Other paleontology blogs

This morning, I wanted to find out a bit more about the new dinosaur species discovered in Patagonia, Argentina – Bicentenaria argentina – whose exhibition was uncovered this Tuesday, the 26^th of June in the Argentine Museum of Natural Science. A google search led me to another paleontology blog – Paleoexhibit – with a post on the subject.

On the left hand margin, there is a list of other paleontology-related blogs. Clicking on the links of those that seemed interesting, I found that those sites also had links to more blogs. So now I’ve found a handful of paleontology blogs I hope to follow, and I want to tip you about them too!

What I found so fantastic about Paleoexhibit was not as much its ambitious content, but that the blogger actually made his own images of extinct creatures and scenes! The writer even has his own paleopicture gallery, named Spinops after a ceratopsian (horned dinosaur) whose name he found cool and catchy. The blog texts themselves are not very excitingly written, but there seem to be some well-researched information there. (This is a contrast to my own blog, where I try to write more from my own mind, rather than recite other sources.)

Paleo Illustrata seems very much like Weird & Wonderful, although more professional. The author writes about his own adventures and discoveries, with the touch of far more experience than I have.

Another similar blog is The Great Cretaceous Walk, whose subtitle says it all: Adventures and Misadventures of an American Paleontologist in Australia. Again, in contrast to my own blog, this belongs to a real professional, telling the tales of more epic journeys.

The final blog of note I found today is The Open Source Paleontologist, dedicated to questions around open access to paleontological research. Although not very adventurous, the content can cast light on more practical parts of paleontology science. From what I understand, the problem is, in essence, that paleonotlogy is a poorly subsidised field, unlike genetics or medicine or others with a more direct importance for society, and therefore needs as much money as it can get from its research, including payment for scientific papers. On the other hand, the research is of interest for the general public, and I reckon that the type of information we gather from paleontology does better being shared with the common people, instead of just between scientists and very rich persons. Part of the fun of paleontology is sharing it with others – why else would I have my blog! Moreover, I would be very pleased if more paleontology papers were available for free, because they could be essential for essays or other schoolwork, and also to still my curiosity.

There you go! A couple of blogs either similar in style or content, or completely different from mine, just to add to your repertoire if you are interested in the subject.