Project Daspletosaurus Merch Now Available

If you haven't yet pitched a few monetary units Dave Hone's way to support his research into cannibalism and intraspecific combat in tyrannosaurs, you've got a few more options available to you. Project Daspletosaurus clothing, stickers, and stationery is now available in my Redbubble print shop. All proceeds will go to Hone's Microryza crowdfunding campaign. Here's a handy list of quick links to the product pages; all clothing has a wide range of options for style, size, and color.

• Project Daspletosaurus light colored tee shirts, baby gear, and hoodies. 
• Project Daspletosaurus dark colored tee shirts, baby gear, and hoodies. 
• Project Daspletosaurus stickers 
• Project Daspletosaurus greeting cards and postcards (design featured above)

Crowdfunding is sexy now, and the press loves outlier stories about projects taking off and demolishing their goals. In reality, it's mighty tough to build excitement for a campaign. I love helping Dr. Hone out with this, and luckily some other artists have stepped up. Paleoart giants Julius Csotonyi and Brett Booth have both pitched in with wonderful perks to encourage funding.

As paleontology finds it harder to scrape together money, crowdfunding could potentially be a way for enthusiasts to directly benefit the researchers who shed light on the ancient life of our planet. It's an endeavor of pure curiosity, seeking to understand the shared heritage of life on Earth. It binds us ever more closely with other species. A very kind commenter at the Archosaur Musings post linked above wrote that he'd ordered a Project Daspletosaurus shirt for his young nephew, and that "It’ll be really cool to show him the results of the study when he’s older." That's incredibly inspiring, and it's a nice feeling to be even tangentially connected to that.

Even if you can't afford to donate, please help out by spreading the word on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, wherever. I mean, look at what this is about: Cannibal dinosaurs. That's a hook if ever I've seen one. I'll be hashtagging my tweets #cannibaldinosaurs. Huge thanks to Mark Wildman for promoting the campaign at his excellent blog Saurian!

A brief note about the money: Microryza does not host perks in the way Kickstarter or Petridish do, but neither do they discourage efforts like this. Although it's one step removed from a direct donation via Microryza, it is very nice that it removes the need for Hone to budget for and then produce and ship perks. Everything after the cost of the product will be going to the Microryza campaign.