Mesozoic Miscellany #31

New Research

Tarbo Teen!
A wonderfully preserved juvenile Tarbosaurus skull has revealed that they more than likely hunted different prey than adults of the species, which was probably a wise decision for the youngsters. Of course, this practice is part of our own development too; the Gerber corporation created the first baby foods to stem a rising tide of infanticides caused by babies reaching for their father's steak dinners. More from SVP, Beasts Evolved, Saurian, Palaeoblog, and The Bite Stuff.

Basal sauropodomorph teen!
Yep, another juvenile specimen, representing a new taxon called Arcusaurus, not to be confused with the abelisaur Aucasaurus. More at Chinleana and Jurassic Journeys, where Matt Bonnan describes early Jurassic Arcusaurus as a relict of an earlier time, representing a lone Jurassic survivor of the bipedal sauropodomorphs. He writes, "Africa was not simply a monolithic desert sprinkled with small prosauropod sauropodomorphs like Massospondylus. Instead, there were pockets of diversity and evolutionary novelty in this region of the world that deserve closer inspection."

South American quickies
And both papers are freely available! Campinasuchus is a new Cretaceous baurusuchid (PDF) and Drusilasaura is a new titanosaur from Argentina (PDF).

Around the Dinoblogosphere
Austin has shared his final preview of his Terrordactyl comic, and it's a doozy.

Really, why in the heck were sauropod necks so frackin' long? Mike Taylor poses the question anew.

At Project Dryptosaurus, Gary has been covering his visit to the Morris Museum's Dino Day with a whole slew of videos and photos. Start here and check out what went down.

At The Dragon's Tales, Will Baird writes about new insights into Dollo's Law, paleontologist Louis Dollo's assertion that once a particular line of organisms has evolved a trait, evolution can't "reverse."

Head to TetZoo, where Darren Naish looks at the history of the "sauropod viviparity meme," including the ways cryptozoologists have latched onto it, oddly enough.

If you're a fan of Vintage Dinosaur Art posts here, head over to Beasts Evolved, where Taylor breaks down an 80's title dedicated to that ever-popular Nessie protoype, Plesiosaurus.

Saurian provides an in-depth review of the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences' recent all-Albertosaurus spectacular.

Twit Picks
This normally where I share a brief list of stuff I tweeted all up in peoples' grills this week. Well, after Blogger's shutdown yesterday, Twitter is following suit with chronic over-capacity syndrome. So I'll share this new video from the American Museum of Natural History, which I tweeted about yesterday.


Paleoart of the Week
This piece of artwork is not available on its own in a large version, but Gary Vecchiarelli of Project Dryptosaurus has put the Morris Museum on my to-do list, for sure. Check out these glimpses of their new mural, by Karen Carr. A smaller version is viewable on the museum's site.

Outrageously Off-Topic Indulgence
Okay, it's definitely not outrageously off-topic, but deserving of a shout-out is The Why Evolution is True youtube channel. So many delicious science docs.