Eggtacular!

A pterosaur has been found in China beautifully preserved with an egg.

Full story found on BBC News below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12242596

here below is the abstract taken from the related Scientific paper.

A sexually mature individual of Darwinopterus preserved together with an egg from the Jurassic of China provides direct evidence of gender in pterosaurs and insights into the reproductive biology of these extinct fliers. This new find and several other examples of Darwinopterus demonstrate that males of this pterosaur had a relatively small pelvis and a large cranial crest, whereas females had a relatively large pelvis and no crest. The ratio of egg mass to adult mass is relatively low, as in extant reptiles, and is comparable to values for squamates. A parchment-like eggshell points to burial and significant uptake of water after oviposition. This evidence for low parental investment contradicts the widespread assumption that reproduction in pterosaurs was like that of birds and shows that it was essentially like that of reptiles.

There are a few noticeable differences between the articles; firstly the use of descriptive language used by either side is very different for example. The BBC describe the egg as beautifully preserved whereas the abstract describes it as A parchment-like eggshell, assuming that anyone that reads it will have a passion for paleontology and assume that everyone initially thinks that it is beautiful. Also the depositional story is more “jazzed up” – the specimen could have fallen from the sky during a storm or perhaps a volcanic eruption, sunk to the bottom of a lake and then been preserved in the sediments. Whereas the Abstract just purely state that it is burial and significant uptake of water after oviposition, shown by the preservation of the egg. I know which one sounds more dramatic and gives a good mental image.

Surprisingly there are many more dates within the BBC report, even though these don’t show uncertainty it does give the reader something to go by.

Also another point for discussion is that there is a lack of a link or a way to access the original paper, scientific paper locating is also a bit of an art that you learn by being part of the scientific community, so to someone that doesn’t have these skills it can be nearly impossible or very off putting, are we purposely pushing the non academics or scientific literate away?

Communication

Harding (1998) claims that scientists have the responsibility to share their latest discoveries which could

ensure the sustainability of our cities and have a major role to play in promoting a good public understanding of science. Achieving effective communication of science is particularly crucial when it comes to topics with high importance for the society such as global warming and climate change which are continuously discussed within both scientific and public arena (Bell 1994, Boykoff and Roberts 2007). So how do we go about doing this? Communicating to the public is a difficult issue but which party makes it difficult, is it the scientists? Or the general public? I will be looking at ways that geoscience is communicated to the public and then to the academic community and try to look at the differences, similarities and the possible need for change to the system.

Is it wrong that I have referenced this blog in a scientific way?

Should it be more informal, chatty or simple to understand?

I’m hoping that these questions will be answered during the duration of this blog.

Harding, 1998, Environmental decision-making: The roles of scientists, engineers, and the public, Sydney, Federation Press.

Bell, 1994, Media (mis)communication on the science of climate change. Public Understanding of Science, vol.3, pp.259-275.