Happy Birthday to Me (with Random Videos)

Well, not to me, per se, but today it has been two years since Catalogue of Organisms was launched on the intertubes. I'm not sure what exactly two translates to in blog years, but it's certainly old enough to not get asked for ID when it goes to the pub. So, just like last year, here's the summary of the Catalogue's most popular posts:

No. 10 - Bird Phylogeny: Though personally I'd say forget this one, read the much more detailed review of the same paper by Nicholas Sly (just ignore the bit in the comments where Nick and I - particularly I - manage to embaress ourselves about Himantornis). I should also mention No. 11, the Drosophila post, because No. 10 is currently leading No. 11 by only a single page-view.

No. 9 - Most Unbelievable Organisms Evah!: Maybe not one of my most rigorous posts, but it certainly was fun to write. Go, read about Acarophenax reproduction - just try not to think about it too much.



No. 8 - Thalassocnus: No, this was not a joke. The marine sloth really did exist.

No. 7 - Sex Determination in Leiopelma: (Nearly wrote Leiolopisma there. I always get those two mixed up.) I love the idea of a genus that has more methods of sex determination than recognised species.

No. 6 - The Species-Scape: Though as this was a short post built around someone else's image, I can't claim any credit for it. Still a cool concept, though.

No. 5 - Aquificae: The popularity of this post can be mostly attributed to one factor - it's cited as a source on Wikipedia. That, and of course the fact that bacteria rock.



No. 4 - The Origin of Angiosperms: Take note that this post was inspired entirely by a particularly cretinous comment that had been made in response to No. 10.

No. 3 - Daddy Long-legs: I still hate that name.

No. 2 - Gulper Eels: Last year's champion post has been knocked off its perch. One point I still don't understand - what the heck is the deal with snipe eel jaws? What on earth is the use of jaws you can't even close properly?



And the most popular post of the last two years:

No. 1 - Boobies: Despite only being posted a few months ago, the popularity of this post has been astounding. "Boobies" seems to have almost beaten out "frog sex" for the title of Google Search Most Commonly Bringing People to this Site. Beats me - I guess some people just really like boobies.