Richard Pallardy on Muck Rack

Richard Pallardy

Verified
Chicago
As seen in: Medium, MSN, MSN Canada, Yahoo Life, MSN UK, Yahoo News, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Gizmodo, National Geographic, The Economist and
Covers:  animals, plants, evolution, conservation, politics, culture, history
Doesn't Cover: I'm a generalist, so it's always worth asking me!
Writer, skeptic, critic, naturalist. Bylines: @NatGeo, @ScienceMagazine, @VICE, @DiscoverMag, @RoyalSocBio, @AtlasObscura, @Raconteur/@TheTimes, @SmithsonianMag

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Richard Pallardy’s Biography

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I'm a writer with with 16 years of experience. I have worked with a number of high-profile publishers. I was an editor for Encyclopedia Britannica for eight years and have bylines with VICE, Hakai Magazine, The Biologist, ODDA Magazine, Raconteur, Earth Island Journal, National Geographic Learning, Areo Magazine, Arc Digital, Earth.com, SavingforCollege.com, and The American Gardener. My work for Britannica has been cited in a number of publications.

I'm particularly interested in stories about…

Richard Pallardy’s Journalist Portfolio

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Otters in Chicago? The story behind their Illinois comeback * Earth.com

Otters in Chicago? The story behind their Illinois comeback * Earth.com

In an effort to reverse the deteriorating fortunes of the otter, beginning in 1994, the Illinois Department o…

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Fish cognition: Why Dory isn't as dumb as she seems * Earth.com

Fish cognition: Why Dory isn't as dumb as she seems * Earth.com

Though decades of research have slowly chipped away at this notion, most people still probably view fish as u…

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The myth of the Chilean plant that supposedly murdered sheep * Earth.com

The myth of the Chilean plant that supposedly murdered sheep * Earth.com

In 2013, a story about a Chilean plant that supposedly impaled sheep on its razor-like leaves and nourished i…

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Venom proteins cause allergic response to fire ant stings * Earth.com

Venom proteins cause allergic response to fire ant stings * Earth.com

A new study from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro has illuminated the actions of the protein compon…

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Shed a light: The evolution of fireless fireflies * Earth.com

Shed a light: The evolution of fireless fireflies * Earth.com

The evolution of orgiastic light shows in fireflies was secondary. Like contemporary diurnal fireflies, ances…

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Because the night: A parrot after dark * Earth.com

Because the night: A parrot after dark * Earth.com

Some animals haunt the dreams of those who seek them. Like the cities of gold that propelled Coronado and the…

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Articles

When a mountain collapsed in Mexico, light fell upon an underground lake. What happened next was remarkable

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By Richard Pallardy 
| MSN UK
Richard Pallardy Eyelessness has evolved many times in the animal kingdom. Creatures that dwell in the dark no longer need visual perception. Over time, their eyes become vestigial – a process called regressive evolution. Without light, the peepers bestowed by their ancestors are superfluous. The Mexican tetra (Astyanax mexicanus) offers insight into the loss of vision. Populations that inhabit surface waters have fully functioning eyes.
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Call of the wild

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By Richard Pallardy 
| New Humanist
Wildcats in Germany’s Bavarian Forest National Park. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo Humans began bending wild things to their will at least 15,000 years ago (some evidence suggests these processes probably started earlier). Domestication was a turning point in human evolution. Starting with wolves, we exerted further pressure on animal and plant species honed by millions of years of natural selection – exaggerating desirable qualities and reducing undesirable ones on a much shorter timescale.
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Best place for an unsettling encounter with wildlife

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By Richard Pallardy 
| Chicago Reader
Deer at Catherine Chevalier Woods Chicago has a wealth of beautiful natural areas. Catherine Chevalier Woods isn’t among its best. Some areas are a little weird, a little dirty, a little sketchy. It’s part of a ragged shred of wilderness east of O’Hare and the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, connected to several other forest preserves to the north and south.
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Interview

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What was your first job as a journalist?

I was a research editor and blogger for Encyclopedia Britannica.

Why did you become a journalist?

I wanted to use my research talents to bring interesting and little-known science stories to the general public.

What story are you most proud of writing or working on?

My articles on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the Haiti earthquake for Encyclopedia Britannica.

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