Monday's Science Links

This week's Science:

• Julien at A Very Remote Place writes on the theory that 'failed flints' are kids' work: "there has been a generalized tendency to not think of children as important accumulators of artifacts – in this case stone implements – in periods prior to the Upper Paleolithic, which is a euphemism for “prior to the dominance of Homo sapiens in the fossil record.” Stapert’s paper is really quite thought-provoking and casts a new and in my view fairly convincing interpretive light on a wide range of published anecdotal remarks about ‘failed flints’ in Lower and Middle Paleolithic (as well as two Châtelperronian) assemblages."


• Dave at Cognitive Daily writes on the research showing that your initial can affect your life: "Baseball players strike out more often when their names start with "K"; Students with the initials "C" and "D" get worse grades than others. Actually, this effect, known as the "name-letter effect," has been known for several years. If your name -- even your last name -- starts with T, you're more likely to live in Tacoma or Tulsa than San Francisco or Springfield.".


• John at John Hawks Weblog asks How carnivorous were cave bears?: "For the past 30 years, studies of their skulls, jaws and teeth suggested cave bears might have been largely herbivorous. In addition, the bones of central and western European cave bears matched those of vegetarians in having low levels of nitrogen-15, whose atomic nucleus has one more neutron than common nitrogen-14 does. Animals accumulate nitrogen-15 in their bodies, and animals that eat animals -- that is, carnivores -- build up more nitrogen-15 than herbivores do. Still, black bears and brown bears are omnivores. This suggested that although some cave bears were largely vegetarian, others might have been more carnivorous. New data from the Pestera cu Oase ("Cave with Bones") in the southwestern tip of the Carpathian mountains in Romania now hints most of its cave bears were significantly carnivorous, due to their high nitrogen-15 levels."


• At PALEOBLOG, guest blogger Eric compares Argentinosaurus vs. Giganotosaurus:"Giganotosaurus, perhaps the largest and second-mightiest land carnivore that ever lived, is reduced to daschund stature by Argentinosaurus, a sure inducement of Tourette symptoms in palaeontologists." (lots of pictures!)


• Ed at Not Exactly Rocket Science interviews David Attenborough: "I’ve included the full transcript here. It’s long but it’s well worth the read. Sir David is a superlative raconteur, full of great stories and considered opinions. Hope you like it."

Enjoy!