Dinosaurs on Broadway

I wasn't exactly sure what to think when I first heard about this. It took a lot of background investigation for me to believe this was a actual show, and not just someones elaborate (and completely amazing) internet prank. But as it stands, this is both completely legitimate, and completely innovative.

"Jurassic Parq" is a Broadway Musical about, you guessed it, "Jurassic Park", and the story of Isla Nublar from the perspective of the dinosaurs. Sounds interesting, yes? Here is a brief description from the Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical blog:

"Boldly re-imagined and retold from the perspective of the dinosaurs, Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical is an unflinching mediation on gender, sexuality, and racial identity in an evolving landscape destined to stun you with its importance. Chaos is unleashed upon the not-so-prehistoric world when one dinosaur in a clan of females spontaneously turns male... because of the frog DNA. The mutation spawns a chain of reaction of identity crises forcing dinosaurs to question the very facts of life they've held as truths."

The 50 Best Blogs for Paleontology Students

Another quickie - the fall semester started up this week, so I've had to spend a lot more time working and a lot less time blogging as of late. But I did want to congratulate many of my fellow bloggers on making the Bachelors Degree Blog's list of 50 Best Blogs for Paleontology Students. Blogs from "A" to "Z" (or in the case of paleo-blogs, Archosaur Musings to Tetrapod Zoology) are included in this list. Congratulations to all who made it in the top 50, and to everyone else out there blogging about paleontology, natural history, and science in general. I highly recommend checking out the list, and the blogs on it. You're seriously missing out if you don't.

Happy Monday everyone!

A whale of a name change.

Just a quick update on a post I did a little while ago regarding the giant predatory Miocene whale Leviathan melvillei. Or should I say, the giant predatory Miocene whale formerly known as Leviathan melvillei. As it turns out, the genus name Leviathan was already taken (as a junior subjective synonym for Mammut). The authors of the paper recently published a corrigendum in the journal Nature explaning this, and giving the whale a new genus name, Livyatan. So Leviathan is really Livyatan (like Brontosaurus is really Apatosaurus, and Torosaurus is probably really Triceratops). This type of nomenclature change is not that uncommon in the world of paleontology.