Two weeks ago Sarah and I visited San Diego to do some house hunting - we're planning on doing our coast-to-coast move in mid-May, and already have a talk scheduled at the Museum of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, which is conveniently our half-way point; we can take a breather, hang out with our friend Aaron Pan (the MTT director) and then finish our trip through the desert of the American southwest.
Bottom line is, our house hunting was a success - and we made a couple pit stops at the San Diego Natural History Museum. I'll be starting as the second Colclough Postdoctoral Research Fellow on June 1 - my best friend Dr. Ash Poust was the inaugural research fellow. Here are some photos from the trip!
The palatal foramina in Aetiocetus weltoni suggest that baleen was present in addition to teeth. This proposal by Tom and others in 2008 has remained surprisingly controversial for over 15 years.
Cretaceous carrier shells - Xenophora hermax! Before seeing these I had no idea this genus ranged into the Mesozoic - I had seen Oligocene examples at Otago during my Ph.D. This species only cements rounded pebbles to its shell. Modern species cement other shells, bits of limestone, and basalt, and chiefly inhabit the Indo-Pacific.
And back at home, with the kitties. Jonesy has never been in a car for very long and is going to have a very confusing week in a couple of months.