Mesozoic Miscellany 56

The year 2012 was less than apocalyptic, never mind what the dimestore prophets predicted, but as with any arbitrary range of time, it saw plenty of changes. So it goes with the dinosaur blog world so I thought I'd collect some notable changes, which may have gone unnoticed in the blogroll, into the latest round of our occasional Mesozoic Miscellany series.

Filling a long-empty niche in the podcasting world is Palaeocast, covering all matters paleontological. From an in-depth discussion about the largest of the trilobites, Isotelus rex, to an overview of Mesozoic vertebrate evolution with Dave Hone, it's been a treat to finally have some concentrated doses of prehistory to listen to.

Some huge shake-ups have occurred among major players in the dinosaur blogging world recently. Brian Switek left his post at Smithsonian's ever-popular Dinosaur Tracking to join the new Phenomena blog network by National Geographic. Sticking with the name Laelaps, Switek will be no longer be separating dinosaurs from his other prehistoric coverage. Carl Zimmer, Ed Yong, and Virginia Hughes complete NatGeo's sci-com all-star team.

Dave Hone's hard work was also rewarded this year as he moved into new digs at the Guardian, Lost Worlds. He still maintains Archosaur Musings, so don't go neglecting it.

Public Library of Science has debuted a new team blog featuring Shaena Montanari, Sarah Werning, and Andy Farke. The Integrative Paleontologists covers paleontology in the digital age and offers terrific coverage of new research published in PLoS, building on the diverse research interests of its authors.

Mark Witton has begun posting on his own blog now. Much easier to follow than his Flickr account, and just in time for publication of his upcoming book from Princeton University Press, Pterosaurs.

A new paleo-blog from North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Expedition Live!, also deserves a look, especially for therizinosaur lovers: Lindsay Zanno herself heads it up!

On the artistic side of things, some welcome additions to the blogging world included John Conway, Luis V. Rey, Julius Csotonyi, and Julio Lacerda.

Finally: Doug Henderson now has an Etsy shop! Seriously, there are no superlatives up to the task of describing Henderson's work. But you know that. Here, you can purchase his originals, including published work and sketches. Beyond supporting Henderson, which is a noble enough cause, your purchase may benefit a project he's developing, "to expand the illustration of Earth History beyond the realm of dinosaurs in a mudpie project of my own, one that needs funding and I hope sales of my original works may provide a little help."