Earths fossil record is rich, a reflection of the multi-billion-year history of life on our planet.
In his concisebut densebook, Hone sets a new agenda for paleontologists and paleozoologists to follow.
Gizmodo:An audience of at least, what, a dozen?
A replica dinosaur in a field in Japan.Photo: Buddhika Weerasinghe / Getty Images
If no one else.
Hone:At least three people have said its alright.
Hone:God, an area where both are conflicting is tricky.
The cover of Hone’s new book. Photo: Princeton University Press
And its like, well, the ecologists dont really think that thats a correlation anymore.
Therefore youre testing an idea that the other side doesnt think is real.
Its more coming in independently in different areas.
Hone:You obviously dont want to end up in a position where you cant say anything with certainty.
An animal can do something once in its life, but it can be critical.
If thats reproductionthere are loads of species that mate once in their life.
But if youre an octopus, that might be a five-minute activity in a 50-year lifespan.
So just because somethings rare doesnt mean its not important.
But also when its that rare, youre almost certainly never going to capture it in the fossil record.
Or the flip side, youve got stuff that probably happens thats captured all the time.
Because they show up, we overrepresent them.
you’ve got the option to say that about almost anything, not just in science.
I talk a bit about the difference between certaintieslike dinosaurs moved.
Dinosaurs had sex, and reproduced.
Otherwise there wouldnt have been more dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs had to eat.
Gizmodo:Exercising caution about interpreting evidence, then.
Hone:I think at the moment, the paleo side of things is quite bad at that.
We tend to take too many things at face value.
Theres so much more of that I think we can do.
And I think thats perhaps my frustration, which I suspect comes out in some of the writing.
Time and time again theres that paper of we found a group of these togetherso they lived in groups.
And boy, is that dodgy.
Gizmodo:At the risk of getting too philosophical, where do you think those broader conclusions come from?
What causes researchers to forget to take the birds-eye-view?
And yet in paleo this is really normal.
They can ask all their colleagues, but all their colleagues are in the same boat as them.
Well, except for males when they dont.
Cats are anti-socialwell, except for lions, which basically arent and cheetahs which flip between the two.
Thats really normal, and yet well absolutely fall into that trap of saying all hadrosaurs lived in groups.
Because weve got half a dozen examples of them doing it.
We have a fairly simple dichotomy of animals that live in groups and animals that live on their own.
But thats not how it works.
You know, closely related species tend to do the same thing.
They do, but boy, is it more plastic when it comes to behavior of things like sociology.
Yeah, they mostly do.
And when you have a group that mostly dont, like the baboons, they also mostly dont.
It is not that simple.
Hone:Thats definitely part of it.
And another aspect is this idea that once youve done it, it stops being interesting.
Absolutely incredible, jaw-dropping discovery.
And now weve just stopped dead because its just become well, we can do that.
Ankyornisis absolutely keystone for this.
Thats one individual at one point in its life.
Its like, have youseenbirds?
Go and survey 100 of these things.
If youve done a hundred of them and theyre all the same, that is probably the color.
Right now,Ankyornisto me is just a novelty.
And thats the frustration.
Its frustrating when people are then writing papers speculating about sexual selection or reproductive strategies like that.
But the data exists!
We can probably go and get this.
We dont need to speculate and hypothesizewe can go and get it.
Gizmodo:One takeaway from this book is that dinosaur paleontology is getting better.
You mention new methods that are making new types of data collection possible.
And these more holistic analyses are becoming more commonplace.
Is that basically the optimistic takeaway here?
Im very hopeful that we can tidy up some of these problems that weve talked about.
Can we check that the kind of foundational data were using for this is correct?
And I think we canwe just havent.
I think our understanding will leap forward.
Hone:Well, read my book.
Thats a cheeky answer.
I guess, really thinkabout what it is you think youre saying and what you think your data shows.
Gizmodo:Is there anything I didnt ask that you think I should have?
Hone:Obviously I want to mention the illustrations and photography.
Gabriel Ugueto has done incredible artwork for it.
Its not why you should buy it, but its definitely a pretty book.
I wanted to address the fundamentals, and what they mean for ecology.
What can we work out?
What cant we work out?
What have we said?
What have we missed?
Theres a case study in every chapter that offers a really good example.
This is doable, and heres how we can do some of it.
Thats ultimately what I want from the book.
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