Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Welcome to Mills College!















Wow,what a day! This was our high energy welcome to dorm move-in day and the beginning of Freshman orientation weekend at Mills College last Saturday. Sarah is moved into to her spacious accommodations in Orchard Meadows Hall on the beautiful campus. She has registered successfully for the classes she wanted and tomorrow is the first day of classes. Amazing. Congratulations Sarah! A few more pictures HERE

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Elasmotherium Skull Pocked with Iron



























Jon H is at it again! Visiting the Natural History Museum in London he found a late Pleistocene Elasmotherium skull (cross between a rhino and a horse) from Siberia. It was completely peppered with tiny magnetic metallic pellets! Just like the mammoth tusks found earlier. I wonder if this sort of evidence of an ice age apocalypse is lying around lots of museums, but no one has thought of looking for it before.

In the close up photo you can see the pellet impacts with little rust rings around them. The largest, just to the left of center is about 1cm across. The other picture gives you an idea of the structure and size of the skull. Man ,that must have hurt - although just the beginning of what was an undoubtedly rough patch for mega fauna.