Spatial play is of vital importance to various disciplines concerned with developing spatial intelligence, and awareness of the formal languages used to address space. While spatial language ability is a critical aspect of spatial intelligence and play, little research attention has been paid towards its L1 or L2 acquisition in such contexts. I first review relevant papers, then identify a sign...

The problem of intermediates in the fossil record has been frequently discussed ever since Darwin. The extent of 'gaps' (missing transitional stages) has been used to argue against gradual evolution from a common ancestor. Traditionally, gaps have often been explained by the improbability of fossilization and the discontinuous selection of found fossils. Here we take an analytical approach and ...

In second language acquisition (L2A) research, ultimate attainment refers to the outcome or end point of acquisition, and is used interchangeably with the terms final state, end state, and asymptote. "Ultimate" is not to be thought of as synonymous with "nativelike," although nativelikeness is one of the observed outcomes of L2A. Most L2A studies have focused on the initial state, stages in L2 ...

Stable carbon isotope analysis of fossil tooth enamel carbonate, and oxygen isotope analysis of bone or enamel phosphate, are established tools for palaeodietary and palaeoclimatic reconstruction, respectively. C/C ratios provide evidence of an animal’s diet and phosphate-based O/O values are used to establish palaeotemperature proxies. Recent studies of fossil enamel suggest that biogenic O/O ...

Recently, carotenoids have received much attention as target compounds for astrobiological prospecting principally because they are a group of molecules that display unique diagnostic Raman spectra that can be assigned to organic material of unequivocal biological origin. However, no work has been performed on assessing the potential of Raman spectroscopic detection of carotenoids from fossiliz...

A fossil femur excavated by Eugène Dubois between 1891-1900 in the Lower/Middle Pleistocene bonebed of the Trinil site (Java, Indonesia) was recognised by us as that of a Hylobatidae. The specimen, Trinil 5703 of the Dubois Collection (Leiden, The Netherlands), has the same distinctive form of fossilization that is seen in many of the bonebed fossils from Trinil in the collection. Anatomical co...

Taphonomic deformation can make the interpretation of vertebrate fossil morphology difficult. The effects of taphonomic deformation are investigated in two ankylosaurid dinosaur taxa, Euoplocephalus tutus (to investigate effects on our understanding of intraspecific variation) and Minotaurasaurus ramachandrani (to investigate the validity of this genus). The ratio of orbit maximum rostrocaudal ...

—The exceptionally preserved fossil record of soft tissues sheds light on a wide range of evolutionary episodes from across geological history. Understanding how soft tissues become hard fossils is not a trivial process. A powerful tool in this context is experimentally derived decay data. By studying decay in a laboratory setting and on a laboratory timescale, an understanding of the processes...