An email feed programmed to send me links to news stories with 'geologist' in them came up with a notable one the other day. When I saw the name Ray Troll in it, I knew it was a keeper. Troll is no geologist, but a lot of geologists and even more paleontologists know him as a whimsical outdoors and nature-oriented artist with a huge interest in marine creatures, extinct ones included. His home is Ketchikan, Alaska, a fishing and tourist town in the state's appendix-like southern panhandle. It is along the Inside Passage between the mainland and the state's southern archipelago. Lots of folksy folks up there along with scads of eagles, orca, brown bears, salmon, sea otters, and humpback whales.
- KRBD (Community Radio, Ketchkan) Leila Kheiry: Marine reptile fossils found on Gravina Island ; In which the tiny station's news director, a former newspaper reporter, joins two geologists plus the aforementioned Ray Troll to Gravina Island, just across the Tongass Narrows from Ketchikan (and destination for the briefly famous, unbuilt "Bridge to Nowhere," that will reside forever in the Pork Project Hall of Fame). Nice lede: "Whatever you do, don't call them dinosaurs. If you do, a geologist will quickly correct you."
This is a fine job of bringing science to the public, 'though one cannot help noticing that the top comment from listeners is a spluttering rant about scams that let college professors and their students have a pass for the best fossils and stuff from the land while the public gets the shaft for the tax dollars involved. Editor and reporter Kheiry doesn't mention the bridge to nowhere of course. Everybody in range of her station's signal knows all about that. She relies on artist Troll for a quote explaining how bits of tropical sea floor and islands account for much of what we now call Alaska. Small errors here are all that I can spot. She calls the individual, tectonically-delivered building blocks of Alaska 'terrains', putting that word in Troll's mouth. My guess is that he knows the word is best spelled terrane. And if it comes from elsewhere via crustal conveyor, it's an exotic terrane. That's a teeny quibble, as is one regarding the the lede's assertions: one does expect that more paleontologists than geologists know ichthyosaurs were no dinosaurs.
Congrats fully due to Ms. Kheiry for getting out of the office for some naturalizing with expert guides. Also, a thank you to her. This story led me to find whether Troll has been elsewhere in the news lately. Indeed so.
But first, I have mentioned Troll at ksjtracker before, if only briefly. I have one of his marvelous books, Rapture of the Deep, on the shelf. I just snapped from its dustjacket flap his angler's pun drawing of what looks like a largemouth bass eyeballing a fishhook and put it up top.
A Google news (I still lean inertially toward Google searches) on Ray Kroll + geologist turned up more gems:
- Motherboard (Jul 24 , 2013) Becky Ferreira: The Prehistoric Buzzsaw-Mouthed Shark Is the Stuff of Nightmares ;
- Laelaps (Feb 26, 2013) Brian Switek: Buzzsaw jaw Helicoprion Was a Freaky Ratfish ;
Switek, if you haven't run across his stuff, is among the most expert bloggers on all things fossil. His piece is linked in the recent one at Motherboard by Ms. Ferreira, and was among her cited sources. I hadn't come across the site before, but it's About Us link suggests its a site for serious and enthused science blogging. Both pieces are full of art by Troll, known for his cartoonish yet rigorously accurate anatomic detail. Looks like any reporter or editor looking for excellent and artsy illus on fish or other swimming things should contact him for a permission and may find him agreeable.
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