A blog by paleoartist Clara Takahashi
Last post , I ran out of steam after describing only two of the five species in my book: Homo naledi , or “treefolk” and Homo erectus , or “firstfolk”. This post, I’ll finish the series off with Homo longi or “dragonfolk”, more commonly known as Denisovans, Homo neanderthalensis or “tidefolk”, commonly known as Neanderthals, and Homo sapiens , or “kinfolk”. Homo longi : “dragonfolk” Other than H.…
I recently wrote another novel (again, not yet published - I’m working on that) that takes place in the Middle Stone Age of Ethiopia, 240,000 years ago (coincident with the Middle Paleolithic in Europe). I chose that setting because it offered a high density of different human species in the same time and place, but also offered a technology level high enough not to encumber the story. There are…
It’s been awhile since my last post - a lot of life has happened in the interim, namely having a baby. Now that baby is three months old, I’ve spent a cumulative ~180 hours breastfeeding and another 139 hours pumping milk, which has given me a lot of time to wonder about… breastfeeding. Why do I have to pump every three hours while a cow only has to be milked twice a day? How long do other apes…
“Dino Days” is a temporary exhibit of mechatronic dinosaurs in the courtyards of the Cal Academy of Sciences that I’d been putting off going to for quite awhile, even though it’s right in my backyard in SF. It’s clearly for kids, and isn’t super extensive, with just two areas with a handful of models in each place. It closes September 7, so this review isn’t all that useful I suppose, but I wonder…
I was recently contacted by someone from Smithsonian Books to see if I’d be interested in doing a review of a book that’s coming out soon, Dinosaurus by Rhys Charles. I responded that I was happy to, but my review would be completely honest. From the blurb, I was not optimistic. “The Therizinosaurus ”? And why use this generic theropod skeletal, which is missing its fibula, its pubis, and its…
The other thing besides birding that I always make sure to do when I travel is to hit up the local natural history museum. In Paris, that’s the Galerie de Paléontologie et d’Anatomie Comparée located on the eastern end of the botanical garden, NOT the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, which is on the other end of the gardens and contains taxidermied animals. The paleontology gallery is quite a…
I recently went to France for the first time. You know the drill–here are the birds! Paris Birds In most places, the Rock Dove is by far the most numerous pigeon. But in France, these gigantic Common Wood-Pigeons were everywhere. About twice as big as a regular pigeon and with neat white collar markings, they made very loud cooing sounds from the bushes in all the parks we visited. They also liked…
As a final installment in my comprehensive prehistoric world maps , I present the world of the end-Permian, right before the most terrible extinction the world has ever seen. The configuration of continents during the Permian period was much the same as in the Triassic, except that since the climate was a bit cooler and drier, more land area was exposed, and the big uncrossable desert in the…
The last time I discussed pregnancy on the blog, I focused almost entirely on various strange phenomena that occur in non-human animals who give live birth. This time, I’m focusing on the way one phenomenon occurs in humans: “pregnancy brain”. Many women in their second and third trimesters report feeling foggy, absent-minded, forgetful, and inarticulate. These are symptoms of a very real, very…
I’d been avoiding reading Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens for many years, ever since it appeared on the shelves of every bookstore. I’d read on the internet that it had an agenda, that it romanticized the hunter-gatherer lifestyle and was full of bad science and unsubstantiated claims. My friend started reading it a couple years ago and independently agreed with this assessment, abandoning it after a…