Hello Grant-fans! Will Richard again, taking my turn to bring you specimen of the week. Here goes…

LDUCZ-Z523 mouse-deer skeleton

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Hello blog-heads! Will Richard here tapping out another specimen of the week on my trusty keyboard. And this time I’ve picked out a pretty dangerous customer from Case 16. I’m not an ophidiophobe, though according to Wikipedia about one in three of us are, but this is certainly not a snake I’d like to tangle with.

LDUCZ-X167 Indian cobra skull

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LDUCZ-V1301 fossil megalodon tooth

Hello and a Happy New Year to you Grant-fans. So, the first specimen of the week of 2016 falls to me, Will Richard. And I’ve chosen a monster to kick off the year: possibly the biggest ever fish with teeth to match. This one was found on the 2^nd January 1880 (seasonal!) but people have been puzzling over these dental discards for generations. They were originally believed to be the dried tongues of dragons but actually I think the truth might be scarier…

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Hello zoo-fans. Will Richard here, throwing words at the page to bring you this specimen of the week. And what a specimen I’ve chosen. Graceful, elegant, deadly and now stuffed. Slightly wonkily. Case 17’s finest…

LDUCZ-Y1549 female sparrowhawk taxidermy

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Hello! Will Richard here, bringing you your weekly dose of specimen. And this time it’s a real giant. I did a quick calculation and the average fully-grown version is equal to 875 of me. That’s 10 more than the “maximum capacity” of a District line tube train, 10 and a half packed double-decker buses or 175 full cars. So in conclusion… it’s lucky that fin whales don’t commute. This week’s specimen is…

LDUCZ-Z527 fin whale foetus

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LDUCZ-Z334 leopard (Panthera pardus) skull

Hello! Will Richard here. Taking my turn to bring you another specimen of the week. And what can I say about this week’s specimen?

Very little… on with the blog!

This week’s specimen is…

**the leopard skull**

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Hello! Will Richard here. Turning my mind (and now yours) to specimen of the week once again. And it’s back to the world of invertebrates, but certainly not microscopic ones. In fact, this invertebrate is bigger than most animals full of backbone. If we use the “Richard theoretical comparison of interspecies violence” (RTCIV) (something which I’m hoping will soon be adopted by the wider scientific community) I’m not sure I could beat it in a fight. This week’s specimen is…

LDUCZ-H272 Coconut crab (Birgus latro)

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LDUCZ-Z2277 common dolphin skull (Delphinus sp.)

Hello! Will Richard here, putting fingers to keyboard once again to bring you the next instalment of specimen of the week. And this week I am going to make things easy for myself. I’ve had enough of subspecies versus species, questionable (mis)identifications, taxing taxonomy and chaotic cladistics. So this time I’m keeping it simple. A cut and dried case: the common dolphin. What could be clearer?

Oh…

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LDUCZ-Z2745 Tamandua manus

Hello! Will Richard here, bringing you another Specimen of the Week.

This month I’ve decided to start with a reading from one of my poems.

I call this “Specimen”.

Ahem ahem.

The hand is in the jar.

The hand of a tamandua?

It might seem quite bleak as my choice for this week

but read on and you might just say “ahhh!”

Or you might not.

Either way, this week’s specimen of the week is…

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Hello! Will Richard here. This month I have decided to dictate my blog to a footman, as I’m feeling very royal. Last month one (which is royal for “I”) wrote about a queen. And so, continuing in that grandiose tradition, this month one would like to write about a king. Not a pretend king like one (I think when speaking royal you can also use “one” to mean “me”) but a proper king. His Royal Highness himself…

This week’s specimen of the week is… (more…)