50 Years ago

When the oldest British general genetical journal left the country with its editor, only one such journal remained ... Not only was it a time when the pressure on space for publication was rapidly increasing in all fields, but it was also a time when the belated recognition by British universities that the Americans were right in recognizing genetics as an essential part of biology was beginning to have results. One journal of general genetics could not be enough for a country such as Britain ... A new journal, Genetical Research, has now been launched to meet this need ... It includes a number of important papers among which should be noted especially Pritchard's discussion of recombination, and Waddington's experiments on canalizing selection. The contents of this first number augur well for the future of a journal that was badly needed, and is most welcome.

From Nature 2 April 1960.

100 Years ago

The nature and arrangement of the bony armour of the dinosaur Stegosaurus are discussed by Dr. R. S. Lull in the March issue of the American Journal of Science. In the specimen restored by Marsh a number of small ossicles were found adhering to the under surface of the lower jaw, and these, in the opinion of Dr. Lull, not only formed a gular shield, but also extended over a considerable part of the body, as it is unreasonable to suppose that any portion of the skin of an armoured reptile would be unprotected. As regards the great vertical dorsal plates and caudal spines, the former of which Marsh regarded as forming a single series, it is practically certain that all were arranged in a double row ... [T]he terminal third of the tail apparently formed a flexible aggressive weapon, in which the laterally divergent spines were inserted in the muscles between the neural spine and the centrum.

From Nature 31 March 1910.