Didja hear about Brontosaurus yet? Eh? Well, if you haven't, hold on your butt. Arguably the most famous generic name in all of the dinosauria has returned, thanks to a massive phylogenetic reassessment of diplodocidae led by Emanuel Tschopp of Universidade Nova de Lisboan, and published in PeerJ. The press has, predictably, been mostly vomiting on its own shoes, grasping taxonomic and phylogenetic concepts with varying degrees of incompetence. Not all bad, of course, thanks to knowledgeable and clearly written posts by the researchers and journalists of the dinoblogosphere. Brian Switek, Andrea Cau, SV-POW, Dave Hone, and Everything Dinosaur have all covered it well. Anthony Maltese reminisces about working on a mount of the famous sauropod. Also see articles from The New York Times, Nature News, Wired, and SciAm. There are more, of course. Hey media! Enough with the swampbound, antiquated depictions of Brontosaurus. That beast is still happily obsolete.
Remember Project Daspletosaurus? We're seeing the research hit the press now! Dave Hone, who led the research with Darren Tanke at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, has written about it at his Guardian blog, Lost Worlds, as well as at Archosaur Musings. Cannibal tyrannosaurs and Brontosaurus. Funny week in Mesozoic news.
Around the Dinoblogosphere
Last time around, I featured the news of Carnufex carolinensis. Jaime Headden has written a post about finding that one of his pieces of artwork was adapted for a figure in the publication, without credit. I think a lot of palaeoartists will find value in, and perhaps identify all too closely with, his reasoned post on the issue.
A Carboniferous forest simulator has been developed, and is in alpha testing. Watch the walkthrough by the Palaeocast team below, and check out the project team's work here and here.
The latest episode of the TetZoo Podcats featured conversations of special interest to palaeoartists, including stem-mammal gaits and the homology of scales. There will surely be follow up on the former topic, as John Conway has had some interesting conversations on social media after sharing his tall-striding Dimetrodon. Also see his jaw-dropping recent Dolichorynchops.
Trish Arnold invites you to watch the totally 90's "Bonehead Detectives of Paleoworld."
Jason Goldman's terrific interview podcast The Wild Life featured the fantastic Jennifer Hall, discussing taxidermy and Dreadnoughtus. Jennifer was also interviewed about her career by Pacific Standard. Jennifer's new-ish site is Art in the Age of Evolution.
At ART Evolved, please check out Herman's latest round of reviews, celebrating the occasion of one R. Bakker's hatching day.
Chris DiPiazza, formerly of the defunct Jersey Boys Hunt Dinosaurs site, has begun his own blog, and it promises terrific content. He plans on bringing more conservation issues to the fore, as well as sharing his gorgeous watercolor palaeoart. Go say "hello" to Prehistoric Beast of the Week.
The children's book blog Design of the Picture Book interviewed Flying Eye Books about their restoration and reissue of The Wonderful Egg. It's one that fans of our mid-century Vintage Dinosaur Art titles will love.
Paleoart Pick(s)
Designer-illustrator Sharon Wegner-Larson's Geo-rex Vortex is so cool. It is featured in the new Skullmore zine and as part of an exhibition called Revisited at Exposure Gallery in Sioux Falls, SD. Sharon wrote a bit about her process at her blog and has made the design available on shirts at Redbubble. Prints? Check her Etsy shop.
Speaking of tees that rock, Neatoshop is running a free shipping promotion this week. Which is pretty nifty because Raven Amos has some frickin' great stuff there. Her Art Nouveau Troodon, Pachyrhinosaurus, highly caffeinated pterosaur, and Styracosaurus are there and I proudly wear her "Swamp Dragon" Ichthyovenator design, seen below. Also: Kaiju/Nintendo mash-ups Gamario and Linkzilla! Go forth and dump legal tender into her coffers!
"Arguably the most famous generic name in all of the dinosauria has returned, thanks to a massive phylogenetic reassessment of diplodocidae led by Emanuel Tschopp of Universidade Nova de Lisboan, and published in PeerJ."
ReplyDeleteMaybe ( http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/apr/07/brontosaurus-is-back-new-analysis-suggests-genus-might-be-resurrected ). I'm good either way, although the fact that so many dino toy collectors are having so much trouble telling whether or not a given Apatosaurus model represents A.excelsus/Brontosaurus is (IMHO) an indication that Apatosaurus & Brontosaurus are still similar enough too be synonymous.
"At ART Evolved, please check out Herman's latest round of reviews, celebrating the occasion of one R. Bakker's hatching day"
As always, many thanks for the shout out!
"Chris DiPiazza, formerly of the defunct Jersey Boys Hunt Dinosaurs site, has begun his own blog, and it promises terrific content."
Why the heck is it defunct? What does this mean for the future?
-Hadiaz
Cool!
ReplyDeleteWhen is MM75 out? Without this reliable round-up, I have to look for this stuff myself! ;)
ReplyDeleteWhen I have the time... which I haven't in a while.
DeleteMammoth Is Mopey? :) Very much looking forward to that coming out!
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