Utahraptor competition: the winner!

After consulting with the Chasmo-team, and taking into account the feedback from our readers (i.e. that one comment from Emily Willoughby - thanks, Emily!), I'm happy to present the winner of our Utahraptor competition: Castles Made of Sand by Rhunevild aka Madison H!

Yes, that's a Jimi Hendrix reference (as Madison's deviantArt page make clear), but there's so much more to the piece than that; it's artistically accomplished, the dinosaurs are lightly stylised but still essentially anatomically correct, and it's a single, text-free image that says everything through character and expression. In other words, it fulfils the brief very nicely. Madison also promoted the Utahraptor Project over on deviantArt. Nice work, Madison! Please leave a comment below with an e-mail address or somesuch and I'll be in touch. (By the way, it's very much a healthy dose of wry humour, I'll have you know.)

Thanks again to everyone who entered a piece - it's always a delight to see what our wonderful, talented readership can produce.

Utahraptor competition: the contenders

Just over a month ago, I launched our latest art competition in the name of drawing attention to the Utahraptor Project. The aim was to humorously illustrate how all those dinosaurs ended up caught in quicksand together - disregarding the scientific hypothesis that it was a predator trap, because pish, scientists, what do they know? Below, I'll lay out everything we've received, and although our decision is final, feel free to leave a comment in aid of your preferred winner.

We did get a couple of entries that illustrated Utahraptor (or, in one case, seemingly a JP raptor), but otherwise completely ignored the brief. So they're disregarded here. Sorry, guys. But everyone else is here...starting with Christian A Juul.

The Utahraptor Project competition

TL;DR (added 31/03): Your submissions should be humorous! We'd like an amusing take on what might have happened. See paragraph 5 below.

As many of you out there in Chasmoland will already be well aware, one of the most tantalising bonebed discoveries of the last decade was the that of a huge trove of Utahraptor skeletons in (fittingly enough) Utah. Fossilised alongside the remains of at least two iguanodontian ornithopods are the bones of numerous Utahraptor individuals at different growth stages, which promise to finally reveal what this formerly rather engimatic animal really looked like. (Suffice it to say, it certainly wasn't the monstrous steroidal Deinonychus that you remember from your childhood.)

The site was discovered by Matt Stikes back in 2001, and the huge block o' bones was subsequently excavated by Jim Kirkland (who described Utahraptor), Don DeBlieux and Scott Madsen along with numerous volunteers. The block is now being prepared in the Museum of Ancient Life in Lehi, Utah, under the auspices of Madsen (as Chief Preparator). You can read the full story of the project - from discovery, to excavation, to preparation - over on the official Utahraptor Project site, where there's also a handy index of Utahraptor-related press...not to mention this lovely video featuring Jim himself.

The Tyrannosaur Chronicles competition: the winners

So who wins a copy of Doctor Dave's magnum opus? Predictably, we had a slew of excellent entries for this competition (eventually), but in the end we did have to pick that half dozen. And so, in no particular order (because they all win the same prize, after all), here they are - with commentary from Niroot and I.

The Tyrannosaur Chronicles competition: the contenders

Like undergraduate students everywhere, you lot submitted a flurry of entries for our Tyrannosaur Chronicles competition right before the deadline. But no matter! You still got in. While the final six winners will ultimately be decided by us, I thought (as with previous competitions) it'd be fun to put up a gallery of all the entrants and gather some of your opinions before we dole out the books. So, in no particular order, here's a gallery of T. rex...TRIUMPHING!

Win The Tyrannosaur Chronicles!

Following Niroot's previous post, we have at least 2 SIX copies of Dave Hone's new book, The Tyrannosaur Chronicles, to give away. The book is a superb examination (a chronicle, if you will) of the science surrounding that very sexiest of theropod clades, the tyrannosauroids. Highly accessible and yet detailed and comprehensive with it, The Tyrannosaur Chronicles has plenty to offer for dinosaur enthusiasts of every stripe. It's been met with a flurry of positive reviews, to which we will hopefully add some of our own in the not too distant future. But for now...

...We'd like you to draw something for us. Specifically, we'd like to see T. rex trying (at some anachronistic human activity). And succeeding. Because atrophied forelimbs never really held anyone back, damn it, and as Dave's book will make clear, tyrannosaurs were very successful and intriguing animals. Our favourites, based on some magic combination of originality and humour, will win copies of the book. We'll also be sure to corner Dave down a dark alley and force him to sign them, which is no mean feat, as he's probably as strong as Niroot and I put together.

Please upload your entries somewhere and link to them in a comment on this post. The deadline is June 6. Absolute anatomical accuracy is not essential, but points will be awarded for it. By way of inspiration, here's a wee drawing by Niroot depicting Tyrannosaurus, the artist, being inspired itself by a Troodon. There might be some movie reference in there (what day is it again?). Good luck y'all.