2015 in Review

We have not done any proper navel-gazing posts here in a while, and with a new year on the calendar about to flip over, it's a good excuse to do it. So here we go! A look at what we did here in 2015, a look forward, and just for fun, a run down of our ten most popular posts of all time.

Interviews

I love doing interviews, and this year I conducted three that are well-worth reading if you missed them. First, I talked to illustrator Angela Connor, who created the "Paleo Portraits" series. Then I talked to ichnologist Lisa Buckley about the crowdfunding effort to protect an important trackway in British Columbia. Finally, I spoke to Brian Engh about his process, his biggest paleoart pet peeve, and tickling Western Fence Lizards.

Vintage Dinosaur Art

The Vintage Dinosaur Art series, largely written by Marc, has continued to spotlight fun and occasionally perplexing dinosaur illustrations from days of yore. When looked at in macro view, these posts ably depict the growing pains palaeontology has experienced in the public imagination, as the old visions of prehistoric life that coalesced in the middle of the twentieth century slowly, begrudgingly give way to what scientists have been learning for the past few decades.

If you look at the first entry in the series, you'll see humble beginnings. I knew it would be a fun idea for a series. My initial idea was to give recognition to lesser known illustrators outside of the pantheon of palaeoartists, as well as to show how images of dinosaurs changed over time. Rather than any higher strategy, my book choices were dictated by what I found on visits to secondhand stores and yard sales. When Marc wrote his first guest post, it was clear that he was well-suited to the series. Then he came on as a regular contributor, and has really made it his own, far exceeding what I could have done. It's become clear that this series has become the core of the blog, generating the most likes on Facebook and inspiring the most lively comment threads. It is testament to the good work Marc has done over the last four years, so I wanted to take a moment to give him some props here. Props to Marc!

Popular Posts

With understandable peaks and valleys due to frequency of posting, Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs has had a consistent rise in traffic since 2009. Our first "leveling up" came with my Mark Witton interview in early 2010.This year, Jurassic World happened, and it accounts for three of our top ten most-read posts of all time. What's heartening to me is that half of the top ten come from 2015.

1. My team-up comic with Rosemary Mosco of Bird and Moon fame tops the chart.
2. Marc's second guest post is number two.
3. I wrote a series of posts about dinosaur origami over the years, and this one was really popular.
4. The second Jurassic World entry was our "Jurassic World Challenge" from June, which hoped to inspire folks seeing the movie to also send some of that discretionary income to paleontological research and independent paleoartists.
5. Excitement over last year's reveal of Deinocheirus material at SVP helped push Asher's post about it into the top ten.
6. When Asher took a moment to celebrate Sophie Campbell's thoroughly modern dinosaurs in Turtles in Time, readers stormed the blog like a horde of Foot Soldiers.
7. A Vintage Dinosaur Art post from August of this year comes in next, the first half of Marc's look at Dinosaurs! The 1987 Childcraft Annual.
8. More Jurassic World: this time, in the form of Marc's thoroughly even-handed review.
9. August 2015 was just a big month for Vintage Dinosaur Art, with a second entry in the series from that month in our top ten, Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals.
10. Rounding out this top ten: Asher's look at the scintillating world of dinosaur erotica.

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What's next? More of the same, plus... I think I'm finally serious about doing a Wordpress migration. Blogger is just so inferior in so many ways, and I've been meaning to do it for years. I'll probably be throwing a tip jar up to help fund the move. Thanks for all the support you've given us over the years and stay tuned for more!