Here is a complete archive of my (hypothetically) short essay series "Problematica," written for the Extinct blog. If you're interested in getting a feel for what I'm about as a researcher and a writer, this is the place to start. I've marked some of my favorite essays with an asterisk.
While these are blog posts, I've tried to infuse them with every bit as much rigor and originality as you'll find in my published work. In fact, I recognize no distinction in quality between the work I've done here and the work I've published in journals.
(By the way– did you know that big academic publishing houses enjoy larger profit margins than Google by extracting free labor from academics and then sending libraries the bill? All while putting our work behind paywalls. Start a blog. Or better yet, write for Extinct...)
Happy reading!
Comparisons with Teeth: Two Hundred Years of Actualism in Paleontology*
"Truth also has its Paleontology," or When Pragmatism met Uniformitarianism
Hugh Miller, Misplaced Boulders, and a Challenge for "Historical Cognitivism"*
Stray Thoughts on Contingency Following the MBL-ASU History of Biology Seminar
Ediacaran Enigma: Uncertainty and Underdetermination in Precambrian Paleontology*
"What we are Witnessing is the Collapse of the Terrestrial Globe"*
Toulmania '53: Remembering the Practice-Turn that Didn't Happen*
Why the Yanks Whiffed on Drift... Was Uniformitarianism to Blame?
Ode to Opabinia, or Why you Don't Hear as Much about Problematic Fossils as you Used to