Mesozoic Miscellany #26

New Research

I truly love the itty-bitty ornithischians. They don't get much love, but that just makes me want to proclaim my appreciation in increasingly strident tones. Meet Manidens condorensis. The basal heterodontosaur from Mid-Jurassic Argentina got mentions at Tayler Reints' new Life As We Know It blog and Chinleana.

Research into the phylogeny of lice - a fascinating evolutionary topic that belies the yuck factor we might associate with them - suggests that the first critters they inhabited may have been feathered dinosaurs. Very cool. Covered at the NY Times, Wired, Livescience, and Discovery News.

A new study by John Whitlock has found that the wear traces on the teeth of diplodocoid sauropods reveals a diverse array of feeding strategies, tied to the environments in which the taxa lived. Published at PLoS One, so head over to give it a read.

Around the Dinoblogosphere

April's edition of the Boneyard Blog Carnival was a doozy. Head over to Sorting Out Science to engorge yourself on sizzlin' hot chunks of paleontology.

Saurian wrote a review of last year's New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs, which he feels sets the standard for future volumes.

Philip J. Currie, Canada's legendary dinosaur paleontologist, has been honored by having the River of Death and Discovery Museum renamed in his honor. Read more at Whales, Camps, and Trails (twice), Palaeoblog, and Pseudoplocephalus.

SV-POW contributed two slices of pipin' hot sauropodian goodness this week, with Mike Taylor's fun roundup of theropod stompers and Matt Wedel's reflection on what Walter Coombs referred to as the sauropods' chimaeric qualities.

Bill Parker shared another newly-colorized archosaur restoration from Jeff Martz, Poposaurus, at Chinleana.

At The Bite Stuff, Jaime Headden wrote about the possibility of fuzzy integument in the ornithischians.

Zach Miller wrote a great satirical post about the Greg Paul paleoart debacle of last month at When Pigs Fly Returns.

Building anticipation for his in-the-works Date with a Dinosaur book, which will explore the intersection of dino pop culture and science from the perspective of someone who has seen their childhood image of dinosaurs radically changed, Brian Switek wrote a series on 90's dinosaur comics at Dinosaur Tracking. Paleo, Age of Reptiles, Tyrant, and Dinosaurs: A Celebration.

Trish Arnold offers a characteristically hilarious recap of the 1983 A Field Guide to Dinosaurs in two posts this week (one and two). It's part of her April celebration of 80's and 90's paleoart, so folks who enjoy my weekly Vintage Dinosaur Art posts should bop on over to her blog, if you aren't already reading it.

At his aptly-titled Adventureblog, Michael May gives a shout out to the short-lived Hanna Barbera cartoon Valley of Dinosaurs on DVD. May admits that the power of nostalgia is overcoming the price tag.

Angie Rodrigues shares a sketch which helped her explore color patterns in hadrosaurs. It's a sign of true talent and dedication when a piece like this looks as good as many finished pieces!

Twit Picks

Stuff I dug and tweeted about in the last week:

• "It helps to understand evolutionary theory before you start looking for flaws." - Jeff Martz's new blog, Flying Blind
• A Surf Scoter in Southern Indiana!
• A look at the reasoning behind the restoration of Zhuchengtyrannus at Dave Hone's Archosaur Musings
• Sedimentology and taphonomy and the Ediacaran "mops"
• Anthony Maltese on Campanian ceratopsians, including a possible new species in prep & the group's namesake, Ceratops.
• Leaving an Impression That Has Lasted Forever - NYTimes on a beautiful trace fossil of a Mississippian era mayfly

Paleoart of the Week

I love the crosshatching in this Yangchuanosaurus by Paul Heaston.

Be sure to check out Paul's blog, Three Letter Word For Art. Love that title.

Outrageously Off-Topic Indulgence Last week, BBC period dramas. This week, hard-boiled American cop shows. I'm really enjoying The Chicago Code, the new show by Shawn Ryan. I previously poured out my love of his show Terriers here, and I hope that The Chicago Code gets a chance to build on what it's doing during its first season. Give it a shot!