Monthly Archives: May 2015

Forever young

Posted on May 30, 2015 by twilightbeasts

Being conscious of our own mortality has given our species an unhealthy fascination with immortality. Over the millennia we have conjured up stories of everlasting beings, some of which even allow us to follow them after we have died. This … Continue reading →

Posted in Key Deer | Tagged Bahia Honda Key, Bjorn Kurten, Dance of teh Tiger, Florida Keys, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens, Island Dwarfism, James Matthew Barry, Key Deer, Mouse goat, Neanderthal, Neoteny, Odocoileus virginianus, Odocoileus virginianus clavium, Peter Pan, Pudu, sStephen Jay Gould, Stegomastodon, Sugarloaf Key | 9 Comments

The dreams of dogs

Posted on May 21, 2015 by twilightbeasts

Late afternoon sunlight floods the back of my house, rendering the wide first floor landing a luminously golden Byzantine capsule, bathed in light-shafts of ruby, emerald and sapphire from the old Edwardian stained-glass window. I do much of my writing … Continue reading →

Posted in Xenocyon | Tagged African Hunting Dog, Cynotherium, Cynotherium sardous, dhole, Dire Wolf, Great American Biotic Interchange, Homo erectus, Lycaon, Lycaon pictus, Palaeolithic, Pliocene, Wolf, Xenocyon, Xenocyon falconeri, Xenocyon lycanoides | 7 Comments

A tiny Twilight Beast in a world of giants

Posted on May 14, 2015 by twilightbeasts

A walk in the temperate rainforests of Chile is like a journey into the deep past: a world of ferns, giant conifers and lichens enshrouded in fog and inhabited by tiny mammals that survived the age of giants. The pudú … Continue reading →

Posted in Pudu | Tagged alerce, Arctotherium tarijense, Chilean myrtle, Dromiciops gliroides, Fitzroya cupressoides, giant short-faced bear, Gomphothere, guanaco, IUCN red list, Lama guanicoe, Luma apiculata, Macrauchenica pathachonica, Mapuche, monito del monte, Panthera onca mesembrina, Pudu, Pudu puda, Smilodon, South-American Jaguar, Universidad Austral de Chile | 12 Comments

The Old World Jaguar

Posted on May 7, 2015 by twilightbeasts

Unless you know your big cats particularly well, it can be difficult to separate the leopard (Panthera pardus) and the jaguar (Panthera onca). Both are large, lithe animals with black rosettes on a yellowish background coat. Put them beside each … Continue reading →

Posted in European Jaguar | Tagged Homotherium latidens, jaguar, leopard, North Sea, Panthera, Panthera gombaszoegensis, Panthera spelaea, Swanscombe, West Runton, Westbury | 16 Comments

Neanderthals and us: we’re not so different

Posted on May 1, 2015 by twilightbeasts

I cried the first time I saw a Neanderthal. I was 8 years old, sat cross-legged on the wooden floorboards, watching The Land That Time Forgot. Everything around me ceased to exist as I was transported to a world of … Continue reading →

Posted in Neanderthal | Tagged apocrine glands, Earth's Children, eccrine glands, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ernst Haeckel, Friedrich Mayer, George Busk, Gibraltar, Glacial, Hermann Schaaffhausen, Hippopotamus, Homo ergaster, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens, Homo stupidus, Interglacial, Jean Auel, La Chapelle-aux-Saints, La Ferrassie, La Quina, Le Moustier, Marcellin Boule, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, mitochondrial DNA, Neander Valley, Neanderthal, Nuclear DNA, sebaceous glands, The Land That Time Forgot, Thomas Henry Huxley | 13 Comments

	The most (and least)… on A very brief introduction to…
	The most (and least)… on The Nipple Tooth
	The most (and least)… on The burrowers
	The most (and least)… on The Stuff Of Night-Mares
	The most (and least)… on The beasts within

	The most (and least)… on A very brief introduction to…
	The most (and least)… on The Nipple Tooth
	The most (and least)… on The burrowers
	The most (and least)… on The Stuff Of Night-Mares
	The most (and least)… on The beasts within