Musings and Ravings

An interesting piece about salt and its intake. Just a matter of taste, I suspect.

Salt: From "mmm" to "eww"

A different kind of "de-extinction": Researchers discover that an extinct turtle never actually existed.

The Turtle That Wasn't There

An interesting dinosaur piece in the news, with a Canadian connection.

Oldest Dinosaur Embryo ‘Bonebed’ Unearthed in China Delights Canadian Researcher

Remember my trip to the Canadian Museum of Nature back in February, and how they were having a "Dino Idol" contest to decide which palaeontological jacket would be the next museum research project? The winner was announced at the end of March, as noted in my blog entry on the subject.

Well, now the research project is underway:

Canadian Museum of Nature Reveals Bones of Club-tailed Dinosaur — Probably Minus the Club

The results probably won't be known for around another year, at least. These things take time. :)

Damn it! The Field Museum has sold off rare paintings to raise collections and acquisitions funds; the money went to staff. And now, under financial stress, the museum is considering selling its rare book collection. Doesn't selling off collections run counter to the point of being a museum?

Cash-strapped Field Museum Selling Artifacts

Some new papers detail Australopithecus sediba anatomy, but researchers debate how close this hominin was to our ancestry.

Has "Lucy" been bumped further away from our ancestry by Australopithecus sediba? Palaeoanthropologists disagree.

New Candidate for Our Most Immediate Ancestor