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Tag Archives: Jan Freedman
When life gives you lemmings…..
If I had a games console I wouldn’t get anything done. (Are they called ‘games consoles’ today?) Just like when I watch a film, I am completely captivated by the make-believe world: I am in that world. There is nothing around … Continue reading
On the origins of our species
As families go ours is pretty amazing. You have ancient cousins who effortlessly chomped through the toughest of roots and hardest of seeds. Another relative was the first of our family to make it all the way to China around … Continue reading
Posted in Denisovan, Homo sapiens, Neanderthal
Tagged Anatomically Modern Humans, Australopithecus africanus, Back to Africa, Candelabra, Charles Darwin, Denisova, Ernst Haeckel, Eugène Dubois, Herto Skulls, Hominidae, Homo erectus, Homo floresiensis, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens, Jan Freedman, Java Man, Lucy van Dorp, Multiregional origin, Neanderthal, Omo fossils, Origin of Species, Out of Africa, Paranthropus boisei, Qafzeh hominins, Raymond Dart, Recent African Origin, Richard Leakey, Skhul hominins, The Decent of Man
9 Comments
Medusa’s legacy
Monster movies were a huge inspiration for me when I was little. They fed my fascination with natural history: in particular the incredible work from the extraordinary mind of Ray Harryhausen. My favourite of his films was, of course, the amazing Clash … Continue reading
Posted in Wonambi
Tagged Blanche Cave, Clash of the Titans, Diprotodon, Dreamtime, Giant kangaroo, Gigantophis, Harry Hamlin, Jan Freedman, Madtsoiidae, Medusa, Megalania, Megalania prisca, Naracoorte, Pythonidae, Ray Harrhausen, Snake, Thylacoleo carnifex, Titanoboa, Wonambi naracoortensis, Zygomaturus
3 Comments
Meet Long Tusk
Some of you may have been lucky enough to see these incredible animals in the wild. Others may have felt a strong tug at your heart seeing one in a zoo. Most, if not all, of us have seen these … Continue reading
Posted in Deinotherium, Mastodon, Woolly Mammoth, Zygolophodon
Tagged African Bush Elephant, African Elephant, African Forest Elephant, Asian Elephant, Columbian Mammoth, Deinotherium, Elephant, Elephantidae, Elephas maximus indicus, Elephas maximus maximus, Elephas maximus sumatranus, Gomphotheridiiae, Gompothere, Jan Freedman, Loxodonta africana, Loxodonta cyclotis, Mammutidae, Pliocene, Proboscidea, Stegodon, Steppe Mammoth, Zygolophodon
4 Comments
Eye of the beholder
By looks alone there are many animals that do not win our hearts. People don’t coo over wasps; vultures are grotesque; don’t get me started on elephant seals. Sadly this is due to what we see as beautiful. David Hume, the … Continue reading
Going underground
South America is a place full of stories about mysterious beasts. Standing seven feet tall, with long red hair and big sharp claws, tales of the mapinguari, have been passed down in South American Indian folklore. An odd tapir/jaguar hybrid … Continue reading
Posted in Giant Ground Sloth
Tagged American Philosophical Society, Arctotherium, Armadillo, Cave bear, Glossotherium, Jan Freedman, Macrauchenia, mapinguari, Megalonyx jeffersonii, Megatherium, Megatherium americanum, Mylodon, Mylodon darwinii, Paca, Palaeovertebrate burrow, Scelidotherium, Smilodon, Thomas Jefferson, Toxodon
25 Comments
Mini-beasts, giants, and mega-floods
I have a little link to the time before the English Channel formed 450,000 years ago. Almost every day in the last academic year, a PhD student has been working in my office. He is investigating the environment and ecology … Continue reading
Posted in Mega-flood
Tagged Cave Lion, Happisburgh, Harold Hems, Helophorus strigifrons, Homo antecessor, Homo errectus, Homo heidelbergensis, Homotherium, Jan Freedman, Mammuthus trogontherii, Margret Hems, Natural History Museum London, Norfolk Museum and Archaeology Service, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, Sabre tooth cat, Steppe Mammoth, Tori Herridge, TrowelBlazers, Walking Through Time, West Runton Freshwater Beds, Woolly Mammoth
4 Comments
Time capsules from the Ice Age
It is late August, and the weather is turning cold. Very cold. A little chubby arctic ground squirrel bounds at surprising speed across the prairie. It pauses briefly, standing on those two short little back legs. Ears twitching, listening. There … Continue reading
Posted in Arctic Ground Squirrel
Tagged Arctic Ground Squirrel, Jan Freedman, Spermophilus parryii, Woolly Mammoth
6 Comments
Survivors
One of the wonderful reasons Twilight Beasts are so dear to us is because most are just downright weird. The peculiar llama with a trunk, dogs with teeth as strong as a hyena, and an armadillo that looked like an igloo were just … Continue reading
Big find in little China
Charles Darwin wrote 502 pages outlining his groundbreaking theory of evolution by natural selection. In it he provides incredible evidence of natural selection he gathered over 20 years, using many different species of animals, from humans breeding dogs to the … Continue reading
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