Mary Anning
Courtesy Public domain via WikipediaToday marks the 163rd anniversary of the death of Mary Anning, early British fossilist who discovered the first complete remains of the marine reptiles ichthysaurus and plesiosaurus. Mary sold fossils she collected around Lyme Regis, England, to support her severely impoverished family after her father had died. She had no formal education, other than what her parents had taught her about collecting, but her fossils and knowledge of them were sought out by many of the top geologists of her time. Local folks viewed her activities with suspicion and apprehension since the biblical view of creation was still widely held, and the very idea that the fossils she collected were of creatures that went extinct was disturbing to many. Anning was made an honorary member of the Geological Society of England just prior to her death in 1847. Her portrait and some of the fossils she found are displayed in the British Museum in London.
SOURCES
Mary Anning bio
Wikipedia article
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8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile
Courtesy Wikimedia CommonsA massive earthquake occurred early this morning (1:34 EST) off the west coast of Chile some 70 miles NNE of the city of Concepcion. The powerful 8.8 magnitude tremor released about 500 times the energy generated by the recent 7.0 earthquake in Haiti. At least 78 people are reported killed, a number which will no doubt rise as information trickles in. Tsunami warnings have been raised across the entire Pacific Basin, including in Hawaii, Australia, and Japan.
Earthquakes are frequent in this area of Chile because it sets on a subduction zone where the Nazca Plate is pushing beneath the South American Plate. The region is also the location of the most powerful earthquake ever recorded on Earth, a 9.5 tremor that struck in 1960.
USGS earthquake center
Richter magnitude scale
More on the May 22, 1960 Earthquake
Plate tectonics
Barnum Brown - hot on the trail for fossils: I guess 110° in the shade sometimes warrants throwing on the old fur coat.
Courtesy Public domain via WikipediaWith this being Lincoln's, Darwin's, and even my grandfather George Hanzalik's birthday, the last thing we need is notice of yet another notable so and so born on this date. But Barnum Brown deserves some special attention. Named after the great circus huckster P. T. Barnum, Brown was born this day in Carbondale, Kansas in 1873, and grew up to be what some have called the "last of the great dinosaur hunters". Brown began his work as a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in 1897 under the tutelage of Henry Fairfield Osborn . Barnum Brown traveled the U.S. collecting and buying up fossils for the museum. He was known for using dynamite to coax fossils out of the rocks, and for being impeccably dressed while on digs (see photo). 
Tyrannosaurus rex: Barnum Brown's most famous find.
Courtesy Public domainHis most famous discovery came out of the Hell Creek formation in Montana in 1902 when he found the first recorded remains of Tyrannosaurus rex.
MORE INFO
Barnum Brown bio
Barnum Brown bio on Wikipedia
Notice of new Barnum Brown biography (due out May 2010).
Darwin as art
Courtesy Public domainNaturalist Charles Robert Darwin was born this day in 1809 in Shrewsbury, England. His groundbreaking book titled On the Origin of Species was published in 1859, and laid out his revolutionary theory of evolution through natural selection. Want to learn more about this great scientist? Go here.
Thomas Alva Edison
Courtesy Wikimedia CommonsToday is the birthday of Thomas Alva Edison, prolific American inventor whose ideas and inventions including the lightbulb, the phonograph, and motion pictures, changed the world forever. I don't know who said it, but the home page of a website dedicated to Edison has a great and fitting quote about this remarkable man:
"He led no armies into battle, he conquered no countries, and he enslaved no peoples... Nonetheless, he exerted a degree of power the magnitude of which no warrior ever dreamed. His name still commands a respect as sweeping in scope and as world-wide as that of any other mortal - a devotion rooted deep in human gratitude and untainted by the bias that is often associated with race, color, politics, and religion."
Happy birthday to the Wizard of Menlo Park!!
Lily, a 3-year-old pregnant black bear, made her den near a cabin in Ely, MN. Access to electricity, etc., meant that researchers were able to install a web cam in Lily's winter quarters. And today, their efforts may be rewarded. Biologist Lynn Rogers told the Associated Press that he thinks Lily's labor started today at around 2 pm. We should see cubs in the very near future.
Watch the live video stream for yourself. (A lot of people are trying to check it out. If you can't get through, try again later.)
Robins in January, 2010: Somewhere in Burnsville, MN., dozens of robins are eating fermented apples. Perhaps they think the anti-freeze property will help. Early spring?
Courtesy Larry Maras
Robins 2010 January: January 18, 2010 Burnsville, MN.
Courtesy Larry Maras
A strong 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the island nation of Haiti today at 21:53 UTC. Several buildings have been reported damaged, and a tsunami alert for the Caribbean region has been issued. The initial death toll is reported in the dozens, but that number is expected to rise as rescue workers dig through the rubble. Here's a report from the Associated Press:
Carolus Linnaeus
Courtesy Public domain via WikimediaCarl Linnaeus, the great Swedish-born scientist responsible for developing the binomial system of classifying life on Earth, died this day in 1778.
I made this video of soap bubbles freezing and shattering in Saint Paul, MN. The temperature was 15 below this morning, Jan 3, 2010 .
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