Author Archives: twilightbeasts

A test of time

Posted on July 10, 2015 by twilightbeasts

Nothing beats the thrill of holding a fossil in the palm of my hand. Feeling the smooth cold surface gently resting on the top of my bare skin instantly transports me back to the time that creature was alive: for … Continue reading →

Posted in foraminifera | Tagged Axial Tilt, Eccentricity, foram, Foraminifera, glacial period, Hippopotamus, Hyena, interglacial period, Jan Freedman, marine isotope record, Milankovic Cycles, oxygen isotope, Precession, reindeer, Sunspots, Woolly Mammoth, Woolly rhinoceros | 10 Comments

Born in the USA

Posted on July 4, 2015 by twilightbeasts

Think of the 4th of July festival in the United States and you automatically think of all the things associated with that country. Fireworks and flags, Elvis, rock and roll, cowboys and vast expanses of prairie perfect for galloping (ok, … Continue reading →

Posted in Woodward Eagle | Tagged American Bald Eagle, Amplibuteo woodwardi, Aquila, Buteoninae, Cayo Flores, Haliaeetus leucephalus, Harpagornis moorei, La Brea Tar Pits, Langusto, Monster Birds, Ornimegalonyx, Piltdown Man, Sir Arthur Smith Woodward, Woodward Eagle | 11 Comments

Yesterday’s Camel

Posted on June 11, 2015 by twilightbeasts

Camels are weird. I think we like them because their curmudgeonly reputation reminds us of someone we know (or ourselves!). Easy to recognise and totally unlike any other mammal, the “ship of the desert” is always included in Noah’s ark … Continue reading →

Posted in Camelops | Tagged alpaca, ancient DNA, art, Bering Straits, Beringia, camel, Camelidae, Camelops, Extinction, guanaco, llama, Pleistocene, Ross Barnett, Vicuña | 10 Comments

The last trumpet of a giant

Posted on June 5, 2015 by twilightbeasts

“The Columbian Mammoth of North America, Mammuthus columbi, is hereby designated as the official fossil of the state of Washington.” And so it was written. In 1998 the Washington State Legislature recognised the Columbian Mammoth as their official state fossil. The decision was not easy. … Continue reading →

Posted in Columbian Mammoth | Tagged Bering Strait, Christopher Columbus, Columbian Mammoth, Cuvieronius tropicus, Dire Wolf, giant short-faced bear, Gompothere, Hugh Falconer, Imperial Mammoth, Island Dwarfism, Mammut americanum, Mammuthus exilis, Mammuthus imperator, Mammuthus meridionalis, Mammuthus primigenius, Mastodon, Proboscideans, Smilodon, Southern Mammoth, State Fossil, Woolly Mammoth | 13 Comments

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

Who were the Denisovans anyway?

Posted on April 29, 2015 by twilightbeasts

Human evolution used to be the preserve of two groups of academics: the ones who liked fossils and the ones who liked stone tools. Both regarded the other as peculiar for being obsessed with the wrong part of a massive … Continue reading →

Posted in Denisovan | Tagged Denisovan, DNA, Homo sapiens, Max Planck Institute, mitochondrial DNA, Neanderthal, Palaeogenomics, Species X, Svante Pääbo | 11 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