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macro | More room required | by KenRol | http://ift.tt/1uJJHYn

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"Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars." - Carl Sagan

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Aurora over Norway by Max Rive

via reddit

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The Cosmic Calendar

The universe’s age of 13.8 billion years seems like an almost abstract concept to us. We know it’s a huge number, but we can’t really grasp the enormity of it. That’s why the concept of the Cosmic Calendar is so useful: It compresses the entire age of the universe in a time scale that we can all understand - an entire calendar year: 12 months, 365 days. At this scale, there are 438 years per second, 1.58 million years per hour, and 37.8 million years per day.

(More on Wikipedia.)

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If you follow paleontology or the production of the Jurassic World film, you’re probably familiar with the scientific community’s scrutiny of some of the film’s prehistoric creatures since the movie trailer debuted last week. While a lack of feathered dinosaurs is still the most common criticism,...

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"Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious."

- Stephen Hawking

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Winter in Yosemite by philhawkins

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Sanguine by Alex Noriega

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M8: The Lagoon Nebula This beautiful cosmic cloud is a popular stop on telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius. Eighteenth century cosmic tourist Charles Messier cataloged the bright nebula as M8. Modern day astronomers recognize the Lagoon Nebula as an active stellar nursery about 5,000 light-years distant, in the direction of the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Remarkable features can be traced through this sharp picture, showing off the Lagoon’s filaments of glowing gas and dark dust clouds. Twisting near the center of the Lagoon, the bright hourglass shape is the turbulent result of extreme stellar winds and intense starlight. The alluring view is a color composite of both broad and narrow band images captured while M8 was high in dark, Chilean skies. It records the Lagoon with a bluer hue than typically represented in images dominated by the red light of the region’s hydrogen emission. At the nebula’s estimated distance, the picture spans about 30 light-years.

Credit: Steve Mazlin, Jack Harvey, Rick Gilbert, and Daniel Verschatse (Star Shadows Remote Observatory, PROMPT, CTIO)

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Apex: Utahraptor - Ambush by Herschel-Hoffmeyer

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Chrome Grossular a Garnet from the Jeffrey Mine, Quebec $30, use coupon code: THANKYOU14 for 10% OFF all orders-ends tonight StructureMinerals.etsy.com #garnet #chromegarnet #etsy #chromegrossular #minerals #jeffreymine #stones #greengarnets #structureminerals

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Jurassic World: The Adventures of Starlord and Raptor

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Bear Grass Rockets by Ben Coffman

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Jurassic World Official Trailer - Review by Science, to a Student

So, as most of you already know, the new Jurassic World trailer is out.  It was slated for release today, but for whatever reason came out two days early.  As I haven’t had time to fully analyze it until this afternoon (thank you, holiday free time!), I’ll just go ahead and do it now as was scheduled.

So, what to make of this trailer?  I will refrain from commenting on the plot, the sadness many feel at not having the original cast and then the accompanying knowledge of that being at once desirable yet an unrealistic scenario, etc.  My interest in all of this is predictably concerning only one thing: the dinosaurs (or in this case, all of the prehistoric/extinct animals, mosasaurs included).

The first dinosaurs we see are what appear to be some sort of ornithomidid, perhaps like the first film’s Gallimimus.  They seem to be a bit different from the ones from the original Jurassic Park film in color, possibly size, and the way that they hold their tails (not as rigid as you  might expect, the first film had them sloping slightly downwards, whereas this new film has them held up in the air, perhaps to make them appear more birdlike).

I admit I enjoyed seeing some sauropods other than Brachiosaurus and the barely-there individual in The Lost World that served as nothing more than a motorcycle obstacle course.  We do get to see a pair of Stegosaurus as well, a little more colorful in the plates than the ones in The Lost World it would appear (which is an improvement in my opinion).

Now it’s time to take a look at one of my favorite animals of all time, the mosasaur.  One of the first things I noticed are the palatial teeth (possibly similar to the pharyngeal jaws of eels).  This is entirely accurate, and the filmmakers deserve some points for depicting these here. If my eyes do not mistake me I think I spy some dorsal ridges on the back of the mosasaur, not unlike the old paleoart representations (like this famous Heinrich Harder painting).  To my knowledge it is no longer believed they possessed such ridges, however.  It’ll be interesting to see whether or not the film reflects the most up-to-date research in mosasaur tails or not (hint: think shark, not eel, at least some of the time, research pending), therefore I must withhold my approbation for now.  I sincerely hope they don’t take the crocodilian approach such as that seen in the BBC series Primeval.  In my humble opinion, if any modern analog should be used, it would be the varanids (monitor lizards), often considered to be the closest extant relatives of the admittedly difficult-to-classify mosasauridae.

