The Atavism

A year of Sundays

David Winter • Oct 24, 2010

• blog blogging,
• sci-blogs,
• sunday spinelessness

It's been as close to a year as we are going to get since I posted the first Sunday Spinelessness. I wasn't quite sure that I would be able to keep up the weekly schedule when I started the series, but I've managed it minus breaks over Christmas and fo... Read More

Sunday Spinelessness – Blog them and they will come

David Winter • Oct 17, 2010

• photos,
• sci-blogs,
• spiders,
• sunday spinelessness

I think our backyard's bugs are on to the fact that they are sometimes the subject of posts here at The Atavism. Take last week, it's been months since I took those photos of a leaf veined slug and I hadn't seen another since. But then, wandering home ... Read More

Ka Pai Kakariki

David Winter • Oct 14, 2010

• bird of the year,
• evolution,
• kakriki,
• New Zealand,
• sci-blogs

New Zealand has spoken, the kākāriki is our newest Bird of the Year. It took a late surge to push the slender parrot past the other main contender for the prize, the pukeko, but in the end the kākāriki won a clear majority and it's time for the na... Read More

Tight at the top as polls set to close

David Winter • Oct 12, 2010

• bird of the year,
• sci-blogs

By DAVID WINTER 12th October With two days of voting left the pukeko is maintaining a slender lead over the kakariki in its race to become 2010's bird of the year. According to voting data made available to The Atavism last night, the pukeko was a lit... Read More

Sunday Spinelessness – A leaf veined slug

David Winter • Oct 10, 2010

• leaf veined slugs,
• photos,
• sci-blogs,
• snails

You see some pretty impressive photographs in bug-blogosphere. People like Alex Wild, Adrian Thysse, Ted MacRae and Mike Bok use impressive gear, and much more impressive skill, to serve up wonderful shots of the smaller inhabitants of the natural wor... Read More

A two bird race

David Winter • Oct 07, 2010

• bellbird,
• kakriki,
• pukeko,
• sci-blogs

You are running out of time to cast the most important you will have this year - who will run your community be voted Bird of the Year for 2010? This year I stepped up an offered my services as campaign manager for the the bellbird, and frankly i've do... Read More

Sunday Spinelessness – How the aphid got its blush

David Winter • Oct 03, 2010

• aphids,
• bugs,
• photos,
• sci-blogs,
• sunday spinelessness

Once upon a time, a green aphid lived on a plant somewhere. Like most of her kind, this particular green aphid didn't have wings so her whole life was going to be spent on this one plant, sucking away at the plant's sweet sap. You might be quite jealou... Read More

Sunday Spinelessness – At last a bug

David Winter • Sep 26, 2010

• bugs,
• insects,
• photos,
• sci-blogs,
• sunday spinelessness

I've been going at this Sunday Spinelessness thing for the best part of year now, in that time I've been able to cover a decent amount of the diversity among animals without spines. But up until today there was one clearing omission, so here is The Ata... Read More

Sunday Spinelessness – Throwing pesky males off the scent

David Winter • Sep 19, 2010

• evolution,
• research blogging,
• sci-blogs,
• sexual conflict,
• snails

We often think about evolution as a competition, but it's not always clear who the competitors are. While popular accounts of evolution often talk about species competing for survival, Darwin saw evolutionary change as the result of individual's strugg... Read More

Sunday Spinelessness – Harbingers of spring

David Winter • Sep 12, 2010

• bee,
• bumblebee,
• photos,
• sci-blogs,
• spring

Spring hasn't quite sprung down here in Dunedin, but it's definitely on it's way. I've just mowen the lawns for the first time in, well, a little while and the garden is full of hints that the days are getting longer and warmer. Two of the traditional ... Read More