STL Science Center

STL Science Center

11 November 2014

Humble Opinions

Scan from the Time-Life book North America (Jay Matternes)
As far as I am concerned there are only two papers that are important today. That is not true, of course. However, for today, the only papers I thought were worth reading are MacFadden's comparison of the Floridian genera Teleoceras and Aphelops and Mead's discussion on sexual dimorphism in Teleoceras. Bruce MacFadden's paper is exhaustive in the most wonderful way. It explores all sorts of levels of the two genera including ecology and niches, diet, and grazing habits. Alfred Mead, meanwhile, explores a single species, Teleoceras major. His in depth study explored the differences in sex, of course, but also in intraspecies habits including herding behaviors and defense mechanisms. Nearly anything that one could want to know, as rudimentary knowledge at least, about Teleoceras is included within these two papers.

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