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Bryan's Posts About Evolution
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Butterflies in Tribute to Darwin and Lincoln
Butterflies in celebration of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln, each born on this day 211 years ago.
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Cheating Death
A moth, a carnivorous plant, a Barbara Kingsolver novel and its cover illustration launch me on a journey of natural history and mistaken identity.
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Flowers and Light
New research on butterfly evolution helps explain the force that drove these insects from the darkness into the light.
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On Darwin Day: Saving Songbirds
Today, Charles Darwin’s Birthday, I offer you a reflection from my annual bird survey at Bear Swamp in Wolcott, Vermont, where the Yellow-bellied Flycatchers call out no more.
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Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin
Today, Darwin Day, we celebrate the 206th birthday of Charles Darwin. We also learn the answer to my twenty-fourth What’s This? nature challenge and get a short discourse (from me) on a philosophy of science and history made possible by Darwin.
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What’s This? No. 24
Well, okay, you can probably tell that my latest What’s This? nature challenge is atypical — neither fur nor feather, fern nor fritillary. Or is it?
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Fertility and Flight
In the angled light of November, a moth crossed my path through barren woods. Yeah, a moth, in the cold – a lesson in adaptation, fertility, and feminine sacrifice going by the name Bruce Spanworm.
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Zebras and Us
When I saw this dragonfly, I wet my pants. Okay, I was standing in Lewis Creek, so that’s actually how I wet my pants. But this dragonfly makes me euphoric. And I’m not entirely sure why. So I’m developing a theory on wildlife and aesthetics.
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DSA Update No. 4: Gomphicide
PICK ANY SCENE FROM THE DRAMA OF LIFE ON EARTH: birth, growth, courtship, sex, subterfuge, betrayal, murder. Find them all expressed in the lives of dragonflies. Shakespeare could write the script on these predators.
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Life Among the Dead
Here in one of our great museum collections, I find warmth, diversity, shock, awe and innumerable stories of life on Earth.
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“Settled in Quivering Contentment”
Like most of you, I spend my summer leisure time contemplating the proboscis of the Primrose Moth, which is about half the length of its body.
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Avian Infidelities
Blackbirds do it. Chickadees do it. Even educated emus do it. Some birds are cheaters. Their trysts, dalliances, one-morning stands, and other infidelities would constitute a racy script for a wildlife soap opera.