NG News features a shot of the "monster" ichthyosaur skull that was discovered, along with 27 other ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs, on the Svalbard islands (Where's that?  See an overview map here, or one with more detail.)  These guys were all buried in a giant underwater landslide, right?  Not according to Jørn Hurum, a co-leader of the research team that found the fossils.  He thinks the extinct marine predators died out individually over thousands of years, sank to deep ocean floor in the same spot, and were preserved in a layer of black mud.  Hurum calls the fact that almost all of the 28 specimens were well articulated, "amazing."  Looks to me like evidence of a cataclysm, but oh well.

 A new finch has been discovered in Columbia.

 Naked mole-rats are long-livers.  The American Phsyiological Society explains why this messes up the current "oxidative stress" theory that is supposed to partially account for aging.  (If I understand correctly, aging is theoretically the product of cell stress, resulting from a number of factors, not all of which are known.)

The completed evidence against the notion that the "Hobbit" fossil (aka the "Flores" specimen, or LB1) belongs to a new species of hominid will be published in the November Anatomical Record, reports ScienceDaily.  Research spokesperson Robert Martin (curator of Biological Anthropology at Chicago's Field Museum) said of the fossil, "It's no accident that this supposedly new species of hominid was dubbed the 'Hobbit.' It is simply fanciful to imagine that this fossil represents anything other than a modern human." Of the controversy surrounding the Hobbit fossil,  Martin says "Science needs more balance and less acrimony as we continue to unravel this discovery."  (See my August 22 post that points to National Geographic's premature claims about the Hobbit fossil.)

For 50 years, biologist Thomas Eisner studied chemical ecology and bugs, and made fascinating pictures.  The New York times has a fascinating gallery (login required) of his photos, including one of the Bombardier beetle squirting hot chemicals from its abdomen, and many floral landscapes that were made using--ta-da!--a simple copier.  Go take a look.  It'll get your creative chemicals flowing.