Mixosaurus, meaning mixed lizard, was a fully aquatic marine reptile that swam Triassic seas almost a quarter billion years ago. This version was drawn by the talented paleo-marine artist Nobu Tamura. Click image for lots more cool prehistoric beasties.
If you're looking for more postmortem election diagnostics, my front-page colleagues and most diarists are way ahead of me. In terms of science, the US Senate is not generally as openly wacky as the House, which in turn is often less wacky than the occasional nutburger serving in state ledges. Here's a telling example of
the latter:
Do I believe evolution occurs. Certainly. Evolution means change and it is observable in that sense. There are big dogs and little dogs but big or little dogs are all still dogs. Change occurred but change cannot occur outside the phylum to which dogs belong.
Oh, mercy! I will leave the lesson of what phyla are and how hilarious this statement is for a creationist to make to comments below. Hint: if evo is restricted by a "phylum," like this poor schmuck believes,
fish-lizards evolving into ape-humans is well within the limit.
- Speaking of lizard-fish ... a magnificent transitional fossil, dubbed Cartohynchus lenticarpus, linking a diverse array of dino-era marine reptiles known collectively as ichthyosauria to four-legged ancestors was announced this week.
- According to our Quantcast metrics, the typical Daily Kos reader is six times more likely to be interested in science than the average Internet user. WTG Kossacks!
- Which is why I know you'll love this next story: next week, the Philae lander will touch down and, if all goes well, we'll get the first-ever images and data from the surface of a comet! Timeline here courtesy of the ESA. Here's a synopsis:
NASA Television and the agency’s website will provide live coverage from 6-8:30 a.m. PST (9-11:30 a.m. EST) of the European Space Agency (ESA) Rosetta mission’s scheduled landing of a probe on a comet on Wednesday, Nov. 12. ... NASA’s live commentary will include excerpts of the ESA coverage and air from 6-7 a.m. PST (9-10 a.m. EST). NASA will continue carrying ESA’s commentary from 7-8:30 a.m. PST (10-11:30 a.m. EST). ESA’s Philae lander is scheduled to touch down on at 7:35 a.m. PST (10:35 a.m. EST). A signal confirming landing is expected at approximately 8:02 a.m. PST (11:02 a.m. EST).
- At the risk of driving you so deep into depression that even diving headfirst into a vat of ice cream won't help, Ted Cruz could end up chairing the Senate Subcommittee on Science and Space. That's NASA, and a bunch of other important stuff. Just try to think of the potentially hilarious gaffes teaparty Republicans are known for and the fun we might have.
- Indeed, the Senate Denial Caucus will grow more powerful—and the ignorati even louder if that's possible—thanks to Tuesday's results. But there are some relative voices of reason, including some from the most ruby-red states. One of them may be Lisa Murkowski of Alaska (be prepared to witness speedy walk-back at any time), senior Republican and probable upcoming chair on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources:
"I come from a state where we see a warming. We're seeing it with increased water temperatures; we're seeing it with ice that is thinner; we're seeing it with migratory patterns that are changing," she said. "So I look at this and I say this is something that we must address."
