen in this extraordinary articulated fossil shown above. This specimen was found in a sleeping pose, which is very much like the resting posture of many modern birds, with the legs folded underneath the body and the head folded back and resting on the shoulder. It is this pose that gives the taxon its full name: Mei long, which translates to ‘sleeping dragon’. This animal is a sub-adult, determined via the ends of its bones not yet being fused, and would be roughly 21 inches (~53 cm) long, if it was not curled up as it is.
The find of a basal troodontid in this pose gives us far more information than just when the sleeping posture was adapted by this clade. It has been determined that modern birds commonly sleep like this to preserve their body heat, covering up the areas that are most prone to radiating heat. If Mei long and its kin were not ‘warm blooded’ than there would be no benefit to sleeping in this pose. Thus, this provides another compelling bit of evidence that the ‘warm bloodedness’ of modern birds was present in their mesozoic non-avian relatives.
Oh my goodness! I’ll take five, please.
Got all excited about finding a local Darwin Day celebration before discovering Georgia is not even listed on the website
If anyone knows of one that just isn’t listed, let me know! I found out UGA is having one, but it’s a bit far for me to go and with the abundance of scientific institutions in the Atlanta area I’m quite disappointed.
The last zoological facility I worked at in the UK had free entry to celebrate his 200th birthday. It was a great day to educate.
npr:
A rabbi, a descendant of Charles Darwin, a philosopher and a scholar walk into an auditorium.
It sounds like the start of a bad joke, but the group came together for the latest Intelligence Squared U.S. debate and faced off two against two on the motion “The World Would Be Better Off Without Religion.”
This is a thoroughly engaging listen. Frustrating at times, as good debates should be, but worth checking out.
A few other photos from the Darwin exhibit. If you’re in Atlanta, or get a chance to see this when it travels elsewhere, you must see it. It’s fantastic.
Took these photos in the Darwin exhibition that’s currently at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. Because sometimes people need reminding.
LMAO
A favourite Neil deGrasse Tyson quote:
“And what comedian configured the region between our legs—an entertainment complex built around a sewage system?”
Evolution Made Us All!
I want this framed.
