Mesozoic Miscellany 52

It's been over two months since the last of these roundups, for which I apologize. My semester is now wrapped up - I have three paleontology design projects to share when I get some good photos taken - and I'll be back more frequently now. Heck, I've even written two posts about new research in the last week or so, and that feels good. A lot of great stuff has been happening in the dinosaur blogosphere.

First up, Mark Witton's enchanting two-part post for Pterosaur.net, Our Lives with Pterosaurs. It's posts like these that make me sit back and reflact on how unbelievably lucky we are to live in a time when this kind of contact with scientists is possible. Part one, part two.

Darren Naish reviewed Thor Hanson's book Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle. He's right! It's great! You should read it!

Scott Hartman produced one of the most evocative pieces of paleoart in recent memory with his portrayal of Unenlagia fishing at dawn. "Less is more" isn't just a hollow aphorism, and this is a perfect illustration of it. Breathtaking.

An essential part of any self-respecting human being's visit to the Field Museum is the amazing Mold-A-Rama machine. SV-POW tells it like it is: "The Mold-A-Rama is the king of novelty souvenirs."


The Mold-a-rama T. rex, photographed by Bret Arnett, via Flickr.

Fellow paleo-loving designer Sharon-Wegner Larson has updated the design of her blog Omegafauna, but also stop by to check out her review of the "Dino-Roars" exhibit which recently set up shop at the zoo where she works.

Canada now has legal tender with a glow in the dark Pachyrhinosaurus on it! Check it out at ART Evolved.

Michael Habib wrote a takedown of the silly "aquatic dinosaurs" story that oddly enough gained traction in the press at H2VP. Also be sure to add his new Aero Evo blog to your feed reader, where he discusses the evolution of flight in the various lineages of organisms that have figured out how to cheat gravity.

Dave Hone was an editor of the recent volume New Insights into Asian Dinosaurs. He gives us the skinny at Archosaur Musings.

A Greg Broadmore illustration twists time around, imagining a Styracosaurus happening upon the remains of an ancient race of warlike hominids.

Brett Booth offers his own take on the new Asian spinosaur Ichthyovenator.

At Dinosaurpalaeo, Heinrich Mallison shares a nice selection of photos showcasing the architecture of the Natural History Museum in London.

Delving into the "opposite birds" of the Mesozoic, Matt Martyniuk writes about the cryptic species Enantiornis at DinoGoss.

At JPTaphonomy, Joseph Peterson wrote about the work being done by one of his grad students, Carol Bigalke, to explore further is the true cause of lesions on pachycephalosaur domes.

Stu Pond did some fancy 3D visualization of Confuciousornis, and it's nifty! Check it out at Paleo Illustrata.

At Paleoexhibit in February, Nobu did another fun series, this time on the theropods of the British Isles.Start here.

How does beak shape relate to the shape of the underlying bone? Jaime Headden explores this in extant animals and dinosaurs at the Bite Stuff.

Mark Wildman laments that "there has been a casualty in this race to the truth and that is the humble dinosaur with traditional reptilian scales." More at Saurian.

Brian Switek broke down the amazing glut of dinosaur material we'll be seeing hit the silver screen in the near future, many of which I hadn't even heard of. Speaking of which, Pete Von Sholly shares the trailer for the remixed Dinosaur Revolution movie, Dinotasia. He's pretty excited for folks to see it... TotalFilm on the other hand is a little less enthusiastic, calling it a "dreary, terribly animated mock-doc, in which crudely composited reptiles stalk flat live-action landscapes in search of dinner." If you've seen it, be sure to share your opinion!