Smithsonian.com

Croutons Not Recommended: Paleochick points us to this blast from the past: Julia Child turns her kitchen into a biolab and cooks up a batch of primordial soup. (The video played in the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum’s now-closed “Life in the Universe” gallery.)

Worst. Article. Ever. The recent discovery of Darwinopeterus has “ensured that everyone has jumped on the pterosaurs-are-cool bandwagon,” writes David Hone over at Archosaur Musings. The predictable result—lots of inaccurate, sensationalist media coverage. David points us to one newspaper article that he feels may take the prize for “getting as much wrong as it is possible to in the least words while massively misrepresenting the science and introducing a ton of irrelevant nonsense that the researchers never commented on or mentioned at any point in order to try and ramp up the interest levels.”

Why You Should Always Clean Your Pool: Paleoblog scrutinizes a new theory explaining the mass extinction of the dinosaurs: toxin-producing algae.

Speaking of Mass Extinctions: Paleontologist Sankar Chatterjee of Texas Tech University thinks that a giant basin in India, called Shiva, could be the impact crater of the meteor that is believed to have killed off the dinosaurs. Bob’s Dinosaur Blog reports that the theory got a “mixed reception” at the latest meeting of the Geological Society of America.

Whose Life is it Anyway? Catalogue of Organisms presents another “Taxonomy Trivia Quiz,” which challenges readers to guess the identity of 15 organisms “previously placed in quite different taxonomic positions from the ones they occupy now.” Answers are posted here. (No cheating!)

Art in Real Time: Canadian artist Peter Bond treats us to another “live blogging” art session, as he sketches an allosaur-barosaur smackdown.

What a Ness: At Tetrapod Zoology, Darren Naish compiles a list of his favorite sightings of the Loch Ness monster—on land.

Update: As I noted in my previous Blog Carnival, the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton “Samson” went up for auction in Las Vegas. Despite my fears that it would end up in Kid Rock’s basement, nobody purchased it. According to TheStreet.com, “The lack of qualified buyers for Samson was blamed on the fact that the skeleton was put on the market rather hastily by its seller, leaving many interested parties unable to pull together financing.”

Maybe paleontologists could “rescue” Samson by holding a telethon. Any volunteers?