News

Following on from our recent blog post about the next European Society of Arachnology Congress due to be held in the UK and as 2015 is drawing to an end, we would like to bring to your attention the identity of the European Spider of the Year 2015! This year the proud holder of this title goes to the Buzzing (or Phantom) spider Anyphaena accentuata (family Anyphaenidae). The Buzzing or Phantom spider Anyphaena accentuata (courtesy of Wikimedia) It is common throughout Europe (including the UK). It prefers the stems and crowns of deciduous trees, but also occurs on bushes and...

An excellent four-page review of our recent title Dear Sir - Sixty-nine years of Alfred Russel Wallace Letters to the editor (edited by Charles H. Smith and Kelsey Patterson) has just been published in the latest volume of the Entomologist's Gazette (2015, vol. 66: 295-298). Following are some snippets taken from the review: "This fascinating book throws up many interesting, quirky, occasionally funny, insights into the life of a man who was the ‘Sir David Attenborough’ of his day.""This book, edited by Smith & Patterson, adds to the sum of knowledge and understanding of Wallace in a unique way …...

Yesterday, the author of our recent title: Homo sapiens: An appraisal of modern humans appeared on WRIR radio talking about his remarkable new book, including why he wrote it and what inspired him to do so. One very important point he makes is that we need a realistic view of what is happening and what is going to happen in terms of the collective effects of human activities on our planet. Raj's book is unique in this regard because other books on this topic do not consider the synergistic effects of the full range of variables that impact on the...

This is the title of one of the interesting talks due to be given this Saturday at the Festival of Geology, UCL, Gower Street, London. This is a free event, with lots more going on in addition to the talks. the full program can be seen below. For those of you who would like to know more about the rich palaeontological record of British dinosaurs please take a look at a couple of our recent titles on this subject.   Click the cover to go to the product page REVIEWS British Polacanthid Dinosaurs Everything Dinosaur blog (2015) Dr. Blows takes...

I could not resist posting this for Halloween! In paleontology, a zombie taxon (plural zombie taxa) or the zombie effect refers to a fossil, such as a dinosaur tooth, that was washed out of its original rock matrix and re-deposited in sediments millions of years younger, which then subsequently lithified to form rock. This could lead a casual observer to identify the fossil as being much younger than it actually is (given that the age of fossils is usually determined based on the age of the rocks from which they are extracted). This basic mistake in the interpretation of the...