Skip to main content

It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

Regrettably I wasn't able to finish Witness to Extinction  this week as planned. Grad classes starting again killed a bunch of my free time. Hopefully that should be completed this week, along with a review. It's great so far, but really sad and makes you think a lot about the way different countries view wildlife conservation, and just how incredibly difficult the process can be from multiple angles.

Feathered Dinosaurs: The Origin of BirdsI ordered a few more library books, most notably Feathered Dinosaurs: The Origin of Birds by John Long and Peter Schouten. I've browsed around a bit and so far I'm really liking it. The illustrations are absolutely fantastic! As a child of the Jurassic Park era, I grew up with a pretty specific concept of what dinosaurs looked like. Science has progressed so much that we now know that many species actually had feathers at some point in their life, and seeing those findings matched with beautifully interpreted visuals is quite stunning.

I also wrote up reviews for What's Smaller Than A Pygmy Shrew? and Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is? More books by Wells are incoming.

Comments

  1. Feathered Dinosaurs sounds interesting. Have a wonderful week. My Monday: http://www.rundpinne.com/2011/01/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-24.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Witness To Extinction sounds like a good book but sad too.

    Hope you join the Monday What Are You Reading this week as well - this is a special anniversary addition that I am very excited about! :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bornean Orangutan

The Bornean Orangutan is one of two extant Orangutan species in the world. It is the third largest primate (after Gorillas) and is the largest primarily tree-dwelling animal in the world. Males are substantially larger than females, and average at around 165lbs. Bornean Orangutans are largely solitary. A handful might live within a small range but they will seldom interact with one another. Males and females only meet up to breed, which happens only once every several years. A young Orangutan will stay with it's mother for about five years, and the females tend to go about eight years between births. That is the longest interim period of any animal! Sadly, the Bornean Orangutans are in a lot of trouble. They need large forests in order to thrive, and deforestation and habitat degradation has left many homeless. They are also hunted for meat and for traditional medicines. Conservation areas are being established to help these guys in the wild, and it is believed that there are a

Four!

For anyone who was counting, yesterday was our birthday-- four years! Four years filled with animals from A to Z, more than 1,100 of them! I can't thank my readers enough, it's been wonderful! And in celebration of that milestone... I'm taking a break. Hopefully not forever, but for a little bit at least. In the mean time I plan on getting a new layout out, along with some updates to some of the older articles. I'll post updates here and on the Facebook page, I'm also brainstorming some new animal-related projects, so keep an eye out! Thanks again for four awesome years!

Halloween Crab

Gecarcinus quadratus The Halloween Crab goes by many names, including the Red Land Crab, Whitespot Crab, and Moon Crab. I personally like Halloween Crab though, since it really reflects the interesting colors. They have black carapaces, orange-red legs, and purple claws! Halloween Crabs live in the Pacific coast mangroves and forests of Central and South America. They actually live in the forests as adults, and return to the ocean in order to reproduce. Did you know that they live as far away as 18 miles (30km)  from water? Not where you normally think Crabs to be! While living in the forest, the Crabs forage nocturnally for different plant matter, including leaves and sapling. They also dig long burrows into the ground for protection. These burrows can measure nearly 5 ft long! Halloween Crabs are sometimes kept in captivity, and can be very tricky pets due to their excellent climbing skills. IUCN Status :  Not Listed Location :   Cent