It is once again unclear what genus or species this animal is supposed to be, and to be fair, when so much is up to artistic representation when reconstructing past life, how could anyone be entirely sure what the filmmakers are intending to depict without their specific confirmation?  To me, I’m going to go with Tylosaurus for now just based off of the size (T. proriger probably, if they bother with the species, but then again they never really do in these films), but even that seems to be massively exaggerated.  It may just be me or it may just be the perspective, but Tylosaurus was on the upper end of the mosasaurs in respect to size, and even that one didn’t really get to beyond fifty feet or so according to current findings.  So either it just looks that way or they blew up the size…which I suppose they can do.  Besides that thing we all know about where “Jurassic Park” dinosaurs aren’t really dinosaurs at all, if they’re genetically modifying dinosaurs, why not mosasaurs, too? 

And that’s where the real curiosity begins: genetic engineering!  (In a Jurassic Park story?  Whuuut?  Who’d a thunk it?)

"We have learned more in the past decade from genetics than a century of digging up bones," intones the voice of Bryce Dallas-Howard as "Claire" in the film (sci-fi fans may remember her as John Connor’s wife Kate in Terminator Salvation as well as in many other roles), a statement that as a paleo buff/fanatic makes me grumble and growl, but is perhaps supposed to (More arrogant individuals tampering with nature?). (As a side-note, “Claire” was the name of the robotic baby Stegosaurus used in production of The Lost World.  A possible nod?)

"A whole new frontier has opened up," she continues.  "We have our first genetically modified hybrid." 

Cue Chris Pratt as “Owen” (Starlord from Guardians of the Galaxy, Emmit from The Lego Movie, and Andy Dwyer from Parks and Recreation) as he speaks for all the Ian Malcolms of the audience.  “You just went and made a new dinosaur?  Probably not a good idea.”

Exactly what kind of dinosaur-monster has been created is left in question.  The trailer gives us only a few clues.  It appears to be a theropod dinosaur, and is said to be an intelligent predator.  A voice (apparently Owen’s) says “She’s a highly intelligent animal…she will kill anything that moves.”  It has the obligatory theropod foot: three-toes, digitigrade stance, and a small, high-placed hallux.  It possesses three manal claws, according to both the claw marks on the paddock walls as well as a brief glimpse of the animal itself.  The claws seem longer than most theropods, and in a curious fashion are, at least to me, reminiscent of the oft-discussed alleged semi-opposable thumbs seen in Troodon, what many consider to be the “smartest dinosaur.” Official word isn’t out yet, but for many months fansites have been touting the name “Diabolus rex” and saying this fictional animal is crossbred with a Tyrannosaurus, possibly a Velociraptor and a snake, and almost certainly a cuttlefish, in order to give it camouflaging capability.  (Wouldn’t a chameleon make more sense in this situation?)  What will this dinosaur (Can we call it a dinosaur at all now?) end up looking like?  We won’t know for sure until June 12th, 2015.

However, we do have a possible glimpse.  [Spoiler warning!]  LEGO has apparently obtained the license to a line of Jurassic World LEGO toy sets, and if these images are correct, we now know what this “Diabolus rex” will look like.

Besides the scene with the four Velociraptor running alongside Chris Pratt aka Owen on his motorcycle (where they are for once cast as the good guys as they appear to be trained, or perhaps controlled, by the humans as rumors suggested, which to me I admit feels quite lame), we do not know what other dinosaurs will be featured in the film.  If the previously mentioned LEGO photos tell us anything, we’ll get to see our old favorite the Tyrannosaurus rex again.  Then again, I should count the seabirds flying over the Sea World-esque mosasaur tank, shouldn’t I?

We’ll see what is revealed as time goes on.  In the meantime, I’ll be watching and commenting here, so check back for more.  Thanks for reading!

Science, to a Student

P.S. Near the end of the trailer, why is the camera shown flying towards the running, screaming crowd in an almost aerial fashion?  Pterosaurs once again?

P.S.S. The viral campaign mock website www.masraniglobal.com shows a photo of a Spinosaurus skeleton (which makes sense, considering the third film as well as the current hubbub about Spinosaurus). 

Edit:  Whoa!  I just noticed!  The LEGO “D. rex” backs my opposable thumb hypothesis (see here), but also includes four digits, not just three.  Hmm….