hello tweeties,

okay, so yesterday's little story about yawning research was just a wee bit weird (i agree), and the science was .. messy .. at best. but that paper caught my eye because it was so .. different .. and reading it made me think about things i've not pondered before, so that was the reason i mentioned it to you. that said, i wrote a little piece about the newly described Austroraptor cabazai -- biggest dromaeosaur (that we know of) to ever roam South America;

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2008/12/austroraptor_cabazai_they_just.php

this dino is hypothesized to be one of the early relatives of the avian lineage. this story includes a link to a free PDF of the original paper.

the most recently demystified mystery bird, courtesy of photographer Richard Ditch, was a Rusty Blackbird, Euphagus carolinensis;

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2008/12/todays_mystery_bird_for_you_to_79.php

today's mystery bird, courtesy of your tricky teacher, Rick Wright, is now available for you to puzzle over;

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2008/12/todays_mystery_bird_for_you_to_120.php

cheers,

GrrlScientist
Devorah
http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/
Roosting high up a tree somewhere in Central Park, NYC