Raptor's Nest

I have a new paper out in PLoS ONE (coauthored with Marcello Ruta) on the variation and evolution of skull shape in extant and fossil felids. Below, I'll outline a  few key points: 1) We analysed the relationships of some extinct  sabre-toothed cats, and their interrelationships with modern conical-toothed cats and basal (ancestral) cats using maximum parsimony analyses in PAUP* and TNT. Our results show that all sabre-toothed cats (Machairodontinae, including species with shorter canines, intermediate in form between conical- and sabre-like morphologies) are more closely related to each other than any of them are to modern conical-toothed cats (Felinae). Phylogeny of Felidae (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0039752.g001) 2) We quantified skull shape using traditional linear measurements (but adjusted for size, or isometric scaling) from over 300 cat skull specimens and: A) We performed a linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to assess the ability of the linea...

The Japanese language has two separate words equivalent to the two usages of the English word, 'theory'. 理論 [RI-RON] A system of knowledge built on logic to systematically and uniformly explain individual phenomena. In addition, a purely logical knowledge corresponding to practice. 説 [SE-TSU] 1. A principle (belief) or claim for certain things. 2. Rumor. I tried to translate the Japanese definitions as faithfully as I can into English. The first word, 'ri-ron', is equivalent to the scientific usage of the English word, 'theory' (as in 'the theory of evolution' or 'the theory of relativity'), while the second word, 'se-tsu', is equivalent to the common usage (more like 'I have a theory!'). Setsu doesn't need to be substantiated and can be wild claims. It's a shame the English language doesn't have two separate words; we can avoid a lot of confusion.